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Latest Report

Barrett Lake
Sept 11-15

Trip Report: Hollister Hills

March 25, 2017
Trip report by Doug Rothstein

Photos by Lori Price


Members in attendance: Doug Rothstein, Gary Rowe, Jeff Wells, Eli and Judi Casey, Mick and Lori, and one guest, Gary's friend Andy in a TJ Rubicon.

Pulling up to the gate early 9-9:15ish, Gary was already there talking with a park ranger. Within minutes Mick and Lori pulled up and followed by Jeff. After a few minutes of Gary schooling me on my Rugged Radio we headed up to the meeting place, the campground next to the playground.

Not knowing what to expect pulling in, besides lots of mud being it had rained all week and poured the night before, there were a lot of people. The entire campground above the playground was filled with campers, RVs and tents. We ended up parking next to the bathrooms to air down and wait for others to arrive, this was around 9:30. At ten we figured no one else was coming, so we headed down to the playground.

After slipping and sliding our way down we started playing on the obstacles. It took quite some time due to the mud and water. During all this Eli and Judi pulled up during Gary's run through the frame twister his rear locker was not engaging. After trying to swap air valves in the ARB compressor and it still not engaging Mike pulled around and quickly pulled Gary's winch cable to his Jeep to assure Gary would be liable for a $5 tow fee. After Gary was out we played around the obstacle course some more before heading up to the other obstacle course off of McCray road.

Arriving at the top of the McCray obstacle course we stopped at a table to eat. While eating we watched a couple of Scouts make their way up the obstacle course. When reaching probably the hardest part of the course with huge rocks one of them decided to give it a go. It took a while to navigate through the rocks but after moving it through the rocks all that was left was the steep wall climb out. After multiple attempts he flopped it on its side, we all of course offered help but it was not needed. The driver and other scout were more than capable of flipping it back over and getting it out safely. During all of this there became a pretty good size group of spectators. At this time we were going to head up to the top of the lookout point, but after talking with some of the other spectators there were a lot of rigs slipping and sliding all over and he had pulled a few out, so we decided against it and were going to head over to the other side of the park to the Quarry.

At this time it was around 1-1:30ish while heading toward the Quarry through the McCreary obstacle course there was a Toyota group tackling the bottom part of the course and tying up the rest of the course for parking, so we slipped through and went to the Quarry and played around, did a few hill climbs and hung out for a bit. This was around 2:30 and Eli and Judi headed home and the rest of us decided to hit the lower obstacle course for a few before heading back to the gate to air up and head home. All in all it was a good day at a California State Park recreation area.

Doug Rothstein



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