IXNAYXJ
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Wherever the next race is.
For anyone who remembers last year's Tinkham snow run, Sunday would have been a big surprise!
Myself, Jay2000XJ, Slacker87XJ and "Uncle Gary" from PNW Jeep met in Issaquah Sunday with plans to cut trees and play in the snow. We had a rocky start; when pulling over to air down both Ian and I got stuck...ten feet from the pavement. After getting out of that and heading on down the road, I spun out (if you have to ask, you've never seen me drive
) and buried my front end in the snow. After extricating me from that, we turned off the main road and headed up the road up the hill.
To our horror, we found 6-7 rigs sitting in the large turnout (including a new CompASS!) under the power lines. There were two full-size Chevy 3/4 ton trucks trying to pull another one out of the snow. They had one tow-strap, and another truck attached to that one with ROPE. They had it doubled over a few times and were about to start pulling with it. I jumped out and convinced them of the futility and stupidity of this move and winched the stuck rig out.
About 3/4 of a mile up the road (by the RR trestle) we run into a traffic jam; four Subarus going up and three coming down. A total Charlie-Foxtrot. One of the chicks driving a Subaru told us, “There are 40 cars up there and you can’t get up. The Sheriff is sending people out because it’s so packed.”
Last year we got a few hundred feet and everyone got stuck. Now there’s a Freeway! Anyway, despite the dire warnings, we pushed ahead. Sure enough about two miles later, we came across a KC Sheriff blocking the road with his little S-10. I hopped out and explained that we were just going up to play in snow, and that we all had good M/T tires, recovery gear and were prepared for the snow. He grudgingly let us pass.
When we got to the first “shooting range” (those who’ve been to Tinkham know what I’m talking about) we all had to do a double take. There were 15 vehicles up there, everything from a Chrysler mini-van to a Land Rover Disco II. They had music, a bon fire, several BBQs going, kids on sleds. It was surreal.
After asking a Suburban to move aside and clear the road, we pushed on, bouncing around like crazy between two sets of ruts. About another mile later came across a CJ and a really nice FJ40 with a 350. The owners were both nice guys and we chatted with them for a while. I tried a couple times to push further, but with snow well over my waist and the consistency of mashed potatoes, it wasn’t going to happen. So we killed a box of clay pigeons.
Here are a few pics that Ian (slacker87XJ) took on his cell phone. There should be some more coming from the others in the group soon.
Trying to ram my way through a 4' wall of snow:
End of the road:
The rest of the group:
Ian's truck with it's new (ish) Swampers:
-----Matt-----
Myself, Jay2000XJ, Slacker87XJ and "Uncle Gary" from PNW Jeep met in Issaquah Sunday with plans to cut trees and play in the snow. We had a rocky start; when pulling over to air down both Ian and I got stuck...ten feet from the pavement. After getting out of that and heading on down the road, I spun out (if you have to ask, you've never seen me drive
) and buried my front end in the snow. After extricating me from that, we turned off the main road and headed up the road up the hill.To our horror, we found 6-7 rigs sitting in the large turnout (including a new CompASS!) under the power lines. There were two full-size Chevy 3/4 ton trucks trying to pull another one out of the snow. They had one tow-strap, and another truck attached to that one with ROPE. They had it doubled over a few times and were about to start pulling with it. I jumped out and convinced them of the futility and stupidity of this move and winched the stuck rig out.
About 3/4 of a mile up the road (by the RR trestle) we run into a traffic jam; four Subarus going up and three coming down. A total Charlie-Foxtrot. One of the chicks driving a Subaru told us, “There are 40 cars up there and you can’t get up. The Sheriff is sending people out because it’s so packed.”
Last year we got a few hundred feet and everyone got stuck. Now there’s a Freeway! Anyway, despite the dire warnings, we pushed ahead. Sure enough about two miles later, we came across a KC Sheriff blocking the road with his little S-10. I hopped out and explained that we were just going up to play in snow, and that we all had good M/T tires, recovery gear and were prepared for the snow. He grudgingly let us pass.
When we got to the first “shooting range” (those who’ve been to Tinkham know what I’m talking about) we all had to do a double take. There were 15 vehicles up there, everything from a Chrysler mini-van to a Land Rover Disco II. They had music, a bon fire, several BBQs going, kids on sleds. It was surreal.
After asking a Suburban to move aside and clear the road, we pushed on, bouncing around like crazy between two sets of ruts. About another mile later came across a CJ and a really nice FJ40 with a 350. The owners were both nice guys and we chatted with them for a while. I tried a couple times to push further, but with snow well over my waist and the consistency of mashed potatoes, it wasn’t going to happen. So we killed a box of clay pigeons.
Here are a few pics that Ian (slacker87XJ) took on his cell phone. There should be some more coming from the others in the group soon.
Trying to ram my way through a 4' wall of snow:
End of the road:
The rest of the group:
Ian's truck with it's new (ish) Swampers:
-----Matt-----
