Ahtanum Snow 4×4 Run
Hosted by Eastern Washington Off Road
By Clay Graham / CegPics.com
On Friday April 20th, 2007 BSLM and I went up to the Ahtanum Sno-park with our families and set up camp for the Eastern Washington Off Road Ahtanum Snow Run. We were running a little late and Toyman2 show up not to long after we got there. Tiny and Roll-Over camp up for awhile. They went and got some fire wood before they left.
Saturday most of the other wheelers showed up around 10 am. We headed up A2400, A2420 and then ran the Sedge Ridge 4×4 Trail west. Monster Mazda cut a tree out of the trail.
We went on past Red Saddle to the Rocky Climb. This was fun getting up with the open dif rig I was driving. Vetsch was having some trouble getting up were I had climbed. I guess he forgot to air down. ToyRollin37s followed Tyrunner around the other way though the deeper snow.
On up the trail I had to fall back and let others with lockers lead. Tyrunner dug some big holes we fell into and I ended up having to winch to the top because I couldn’t get started again. I made it so slick Vetsch had to winch up the top part.
Up past the Dual Climb, I got stuck on a downed tree under that snow. Scuba gave me a pull back and we moved on.
After that last little climb and the tires digging in, I powered up out of between two trees and slid into one. Commando14 needed a picture of some carnage anyways.
Test Dummy was calling me on the CB from Red Saddle so I turned around to meet up with him. There wasn’t much left to run of the trail anyway with the logging closer. BSLM took over as Trail Boss and two rigs (Fatboy & Scuba) followed me down to Red Saddle. Test Dummy found he had a bad u-joint so we went on down to the Sno-park to swap it out. He came into some problems and couldn’t change it so he headed to a friend’s in Tampico. Scuba Steve’s transfercase was making a lot of noise and was going out. He loaded his XJ on the trailer and headed home.
Fatboy and I didn’t want to sit around so we headed on up to meet back up with the group. We met with a few of the guys and said the other were on there way down too. We waited at camp for everyone so we could regroup and run Whites Ridge. It was kind of late when the others got back to camp so we put Whites Ridge off until Sunday. Most of the guys went home so it was just the 3 families camping. It rained but it was fun BSing around the fire with tunes from Toyman2’s rig and BSLM Ipod.
Sunday April 22nd, 2007 Toyman2 headed home. BSLM and I took our families up the Whites Ridge 4×4 Trail. At the first steep climb from McLain Canyon Road, BSLM had to take a few runs at it because of the snow.
BSLM made a nice road for me to drive up on. It was my turn to plow the way so I took the lead. The trail started going down hill and the snow was a little soft. We turned around and went down to Tree Phones Campground.
At Tree Phones Campground, I drove around the north camp loop and stopped at the middle camp site. BSLM followed and said it was easy. We stopped to use the outhouse and then followed BSLM around the south camp loop. I got to use the new winch to pull BSLM back out of the holes he was stuck in. He powered though the holes and was on his way. BSLM took the lead and then stuck his rig again at Tree Phones. BSLM said he wouldn’t have been stuck if he was in his XJ.
This was a very fun weekend snow run / camp out. Thanks to all that came out.
Here are some photos of the Ahtanum Snow 4×4 Run:
