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OBH Snow Run-New Year's Day 2005

The list for the day stared off with:

There were others too, but I don’t know the names.  Most everyone met up at the Chevron in Camas.  However, I was coming from the east, so I met up with the gang at Dugan Falls at 1030.  We aired down and started out.  First casualty of the day… Jeff’s Scrambler refused to start.  Hmmmm.  It started ok when he fired it up to offload it from the trailer.  Some of us hung out on the road and chatted, some played, and some worked on Jeff’s rig.  From what I was told they basically did a quickie started rebuild and put it back in and it fired up and we were on our way again.  Took a bit but we got up high enough to hit some fun snow on the road.

We hit one of the usually play areas, where there is a triangle where two roads meet, and we played and played.  Fun stuff.  I think everyone was having a good time.  An Isuzu that followed us up the road I think was just totally wondering what in the heck we were doing.  Although, they did stop to watch us for quite a while.  

After a bit a bunch of us got lined up and headed on up the road.  We didn’t make it too far up when we heard that most of the group wasn’t moving, something about Lihn’s clutch not working.  So we stopped in the road and used the time to bs for a while.  It was really pretty out.  After a while we decided to head on up the road while we were waiting.  That way we could get to a place to play while we were waiting.  Well, oops!  I stopped to take a picture and couldn’t get moving again, well, other than backwards towards the cliff side.  A couple of tugs from Todd and I was on the road and moving again.

We got up to the top of the hill and were playing a little, and we heard that the others were on the way up.  So I took off down the hill looking for a nice clear cut for the guys to play in.  I finally found one.  As they came down I suggested (directed traffic) that the gang go play in there.  Some of them did.  Pretty soon we had Jeff and Keith both stuck, along with a YJ (not stuck) down in the clear cut.    

They all managed to get out and back on the road and the rest of the gang was headed down towards us.  The Isuzu had headed past us a while ago.  At this point most of the group went forwards to go out at either Beacon Rock or Salmon Falls, and Jeff and Keith headed back towards Dugan Falls where Jeff’s tow rig was parked.  While these decisions were happening a front came in fast and started dropping an lot of snow on us.  Some of us were worried about the Isuzu and felt that we should make sure they were ok before we headed out.  So on we went…

Note:  I found out later that Jeff and Keith had some fun of their own on the way out as Jeff nearly rolls his Scrambler off the edge of the road.      (pic from Jeff)

It wasn’t too long that we ran into the Isuzu again.  They turned around and fell in with the back of the pack.  Not long after that we came to “the hill”.  Now its snowy, the snow packs down to ice instantly, and there are some rigs stuck at the top of the hill.  Susie, being in the lead, starts up, she was doing fine until she had to stop for the stuck rigs.  Uh-oh!  Now she cant go anywhere but sideways!  Pretty soon Chris heads up the hill to help.  He is the magic man in snow.  =)   The Toyota pickups come up to the front (around everyone) and just walk up the side of the road past Susie.  It takes a while but Chris gets Susie up the hill.  And the next rig, and the next, some having more troubles than others.  Pretty soon its my turn.  All was fine until I slowed down because of the Toyota in the road (winching the stuck guy) and all the people standing in the road.  Now I cant do anything but go backwards and sideways!  Once again the man does his magic and I am now able to back down the hill.  One more try, I holler to get the people out of the road and away we go.  I get up past the Toyota, slow down slightly and oops, I am stuck again.  The next rig comes up behind be.  I let them know that I am not just sitting there in the road for the fun of it, and pretty soon a couple of guys give me a push and I am moving again.  More folks come up the hill, some having no troubles at all, some having tons.  Everyone hangs out and watches.  The stuck rig is out now, but, he is working on his clutch.

In the mean time, Susie, I, and Pete have parked on the other road…and nearly slid into each other as we parked it is so slick.  We all have walked back over to watch and oh man the view is incredible!!  We are looking out over the valley, at Camas (we can see the steam from the mill) and Troutdale/Gresham.  The sun is breaking thru the clouds and it is just fantastic.  

We finally get everyone up the hill, and the group splits into 2 or 3 groups.  With Chris leading some went up to the top of the road to 3 corner rock.  With Susie leading Pete and I head out for home, and Keith W and company were somewhere behind us on the road home.

Things are going fine, we head down the hill, come around a corner and I am on the radio hollering for Susie to stop, I HAVE to take a picture or 5.  We are still up high and looking out over the lights of Camas/Gresham/Portland.  Since I am shooting digital I figure its worth a try to get some shots.  

A few minutes later we are heading down the hill again.  Things feel pretty good and as it turns out Susie and I have both shifted to 4HI, that was the first mistake… Its not long before I see Susie all over the road…to the left, to the right and bounce off the cut bank, to the left and almost off the road, back over to the right and hit the bank and forwards into a big hole.  Luckily on the right side of the road and not off the bank on the left!!  Its all I can do to slow down and not do the same thing she is doing.  I finally get stopped a little way past her, she is in the ditch teetering on two tires.  Oh, by the way, its full dark now too.

I get out and grab the camera (of course!) and head back yelling at Susie to not do ANYTHING.  She is sitting there looking pretty panicked.  I am sure worrying partly about how badly she just damaged her rig.  Not to mention it’s a pretty uncomfortable angle for her and her passenger to be at.  I check it out as well as I can and she tries to move and I can hear some bad noises so I tell her to do NOTHING.  I am afraid the front axle is in a bind and will snap.  Pete and I rig her winch and try an angled pull, but it just shoves her deeper into part of the cut bank.  Now, as we are discussing this some local Toy guys come down the road behind us and walk up to see what the trouble is.  I decide to let them see what they can do, since I don’t know much about winching yet.  Not far behind them is Keith Watson and co.  They come down to see what’s up and pretty soon Keith is running the winching and trying to figure out what to do.  As it ends up, they end up hooking up a Toy to the back and pulling, well that got us about a foot.  They then doubled up on a snatch block and popped her right back, and then with a little shovel work she was able to drive out of the ditch.  Her right front tire was off the bead, blown or just popped off we don’t know, but time to get the tire changed.  Her right rear is leaking air, but that my just be mud in the bead.  Her right front flare has a small crack in the front of it.  Other than that, there does not seem to be any body damages.  Lucky girl!

As they are winding up the tire changing Pete and I head down to where we parked our rigs and head down the hill.  We go slow and after a while there is more traffic coming up at us, I stop to chat briefly, and the Toy guys remind us that they want to get home, so we pull on down the road and off to let them by.  At this time someone says that Susie’s rear tire is flat, so we stop to air up.  As we pull back on the road I see more lights.  Seems Chris and co had caught back up with us.  We head down to the pavement on Mabee Mines and stop on the road to air back up and reconnect.  As people get aired up they head out.  For once it was really nice for me, it was a 15 minute drive home!  Not like TSF, where its 2+ hours for me to get home.  =)

It was a really fun day, and it was so beautiful out.  I am glad that we had such a good turn out.  I got to meet some new club members, and see some friends, and some old friends came out of the woodwork to join us for the day too!  It was really nice.  I hope that everyone had fun.  

If you would like your tales from the other groups posted, send them to me.

-jenn

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