Another memorable run is now on the books. James and Holly, Eric and Whitney, John, Doug, Wayne, Tony and Susan with Jeremiah and Caleb along with friends Kevin and Mike with his brother all made the long but well worth it drive down to Tillamook . Me being passed by a smartcar was of no end of ribbing by Wayne.
The first night didn’t look all that promising with the weather going from questionable to ugly mostly during the night. A few of us kept pointing to Doug as every time he stepped out of the tarp it started to rain again. Lots of laughs around the fire as usual. Did you know everything costs $100.
Saturday started out mostly sunny and during the run we got the whole shebang of mother nature. Rain, snow, sleet, clouds, fog you name it. Besides all of us we had the guidance of Chad from Cascade Cruisers to lead us on the trails along with his spouse and Ken as passengers and one other member from Cascade, Bill and wife in his 80 series. We even picked up a nice young kid named Ulysees in a stock Toyota pick up who did great all day.
Firebreak 5 jumped out at all of us with slick mud and rocks with a nice switchback at the top. Eric made it look pretty easy even though he was pulling “mini me”. He even made the switchback look easy. A couple of the guys played on Rock Garden but no one made it all the way through. Some easy running through the woods and a bit of the dirt roads took us past a closed Airplane hill and Seven up. (The fact that some of the trails were closed is motivation to go back sometime this summer especially for John)
We were even denied the easy way up Seven Up due to snow of all things so on down the road to Hogsback, a little hill that’s a lot of fun.
After a good look everyone but Wayne decided to bypass Can Opener, mostly due to mud and huge rocks. And even though he was denied he gets points for trying. But I don’t think he felt too bad when a four linked FJ 40 with 40 something inch tires with rear steer and Rockwells didn’t make it either. Sadly Bill, with the white 80 series, broke a harmonic balancer and Chad had to tow him back to camp.
That left us to get back to camp on our own. But we weren’t ready to head back yet so we headed down Archer’s Firebreak on our way to Waterfall. Another tough one that was too tempting for James, Wayne and John. They all made it but cable was pulled by all, it was one slick day of mud and wet rocks. The long drive back to camp started but not without a detour down Powerline for a bit more of the trails through the trees.
Another interesting night by the camp fire after getting stuffed at dinner. In the middle of all the weather and laughing we learned that James was having a birthday. More laughter when most of us realized we were old enough to be his Dad. Thanks to Holly for an awesome strawberry and rhubard pie with ice cream.
And no it wasn’t over yet as Chad was nice enough to take Wayne, Kevin and James with Jeremiah along as passenger on a night run. They headed up another section of Firebreak 5 where Chad got a whopper of a dent in his frame. After everyone made it up Kevin had a bit of a problem with his alternator and headed back to camp by the light of the moon. The others kept at it and then headed back to camp by way of Cedar Tree, a nice run through the woods. Getting back to a roaring campfire (due to all the wood we had available) at almost midnight.
Another good one for everyone involved and for those of you that missed out try and make the next trip to Tillamook as it is well worth the drive.
And yes I got passed by another smartcar on the way home but I felt better this time because it was a diesel.
