Timber Tamers February Run Report to Green Mountain
I started this run actually the night before. A few people were needing some things I don’t normally bring, so as soon as I got home from work I went about to be sure I got them in my rig so I wouldn’t forget.
Now keep in mind I also need to get my rig out of the covered area it was in to make a silent get away without waking the wife in the morning too
So with my rig parked for a clean get away, and few things safely tucked into it, I felt confidant I could load the last few items, my lunch etc the following morning.
I woke up before the alarm, which is darn good for me. But then again it was light out by this time. Even so I am not an early riser.
With myself all dressed I grabbed the last few things to throw into rig and get her fired up and warmed up….. NOT!!!!
Apparently in my haste the night before I had turned on the dome light and forgot to turn it off. An now my battery was deader than a door nail…. Well I got the charger going in a 50 amp charge and hoped she will take a good enough charge in 15 minutes to fire up.
I got lucky and away I went to meet up with everyone else.
I got up to frontier village Safeway a little early with a few people already there. Curt Brady with wife Wendy and daughter Emily, as well as Chris brown, Travis in his red JK, Cosmine was soon to arrive as well as the others.
We ended up at 11 rigs strong.
Moose and his friend Rick riding shotgun
John Vandergrift in his white modified JK
Chris brown in his TJ
Aaron with a friend of his riding co pilot
Cheryl and Ryan in their JK
Cosmine in his blue JK two door
Travis in his red JK
Evan Pauls with his LJ
Mike Langenhouser
Curt Brady n family
And me. Gary Miller
That should be eleven and please forgive me if I misspelled your name or didn’t quite get it right.
We got out of the parking lot and on our way about 9:50am. Not too bad for a Tamer run..LOL
We found our way out of granite falls along Mt loop highway and saw many rigs struggling as the snow got a little deeper.
We finally made the cut off and got ourselves off the road to air ourselves down and do a quick little drivers meeting.
We got going up the mountain to find the weather mostly ok. There were spots of heavy snow for a few minutes and some hail here and there. But mostly dry and not too cold.
I had Evan leading the pack and soon he was breaking trail and knocking snow off the low hanging trees. At one point he had to get out and wipe the snow from his windshield and front hood just so he could see. We had a pretty good amount of snow fall the previous day or two and it was clearly still hanging on to the trees causing them to droop down into trail.
It seemed everyone was doing quite well and I think the snow was packing down fairly nice for us to travel over.
I think John had a couple spots where his tires just were not gripping, but from what he says he didn’t need any mechanical help or even a push from everyone so no tow fees were incurred.
With Moose in the rear we had good entertainment over the radio, and it is always nice to have him along on these runs. His knowledge, experience, and good radio skills are always a welcome.
It wasn’t till the second switch back we got into a lil trouble.
Cheryl was having a tough time getting around the switch back with it uphill cant and the snow packed down enough to make it like ice. We tried to finesse her through it and with her learning a bit about snow wheeling we almost had it. But we finally gave her tug to get through and off we all traveled.
It was the next switch back that would put everyones skill to the test. Evan along with Mike and Curt had gone ahead as we got Cheryl through the previous switch back. I think it was Cosmine who was next and had a difficult time getting his rig through the off camber deep snow of the switch back.
Cosmine finally pulls out these traction mats that got him through that area and they proved to be a god send.
Now I have never seen a set of these work and Cosmine had a full set, meaning he had four of them.
Let me tell you they worked GREAT and I am sold. Granted they only get you about 3 to 5 feet in slippery snow. They still can get you over a slick spot and get you on your way.
Evan had turned around to come back down to help get us all through this bad spot. And once we got moving a bit he went to start his rig and it was dead. We were just getting going on trying to find the fuses after checking a couple other things, when at about this same time a couple guys showed up in a heavily modified XJ plowing their way up the trail. They were more than eager to help and soon was jumping the starter wires trying to get the starter to turn over.
We had Moose on the phone with Rudi, me under the rig banging on the solenoid and the guy in the XJ up top trying to jump the terminals on the starter and we could get the starter to spin but not engage into the flywheel. Hmmmmm Then the XJ guy whos name was Tyer decided to check the fuses.. Low and behold it was a blown fuse. He pulled the horn fuse plopped it into the starter fuse slot and she fired up. Awesome!!
With Evan running again, we got a few others through the switch back area. Then it was Cheryls turn to go.
With her learned skills from the previous switch back she gave it her best shot and really did a good job getting her Jk moving and up into the switch back area. I think it took her one or two tries with her backing up each time to start again. But with her feathering the throttle and taking a good line she pretty much just drove through the area and onwards up to the top.
By this time Mike and Curt had been up near a spot that had a bit of a view and spot to get turned around we decided to break for lunch and assess our situation. So far so good!
We had a great little pow wow and ate our lunches and mingled and told each other stories for a bit. Timber Tamer Tina even made an appearance and joined in the pow wow for a few minutes.
It was getting to be about 3:30 in the afternoon and as much as some of us wanted to go further we decided to heed some of our past experience’s that had not turned out so well. It is well known for Tamers to go just a lil farther, or just one more trail, that has lead to disastrous results.
With some new people in the group, we heeded our past experience’s and turned around to head down and get aired up before dark.
As we traveled back down the mountain I even commented on what a good day it had been so far and everyone was quick to hush me for fear of jinxing it…LOL
We had that XJ catch up to us and riding on our tails a bit close but found a spot to pull off and let him go by.
We made it our back to the staging area. Got everyone aired up. Some of the people decided to get some dinner in Frontier village area if I remember right.
It was a good day of wheeling. A few people got stuck. Casey will get a couple tow fees, and yes the guys who used the traction mats will owe for a tow fee..LOL
I want to thank everyone for their patience and their awesome attitudes on the trail. For having 11 rigs on the trail in the snow, we didn’t do too bad keeping things rolling.
People helping each other in different spots and everyone having a great time.
I have posted Stats n Tracks on my Facebook timeline for more details on altitude etc.
We have posted it to Timber Tamers Facebook timeline as well.
Thanks again for everyone’s help and making it a great run..
Gary M
TT256
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