The trail just leading up to the Old Sluice was nasty. The actual obstacle was downright nasty. Here is a summary from Dave regarding what happened to his rig:

"My winch cable broke to, but I have some cable clamps, it is just that the cable is bound up and not easy to get out.

Well, it would take 10 pages to explain what happened but I will do the short version.

I was coming out old sluice and as I dropped off the rock in the center of the sluice my passenger side tire caught another rock and yanked the wheel out of my hard. Turning the driver side rad arm into a pretzel! Then the driveshaft broke and hit the tranny and broke the linkage inside the tranny so I only have neutral and reverse. Also the track bar mount broke my frame in half, not completely but pretty damn close! "

It was around lunch time when the four rigs that took the low road pulled into to Buck Island Lake. We were about a 10 minute walk from the Old Sluice. We later learned that Bill broke the flange on his front long travel drive shaft. Several attempts with several different types of welders were tried to no avail. Les was kind enough to allow Bill to use his generator and welder to keep on trying while he repeated the process of Hi-Lifting, then winching with Dave. The lack of steering was a real setback for us. Big tires hit rocks and go in that direction, usually the side of the trail. The only good news was that it was all downhill and relatively easy.

Damon took the bypass and met up with us at the lake around 3 PM. As the day went on, not much progress was made. As the sun began to set, we decided that Buck would be our campsite for the night. This was not what we wanted as we were on nearly an identical schedule as the previous year. We did manage to find a better camp site, though. As day turned into night, Dave and Bill decided to camp with their rigs and work on them as much as possible.

Les made a few supply runs back and forth to the guys still on the trail. He had the easiest time in the tight forest switchbacks with the narrow profile of the Toyota.

We experienced a wonderfull view of the moon rising in the sky over the imposing Sierra Nevada granite. The mosquitos were moderate and the weather was fine. We all had birthday cake I trucked in for JB's birthday.