Western Washington Four Wheel Drive Club
Twin Lakes:
Travis, Ken and Ryan and I decided on a whim to go up to Twin Lakes in the Mount Baker national forest. Not sure if this would be an official Tamer run, But Travis and We are Tamers and Ken is a candidate.
We met up at the Shell station in Marysville at exit 88 at 8am and then traveled the two and a half hours to Twin Lakes – practically the Canadian border.
Continue reading “Twin Lakes and Walker Valley Aug 2019”While racing sailboats we use to say that the race was won or lost before you even left the dock. Meaning preparation is extremely important. In the case of a BDR (Backcountry Discovery Route) it is the same. Preparation for an event like this takes a tremendous amount of time and research. Where to stay and what routes to take even what BDR to run.
Continue reading “Idaho Back Country Route Jul 2019”What better way to celebrate the birth of a nation than by practicing that freedom in the forest of the PNW. So it was that Cassidy, Melissa, and I planned to go camping at Riders Camp and perhaps do a little exploring of Manastash in the Jeep. The invitation to join us for all or any part of the planned 5 day excursion was sent to some friends and the Tamers which resulted in a few taking us up on the offer. So it was that early in the morning on 7/3 Melissa, Cassidy, and I left the house heading out to Riders camp in order to hopefully secure a good camp site big enough for everyone that said they were going to join us.
Continue reading “Manastash July 2019”It had been about 19 months since the family and I were able to get away on a weekend camping trip. It was my fault really since I wanted to build the Jeep, but with that mostly done it was time to reap some of the rewards of that effort. So it was that Melissa, Alex, Cassidy and I left about 9am Friday for Liberty and the Williams Creek campground in an effort to secure a good camp site for the weekend, but it was not soon enough because when we got there we found just one spot that would work for all of the people we knew were on the way. We made the best of it and because we had great campground neighbors it all worked out in the end.
Continue reading “Liberty June 2019”Another trip to Tahuya, and only a mere 7 months after the trip here! We had wonderful weather for today—partly sunny, comfortably warm without being hot—and no rain for today. After the trip we had last October when we found Tahuya to have really upped its game in challenge, we had a lot more rigs come along.
Continue reading “Tahuya May 2019”Our fine hosts the Tenney’s did their legendary thing with the weather – it being a beautiful spring afternoon in the woods north of Monroe. Ed claimed to have been doing a sun dance in the back yard days before – while also claiming no one wanted to see him doing that. (Ed – I may now have to go poke out my mind’s eye – thanks for that visual….)
Continue reading “Rig Check and 40th Birthday, May, 4 19”The morning didn’t start out well for me…..I accidently changed the time on my alarm clock, one hour forward while setting the alarm to get up an O’Dark am on Saturday. Of course this caused my alarm clock to go off an hour early, which most of you know, is not a good thing for me! Just as I was about to go back to sleep, a HUGE Hail storm hit and rattled the house…..fine, I will just get up, since the universe didn’t want me to get my beauty rest!
Continue reading “Reiter Work Party Apr 2019”We started out getting there a bit late, about 9:15 am. Which if you know me is a bit early for me. Lol. Kevin with the Rainier Ridge Rams was quick to ask me who was bringing the fixings for the Lunch bar-b-que, as we had volunteered to do that with our club. I must have given him a deer in the head lights look and answered I don’t know? He just looked back and said.. Your not awake yet are you? Nope I was not awake yet. It took me about 15 minutes to get awake and moving and I assured Kevin that Mike our trusty cook was going to be there to cook up some hot dogs and hamburgers. It was cold and rainy and windy as we tried to get out flags and banners set up. Catch up with everyone and touch base and get signed up with DNR for our days duties.
Continue reading “Hefty Haul Out Apr 2019”At the club meeting, Thursday prior to the club run, we asked for volunteer to lead the group. No one raised their hands so I said sure I would do it! But seeing though I am a 2nd shift worker we would start at 10am, LOL. I got a few hmms and haws and I double checked if anyone else wanted to lead but no one stepped up.. Ok cool.. 10am it will be.
Continue reading “Walker Valley Mar 2019”It had been a while since Casey and I had been up to Walker Valley so we googled the time to get there and it showed about 90 minutes. It actually only took about an hour. So we got there early and found Shawn in his Teal jeep already there with 3 little ones running around have a great time. We got ourselves aired down hubs locked in and as we got ourselves ready others trickled in. We even got to chat a bit with our favorite DNR guy, Gary Bellows, as we waited. We ended up with 10 people in the parking lot with Dave on his way and meeting us a little later. Ed and Katie, Karl VP riding shotgun with Kurtis Messmer and his 3 little ones, Chris G in his new to him XJ, John in his (RocDoc), Travis B in his red 4 door JK, and candidates Marc C and Chris L. and of course Casey in her MissCreant, and me in my MissUnderstood.
Continue reading “Walker Valley Jan 2019”It was a scenic drive up to our meeting place at the Nooksack Market Center in Deming. Everyone stated to trickle in around 8:30ish. Those who needed to fuel up did and the rest of us lined up in a sided parking lot. Since this was a duel club run everyone mingled around checking out each other’s rigs and introduced themselves.
Continue reading “TT RRR Snow Run Feb 2019”There was no write up but there were some fabulous pictures. Perhaps there is a modeling career in the works for a few people. I see potential!!!
Continue reading “Walker Jan 2019”Well, there were some folks among the Timber Tamers who really wanted to go on the Hangover Run on New Year’s Day, but for various reasons weren’t able to. So, the request went out for another snow run to make up for that for the folks who couldn’t go on the Hangover Run. (Great idea, Jon Holzwarth!!)
Continue reading “Tonga Ridge Jan 2019”We started off getting to the Darrington Shell station about 9:35 am. The meeting time was 9:45 am and depart at 10am. Everyone had lined up across the street in the empty lot and it looked like a lot of people.
Continue reading “Hangover Run Group 2 Jan 2019”There were two groups for the Hangover Run for 2019—the “Big Dogs” and the rest of the folks. The “Big Dogs” were the people who were foolish enough to get up too early after New Year’s Eve to try to be the first (or highest) up the mountain in the snow. The rest of the folks were smarter than us, and took a more leisurely time about getting out of bed.
Continue reading “Hangover Run Group 1 Jan 2019”I wanted to check out the Iron Goat area for quite some time now. It had been a few years and I heard reports of new gates being put up and heli skiing goings on etc. So I rounded up a couple other Tamers and off we went.
Continue reading “Iron Goat Dec 2018”I had sent out a reminder notice to all club members as well as candidates about this run. I also added in I didn’t think there was going to be any snow or very little and it should be just running up, pick a tree cut it down, (with a tree permit of course) and get back home.
How wrong I was. LOL
This is a long report and please forgive my grammar and typos etc.
More accurately Run Report for Busy Wild Trail, Cause that’s the only damn trail we saw all day!
This will most likely be a PG rated report so please bear with me as I try to describe one of the longest days I have spent with others on the Busy Wild Trail in Elbe Hills ORV park.
Another day of wheeling, just like any other. Well, maybe not…
For one thing, this day started out at 7:00 AM at Walker—a pretty early day. (And I’d prefer not to describe it with the exact words Casey and Gary would use at this hour of the morning…) For another thing, this was a day for us to have a Poker Run (officially a non-sanctioned non-event) where four of our clubs in the 4-wheeling community (Around The Sound, Dirty 13, Rainier Ridge Rams and Timber Tamers) came together to have a fundraiser to help three families in our midst who are fighting with that evil beast—cancer. It’s a time we could all get together not only for a good cause, but to have some fun together in the process!
Another second-Saturday of the month, another Walker Valley Work Party!!
Today four of us Tamers (Steve Sutton, Chris Leger, Lynn Leger and myself) joined forces with a large contingent from the Around the Sound Jeep Club and a number of the Rainier Ridge Rams to work on the Walker Valley trails. My understanding was that the work needed today was predominantly to fix some trails where 4x4s had been running a motorcycle/ATV trail and improperly widening it. Continue reading “Walker Valley Work Party Nov 2018”
Saturday morning turned out looking more promising for the Timber Tamers monthly trail ride to Tahuya than last year: this year it wasn’t raining! The weather forecast predicted sunshine and a high of 65F. (Well, that didn’t happen—high seemed to be upper 50s, and the marine fog didn’t burn off until about 2:30 PM!) At least the weatherman got the part right about no rain! As it turned out, there hasn’t really been rain in Tahuya since last spring, so the trails were all pretty dry. If we’d had rain like last year (when it rained ALL. DAY. LONG., the difficulty would have been a lot greater for today’s ride!)
Continue reading “Tahuya Oct 2018”
Another Work Party at Walker Valley OHV started off on Saturday October 13, 2018 without a hitch! Sadly, it didn’t quite last that way. Continue reading “Walker Work Party Oct 2018”
Our day started out on time, we met TT Travis at the gas station in Bothell to run up to North Bend together for the second stop on our journey to meet some other folks that were going up with us. We arrived at Safeway early and that was a good thing because Travis just installed his new winch and needed a hand in rolling up his rope on it. Not sure if that has a technical term or not, but I will just go with that.
We headed out a day earlier than in the past on Thursday. The drive down was ok, traffic light and we sailed thru all the normal backups except in Shoreline area, but even that wasn’t too bad. We got into Aberdeen/Hoquiam area and hit a couple downpours but we could see blue skies a head of us. We kept our fingers crossed. Then blue skies n sunny!
The TC 100 http://www.fleetfeetseattle.com/events/teanaway-country-100 is a 100 mile long foot race over difficult terrain. This year was their first year of this event. Last summer, I was contacted by a friend who is in the long-distance running community. She wanted to know if any off-road groups could support their run. I felt strong about supporting them. These are the same people that hike the same areas we like to wheel in. I think it is important that they get to know us. We want them to understand that we care just as much as they do about the outdoors and that we want to see the trails used responsibly. I get the feeling that some of these folks get the wrong idea about the wheeling community when they see damage caused by someone not following the guidelines of tread lightly.
So you want to go to the Bighorn Jeep Jamboree. My experience at the 10 annual Bighorn Jamboree near Dayton WY. Continue reading “Big Horn Jeep Jamboree Aug 2018”
Seven Timber Tamers in five vehicles visited the Reiter Foothills OHV area for a club trail run on August 18, 2018—the famous date of 8-18-18! Joe was in his white TJ, Shawn and Justin in Shawn’s teal TJ, brand-spankin’ new member Travis in his red 4-door JKR, candidates Steve and Jodi in their while YJ, and me in my white stretched JKR. It turned into an eventful day!
Many of you know, that Gary and I have been judging at WE Rock, for 6 years now, and absolutely love it! Since the onset of RRC (Reiter Rock Crawl) we have managed to get a few more hooked on this! Ryan Sorenson, and Travis Butterfield!
Gary and I headed out at 9am Friday morning. As you know, traffic sucks at that time of the morning, and NO ONE wants to be behind a dually with a camper, pulling a trailer with a truck on it and a scooter on front! So, every time we would get several car lengths between us and the vehicle ahead, 2 or 3 more cars would jump in front of us!
Five Timber Tamers in three vehicles (Steve and Jamie Yeager in their Samurai on 36s; Steve Armentrout and Rudy Drahovzal in their big camo JK on 40s; and me in my white JKR on 37s) drove the 31-mile Dusy-Ershim Trail in California from August 6 through August 10, 2018. What a great ride!
With most of us well rested we again met at 7:00am. Since there were no issues on the trail from the day before I offered to let the group change there place in line if they wanted to. I guess they liked where they were at and no one changed. On this type of run it is a good idea to spread out so you don’t choke on dust. But we also don’t want to lose anyone. So at intersections where it is not clear which direction to go we use the relay method.  The lead stops and waits for the next rig. As soon as it shows up the lead takes off again. This ensures that no one gets lost while keeping the dust down. Of course if you do all the work to plan the trip that means you are in the front and don’t have to worry about the dust. The down side is having to do things like put together a run report.
Continue reading “WA Back Country Discovery Route Day 2 Jul 2018”