NW WA Meet / BS Thread

Has anyone been up to Tinkham or Stampede lately? If the roads are still open I might cruise out there Sunday.

 

I went up Tinkham a few weeks ago. There was about a foot of snow and the roads were open

 

Tonga is just service roads but theres a good 3ft of snow give or take up there now. This was a couple weeks ago up Tonga the snow was not the best though then. Its better now but not much

That sounds like a fun adventure, were you the only rig?

 

Got my ass all fixed up, chev 63's n new 36" shocks! Maxed out 2 jacks getting my tread over 3' off the floor, still had room to travel w out lifting another tire!

 

Did you use hoops or center mount the shocks? Can't wait to see the badass'ness.

 

I did a center mount, stretched out jus inside my leaf pack

 

I thought they closed the gate at mile post 22 around thanksgiving? Did they leave it open this year?

 

drove by both on monday, nothing down low and its been "hot" all week, stampede might have some higher up

 

Alright I might cruise up there just to get out and take some pics. If anyone wants to tag along let me know

 

Id like to get out this weekend but im busy, when ever anyone cruises up in that area im always down to go its only a few exits away from me

 

Mike makes some very good points a while back. The guys on gitout are stricter than tw for better or for worse. We should just have some simple guidelines so that our meets are fun and safe yet not burdened by tons of rules.
I'll start with a few ideas, guidelines, not necessarily mandates etc and see what the group thinks.
1. Each meet should have a leader (Mike covered this with the Tahuya trip)
2. A CB is a great piece of gear to have, it really adds to the fun and increases trail communication.
3. Know your truck. I know some people are new and you have to start somewhere, but it is soooo beneficial to know things like if you have a locker and how to engage it.
4. Understand airing down. I thought I knew this one pretty well but the Snoqualmie pass snow run opened my eyes to how low I needed to drop my pressure. Granted all of my other off road trips I aired down enough to get the traction I needed, but cascade concrete was a different beast.
5. Recovery points. It's a good idea to have one solid recovery point on each end of the vehicle. The TRD sports don't have the nice front recovery hook that the offroads have. I bought one and installed it. Plus having a shackle trailer hitch mount or something similar is very helpful.
6. General preparedness. Try to think of spare parts/supplies you might need, fuses, tire plugs, full size spare tire, extra food, water, clothes, etc.

Anyways, I am not going to be a soup nazi about this, I just offer this so that the group can avoid easy mistakes and so that we continue to have kick ass meets!

 

I agree! Pics or you didn't fab it!

 

Well I haven't been on this thread forever, not like I was able to be active with any recent meets anyway though. I was busy this last weekend at eh hawks game

Anything going on soon?

 

Tahuya this Sunday and sounds like another group is going on a snow run that same day

 

#2 is hard to uphold. Gitout is trying to find a different means of communication because there's always a group of people with unreliable, poor performing, or broken CB gear. They are researching race radios or GMRS. HAM costs too much to easily make policy.

#4 is somewhat of an art and gets learned as you go. I'm still trying to figure it out.


Recovery points, recovery gear, one or two planners (not necessarily have to be the trail leaders, just have to be the coordinators), and a cap on attendance are really what we need. I like Jake's idea of keeping location/time 'secret', but Jake, I don't know how that gets pulled off. A lot of places have the common meet up spot, and you have to post times so people can figure out if they can go. I don't see a way around it. The best way is to have capped attendance and a 'sign in' sheet that the coordinator has. I've done the sign in sheet, and it works pretty great.

 

Oh yea I'm not trying to make these laws or anything, this is a public community and I am by no means in charge. Just figured with all of the Tahuya discussion it might be helpful to discuss some guidelines etc.

 

The gate was and probably still is still open due to lack of snow. The snowplow went by the day I was there.

 

I would think that hand held radios should be minimum for communication, CBs preferred, HAM as best bet.

Coordinator would be helpful to know areas for meeting points, as well as being able to define trail leader(s).

For anybody newer, like me, if you have any recovery gear, bring it all. If you have some tools, bring them as well. A basic kit with metric sockets can be a wonderful thing at times. For those with winches, or ride along in those rigs, good solid wheel chocks as well. I know one guy who was wanting to tie off to a tree as his anchor to winch me up a hill, but couldn't because it was too far. Always have water to drink. In the off chance that you get stranded somewhere, and there is no water nearby, you will die inside a week. Also useful if you ever have to back your truck up is a solid and flat platform. I recently acquired from work a piece of 4x12 wood.

I will look later to see if there are any threads made that give basics of what to bring on any given wheeling trip, and if there isn't one, I will start one and ask a mod to sticky it. That way it can always be added to and give a solid starting point for anybody who doesn't know better.

 

I went searching and found a great post of gear to take for an offroad adventure.

Read More Here