im just putting it out there. i realize with the sand lake trip coming up would anyone be interested in doing another night run before the weekend?
Not sure... but you never know. Between staying up till 4Am listening to Baja 1000 coverage, and then playing in the snow till 5 last night I need to get my clock back on the right schedule.... or start working grave yard
Thanks again for everyone who could make it last night, and for those who didn't yes, you missed out... we are fun!! But you knew that
There will be other runs I am sure though!
The Pistons Wild Restaurant Review team was in effect again last night. Prior to the run we all met up at Old Town burgers in Battle Ground. Good burgers... I had the House, your basic bacon cheese and egg burger. I don't know why, but I always love an egg on my burger. It's like breakfast and lunch all at once... a brunch burger if you will.
Anyway - good food! Chicago style... not just the food! The owner is straight out of Chicago, and they have some cool Chicago memorabilia on the walls, and sports on the TV. I'll have to go back and have a dog at some point. With our belly's full we all headed off to Sunset falls in search of snow.
While airing down at Sunset I noticed a camper at the campground. This seemed nuts at 8ish.... even more insane when airing back up at in the wee hours of the morning. We headed across 41, which by the way looks and feels like it was carpet bombed. It does feel better with 5lbs of air than 30 though... I will say that.
After winding our way through the pot holes, we began our climb up the hill. I noticed the out side temp gauge seemed warmer last night than the previous snow run, and I began to worry we would see more rain than snow, but like clockwork at 2200'ish feet we started seeing the rain turning to snow and then finally solid snow at about 2500 I'd guess.
It was beautiful driving in the snow at night. On the way up the snow was consistent and then wind was fairly mild, but at one point nearing the crest of the 41 road my Jeep was engulfed in a mini tornado of snow which was very cool. We got to the top and all jumped out to take pictures, I noticed we all quickly realized that it was much warmer in our trucks than outside on top of the open ridge in the now blowing snow.
We made our way down the 41 road, with plans of heading across to Cougar Rock. We drove past our turn down to the 37 road and turned around. We discussed exploring that area a bit more, but thats when we noticed the 16% grade sign. Not wanting to play Jeep Luge that night we instead turned around and headed back up to 4220.
On the way back up Kyle (who was following me) got stuck. I backed down a bit, turned around and headed down to get him out. I'll admit I was a bit nervous and excited all at once... This was going to by first recovery in the Jeep. I got down there and saw he wasn't in bad shape (thankfully), and with a couple yanks of the strap he was on his way. Thanks for the play by play on the CB bchutchens! Unfortunately I didn't get any of it on video.
We made our way back up to the 4220 road and then started off into fresh deep snow. bchutchens had drove up it a bit before we turned around but past his tracks it was fresh. With scrambledbill leading the way we pressed on for a bit before deciding it was probably more effort than we wanted to spend that night. I also noticed that the wind was again picking up. We did a little more backing up and turning around and then agreed we would head on our way back out the way we had come in.
We wound our way back out and then found a spot to stop for a brownie break. Thanks again as always for the treats scrambledbill! We munched on brownies, while discussing and I think even solving quite a few of the worlds problems, and then began making our way back up. Not sure how it happened (Leaky valve stem I guess? ) but bchutchens blew a bead while eating a brownie. ;D
I'll admit I was excited to hear this (sorry Bill) so when scrambled bill came back up the road to go assist reseatting the tire I hitched a ride back up to watch. Like he said earlier I think we all wanted to see a little oomph!, but after reviewing the situation it was decided there was no need for that. Air would work just fine. Couple minutes later we where all on our way back up and over the 41 pass and out of the snow.
Somehow during the re-airing of the red jeeps shoe I ended up in front. A bit nervous, and even more excited I lead our way up to the top. The snow had drifted in nicely and at times it seemed as if we hadn't even been there. The TJ did nicely, and while at various times during the night it seemed to like driving at a 45 degree angle more than straight, I was very happy with how it did leading the way back up the to the top of 41.
At the top though I made a mistake. I stopped to let scrambledbill regain his spot in the lead. How is this a mistake? On the CB on the way down I got hear Bill talk about the deer running down the road in front of him. That coulda been me!! ;D
We made our way down, and again across the mine field before hitting Sunset Falls to air up, say good night and head home. The wind was hollowing at the top of the pass as we came down, and it seemed to still be moving pretty good at Sunset Falls. After airing up we made our way out with bchutchens calling out the limbs down in the road. The road was littered with branches the whole way back into BG. It was pretty cool!
Hear are some pics I got... for what they are worth. It was pretty tough to get any pics with the wind and the snow.... You kinda had to be there to see it unfortunately.
I've got a video posting to you tube soon also that I'll put up. Thanks again to everyone who came out! Good times, good snow and great people!