Hangover Run Jan 2020

We did not know what to expect.  The forecast was for warmer weather with the possibility of freezing rain.  Please no freezing rain!  We met up at the IGA in Darrington.  As time passed more and more rigs showed up.  When all was said and done we had 21.    We had a short drivers meeting then the first group headed out.  It was an interesting group with some very built Super Sammi’s, and a few others plus a full blown unicorn.  That is right a CJ7.  Anyone who wheels a CJ these days is a stud in my book. (of course I have no bias)

The second group headed out not long after with our 16 rigs.  Joe as the mid gunner and Moose running sweep.   We had a full blown set of Jeeps including a gladiator.  Gary Miller came with us too as he really likes to pull the Jeeps out when they get stuck.  We all aired down and headed up the hill.   At 3100 feet we hit the snow. It was warm which made for good traction.   At one of the hairpins we came to the tail end of group one.  A guess they were having some trouble and needed to air down some more.  After airing down more they all made it up with out too much trouble.  I also had no issues and climbed my way up.   From the sound of the radio there was a few tires spinning but everyone was making it. As we climbed even higher the temp did not go down and stayed at 40 degrees.  Even with the warm temps it was still snowing.   The warm temps meant that the traction was good but also easy to big holes.   And thank God no freezing rain.

Up the road some more we came to world famous Curt’s hill.  Named for Curt Darrington who settled the area as a possum breeder.  It was this very spot where Mr Darrington made his first possum fir coat.  At least this is my story and I will stick to it.  If you ask Casey she may say something about me sliding backwards down this hill last year but don’t listen.  This year we climbed “Curt’s hill” with no issues. 

A few hills past this one Chris Green in the short bus was having trouble making it up.  Rather than hold the group up he was just going to hang and wait for us to come back down. At the end of the road we stopped to have lunch.  We had to do a bit of a Texas shuffle to get everyone turned around but we did without issue.  We headed back down picking up Chris on the way back.   While airing back up someone mentioned how good it was that we had 21 rigs and no issues.  This of course means we would now have a problem.  Lucky for us it was just a dead battery on Pat’s YJ.  A jumper cable and a few taps on the starter and the white YJ was back in business.

Great day and big thanks to Gary, Joe, Moose and everyone else who gave me a helping hand with managing the run.

Curt Brady
“Curt’s Hill” namesake