Memorial Day Weekend 2015
Friday, May 22, 2015
We (BryansFab & Livin4Today) had been planning this pre-run for months and now it was upon us and the plan was to rollout early Friday morning and get to Evans Creek OHV before dark, to set up camp in the daylight. The forecast called for isolated rain showers on the wet side (west side of the Cascades).
I had worked a 24 hour shift on Thursday, and due to some maintenance catch-ups, I didn’t get my Jeep loaded on the trailer Wed night, so I drove it to work, knowing that I’d be scrambling the next morning. And as luck would have it I got off a little early, but still couldn’t roll until 10:30…
The rest of the crew BryansFab, Radical, and his buddy Joe were chomping at the bit, so we cut them lose to catch up to them a couple hours later at Whistling Jack’s Lodge on Hwy 410 around 12:30pm. Then we crawled our 4 rigs up and over Chinook pass, I’d never really considered how steep our passes were, probably because they’re not very high. Once over the top we dropped into Enumclaw, to check on which pass or passes were required.
Okay, hold on a minute…
You mean to tell me Washington state has 3 passes, A Discovery Pass, A Northwest Forest Pass, and a National Parks & Federal Lands Recreational Pass. Flipping REDONKULUOS how inefficient and confusing the pass system is. How about 1 annual pass that covers all the lands in the state, federal or otherwise?
Anyway, we finally arrive at Evans Creek OHV, about 4:30 greeted by Taylor & Ashley, who attempted to save us some good sites. We quickly went about setting up camp, under cloudy, drizzly, generally WET skies. After getting tents set-up, and motorhome leveled, we grab a quick snack and some drinks and we’re off to catch a few trails. This is BryansFab’s old stomping grounds and he took the lead, amazed at how much it had changed since his last run here. Before long darkness added itself to the wetness and we busted out about 3 trails returning to camp around 10 or 10:30 pm. A couple of beverages and everybody was racked out for the night after deciding on a 9 am start time.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
At 6 am the voices of peoples outside my motorhome woke us, I looked out and BryansFab and his minions were clambering around, I fell back to sleep but awoke to more noise around 7 am a Jeep was fired up and left camp. BryansFab was headed out to meet more of our party, as Red Dawn, WetfootNW, and Dad (Bryan’s), were joining us. Around 8 am all the rigs were back in camp, and we now had a total of 8 rigs, ready to CONQUER this little mudhole known as Evans Creek…
As you may see by the pictures, it was exactly that a MUDHOLE, I can honestly say I’ve never gotten my Jeep so dirty, the mud sticks to everything (including headrests – Note to self, never go west w/o rear windows) and it has a grip/traction equal to well snot.
We ended up running every trail in the park except the 519, 120, &199, with the ladies getting their turn behind the wheel too, taking on the 311 trail. It was an incredibly fun wet & muddy day with only minor carnage, a couple of good scrapes, another rain gutter and a rear fender detachments, one rig got excited at one point when three of us had to counter balance the rig on some slippery off camber stuff and plenty of winching. We got back to camp around 7 pm as some of our party would be heading back home. We hung out at camp choosing to move the next morning to Elbe Hills.
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