IXNAYXJ
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Wherever the next race is.
Here’s how it all started. I got a phone call from Adam’s (adamusmc2002) wife, Laura last week asking me if I could figure out a way to get Adam out of the house for a few hours so she could plan a surprise party for him. Hmmm, where could I take Adam for a few hours…? I quickly disregarded my initial thoughts of an art museum or the ballet and settled on wheeling. But where? With Michael’s Tinkham snow camping trip coming up, and not having any idea of the conditions up there, my mind was easily made up.
The list of participants (all organized via PM) ebbed and flowed a quite a bit, but in the end we had 7 rigs. Myself, Adam (adamusmc2002), Derek (Adam’s buddy with a well-built ZJ), John (GI-John) and Eli (Can12XJGaugeMan…or something). Most of us met in Federal Way at 9:00 and made our way towards the pass via Highway 18. It didn’t look good. We were being lashed with heavy wind and sideways rain, in good NW tradition. The radio was saying that the pass was being restricted to vehicles with chains or AWD.
That news by itself wasn’t bad, but the idea of ten miles of cars stopped putting on chains blocking our exit was dismaying. We added another 5 mph to our speed and pushed on. In North Bend, we met Ian (slacker87XJ) and his friend Matt who just bought a D44 equipped ’87 Wagoneer and put Ian’s old 32s on. Interestingly, Ian took Matt on our Tinkham Snow run last yeah and now he owns the aforementioned Waggy and his wife just got an early ‘90s XJ herself. Gotta love it!
Matt’s Waggy:
As we got closer to the pass, the weather advisory station informed us that the pass was closed due to avalanche control, so we got off at the first Tinkham exit to avoid any backups and aired down there:
It was raining pretty hard and made the snow more slush than snow. That wouldn’t last for long, though as the snow quickly got deep. Here’s the first poser shot of the day, the first of many. When I got out to take the pic, I misjudged the depth of the water and was rewarded with wet feet. Luckily my new boots (Asolos) dried off quickly, and the rest of the day I was dry and toasty.
The FS road that parallels I-90 was pretty decent, except for huge ruts that made steering futile. You could have set cruise control and crossed your legs and arms for the majority of the drive to the trailhead.
As we got closer, we came around a corner and thought to my self; “There is a God!” In sharp relief to the white landscape was the pastel blue paint of a new Toyota FJ Cruiser. Stuck. I jumped out and went to talk with the driver and passengers. They were indeed stuck, and stuck bad. The three guys had taken the side road in order to skip the backup on I-90 on their way to the pass to go skiing. While they had warm skiing clothes, they were totally unprepared for the conditions. They had been trying to dig their way out using a snow board, and hadn’t succeeded much.
“Hi, I’m and idiot and I want a Jeep now!”
I also noticed a few things: The tires, at 33,000 miles, were almost totally bald, he had the traction control engaged, and his cool rear locking differential was open. Wow. Here’s is a video of the extraction. Listen carefully for the dialogue between the driver and me…it’s pretty funny and illuminating:
Saving FJ Bacon
Once we got aimed towards the freeway and on his way, we turned up the hill to see how far we could get and scope out conditions for the upcoming snow trip. We got about three feet.
Our first XJ stuck of the day happened quickly. With stock height, drivetrain and Ian’s semi-slick old tires, he didn’t have much of a chance:
Who needs a winch when you’ve got an Ian:
The decision was made to leave Matt’s Waggy there rather than turn the entire day into a winchfest. The six of us made our way up the hill and were doing quite well until John got stuck briefly. This was a recurring theme throughout the day until he aired down to 5 psi. After that, he had no problems.
Both Ian and myself in the front of the pack had great luck and no problems with our spied Interco’s. We switched off leading a couple times, and had fun with some deep snow passes.
Building a turn-around spot:
John airing down all the way:
We actually made pretty good time, all things considered. The snow was perfect for wheeling; it was a little wet so it packed nicely and made it very easy to drive on. Those with siped tires had very little trouble at all, and we all would have like to push on further than we did but it was slow going towards the end:
Here’s a video of the final push:
Playing Snow Plow
There's more coming in a minute!
-----Matt-----
The list of participants (all organized via PM) ebbed and flowed a quite a bit, but in the end we had 7 rigs. Myself, Adam (adamusmc2002), Derek (Adam’s buddy with a well-built ZJ), John (GI-John) and Eli (Can12XJGaugeMan…or something). Most of us met in Federal Way at 9:00 and made our way towards the pass via Highway 18. It didn’t look good. We were being lashed with heavy wind and sideways rain, in good NW tradition. The radio was saying that the pass was being restricted to vehicles with chains or AWD.
That news by itself wasn’t bad, but the idea of ten miles of cars stopped putting on chains blocking our exit was dismaying. We added another 5 mph to our speed and pushed on. In North Bend, we met Ian (slacker87XJ) and his friend Matt who just bought a D44 equipped ’87 Wagoneer and put Ian’s old 32s on. Interestingly, Ian took Matt on our Tinkham Snow run last yeah and now he owns the aforementioned Waggy and his wife just got an early ‘90s XJ herself. Gotta love it!
Matt’s Waggy:
As we got closer to the pass, the weather advisory station informed us that the pass was closed due to avalanche control, so we got off at the first Tinkham exit to avoid any backups and aired down there:
It was raining pretty hard and made the snow more slush than snow. That wouldn’t last for long, though as the snow quickly got deep. Here’s the first poser shot of the day, the first of many. When I got out to take the pic, I misjudged the depth of the water and was rewarded with wet feet. Luckily my new boots (Asolos) dried off quickly, and the rest of the day I was dry and toasty.
The FS road that parallels I-90 was pretty decent, except for huge ruts that made steering futile. You could have set cruise control and crossed your legs and arms for the majority of the drive to the trailhead.
As we got closer, we came around a corner and thought to my self; “There is a God!” In sharp relief to the white landscape was the pastel blue paint of a new Toyota FJ Cruiser. Stuck. I jumped out and went to talk with the driver and passengers. They were indeed stuck, and stuck bad. The three guys had taken the side road in order to skip the backup on I-90 on their way to the pass to go skiing. While they had warm skiing clothes, they were totally unprepared for the conditions. They had been trying to dig their way out using a snow board, and hadn’t succeeded much.
“Hi, I’m and idiot and I want a Jeep now!”
I also noticed a few things: The tires, at 33,000 miles, were almost totally bald, he had the traction control engaged, and his cool rear locking differential was open. Wow. Here’s is a video of the extraction. Listen carefully for the dialogue between the driver and me…it’s pretty funny and illuminating:
Saving FJ Bacon
Once we got aimed towards the freeway and on his way, we turned up the hill to see how far we could get and scope out conditions for the upcoming snow trip. We got about three feet.
Our first XJ stuck of the day happened quickly. With stock height, drivetrain and Ian’s semi-slick old tires, he didn’t have much of a chance:
Who needs a winch when you’ve got an Ian:
The decision was made to leave Matt’s Waggy there rather than turn the entire day into a winchfest. The six of us made our way up the hill and were doing quite well until John got stuck briefly. This was a recurring theme throughout the day until he aired down to 5 psi. After that, he had no problems.
Both Ian and myself in the front of the pack had great luck and no problems with our spied Interco’s. We switched off leading a couple times, and had fun with some deep snow passes.
Building a turn-around spot:
John airing down all the way:
We actually made pretty good time, all things considered. The snow was perfect for wheeling; it was a little wet so it packed nicely and made it very easy to drive on. Those with siped tires had very little trouble at all, and we all would have like to push on further than we did but it was slow going towards the end:
Here’s a video of the final push:
Playing Snow Plow
There's more coming in a minute!
-----Matt-----
Last edited:
members in attendance, some even coming who weren’t wheeling, a testament to the club’s ability to make great friendships.
