Sawtell Snow Run, Molalla, OR April 23rd 2011

[fishsticks]

Meet @ 9am @ the Safeway parking lot in Molalla. Look for a group of full size rigs, Yotas and me.

I haven't personally been down there before, so I don't know the area, My understanding is at least one other stockish rig will be going. A stock or mildly lifted TV with some good tires should make it. We have straps and winches if not.

If you lack tires... I still have my 32" M/Ts for sale.

Hey Ran, I'm caravaning down with another guy from Vancouver, wanna join us?

[bgwolfpack]

The Molalla - Estacada area is huge (for off roading) compared to up here. In fact almost all of my wheeling has been done south of 211 and 224, namely the Wildcat Mountain road area, south from Sandy. Lived in Sandy/Boring for 25 years. There are b'jillions of trails and extinct logging roads to explore. You should go with someone who knows the area really well until you get your bearings especially with heavy snow, even though you have the laptop. I can't imagine being able to get very far in right now without a snowmobile.

Ya'know I thought about your tires but I'd need lots of caulking to get the 17s to fit my 16" wheels.

Call me tentative for this trip yet.

Sure would like to see some of the other lurkers in our area join in.

[fishsticks]

The Molalla - Estacada area is huge (for off roading) compared to up here. In fact almost all of my wheeling has been done south of 211 and 224, namely the Wildcat Mountain road area, south from Sandy. Lived in Sandy/Boring for 25 years. There are b'jillions of trails and extinct logging roads to explore. You should go with someone who knows the area really well until you get your bearings especially with heavy snow, even though you have the laptop. I can't imagine being able to get very far in right now without a snowmobile.

Ya'know I thought about your tires but I'd need lots of caulking to get the 17s to fit my 16" wheels.

Call me tentative for this trip yet.

Sure would like to see some of the other lurkers in our area join in.

This isn't my run... just cross posting from another forum. There are some locals going who know the area.

[djthumper]

Ya'know I thought about your tires but I'd need lots of caulking to get the 17s to fit my 16" wheels.

If he hasn't sold them yet he had some 17" wheels also. I also know of a few sets of 17s being sold down here

[bgwolfpack]

Ya'know I thought about your tires but I'd need lots of caulking to get the 17s to fit my 16" wheels.

If he hasn't sold them yet he had some 17" wheels also. I also know of a few sets of 17s being sold down here

Thanks Larry.

PM sent to His Fishyness.

[djthumper]

Glad to be of service to ya.

[fishsticks]

SO Sawtell got scrapped and we went up Goat Mountain instead (close by). Still found lots of nasty, wet, frozen and refrozen snow.... over 3ft deep in some places.

I broke my splined disconnect again. Going to have to figure something out to keep that thing alive. Also took a love tap to my rear bumper from someone's tire as they slid into me (no damage) and broke the light mount tab off my bumper.

I did no less than 20 winch pulls yesterday. Everyone with us took the hook at least once. After I became 3 wheel drive in some NASTY snow, it got some more use to pull me away from an embankment. I learned a lot about creative winching from a guy who's far more experienced than I yesterday.

Here's a couple vids... I have some more stuff to post/link later.

First, the winch to the rescue!



Then, I "made it look easy" as one person said.

[fishsticks]

Oh, and my 35s rub in front. Time for more sawzall.

[Flying Monkey]

Nice vids. Cant wait to get some lift in mine and get it off road

[Trail X]

Yucky, I've been in mud like that... hard to make progress sometimes.

Looking forward to the other vids.

Any idea of what to do with the front disconnect? I wonder what went wrong. Buy Chevycrews from him to start from scratch at least.

[fishsticks]

Yucky, I've been in mud like that... hard to make progress sometimes.

Looking forward to the other vids.

Any idea of what to do with the front disconnect? I wonder what went wrong. Buy Chevycrews from him to start from scratch at least.

Yeah it's red clay crap and was way slick. I tried to turn around on one off camber spot and my rear end kept chasing my front end.

I'm PM'd Chevycrew about the disconnect. I think you have dibs on it IIRC.



Here's a hill climb in the same area... no one got up this one that day.

Not me:


Me:


My dash lit up as I lost oil pressure each time I tried that one.



Dash cam of me failing to roll my window up. (Watch the windshield)



Then we hit the "snow".


Another random winching:



Decided to head over to a lookout and break for lunch before going further.



Then back to snow...







We started breaking trail, which was incredibly slow. We lost one guy to an emergency at home and soon after all of the non-full size rigs (except me) gave up. We ended up sending the two Dodge pickups (both f/r locked on 38s) in first, followed by me (Mike's skid plates level snow really good), then the one axle locked/open people.

Here's a corner I had to winch myself around to keep from sliding off the embankment. The snow is another foot or so down from the bottom of the ruts to ground level. I'd gas it and every foot I moved forward I'd slide 6 inches towards the edge.


We spent a couple more hours slogging up this road. Everyone was out helping do something so pictures really didn't get taken from here. Eventually I became 3 wheel drive (disconnect failed again) which hampered me getting around to put the winch where it was needed (I was the only winch). People got tired and we were losing daylight, so we turned around.

We stopped a couple kids in a stock Nissan pickup at the base of the snow and let them know not to bother. They followed us down a ways until we pulled off to air up/BS. About 30 mins later we headed down the hill and saw a bunch of emergency equipment. Apparently the kid lost control and put the truck into a tree, hard. When we got down there EMTs already had the passenger out and in an ambulance and were working on the driver. He was mostly responding to questions but didn't look good. One of the guys who witnessed it said the driver had a gash on the left side of his neck that missed his jugular by less than an inch. I didn't take pics of the pickup. Didn't seem right. Let's just say it went out on a flatbed, the whole left front was crushed.

[djthumper]

You don't want us to watch the windshield?

[HARDTRAILZ]

Well Done

[fishsticks]

You don't want us to watch the windshield?

Some mud hit the inside of the windshield when I soaked myself. Need to clean out the driver's side interior...

[Blackout]

Looks like a decent run except for the disconnect failure. Sucks for those kids in the Nissan..