Denny Creek Snow Run Feb 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.