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.
We kind of got organized aired down and decided we would try to hit the back of the ORV area as we never seem to get that far away from the meeting spot in previous years. We also had an ulterior motive. Seeing as though Cheryl and Ryan had just had a bunch of upgrades they wanted to go thru the back side of humps and bumps as they had done over a year ago. To see how the upgrades work. So off we headed with 8 of us. Casey in her MissCreant me riding shotgun, then, Cheryl and Ryan, Tina and Matt, Chris G, Chris B, Travis, Jeff, and Dave from the Rainier Ridge Rams decided to tag along with us in his Chevy blazer We all knew it would take a few to get out to that trail and we made good time. Once we got into the trail I got out to spot everyone thru the rocky area.
There was only a couple of rigs that needed to be given a tug even though the trail has been dug out a bit since last time I saw it. Mostly everyone took the same line thru the rocks except for Jeff in his Tracker. I lined him up at first the same but it wouldn’t do it so I angled him in different and we got him thru without any other assistance except a little rocking by hand at one point. Cheryl and Ryan’s upgrades to their jeep worked wonders and I think she kept using the term..”like butter” Hehe.
While we all got spotted thru the rock area others were cleaning up and taking pics and we decided to get out butts back to the meeting area for a lunch. As we made our way down into the skills area we saw Gary and Gary from the jeep podcast thing, trying their hand at the butt crack, It was snowing in that area now and was wet and cold. Needless to say Gary could not get up and over the butt crack area. They both decided to follow us back to the meeting spot for lunch. We got back about 12:45 and sure enough Mike was there with Rudi and Melissa, Shawn, Curt and others. They were all manning up the bar b que and getting everyone fed. Rainier Ridge rams were working the trash as it rolled in from motorcycles to trucks to buggies etc. It was a pretty good turn out. And we decided to go out and get some more trash before the raffle at 3pm. We went down all the way to Walker Valley road and made our ritual Tamer Turn to head back along Peter Burns rd collecting trash. On the way in we had all seen some bags and trash along the road but now it seemed somebody had already picked a lot of the stuff up. We got back to where the creek went under the road and saw some trash down by the creek. Travis ventured down to get it and found some pretty hot lingerie stuck in the weeds and stickers. It was a pain to get out and we had fun making up stories about looking for the lady that had wore them. Then someone, I think Casey, said we were lucky we didn’t find a body.. Well that cooled us right off with such a morbid thought…Hehe.
We collected a good amount more by the time we figured we should get back to get some more tickets for the raffle. The raffle was good and poor Kevin was having a time with the speaker and microphone till Mike stepped in and got it all working good. Lots of raffle prizes and the weather was at least better by now.. it had kind of stopped raining and it a smidge warmer. The raffle went well and Casey even won a wash bucket with soap and a wash brush. If you know Casey at all I am hoping I can teach her how to use that stuff???
With the raffle done and the rain starting to fall again everyone made haste to get things tore down and cleaned up and ready to go. Of course us Tamers had other ideas. If you are familiar with the Timber Tamers we have had this all inclusive and sometimes not so great ideas of…. “That one last trail” So off we went to do…”That one last trail”.
With the upper gate open I decided to take these guys up the upper mainline and thru the expressway. Now I am pretty sure I had taken these guys thru the upper mainline, but thought they might not have been thru the expressway at all or for a while. Sure enough radio chatter is,, “we have done this before” and “I remember this trail”. We hit the expressway cut off and things got quiet on the radio. I got Casey up and thru the rocky area and hopped out to spot the rest. By now it was just Casey and I, Cheryl and Ryan, then Jeff, then Chris G, and bringing up the rear was Travis. With a little spotting the two rigs with open diffs made it up and thru and once Travis hit that area he walked right up. I hung out my thumb for a ride and jumped in. It is waay better than walking up hill to catch my seat. Sure enough most people had never been up that trail before. We ran the expressway all the way up and crossed the logging road to hit the top of the upper mainline. It was getting late and the Mainline going down was pretty rocky with some cleared areas to the side. I made the decision to go back down thru the middle trail which rides the top of that area then descends back down joins back into the Expressway just above the rocky area. This trail has had some trees blown over and down but luckily it was clear for us all to crawl thru and make out way down. As you travel this trail it is almost eerie to see all the tree damage from wind. In any case we all made it back down and got the upper gate and it was now locked.. Eeeks gads. We had two 4 door JK rigs to get thru. With patience and about 20 point turns I got them both thru with minor scrapes to rear fenders and hopefully they will rub out ok. We got back down to the main staging area and got aired up and talked a bit and headed home. Thanks goodness it wasn’t one of those “That one last Trail”.
I want to thank ALLL the people that came out to help out on the Hefty Haul out. All the Tamers who helped with the food and bar-b-que and the set up and the tear down. This event cannot happen with out your help and it is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you to everyone who participated and helped with making it happen.
Gary Miller TT256
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