Barrett Lake OHV Jeep Trail - 1st Run Since Re-Opening Trip Report

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
As some of you may know, Barrett Lake is a fun trail located about 35 miles east of Placerville and north of Highway 50. For years, this 4 mile one way in and one way out Jeep trail had been know for being one of the toughest in the Eldorado National Forest and even had a 72" gate at the entrance to prevent full size rigs from accessing it. On July 30, 2012, the trail was officially closed along with 41 other trails in the area due to a law suit filed against the U.S. Forest Service by the Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation regarding motorized routes that intersects meadows. Fortunately, this was order was fought and with the help of the Hi-Landers Four Wheel Drive Club, the issues which lead to the trail closure were addressed and the trail has been re-opened. In addition to a bridge over the Jones Fork Silver Creek, rolling dips were constructed around two meadows, stream channels were stabilized and the old sections of trail that were eliminated were restored back to nature.

For the first time since it was closed over 3 years ago, Cindy and I got a chance to run the Barrett Lake Jeep Trail and thanks to the new gate at the trailhead which now measures 86", we were able to do it in Moby. Here are a few pics from our recent first run of this newly re-opened trail - I hope you enjoy.

Coming up Wrights Lake Rd. and right off of Highway 50, there is a sign that will let you know if the Barrett Lake OHV Trail is open or not without having to drive the 8 miles to the trailhead to find out. You should be warned that this trail IS subject to closure and WITHOUT notice primarily due to weather and trail conditions. I would recommend that you call the number you see on this photo BEFORE heading out to the trail just so there aren't any surprises.
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The Barrett Lake OHV Trail is located next to Dark Lake which is just north of Wrights Lake. There are a few parking spots here that you can air down and disconnect at but I personally would recommend that you stop at the Rockbound Trail parking lot as there is ample space for a big group, restrooms and a dumpster.
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This is a shot of the old gate that used to be at the start Barrett Lake OHV Trail that I found on the Hi-Landers Four Wheel Drive Club website. Back then, it used to be only 72" wide and pretty much impossible to run in a built up Jeep JK Wrangler with full width axles.
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Here are a few shots of what the new gate looks like today. As mentioned, Cindy and I have physically measured it and found it to be 86" in width. Essentially, this is about as wide as Moby is with his full width axles and running ATX Chamber Pro II bead lock wheels and 13.50 wide tires.
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Here's a shot of Moby right in between the two posts.
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Close up of how close we squeaked by.
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Shot from behind.
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And we're off!
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About 100 ft. from the gate, you come across a rock garden that serves as a gate keeper. A 4-door JK running 35's or a 2-door running 33's shouldn't have too much trouble here especially if you have lockers but, IF you have troubles here, you might want to consider turning back.
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Here's a few shots of Moby making his way through. Remember, Moby is running 40" tires and they should help give some scale to the boulders here.
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Of course, Moby is also running EVO DTD coil overs.
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Here's a shot of the first of many spots where you will come close to trees on the trail.
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About a half mile in, there is a stupid rock garden you can take on. I call it "stupid" because there's nothing natural about the placement of these boulders which measure about 36"-48" in diameter and all of them move quite a bit. I'm just a mall crawler and so I typically avoid man made obstacles like this as they typically prove to be nothing but trouble.
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At about 1 mile in, the trail splits off from the original route and heads toward the northwest and over a granite hill.
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On the other side of the granite hill, there's a brand new bridge that crosses over the Jones Fork Silver Creek. This bridge was put in place to prevent vehicles from fording the creek at a point further to the east.
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The turn getting onto the bridge is tight and the bridge itself is pretty narrow.
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A few more shots of the bridge.
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Coming off the bridge and turning east up and over the granite slab and along the creek to get back to the original trail.
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About a 1/3 of the way in, there still isn't too much in the way of big rocks but, there still are a few that you can have fun on.
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Mortimer Flat is approximately 2 miles into the trail or just under half way to Barrett Lake and from up here, you are afforded some impressive views of the Crystal Range.
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Moving on, there are a few rocks here and there that you can get a little flex on.
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You can even find a few rocks that'll put your tires to the test. Fortunately, Moby is running Toyo MT's and they can take the abuse just fine.
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More photos below...
 

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
About half a mile past Mortimer Flat, there's a large glacier carved granite slab that's strewn with large boulders that you'll come across. For those of you who've been out to the Dusy, it kind of reminds you of Voyager Rock.
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3 miles into the trail is where you start to find some bigger rocks. At first, they're just ones you can choose flex on but not required to take on.
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The next hundred yards or so is just rubbly enough to keep you moving slow and filled with diff catchers.
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Just past the rubble, you come up to the first of three obstacles that are the only real challenge on the trail and all of them are optional.
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Moby taking on the first obstacle.
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The second obstacle just up ahead is one that will put your break over angles to the test.
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Moby taking on the second obstacle.
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This is a shot of the third obstacle. Being that it descends as you make your way out to Barrett Lake, we decided to come back and do it on the way out. Unfortunately, when we got there, a rig with a broken axle was blocking the way.
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A quarter mile up from the rock obstacles, you descend into a meadow called the University of California Cow Camp. As you can see in this pic, a lot of work had been done by the Hi-Landers Four Wheel Drive Club to help get this trail re-opened.
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About a half mile up from the meadow, there is a small stream that originates from Barrett Lake that you will have to cross. With the snow pack as bad as it was this past winter, there was next to no water in it for us.
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At 4 miles into the trail, there's one final set of granite humps that you have to climb before pulling up to the shores of Barrett Lake.
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Even though we ran this trail on a Tuesday, we were surprised to see all but one campsite taken.
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Climbing up the granite face near the last campsite, we followed a small stream that feeds into Barrett Lake from Lawrence Lake to the northeast.
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Shot of Moby down below.
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Near by, a couple trees had fallen over and here you can see their massive roots.
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Standing along the shores of Barrett Lake and looking across its cool waters.
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Tessa going for a swim just as a bit of rain started to move into the area.
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And just about as quickly as the rain came it - it blew out as well. Here we are on our way back out.
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View to the west as we made our way down the Peavine Ridge and back to Highway 50.
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While the Barrett Lake OHV Trail isn't quite what it used to be or should I say, the way I remembered it to be, it still is a fun trail and one that I'm glad to see open again. As a guy I met on the trail said to me, it is a "living" trail and it's sure to change with time, use and of course, with every winter. More likely than not, it'll become harder like it used to be. I should also note that some of the new sections of trail that have been established are quite nice and scenic and I can't complain about any of that. I was also glad to see that the Forest Service put in a new gate at the trailhead that is wider and can accommodate a vehicle as wide as Moby.

Taking our time, taking a lot of photos, taking a lot of notes, taking on all the obstacles and working on blown out transmission cooler line along the way, it took us about 4 hours to reach Barrett Lake from the parking lot where we aired down. On the way back out, we bypassed all the obstacles and put our DTD's to the test and made it back to just about half a mile to the trailhead in just under an hour. It was at that point that we blew a power steering hose and that slowed things down for us. That being said, I think it's fair to say that a Jeep JK Wrangler 4-door running 35's or a 2-door running 33's and lockers could probably run this trail with a degree of effort and in about 3-4 hours each way - longer if you take on all the obstacles. It should be noted that this trail has become quite popular and I have little doubt that it'll be busy with traffic for some time to come. Certainly, Cindy and I were quite surprised to see as many rigs as we did especially being that we ran it on a Tuesday.

I hope this trail report was helpful to you and if you have any questions, please feel free to post them up here. :cool:
 

MR.Ty

Token East Coast Guy
Great photos and write up as always. Especially good to hear that this counts as a win for wheelers getting the trail reopened. Thanks for sharing!
 

Panda

New member
That looks like a great trail, we'll definitely have to get up there soon, thank you for sharing :thumb:
 

Trail JK

Active Member
Really gorgeous area! Can you camp?

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing! Definitely want to check this out!
 

jk12blk

New member
Awesome write-up and photos! I cannot wait to get up there and run it. I had no idea so many other trails have been closed.
 
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