2025 GGG March 14-16

Hi David ( Gardner) ! So glad you are thinking of making the trip to join us!
On a separate platform Jerry Adams seems a likely yes; Peter V. for sure as is Ken T. and Nick Gatel. Manfred might join us after coming back from his adventure. Matthew Black might join us as well. Debbie is a maybe. Hopefully David will come down all the way from Alaska…

who am I missing?

Thanks for organizing! Wow, a camp with showers, a clubhouse, a game room and other amenities. And you can bring your gold panning equipment. Should be fun!

Tomorrow I’ll leave for New Zealand to trek a little on the Te Araroa. Coming back on March 10 – so I will hopefully be able to make this GGG.

See you there Manfred!
also bumping this post so people hopefully decide to join us.

Anyone know how to get a hold of the Trail Design brothers ( Rand and ?)? They came to the GGG at least once before and we’d love to have them again.

ok, that sounds Great !

how to get there? well, it’s pretty simple, but there is a bit of a trick to it at one point.

anybody can find Sonora, so start there. there are two routes north out of Sonora, you will want the larger of them, it being Hy 49. this Hy 49 will head N, and then quickly NW. where it turns left (we are northbound) and heads of SW, at that bend one will find Parrots Ferry Rd. head N on Parrots Ferry to Columbia, which is both a town and a state park. driving wise .. the defining feature Columbia is a tight’ish LH/RH chicane. if you hit this, you have gone a block too far..

what you want is Jackson St., which i think was properly marked. one should E for one block on Jackson and turn LH, which will be N. onto Main St.. Main will in all but immediately turn into Italian Bar Road, and you are home free.

on weekends they may block off two blocks of Main St in the trendy center of town, but Jackson St access is always open. follow Italian Bar road on ever deteriorating  pavement until he tarmac ends, and then 3.5m on very decent gravel track to our camp.

there is water at camp which they say is good.

see you there !

v.

Kat – you could try russ@traildesigns.com

I ran into Russ in Coe last spring, coming up from the Narrows as he was going down.  Super nice guy.

Thanks Debbie,

I got a hold of Russ and gave him the info 🤞

Bumping this :)

I’ve booked my flights from Alaska to CA for the GGG.  I arrive at SMF Sacramento Airport on Alaska Flight 2012 landing at 9:15 am on Friday, March 14th.  At which point, I’ve got lots of options: I could sleep at the airport for a few hours, having flown through the night; my sister lives in the area and could take me out to breakfast and/or lunch until someone is passing through on their way to the GGG; and/or I could make my way further south if that’s better.  Or if Oakland or San Jose are better locations, I can fly into one of those instead.

It’s too far past summer salmon fishing season to bring down fresh-frozen sockeye as I’ve done sometimes, but I’ll bring smoked salmon and smoked salmon spread on crackers.

I’ll also bring a dealer’s replacement parts kit for Victorinox Swiss Army knives with toothpicks, tweezers, ballpoint pens, glasses screwdrivers, and scissors’ springs for the small and full-sized knives, so if yours is missing something, bring it along and we can get you fixed up.

Plus my usual 25-foot hanks of 130-pound test halibut fishing line (lightest possible emergency shoelace, clothesline, tent guy line) and maybe some other goodies.

Oh, and if anyone wants a set of studded Finnish snow tires for a Prius, the ones I drove south on in November aren’t needed by me in CA.

Awesome David!

we’ll figure out who can pick you up . Looks like from Sac airport it’s a couple of hours to the GGG site.

another bump to let people know we’ll be having a gathering in less than a month.

Back channels confirm that David should have a ride to the GGG via someone who gets things done. Thank you

Daily bump for the GGG :)

Weekly bump? We hope to see you there. We’re looking at 15 to 20 people so far. Should be fun.

Very exciting, looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I’ll be there Friday and Saturday.

Casey!!! This is such wonderful news. Can’t  wait to see you there :)

Peter is seriously look’n at prepping a slide show about a solo thru hike of the Brooks Range. 8’screen, Leica optics w/German glass .. there’s some pretty awesome stuff up there.

we have coming a number of McHale Packs in differing capacities. as an aid to enjoying them, we are bringing 80# of cat food for ballast, which ought to about do it for most of us. if you’ve ever wondered about how a long distance load carries in a CM series McHale, this is a good time to find out.

also, if you’ve wondered about what happens when you drop more than 60# in one of his lighter packs, at last you ‘ll be able to feel it, without spending a grand to find out, and if one’s ever wanted to go 5 full weeks on one load of food, one should come see us weekend after next to find out how.

cheers,

v.

80# of cat food?

You must have a lot of cats, or manufacture cat food :)

Slide show!

As of now I believe we have the following participants ( let me know if I am forgetting anyone):

Peter Vacco, Nick Gatel, Jerry A., David Gardner, Manfred K. , Ken T., David Thomas, Rick Niemi, Doug Wolfe +1, Matthew Black, Casey Bowden, Kat. Any other ladies ?!?

cat food ;

yes, 80# of cat food. why ? one might wonder, but fear not, it makes sort of sense. first of all, I have a cat, and I feed her very nice Science Diet cat food. it keeps her healthy and looking ever-so-luxurious. this super dooper cat food has a couple of charming characteristics that make it just what we want for backpack testing. one is that it is roughly the correct volumetric density to simulate the average of my gear and food, and two is that comes in durable and secure (within reason) plastic bags in a convenient 16# size. ya, it’s four bucks a pound for sure, but 2T will gnaw her way thru it eventually.

thusly .. cat food.

cheers,

v.

that makes sense.  I used to have cats and we bought cat food in bulk.

I can give a report on how it’s now possible to drive Casey’s old EV all the way from Berkeley, CA to Kenai, Alaska.

Hey all, sorry I won’t be able to make it after all this year.

I’ll be there. Looks like rain, so, Katt, the hot tent will once again be a wonderful addition.

Looks like snow and or rain Up at Italian Bar LDMA for our GGG. If we arrive after dark when everybody is hunkered down due to rain where do we go? Also, this property belongs to a mining club. Do we have permission to prospect on the property and keep what we find? I emailed LDMA 4 days ago and they have not responded.