Evans Creek Jan 2005

Snowless Run………   Sometimes – you just gotta wanna go out on the trail, when the day promises to be dark, or wet, or cold. And – we had quite the group of “gotta wannas” heading out for Evans Creek on the most recent Tamer trail ride.

With the odd weather we’ve been having, the Denny Creek snow run was a non-event. Could have been the Denny Creek asphalt run – but where would be the fun in that? Quite a number of folks were set to take advantage of the warm weather and lack of snow cover to mix it up with the mud of Evans Creek.

Ilene towing Mudtilda, and me and Moosenstein joined up with Todd Yeager way before the dawn of day just off the 160th St. exit at I-405 in Bothell, and all convoyed down first to Mike and Staci’s house to drop our tow rigs before meeting up with the others at the 410 Café. I got in the driveway no problem, but Ilene decided to start accruing tow fees early when she inadvertently jack-knifed Mudtilda behind her pickup, when she got into some sand left over from the previous week’s ice and snow. And she had only barely entered Mike and Staci’s driveway when this happened. But to add insult to (minimal) injury – her Jeep pushed her pickup just far enough off the driveway, that she was stuck – and not even unhooked yet. I was only too happy to get out the camera and start snapping away. Oh yeah – and I got the strap out too, so she could get pulled forward and straightened out. No blood, no dents, no foul (but still a tow fee, of course…..)

We managed to show up just about the time Mike was going one way or the other to or from the shower – so he was looking very stylin’ running around on the porch in just a towel. So we got everything needed for the trail tossed into our rigs and headed off to the café. There we found a good group – Tom and Chad, Ed Tenney, and some friends of his both riding with him, and driving a clean little red flattie, Robb Lee (who proved to us that his Cruiser isn’t just a garage lizard) and a buddy of his from work who decided to join us in his quad, Auto-M, and Rick Krog, although minus his copilots Carol and Guinness. We were sad to not have their company, as Rick explained he was concerned that the trail might be a little rough on Carol physically, and of course, it’s tough to drive with someone wanting to sit on your lap and lick your ear. (Of course, I was still unsure as to whether this comment applied to Carol or Guinness…..)

After 9:00 AM, we picked up Mike Robinson and Tristan at the Burnett Chevron, and under thickly clouded, but not yet rainy skies, off we went to the trailhead.

The run itself – less muddy than I expected it would be (the previous weekend, just the top layer of the ground had thawed, making for extremely slimy wheeling. This weekend, the ground was all thawed through, so the water wasn’t laying on top, and things were nowhere near as sloppy as I thought they were gonna be.) Wheeling was awesome, the group a lot of fun, we had a few trail challenges and a winch here and there, but for the most part kept moving pretty well. And while the skies continued to be dark, the rain held off pretty much all day. In fact – I was sure it was going to rain at any moment, and it never really did. And with the temp where it was (around 55,) it just was pretty nice for a January run. I put M-Stein on its side once in a hole, and got a few more dings in the roof. But since I was able to back up and get him on his feet without help, it didn’t qualify as a cowbell-worthy incident. (Whoever is holding the cowbell – sorry about that. I tried, I really did…..)

The warm winter wheeling was a truly unexpected pleasure. We actually did see a little snow up around the rock garden – but not really enough to even be a consideration. Everybody made the first stop back in Mike and Staci’s front yard, where they hung out and got to lob good natured Cruiser and Jeep insults back and forth with Robb. By 7:00PM, when we were finally convinced that Mike really wasn’t kidding us about not having any beer, we packed up and headed for home.

“Moose”