Liberty Aug 2006

Another wonderful wheeling weekend with the Tamers at Liberty. Ruth and I met up with Ed at his place in Renton on Saturday morning. We hitched up “Kermit” to his motor home and headed off for the trail. We arrive at about 11 to see that a small group of Tamers had been there overnight and secured us a good sized area for some quality camping.

Already there was Candidate Rudy with his family, Dave with his wife and Kids, Teri and Scott with their guest, and lastly Ron and his wife with their “showermatic” Toyota FJ-40. Ruth, Ed and I set up camp and got our rigs ready be airing down and disconnecting. Teri volunteered to lead the group so we headed off through the dust in search of more dust to drive through. Not 10 minutes into the trip, and we were already performing the not so sought after, yet highly entertaining, “Timber Tamer Turnaround”. A feat that would be repeated 3 more times throughout the day.

Guest Rudy took up the lead and we all got pointed in the right direction and on to the 319 trail. I was quickly reminded what makes Liberty such a great wheeling area. Loose, dusty hill climbs make my 4 gerbils under the hood scream for mercy. And as Sir Isaac Newton said, what goes up, must come down, we also found the straight down hill descents. I even tried to stop on one hill just to see if I could. NOT HAPPENING. Ruth promptly asked me not to try that again. We continued on and came upon the first real challenge of the day. It was a dried up mud hole with a 3 foot ledge on the exit side. I attempted to negotiate this obstacle 3 times and used every line I could think of, but was denied each time. I backed out and took the bypass in lieu of paying a dollar to the tow fee pot. Ed showed me up like he always does by pushing his little already broken buttons or “ARB” for short and drove right up the ledge with no problems. Laughing all the way I might add.

After everyone negotiated the ledge we continued up the trail to “rear end hill” where someone has put up a sign and hung a very broken ring a pinion from a tree at the bottom. One by one we attacked the hill and Ron started having carb issues in the Cruizer. He got it “fixed” and we trailed on to the top of the hill, where we placed the “Danger Cliff Ahead” sign last year. Amazingly, the sign is still there, it still looks brand new. No bullet holes or anything. We all stopped at the top to admire the view, a shady spot was found and lunch was served. Another club has placed a memorial at the top too, in remembrance of the young men that drove their Jeep off the cliff last year.

Once lunch was finished, we loaded back up and I elected to lead the group. No, really, they actually followed me through the woods. It was really nice to be in the lead too, as there is no dust in the front. On the way back down the trail, fortune smiled upon us, as I hadn’t got the group lost yet, and more Tamers were attempting to come up the hill. XJ Mike and Clarie, our newest member, Laura, and Suzuki Tom joined up with the group. All three of them were astounded that people were actually following me through the woods.

I took the group through the lower half of the 319 trail and onto the 321 trail. Very easy wheeling, and also very scenic. At one point on the 321 you are on a ledge that is just barely wide enough for your rig, and you have an awesome view of HWY 97 about 1500 feet below. At the end of the 321 I think we invented a new tradition of the “Tamer loop around” as I had taken us back to where we started at the beginning of the day. This was quickly followed by a “Tamer Turn Around”. Sadly, nobody brought doughnuts so it wasn’t an official run. We ran the 319 back up to the dried up mudhole that gave me so much touble. This time, I wasn’t going to let it get the best of me. I got crazy sideways and in all sorts of trouble, apparently trying to make a totally new line that nobody had ever thought of. Ruth was none too happy. (Sadly, somewhere there are pictures of it, so I can’t even lie or try to deny it). I did redeem myself, and after a bit of fenagling, found the correct line and drove right up it like it wasn’t even there. After watching me do it, everyone decided to give it a shot. Most notable, Teri in her stock height, open differentialed YJ, made a few tries, but on her third, she found the right line and she too, walked right up. I should take driving lessons from her.

We continued on the 319 with me still leading in search of the rock stairstep that was so fun to drive last year. I had almost completed my second attempt at “Rear end hill” and I drove over a stump that pushed a stick about the size of a baseball bat into the sidewall of my tire. Faster than you can say “nascar pit crew” we had my spare on and we were back on the trail. At about this point in the day, we found a very steep downhill, and while we were regrouped and waiting at the bottom, Ron’s carburateor issues got the best of him and he decided that it was time for him to head back to camp. Half of the group broke off to get him out safely, and I took the other half, consisting of Ed, XJ mike, Tom and Dave, up the rock stairstep and we finished out the 319 trail. We took the blacktop switchback roads down to the flats with the aweseome, neverending view of the valley below. Ed had to drive into Ellensburg to get “Kermit” washed and waxed so we aired up and took RT 97 back into camp.

It was great having Ron along as when we got back to camp, we had hot showers provided off of his onboard shower on the Cruizer. It felt great to wash all that dust off.  We then had dinner and sat around the “campfire” of lanterns arranged in the center of our circle of chairs. Where is John with the bug zapper when you need him?

Sunday we had a lazy morning, and Ruth and I decided to head for home. She had been on vacation for the previous week, so she needed to take the afternoon to prepare for work. The rest of the group headed out to the tank trap trail. I didn’t hear how it went so if you want to know, show up at the next meeting.

Till next time,

Karl VP