Denny Creek Run 2-21-2009
What a phenomenal day to go out wheeling. The sky was blue,
the temperature was perfect and the birds were singing. Ok, so
maybe I lied about the last part, but it was a perfect day to
head out with my favorite group of wheelers, the Timber Tamers.
Tom, Penny and I met up for breakfast in and for a change, I was
on time and Tom and Penny were running late. Not really late,
just on Tamer Time. We ate then hopped in the tow rigs pointed
toward North Bend. We got there without incident and met up with
Terry and Amy C. Ron LaBorn and his brother repping the TLC
Crew. And a guest with a CJ-5. After mingling for a bit, Darren
with his Little Red Zuk showed up. All gassed up and with snacks
aplenty we towed up I-90 towards the Denny Creek Exit.
I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, but this was my first time
running Denny Creek. I have always wanted to in the past, but
previously my jeep either wasn’t up to the task, or it was in
some sort of dis-repair or Mike Jennings had stolen my tires and
whined about their lack of traction. Whatever the case, I was
eager to hit the trail.
Everyone got unloaded and aired down. I dinked around a bit to
make sure my jeep would work and not fail on the trail just to
get turned around like on the hangover run. With Tom leading the
way we all bravely followed into the snowy abyss. The snow on
the bottom was nice for traction. It had a healthy crust on top
but if you broke through, you were instantly digging. Slow
progress and very little wheel spin were the order of the day.
One by one we made our way up the trail and eventually we came
to a few blowdown trees. Not a big deal except for the fact that
nobody had brought a chainsaw. The easiest possible route was
negotiated by Tom in the lead, with others following suit. Those
not locked front and rear had some trouble. Most notably Amy
with her ARB locker not at 100% had some trouble. She was also
the longest wheel base of the group sometimes a hindrance,
sometimes it’s a blessing. On the first blowdown tree it turned
out to be a hindrance and some winch cable was pulled. After a
quick pull, Darren gave his 4 squirrels of fury some go pedal
and got over just fine.
The group headed up slowly. Staying on top of the snow seemed to
be a problem for some. If you didn’t carry momentum your rig
would start to dig and the soft powdery snow beneath the crust
below had zero traction at best. I took the opportunity to
attempt to race Tom up the hill and lost. But after a while I
got to the front of the group and reached the switchback where
the road parallels I-90. I stopped there to wait for the group
to catch up and also to air my tires down to 1 psi.
Once everyone had caught up we proceeded to tackle the hardest
part of the day. Two trees in tandem were blown down across the
trail. Tom and I made it over, but other folks were having
trouble. The decision was made to have Tom turn around and winch
one of the trees out of the way. The only problem was, both the
ends of the tree were buried in snow and it spanned a good 20
feet across the trail. Tom hooked up his winch cable to the tree
and started pulling. And pull he did. The tree started to
resemble a bow string at maximum tension and you could tell
folks were worried about it launching his Jeep across the valley
as they scattered like rabbits. However Tom held steadfast and
continued to winch in. Eventually when the tree resembled
something like a horseshoe did it finally snap and was able to
be moved out of the way.
As this point my memory gets foggy. I either wanted to be as far
away from the winching evolution or I just had found a great way
to have fun. I don’t know exactly what happened, but as I was
hiking up the hill to stand on the snowbank above I-90 I looked
down to see a Samurai in the lead with a Jeep’s winch cable
hooked to it and then a TLC’s winch cable hooked to the Jeep.
The Jeep’s hood was up and many folks were standing around. I
decided that this would be a great time to stand 150 feet above
everyone and throw snowballs at them. I don’t think I hit anyone
but I must have launced more than 100 snowballs off the cliff.
Once whatever broke got fixed we all continued up the trail to
where the overpass is. Many of us dinked around there and had
some fun on the different formations of snow. Then we continued
on to where the trail ends. No angry moms this year as we didn’t
find any folks sledding. Just a bunch of cars parked at the
bottom of the massive snowdrift.
Everyone chose this time at the top of the hill to stand around
Tom and pick his brain for general wheeling and rig building
knowledge. I chose the same time to bury my rig to the frame
rails in the snow and then go find a place to take a nap. Snow
is ever so comfy if you just flop backwards into it. After my
naptime and a quick winch from Tom, we were on our way headed
back down the hill.
The trip down was rather uneventful as I got in the lead. We ran
into (not really we just crossed paths) a few cross country
skiers and a group that was out snowshoeing. I got way ahead of
the main group and stopped to pick up some tires that someone
had left on the side of the trail. We all got loaded back up on
the trailers and headed for dinner. I don’t remember the name of
the place, but if you order your chili burger with the bun on
the top instead of open faced they get confused. Damn that was a
fine burger.
A great day to be out playing. Awesome weather, no major
breakage and a good time was had by all. Great times folks,
thanks for the memories.