Mt Hood ride this weekend - who's in

Could be worse, Engineers used to have 6am out in Owen. Walking there from Sackett in the rain? Yeah, there's been better mornings.

 

OK, so three of us ended up meeting up that fateful Saturday March 6th 2010 up in Govt Camp, Mt Hood OR. We had rationalized that the snow was all gone. We were wrong - way wrong!

I had a Warn winch on my Taco that turned out to be damn useful becasue we got stuck a lot. Mike had all 4 tires chained up which proved to basically turn his Taco into a damn snowmobile. And Adam, well he had a much lighter Taco (1st Gen) and with that 4 banger was able to hop that truck across the snow like skipping a rock across a lake.

Our goal was to drive about 25 miles down the Badger Lake trail to the alpine lake and grill out. We didn't get more then a few miles. Took 9 hours in all. Mike had a GPS, which without it we'd never have found the trailhead. And once we did the snow set in, and got deeper as we went. And by noon it was getting soft from the sun and we started to sink into the 2-4ft that we'd been driving on-top of.

Anyway, great teamwork and a lot of fun and patience.. oh, and thanks in big part to Adam bringing along a shovel we made it outa there.

At the trailhead we grilled some dogs (not my huskies, just hotdogs) and downed a few beers. Thanks to Chris 4x4 for the cheap ass Silver bullets.. actually I'll thank Adam for the microbrews, yummy

Hope to do this one again later this year, when the snow is gone.

Anyway, here is a short video I made to commemorate the occasion. Enjoy!

http://gallery.me.com/dwight.hughes/100000

 

vid? where? omg omg omg i want to see pwweeezzz
as you can tell im really bored at the moment.

 

GAHHH nvm the link finally showed up, stupid computer

 

Just watched it, nice guys im wanting to go now. I dont believe in chains so i prolly wouldnt have made it as far. But i've got the GO pedal on my side so i would have gave her hell.

 

Nothing against the others, but having chains did give me a big edge.

Video was deceiving - the times I did give hell I wasn't captured on film. Didn't do much better though. I do wish I backed up more between each run, but that's learning for ya.

 

Thanks buddy. I didn't get to scare everyone with "We're all going to die". We really spent all day outside the trucks shoveling snow.

We did drink up the last of those Coors Lights you gave me last summer.

In a small way it was like you were there with us ;-)

 

Well guys we should set something up say in april. Since as you can tell there getting snow these last few days. And i really want to head up, never really rode with anyone from TW. I live near eugene so its a bit of a drive just for the day, but we could make it worth the trip.

 

Thx Dwight. That turned out cool. It was worth the wait. Cant wait to go back. I dont think these last couple days helped though. Let's do something soon. Have you been to or heard of Goat Mt. off the 211 Hwy?

 

if you guys waited a week i'd maybe be down haha. i got finals next week and then ill be back in tillamook for the weekend/ week. let me know if any of you decide to go to browns came or somthing in two weekends

 

Where are my manners? Dwight did a great job with the video (how the heck are you driving and shooting backwards off your shoulder? ) Kudos to choosing one of my fav songs too!

Goat's already in my GPS, I went up there with Cascade Cruisers to get Christmas trees. I haven't seen the actual trails yet but videos on youtube look great.

RVCHawaii already posted another thread up, and I saw another guy over in the regular offroad forum wants to go this Saturday. there's definitely going to be opportunities around to do something

 

been their last X=mas with our jeep group. by last i mean a year ago lol. Tons of snow, some hidden mud holes, made for an intense little adventure.

 

You are a week off regardless.

 

ahh shoot really? well when will ou guys be going up again? i was gunna go snoop around this saturday (tomorrow) but dont wanna go alone.

how was it up there by the way??

 

Read near the top of page 3, there's a video too.

Take a look at the other posts here in this section, RVCHawaii is trying to start something.

 

Yea if you want to go snoop around, i dont suggest going where they did. Theres been a lot of snow this past week and you wont make it as nearly as far as they did. Just because theres more snow now then when they went.

 

Yeah, the snow on Hood is insidious right now on Hood, and colder temps (down in 20s) and more snow tonight.

I'm going to explore other areas, the coastal mountains around Tillamook OR I think?, where there should be a good mix of light snow and lots of mud.

At this point it'll be awhile before I go back up on Hood for a ride.. maybe by late April? Depends on the weather I guess.

Anyway, it would be great to get a regular OR ride going each month, maybe the 1st full weekend of each month since that's when we started this.. March 6. So, April 3rd/4th? I'll do some research and asking around for good trail rides in the OR Coastal range and start a new thread for an April 3rd trip.

Stay tuned. And, chime in here if you have any ideas? -Thanks

 

OK. Here are a few ideas for April rides along the coastal range, tell me what you guys think?

BTW- I'm envisioning an overnight camping option for those that are interested, and some will just join for the SAT ride for sure...

Brown's Camp

Sand Lake

Noonday Trail

Santiam Pass

http://atv.prd.state.or.us/fetch_regions.php?usemap=1&regionByMap=north_coast