The annual Hefty Haul Out of Walker Valley, is an event hosted by the Rainier Ridge Rams, to pick up all the trash at Walker Valley. The Timber Tamers provide a lunch, which was sponsored this year, by Olympic 4×4 in Snohomish. The DNR provided a dumpster, porta-potties, gloves and trash bags! All user and clubs come to roam the trails and pick up trash, then return to staging for lunch and a raffle.
The Rainier Ridge Rams (RRR) showed up at the Rock hound pit at 7:20am, after breakfast at Billy’s Café. They then began to try to figure out how to set up their tent, which is always an adventure!
The weather was a bit cloudy and drizzly, but not enough to deter our efforts……..yet!
Timber Tamers began rolling in around 8:45, to set up more tents, tables and a BBQ.
As participants pulled in, they received a Sticker and a raffle ticket for the event, signed in with the DNR and grabbed gloves and trash bags. They were also able to grab a freshly made Scone, to start their day! (Thank you to Heidi Thorson)
At 9:00 am, groups and individuals, began roaming the trails, with large heavy duty, blue trash bags. Some along the main logging roads, and some on the trails. Around noon, people began to return to staging, get their trash unloaded, and grab a burger or a hot dog, with all the fixin’s. (Thank you to Shawn Nelson, Wendy and Curt Brady, and others).
We then headed back out to do some more trash pick-up, and returned to staging no later than 3pm, for the raffle, and ultimate “take down”. The raffle is made up of items donated by local clubs and vendors. Thank you to all who donated items to make this a successful raffle! Just as the raffle began, so did the RAIN and the WIND! The wind began taking down our pop-ups, without us, so half the battle was done. The Rain continued, and got worse, and then it REALLY started to rain! The effort was made to run through this raffle as quickly as possible, and get packed up! There will be a separate write-up/letter sent, as a “Thank You” to all who donated!
Once all was packed, and most headed for warm homes….there were just 3 of us, who decided “One More Trail”. A Tamer tradition, that typically ends in some adventurous escapade, usually lasting way longer than planned! Often this involves winches, cables, clamps, tow ropes, and other recovery equipment! This day was not too different.
I had invited a couple friends, Dan and Mike, to come up for the event, from Eatonville. They, having never been to Walker, and travelled 3+ hours to get here, wanted to see a bit more of the park. Great, off we go! The RAIN got harder, and quite a bit more of it. This made for a tad bit of MUD, on every trail. Their buggy on 39.5’s didn’t have much issue with any trail we took them to. Then, cruising down a logging road, towards Ron’s Run, when the buggy lost all power………in the middle of the road. My thoughts….here we go, “One More Trail”. As we were parked in the middle of the road, a couple Fords were heading towards us…and had to stop and wait. Luckily, it was a somewhat easy fix, with some wiring, and we were back on the road. We got to Ron’s run, and did the first section, with no incident. Then headed up the hill to the Egg Rock. Gary attempted this area first….Mike and Dan from Eatonville, were awesome spotters, but this area was dug out, there was mud and ruts and did I tell you that there was now a deluge of RAIN? It was also COLD! Tried to get some pics and video, but ultimately my hands froze to my phone, so I had to return to a warm truck. Finally, the decision was made to pull cable! (GREAT we will get a Tow Fee at a trash clean up)!!! Next up was the Eatonville buggy….with those big tires, we expected an easy run up this path…..Hahaha, after trying different lines, the little Samurai, turned around and pulled cable for the buggy too. Last, was me in the Miss Creant. After watching Gary and Dan, pull cable, I figured there was no way I was going to make it. Apparently Gary had already decided this as well, and simply stayed where he was, with winch cable ready. (cool, more tow fees)!
We headed out, and decided to take a quick peak at the Skills area, before heading home. As we climbed the hill, passing 2000 ft….the RAIN got chunky, as we hit 2300+ ft, it was snowing. No wonder it was cold. (Dan and Mike in their open buggy, didn’t want to hear any more whining about how cold it was). There was also patches of snow on the ground! OK, took a look and let’s head back to the stable. On the way down, I notice my gas gauge, lurking close to the “E”. I hear Gary’s voice in my head saying “Never let the Super Charger run out of fuel”! So, we found a good place to stop and dump 5 gallons in, to make sure all was good.
Returned to staging and loaded up. SWEET, we all made it back in one piece and headed out. Gary and I got home at 10pm, the Eatonville boys….not so much! Got a message from them at 1:15 am, that they were now home, and had a great time!
Thanks for reading, all for EVERYONE to helped to make this an awesome event!
Casey Stokes
TT#256
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