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"Goat Mountain" Christmas Tree Run 2013

nightfoam

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Tron
Ohh where to start? Everybody got off the mountain under their own power, so, that's good...

We all met up at the Estacada Ranger Station, did the usual amount of BSing then rolled out at 1030 as planned with Nick leading the way. Up highway 211 to Hillock Burn then up Hillock Burn. A mile and a half or so past the gate we came upon an Expedition on it's roof off the road. We quickly pulled over and checked things out. It was cold and unoccupied, probably there since last night. Somebody wasn't being responsible it seemed, there was a half empty whiskey bottle on the ground. We called the sheriff's office but they already had the info. We marked it was surveyors tape so nobody else would call it in and continued up the hill.

It was obvious there wasn't much snow so we continued on toward the South Fork quarry instead of driving up to Goat. We played at the quarry for a bit then went up to South Fork Mountain to find as much snow as possible, ended up having a bit of a snowball fight while we were there.

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We continued south and eventually found an area with a few decent Christmas Trees.

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We put our heads together and decided to mix things up a bit instead of just going back out the way we came out. Gregg and I pulled out the MHNF map and scouted a route that would pop us out near Molalla.

The snow was perfect for getting sideways in the corners and we had a blast dropping down out of the snow. Once we got down onto mostly gravel we stopped and had a rock fight before moving on. We came to a gate but got extremely lucky that it wasn't locked. I thought it was almost too good to be true. I was right. A few miles later we came to another gate, which was locked. We had to turn around and back track all the way back.

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We were making our way back around when Nick's voice came over the CB. "Uh guys, we're just hanging out here so when you get here, you can hang out with us too. While we hang out. Until you get here, we'll just, uh, hang out." Yup, they were just hanging out. Nick may have gotten a little too ambitious with the sideways action and ended up getting friendly with a tree. Much better than the hillside just to the right of the tree. Justin quickly winched him up and we moved on with very little damage.

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We continued on, all the way back down to pavement. Then Nick's voice came over the CB. "Scott's off the road, it's more serious." He wasn't kidding. Just got a little icy in the corner and Scott slid off. By time we got there, our members were already at Scott's Jeep helping him and his kids out. We got them all safe and warm and started planning our recovery. As he always does, Nick took charge and directed me and Justin into position to pull Scott back on the road. We both anchored to trees and snatched off trees opposite Scott and at Nick's direction, commenced winching. Because of the way things were working I ended up doing most of the work. That new Warn winch proved itself on it's very first outing. I'm quite happy with that purchase and I think Scott is happy I made it as well.

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(photo courtesy of Gregg Huld)

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After we all loaded back up and started moving I noticed my voltmeter wasn't registering anything. Crap, guess I killed my alternator winching. I killed all my electronics and started heading downhill, hoping to make it at least to the highway before my battery died. I made it, all the way home! At some point I started wondering if everybody was way too hard on the Optima batteries or if maybe the gauge just wasn't working. Sure enough, when I got home I turned off the Jeep then turned it back on, fired right up and the voltmeter popped up to where it should've been. Guess it was just a fluke, it happens.

I'm really proud of NAXJA today. Anytime anybody had any sort of issue, other members were climbing all over each other to help out. Nick did a great job coordinating the recovery of Scott's Jeep. Everybody did everything they did to help out and everybody got home safe because of it. We may be assholes but not all the time.

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That seems like a pretty eventful day!! I'm already looking forward to next years because I know I'll have weekends off. I'm glad everyone is okay after those couple of slides. Good job on the recoveries guys!

2014 Christmas tree run better watch out, cause I'm already planning on it!!
 
Our 2014 motto..
We may be assholes... but not all the time. :)
You guys rock. Don't believe everything on the internet. Lol.
 
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