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jbjeep & MudBall's webpage ~
OBH Tree Run 12-08-07 on
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Chris W. offered to lead the
annual Christmas Tree Run again this year.
As usual a group met up at the We had Chris in the lead in a
full sized Ford pickup, two guys in an older Blazer (sorry, forgot the names),
Harold, Chris, and kids in a newer FJ, Lihn,
Stephanie and kids in the buggy, a couple in a newer Toyota pickup, and a
small plethora of Jeep Wranglers; myself, Todd, Corey, a couple who’s
names I missed, and Beth and friend in her XJ. If I missed any one, sorry – I should
have written it all down. |
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It was a beautiful day, we couldn’t
have asked for better. Blue skies,
incredible views, reasonable temps (for this time of year). We headed out and within a mile or so
started seeing snow on the ground. We
zipped on up and started passing other tree hunters along side the road. It didn’t take much for us to reach
the top of the pass where there were a few other vehicles.
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After some thought, play, and talk we headed down another
road. I don’t recall which road
was which number. At this point the |
I found myself digging a hole,
so I thought “its time to go to 4-Low”… but, there wasn’t
any on my rear axle. We dinked around
a bit, and Chris backed down to where I was and made a flat spot in the snow and
I got a tug back and then pulled up into it.
We got underneath to find that the all-thread that hooks the linkage
together for my Atlas was missing for the rear axle. This took some time to figure out a
fix. The first ideas didn’t work,
the last one worked partially. It wasn’t
a real fix, but it allowed me to continue.
Chris somehow got it to shift into low range, and there I stayed. We then headed on up the road. After a while we came to a junction, with a
road going downhill and a road going up hill with a sign saying trailhead 2.5
miles. Away we went up the hill! |
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We got up to the top without too
much troubles and found some beautiful views at the
trail head for the Mazama trail. We also found a good spot for people to cut
Christmas trees. 4 people/rigs picked out
some really nice noble firs for their trees.
Almost made me wish I had gotten a permit. These were some nice quality trees, the
kind you pay big $$ for at the u-picks. |
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After much talk and play and
tree cutting we realized the sun was starting to go down, it was getting
colder and it was time to go. We
headed down without incident. Then we
headed around on another road that was going to loop back into the main
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Turns out we were not where we
wanted to be so we headed back out and up the road. Only the snow grew deeper and I once again
found myself stuck. After some trying
and mucking about I finally realized that my front was in 2wd and got it back
into 4wd and up the hill I went. And
up and up and up. There were a few rigs that were
getting stuck here and there, but nothing too major. Chris and the Blazer were trading off on
breaking trail. At one point the snow
got deeper and I got sideways and was waiting… and waiting… and
waiting… Chris finally came down to check, and discovered me sitting there,
while the others were further down the hill and out of sight working to unstick another rig. |
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We were almost to the top, and
in the interest of time Chris just tugged me up to where the snow was less
deep (rather than try to get me in 4-low again). Once up there, it was up to the top of the
pass, and down the other side. |
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As I discovered coming
down the hill was another matter. My
death wobble was back. Anything over
about 20 mph set it off. So I made a
slow trip down to the parking area.
Once there we aired up, chatted, and folks headed out. Being low on gas I had the FJ follow me to
the 76 station down the road (Welches) to make sure
I didn’t run out on the way there.
From there I started the trek home… at about 25 mph. Once aired up, sway bar reconnected and
with a nice heavy load of gas I was able to go slightly faster. But not much. The XJ passed me going down and waiting in
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