Tahuya Mar 2006

This has got to be the most documented run in the History of the Timber Tamers!!

You know it’s going to be a good day wheeling when you haven’t even completed half of your highway journey to the trail, and you are already witnessing spectacular vehicular maneuvers.

GaryTJ, Dirtball and I left from the Dirtball Estate about 7:30 headed for the QFC parking lot. On the way there, merging onto Rt. 16, a lady in a silver Chevy sedan, got sideways on the highway exit ramp right in front of me. I got on the CB and warned Dirtball to slow down since he was towing his Jeep. In a highly skilled display of precision driving, the lady in the sedan got herself righted and on the way as Dirtball showed us his skills with precision stopping. Barring further incident we made our way to the QFC parking lot to meet up with the rest of the Group.

The group headed to the main lot at Tahuya where we unloaded, aired down, and disconnected for those of us who still run sway bars. Then it was off to the trailhead. We ran the “north loop” without incident, through the mollies, and up the big hill with the stump at the top which would later prove to be the preferred tire deflation system for a less fortunate driver.

On to the rock garden, where some of us watched a group of Nissan Xterra’s try their luck at reconfiguring their undercarriages before moving on to let us play. Tom Baker was the first to play in the rocks showing us all how to play in front wheel drive only. Next up we had Robb and his Toyota Land Cruiser showing us all how to get stuck in four-wheel drive only. After getting himself removed from between a rock and a hard place, he decided to further show us his Cruiser’s superior abilities by getting himself yet stuck again and proving that he can emulate the electrical system of myself (who on a previous run had to fix his Jeep 26 times in the space of about a foot). Robb got his electrical gremlins solved, and we winched him out of the Rock garden and on to the bypass road alongside.

Travis showed us all how it’s done, by crawling through on his brand new 38 inch TSL’s. (When I say brand new, they didn’t even have one revolution on them as they were installed while his rig was on the trailer) More rigs came through the rocks with no major problems, GaryTJ ran through and decided to high center himself on a boulder the size of a Volkswagen. Mary S. ran her TJ through with no problems. And Mike with his Toyota pickup made it through after a few spotting tips from the rather large crowd of hecklers who were watching the fun and enjoying the powdered doughnuts brought by Moose. Ed D, (who still refuses to remove the plastic side steps from his TJ Unlimited), gave the rocks a shot, and even though we all wanted to see them removed by force, the steps remained intact.

After the rocks, half of the group started to trail on, and the remaining half stopped to help Robb switch batteries in the Cruiser. After getting it fixed again, we headed on down to the south loop and ran through that with no problems. After exiting the south loop, we all stopped on the side of one of the access roads, munched on some snacks, and watched as the Xterra group “ran the gauntlet” as they had to squeeze through our group parked on either side of the road.

From there we headed down to the mud lake and enjoyed an afternoon of entertainment provided by the various assortment of rigs getting stuck and playing around on the few side hills and stumps that scattered the area. GaryTJ attempted to traverse the deeper end of the mud lake and got himself good and stuck, with the assistance from Doug, we got him out of the goo. Dirtball declined invitation to attempt the same feat, but after some words of encouragement from GaryTJ, (I think it went something like “if you hit it with a little momentum, you will breeze on through…”) Dirtball was mired in the same hole as was Gary. But now, his starter was full of mud as well. At this point, most of the people in the park that day were all standing around watching the most entertaining show of the weekend. Well, in true “leave no man behind” fashion, a helpful group of Tamers was soon parked all around Mark, standing on their hoods, and assisting him with a rather precarious recovery. At some point, Ann T offered Gary a hefty sum of money to dump Mark, who was standing on Gary’s hood in the middle of the lake, off of his hood and into the goo. After getting Mark started and under his own power again, He and Gary went on a mission to see if Ann’s offer was still valid. As I can remember, it involved something with some mud, a recovery hook, and then it seemed Ann was chest deep in the water with Gary and Mark laughing like hyenas. After that Travis assisted another group with a recovery, the Xterra group muttered something about some “crazy Jeep people” whilst leaving, and we all mounted up and headed for the parking lot.

3/4ths of the group returned to the parking lot and aired up, re-loaded their rigs onto their trailers, and we all recanted the day’s events, while waiting for Moose and crew to return. Well, it turns out that Robb in his infamous Cruiser decided that his tire pressure was not low enough for the trail, and at the crest of the very last hill, popped a bead on his tire. While trying to extricate himself from a precarious situation, his rig slid sideways and he bent his spare tire carrier. Ed and I loaded up in the Unlimited to go find out what the trouble was (those plastic side steps sure do make it easy to get into his rig), Just as they got his spare on and were heading back to the parking lot. We turned around, and headed back to the parking lot.

Now that the whole entourage was off the trail, some of the group headed for dinner in Renton, and the other half took the scenic route through Purdy. With the exception of Robb,  who had more battery issues on his way home. From what I heard, his battery wouldn’t power his headlights, and he had to get across the bridge before they shut it down. With no parts stores open after 8pm, it was all go and no show to the other side of the bridge, where a new battery was installed and the Cruiser made it home.

All in all it was a great day to be on the Trail, and with no major mechanical vehicular failure, everyone remained intact to play another day.

Until Next time…

BK. “the ultimate in burger satisfaction”

For everyone concerned about the environment (which includes everyone in the Timber Tamers) the wet area you’re about to see in this movie is in an off-road vehicle designated area, specifically designed (catchment areas and silt fences) to allow wheelers to have fun, while not endangering the local watershed.  Just wanted you all to know……

Playing in the water (in designated area).

And a short movie of playing on the rocks.