OK, I re-titled the thread 'Trip Report' so now we start the pictures and stories.
I got a text from Kevin a little after 7am asking me to bring a cordless tool battery for his driver side window, he was already approaching Everett, must have been a little excited to be that early.
I grabbed the kid and pup, hit Starbucks and headed down the road to meet with Ricky.
Kevin and Ben were first at Enumclaw Safeway, Rick and I about 10 minutes later, followed closely by Dwight, Paul and Scott. Forest rolled in right about 9 and we had a report that Dan and Andy were still 30-45 minutes out.
We all headed up to the 70rd for the trailer queens to unload and wait some more.
On up the highway to the 75rd to air down where Forest parked his trailer, Tired of waiting, 5 of us headed up to Haller Pass. Not far up the road, we came upon a grader plowing snow. He was kind enough to find a wide spot he could back into and let us by.
Relatively uneventful up to the pass, 1 corner was pretty slippery.
Up at Haller Pass, Dwight wanted to see how his new Ruby-con would do and buried it to the floorboards (on purpose but it gave us a great opportunity for pictures of a Ford pulling a J**p out.).
We waited at the pass for the rest of the group and set the running order from biggest to smallest. In the mean time, another group had come up with a mix of rigs, big to small like ours.
Their big dogs headed up a side road while the smaller ones hung out. As soon as all our group was together, we took off to be in front of them.
The snow was very dry powder and didn't pack well. It was real easy to spin the tires and make the tire ruts really soft which doesn't hold up tires of the next rig well, even at 6psi. This makes the center of the trail that much taller and harder for smaller rigs to follow.
Andy lead the way and the going was fairly easy until we got to the Lake road turn. The snow was getting pretty deep by then and the TTB rigs were starting to push a lot of snow.
Paul was in front of Kevin with me behind. Scott in his stock FJ crusher was behind me and had a real hard time with the corner. I lost track of the progress of Scott, Rick and Dwight and at one point backed down to them but they retreated by the time I got there AND the other group of J**ps was coming along so those 3 decided to let the other group by and see if they could fall in behind.
I guess that didn't work and our 3 amigo's back tracked some more and must have had lunch and a beer (or 2).
Meanwhile, up front Andy was running hard and the rigs on 36's were trying to roll along but this was Dan's first snow trip and he probably had too much air in his tires and was spinning more than moving.
Paul was doing his best 'Mr Plow' imitation but finally decided to dig his way off to the side and let Kevin and I pass. By then, the big dogs of the other group were right behind us and Paul decided to let them by.
I was still able to move in Kevin's tracks, sometimes backing up and making a momentum run at it and other times, barely crawling at idle.
We kept going until we got to an outside bend in an exposed area where the sun was shining and Andy had stopped. This was our lunch stop (at about 2pm)
Out came the grills and such while the other group finally had room to pass. We kept waiting for Paul and couldn't raise him on the CB. Turns out he had gotten in the middle of that group and they were heavy on the skinny pedal and chewed up the tire tracks making the center ridge higher and even more difficult for a TTB on 33's.
Kid and dogs played while we ate, then it was time to get moving again. The other group didn't make it much further and had come back past us. Some of our group went ahead to see how far the other group went and Kevin and I fell in behind the other group heading down to find Paul.
Not to far down we stopped and the front rig said there was a single rig winching up the road and we hoped it wasn't Paul but it was.
They helped him to a wide spot where they could pass and he fell in behind me and Kevin. A little further down the road the other group's XJ's were stuck and apparently one blew a bead. Just enough time to break out the grill and cook Paul's steak.
After that, the return was pretty uneventful with the exception of Haller Pass. The grader had plowed the snow up to that point and there were 10-15 vehicles and lots of people playing, eating, drinking around camp fires.
We got to the bottom, just after dark, aired up and said our good-bye's and headed home.
I stopped taking pictures at Haller pass cause I was concentrating in driving but here are some.
