Cowiche Snow Cruzin’
Hosted by Eastern Washington Off Road.
Report by Clay Graham. Photos by Clay Graham / Eastern Washington Off Road
On Saturday January 5th, 2008 we had an Eastern Washington Off Road snow run on Cowiche Ridge at the Ahtanum State Forest. Most could not make the run but a few did.
“FJ CRUZER” and I headed up Cowiche Ridge to play in the snow. The snow had iced over since the weekend before and was good to get up on until I hit a big snow drift. It took me awhile but I finely made it through and headed to the next snow drift. “FJ CRUZER” called me on the CB and said he was stuck. I turned around to go help him. I thought he may have slid of the trail at the last snow drift, but I found him stuck on flat ground due to his big bling wheels and small sidewall tires. LayemStr8 came up in “Little Woody the grocery getter” as were working on getting “FJ CRUZER” unstuck. We got the his FJ Cruiser unstuck and turned around to go back down the ridge.
We stopped and played at the rock pit. LayemStr8’s Little Woody did great for having little tires. “FJ CRUZER” some how got stuck again and LayemStr8 used Little Woody to get the FJ Cruiser moving again. We headed down to Cowiche Mill Road and ran it up. After a water crossing there was a hill climb so I kept going until it flatten out. I took some pics of the deep snow as I waited for the others. Again I get a call on the CB saying the FJ Cruiser was stuck. I turned around and headed down. The FJ Cruiser was off the trail and stuck at the beginning of another one. I tried to pull the FJ Cruiser out but the driver felt he was going off the trail. LayemStr8 got stuck turning around blocking the road out. I tried to back up the hill to winch the FJ Cruiser forward but for some reason my XJ would die every time I tried to back up. I couldn’t get it to move more than a foot or two before it would load up and die. Now we had two rigs stuck and one that was in the middle that couldn’t back up. I used my winch to pull LayemStr8’s rig back on the trail. I drove forward off to the side so LayemStr8 could pass. LayemStr8 went up to turn around and pulled the FJ Cruiser back onto the trail with Little Woody. LayemStr8 lead us out in case my XJ decided not to run forward. We stopped at the parking area at the end of the pavement of Cowiche Mil Road to say our good byes.
As I was heading toward Yakima on Summitview when “FJ CRUZER” called me on the CB and told me my XJ was smoking. I looked in the rear view and hardly could see LayemStr8 flashing his head lights at me. I pulled over and found tranny fluid dripping and burning in the exhaust. I could not see what was going on since it was getting dark. I just drove on since I was close to home. UPDATE: Why the XJ would not back up. It had a bent flexplate got bent from snow being packed into the inspection area. The TPS was not able to read to flexplate right.
This was a fun run. Thanks guys for coming.
Here are some photos of the EWOR Cowiche Snow Cruzin’:
