The Fellowship of PNW Tacomas | PDX Area Wheeling

Was it snow on packed ice? It was beautiful out in the snow today.

 

Welcome to my short story:


After 5 pm at mildly higher elevations the snow was packed onto the gravel forest roads...and the temp dropped from 33 to 31 in a matter of several minutes. The wind was gusting worse and worse and conditions were becoming more icy and more sketchy pretty quickly.

A full size was in the ditch with his pass side up against the bank. Looked like he hit pretty hard and maybe a broken ball joint on the pass side. Young guy. He also fell hard onto the ice walking to his truck. Half his body nearly went under his truck bed. Winced in pain getting off the ground. Ouch.

A Wrangler with tire chains on plus a winch line out, was parked across the road. 3 or 4 guys standing in the road talking and a newer Toyota 4runner idling in the middle just above them.

The winds were gusting hard. Snow falling outta the trees onto the forest road. I could see a cloud of snow dumping on the ridge to the east/southeast. That was where I had intended to go. Lol.

So at this point I noped the fuck out. Didn't wanna try to squeeze between the two offset vehicles on either side of the icy road...too risky. I didn't wanna slide into one.

Nowhere to turn around safely. So I slowly backed down the mountain. Yes. In reverse. In 4 low.

I met a few vehicles coming up while I was backing down. Still nowhere safe or wide enough to turn around, but I was able to let them pass.

I did eventually get turned around with a 17 point, Austin Powers style maneuver.

After that it was no problem. Got down pretty easy, but it was also easy to tell...it was time to go.

 

I made it up to about right here, just before I could see the rock pit shooting area. LOL at the complete lack of snow in this Google Earth satellite image.

 

Smart man right there....

 

I ain't no dummy.

 

I mean there was a small moment in time where I questioned that....

 

Says the guy who buried his phone underground.

 

Haha completely a fluke there.

 

Too much red bull.

 

I think I was more in this area...

 

I have not been in that area yet.

 

There was a sweet water crossing and a few spots that took more than just 4hi. Coming back down is was getting slick, but nothing too bad. If I had more time I would have explored a lot more.

 

I wanted to get out there much earlier today, but I had stuff to do. I was sort of waiting for it to warm up past freezing and stop snowing. Then I had stuff I needed to do first. Blah blah.

What time were you out there?

 

From 9:30-12:30. Most of that was cooking bratwursts and shooting about an hour was exploring.
Hwy 503 was bad heading up there. Couple cars in the ditch near Lewisville Park.

 

Probably gonna try to join you guys tomorrow at Brown's. Could use a good day trip

 

You're welcome to come.

9 am meet up
Chevron North Plains
10025 NW Glencoe Rd, North Plains, OR 97133

 

I'll be coming out, but gonna be running late. Got a couple extra things to do. I'll probably be 20-30 minutes behind. I can meet you out there. Don't wanna hold anyone up

 

Do you have a radio channel you'll likely be on?

 

This is pretty awesome guys! If your still putting together runs in May/June I would love to try to come up! Maybe when the weather is better, organize an overnighter/ camp trip!?!

Keep up the awesome!

 

Hopefully you got my text in time. Sorry we missed you. Didn't hear ya'll on the channel. Surprised I didn't run into you, but it's a big place.

Right on. Gonna try to keep it going for sure.