IXNAYXJ
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Wherever the next race is.
Last Saturday, myself, Ian (Slacker87XJ), Jay (pSYCedXJ) and Matt (Matt_West) took a drive out to Tinkham road off I-90 to see if the snow had melted enough for us to reach our Gunfest proving grounds. For the first time in recorded history, Ian actually beat other human beings to a location where there was an agreed upon meeting time.
Not that he was on time, but Jay and I were running late. So imagine my surprise when I get a phone call from Ian asking if we could drive down Tinkham Road and look for Matt, as he also was not at the meeting spot. No problem.
I stopped at the first Tinkham Rd. exit and aired down (all four tires in about 1.3 minutes, thanks to me Rimrock Supply Rapid Air Deflators) to about 12 psi, perfect for sliding around bumpy gravel roads.
I came around one of the corners and saw, out of my passenger window about 1/4 mile ahead, Matt's rig in the ditch:
I pulled over and found out that his drag link had worked itself loose and robbed Matt of his steering. He was lucky he went off the road to the right side, as off to the left was a 100 foot deep ravine.
I called Ian and told him of Matt's issues, and he met us there, performed some Slacker black magic, and we were back on our way:
Once we started gaining altitude, Ian and I were amazed how different things look without a half-dozen feet of snow on them; the last time we had been up here was for the Hypothermia Run. Some of you may even recognize this picture:
It shows Ian standing next to the tops of the gate posts guarding the Seattle Watershed. Here is Ian standing next to those same gate posts...neither of us realized just how deep the snow actually was:
Last snow of the year...so we thought:
One of my favorite places to take pictures:
On the way to the top:
Very steep and dug out section that proved harder than it looked. I actually got hung up here for a second (you can see the look of disbelief on my face) before finally powering through the snow.
Things were going well, until we got to this section:
The snow wasn't that deep, but the angle was such that it would have been very scary to try to cross. Couple that with the 1000 foot drop off on the low side and it wasn't worth trying. Instead, we put the snow bank to good use:
Fun trip as always, and though we didn't make it to our goal, we still have a great time getting our t-cases into low range and killing an invading army of clay pidgeons...pics of that to follow.
-----Matt-----
Not that he was on time, but Jay and I were running late. So imagine my surprise when I get a phone call from Ian asking if we could drive down Tinkham Road and look for Matt, as he also was not at the meeting spot. No problem.
I stopped at the first Tinkham Rd. exit and aired down (all four tires in about 1.3 minutes, thanks to me Rimrock Supply Rapid Air Deflators) to about 12 psi, perfect for sliding around bumpy gravel roads.
I came around one of the corners and saw, out of my passenger window about 1/4 mile ahead, Matt's rig in the ditch:
I pulled over and found out that his drag link had worked itself loose and robbed Matt of his steering. He was lucky he went off the road to the right side, as off to the left was a 100 foot deep ravine.
I called Ian and told him of Matt's issues, and he met us there, performed some Slacker black magic, and we were back on our way:
Once we started gaining altitude, Ian and I were amazed how different things look without a half-dozen feet of snow on them; the last time we had been up here was for the Hypothermia Run. Some of you may even recognize this picture:
It shows Ian standing next to the tops of the gate posts guarding the Seattle Watershed. Here is Ian standing next to those same gate posts...neither of us realized just how deep the snow actually was:
Last snow of the year...so we thought:
One of my favorite places to take pictures:
On the way to the top:
Very steep and dug out section that proved harder than it looked. I actually got hung up here for a second (you can see the look of disbelief on my face) before finally powering through the snow.
Things were going well, until we got to this section:
The snow wasn't that deep, but the angle was such that it would have been very scary to try to cross. Couple that with the 1000 foot drop off on the low side and it wasn't worth trying. Instead, we put the snow bank to good use:
Fun trip as always, and though we didn't make it to our goal, we still have a great time getting our t-cases into low range and killing an invading army of clay pidgeons...pics of that to follow.
-----Matt-----
circulation:
