TORXreport: Northwest Fest 2015

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TORXreport: Northwest Fest 2015​

Naches, WA​

June 24-28, 2015

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Wednesday morning I managed to cram all my wheeling, camping, and event supplies into the Jeep. Hit up the grocery store, and rallied out to Cascade Locks to rendezvous with Nick. Nick was up late the night before dealing with fuel pump issues on his ride. It was time to drive our jalopies 200 miles!​

The drive up was pretty uneventful. The Jeeps seemed to settle into their paces, and pulled up all the passes well. We passed a huge military convoy coming down through Goldendale. Where's the nearest base?​

Our first stop was at the Union Gap Cabela's to meet up with their marketing manager to pick out some prizes for this year's raffle. Thank you, Cabela's!​

After our shopping spree, Nick decided to check his trans fluid as his Jeep was lagging between gears. Yep, it was bone dry! We proceeded to dump four quarts of fluid in, when part way through the last quart a strawberry milkshake fluid came oozing out of his coolant reservoir. We both stared at one another with the same WTF looks on our faces.​

It appeared as though the coolant and transmission fluids were mixing inside his radiator. After weighing our options we decided to delete the radiator from the transmission cooling lines by looping them back on themselves, and running the fluid just through the external cooler. With fresh fluid in the trans, and strawberry milkshake in his radiator, we hit the road for NWF!​

We rolled into Long Meadow around 4pm, to find Jim and Dennis from Spokane already setup and relaxing. It was good to catch up with Jimbo again, and after getting our camp set up, they convinced Nick and I to head out for a quick night run. With the sunset approaching quickly, we decided to head up to Raven's Roost via trail with Jim and Dennis along for the ride.​

The trail begins not too far after the bridge outside of camp. It's pretty easy for the most part, but there are some pretty steep rocky climbs towards the top. With the lockers engaged I slowly crawled up the last climb to arrive at the radio tower just as the sun was setting.​

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The view was amazing, but after a few thousand feet of elevation gain it was actually cold! Raven's Roost tops out at just over 6000'.​

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We hung out for a bit, but as soon as we all were shivering we jumped back in the Jeeps and rallied back to camp.​

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The next morning I woke up early and decided to take a little hike from camp. The night before we quickly tossed up the NWF_parachute, and banner to reserve a space for Saturday festivities. We were definitely missing Renegade404 (Nick) when it came time to set up the parachute.​

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Little Naches river was looking pretty shallow this year. I was amazed at how dry everything was already.​

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Larry and Curtis (aka the Valley Boyz) had rolled in during the early hours of the morning. Curtis' rig seemed to have lost some body panels along the way. The Skinner Klan, and Spinaldex's also made a late evening arrival too.​

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After everyone got moving in the morning we made plans to roll out for the trails. That's when Nick's rig decided to start blowing out strawberry milkshake again, and peg his temperature. After some brain storming we decided to try and flush the radiator, and dilute some of the fluid. With a bunch of XJ guys this went pretty quick.​

Around noonish, we finally rolled out of camp for the trails. The plan was to hit some of the trails on the Nile Creek side of Highway 410. After hitting gravel the dust cloud took over my rearview, and the temperatures began to rise for some. We pulled over to let the tail cool down and catch up. It was already probably 90 degrees outside.​

 

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Prez helping out with air down duties.

More fluid flushing.​

After we regrouped, we continued on up the 1605 road, looking for the Clover Springs #697 turn off. This was a trail I had always read about, but have never had the opportunity of running. Rated a "most difficult" I definitely wanted to see what it was about.

After locating the upper turn off for the lower section we began making our way down trail. It was off camber, it was tight, there were some creek crossings, and it was fun. LarBear coming up one of the washes behind me.

Eventually we came to the base of the final "very steep" hill climb. It didn't look too bad at first so I proceeded to try and crawl up it. Progress was good for twenty feet, and then all tires broke free. I gave it a few more tries, tried a few different lines, and slowly clawed my way foot by foot towards the top. The soil was so dry and rocky there was minimal traction at best. At this point I was already committed to making it up, and with a 100ft to go, I opted to winch my way to the top in two pulls.

Nick was already half way up, and setting his rig up as a mid winch anchor. I turned around at the top, and readied my Jeep to be a top winch point. I think this picture puts the steepness of this hill into perspective.

We got Larry about half way up under his own power, at which point I hooked onto him and winched him the rest of the way up.

Curtis followed Larry, and put his new light weight BillyGoatXJ to the test. Curtis slowly clawed his way up the entire hill unassisted!

Winch anchors set.

With three rigs up the hill, we continued helping the group up. Jimbo took the right side line on the bottom (less-than-very-steep), and started his winching early. Mike meanwhile tried the left side line, and had little luck. After a few good attempts we heard a pop at the top of the hill. Mike had broke a front D44 u-joint. We scoured our parts bags, but nobody had a spare 760X joint.

By this time it must have been around 4:00. Jim successfully piloted his Adventure XJ to the top of the hill with three winch pulls. We then had Quad Trail's, Mike's three-wheeler, and Nick's rig to get to the top of the hill. At this point I think we were all really feeling the heat, and exhaustion from hiking the relentless hill so many times running rigging. Everyone kept everyone in check though, and humor was still in the air.

We pushed forward, and worked on bringing Nathan piloting Quad Trails up the hill. He got twisted up on the lower section, so 150ft of rigging was routed through two snatch blocks down to assist him. I remember dropping a clevis in the silt, only to see it vanish before my eyes beneath the powdered top soil.

Once back on solid ground, Nathan charged up the rest of the hill unassisted. With the rigging already in place we hooked Mike up, and began the task of getting him to the top.

Hi Larry.

With such a steep angle, we used each winch anchor's winch, and Mikes winch. All in all I think we did four full pulls.

Nick on the cable, being the last one up the hill.

Once at the top (I say top loosely, as this was the point where it went from "very steep" to "steep"), Mike's rig was pretty overheated. We let it cool off, burped quite a bit of air out of the system, and continued to winch him up. With it now pushing 7:00, and not wanting to be on the hill clear into the night, we got together to form a plan. We pulled Mike's front drive-line to allow him to be able to run 2-Low (front Detroit with broken shaft), I then got situated with my ASR Kinetic Rope to yard him up the rest of the way with my Jeep.

It worked. Myself, MikeFamily, and Skinner Boys on the home stretch above the winch hill.

While waiting for the group to get turned around, I heard Nick on the radio, "uhh, I have no transmission, no forward, reverse, ... nothing." I saddled back up, and headed back down to the hill to brain storm a recovery plan. We first tried the Kinetic Rope, but with a dead rig attached I couldn't find enough traction. So Nick winched awhile.

 

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After winching for awhile, his winch's thermal indicator light started blinking. With no drive, and hot winch, we positioned Nick so Curtis could pass him, and then file in behind me. We were going to run a train on him. I hooked up to Curtis, and Curtis strapped up to Nick. On the first pull it was pretty violent, but then amateur hour ended for Nick as he took it out of park. From that point we put two Jeep's worth of power to the ground and yarded Nick out the rest of the way.

Curtis towing Nick back.

Waiting for the group at the Clover Springs turn off.

Eventually we regrouped before hitting pavement. However, Jim and Larry still weren't caught up. We couldn't reach them on the radio, so Nathan and Adam headed back up to investigate. Unfortunately, Larry miss-read a turn and launched his wagon up an embankment, kept it on it's wheels, turned back toward the road, and somehow kept it from going off the other side. I believe the only damage luckily was a blown bead, and some soiled underwear. The dust this year was nasty, and this is a great reminder to spread out in the dust cloud.

I believe we rolled back into camp shortly after 10pm. About five hours late from my original ETA, whoops! I will say though, the group really did great out there, and never complained. Everyone pulled there share, worked together, and accepted the challenges at hand. !

Friday morning came quick after an exhausting prior day. It was a slow moving morning as everyone began assessing their rigs, and what all they needed to do. Some runs for Whistlin' Jacks were made, while others worked on repairs. Joe, Rory, and Jason headed off for the Naches Wagon Trail around 11:00, while the rest of us headed for Kaner Flats and Manastash Ridge.

Sean made the trek out from Spokane, with his nicely built late model. Little off camber, eh?

The group had a little issue at the start with Dan's rig overheating, but after that was McGyver'd we set the pace and started cruising.

One of the "steep" climbs on Kaner. Larry on the final climb.

Joe's rig always look and works well.

Curtis in the BillyGoat.

Jimbo!

Dan with Nick riding passenger for the day.

QuadTrails.

Eventually we arrived at the base of Aardvark Hill. After the previous day's hill climb, Aardvark was weak. We all crawled up with no problem.

 

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Continuing on up Kaner Flats #676, we arrived at the Lilly Pond junction where we regrouped.

Sabotage!

From Lilly Pond we continued into the trees, and up Manastash Ridge. This is one of my favorite sections of trail in the area.

Just after starting the climb up to the ridge, we got a call from Adam on the radio, "we ripped the track bar off the frame, and lost all steering." Well there's your problem.

Luckily it happened just as you break out of the trees, and we all were able to regroup around the broken rig.

It's kind of surprising how even the worst trail breaks don't really phase us anymore. We put our heads together, developed a plan, and got started on repairs. It just so happened Jim had an inverter with a grinder. Nick got started on cleaning up the old bracket.

Jim turned to me and said, "now there seems to also be a problem with the plumbing..." Nick investigated.

With the frame and bracket cleaned up, we pulled some rigs around to wire up some jumper cables in preparation for some trail welding. I just happened to toss some welding rod in my Jeep a few weeks prior.

Adam sporting the NWC's new welding goggles.

Burning it home.

#sexyandiknowit

Adam burned 10 sticks into, and it actually looked pretty solid. Just for extra insurance we then ratchet strapped the track bar in tension for the drive back. With it being 5:00 it wasn't worth it to keep heading up the ridge, and return to camp at midnight.

 

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We got back to camp to see a few more familiar faces. Weirdo, Ruger, and BPB had all arrived earlier in the day. Everyone pretty much relaxed the rest of the night, and helped supervise me while I volunteered to swap out Mike's broken 44 shaft. He ovaled out one of the ears pretty good on Thursday. After getting a new cap pressed in, Adam welded it on for some extra insurance it wouldn't walk out.

Good times around the synthetic-fire Friday night. Scott rolled in late with the family, and we even had a Dellstopjeep appearance.

Saturday morning we wanted to get an early start for a change. Whistlin' Jacks was having pump issues so Nick turned his broken pile into a fuel transfer station.

The group eventually rolled out of camp just before 10:00. Fortunately, this year the 1708 Milk Creek Road was reopened. This cut down on travel time to the rocks drastically. Here's Larry making his way up and out of the Lower Woodpecker Hill Climb.

Mike's rig all buttoned up, and ready for a good day ahead.

Sean came out for another day of trails, and also brought his folks along for the ride.

BPB taking my picture, while it appears Larry is trying to dance with Mike's wife?

Jim using low-range on the final climb.

ChadMobile out on the trails.

XJ's attacking the Five Finger hill climb.

Myself, Mike, and Weirdo atop the Fingers.

Continuing along the ridge side.

Once at the Funny Rocks, some played, and some watched. Sean, Curtis, and Rory jumped right in. I headed up the Crack, and then picked a retarded line above it. I tried to straddle a v-notch, but my rear tire fell in nearly putting the Jeep on it's side (I think I was on my passenger rocker mostly). It didn't feel too bad, but I did add some rock rash on the door. With Joe's rig as an anchor, Warn got me out of it pretty quick.

We continued to run some lines, and play around up top. There's something for everyone, you just got to explore a little bit.

 

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Larry, nuff said.

Josh flexing it out a bit.

Cutis dropping the Ledge.

After we had our share of Funny Rocks, we rallied over to Moon Rocks. A few of us played around and ran some fun lines.

NBD.

"Okay, what else do you want me to drive up?"

Rory and Eric.

Moon Rock is a pretty cool place, and there's a lot we haven't even explored.

The group coming down the Fingers.

We arrived at the Lilly Pond 617 turn, where we were going to split off into two groups. One would head back to camp, while the rest would run Lilly Pond up and out. One problem though, Curtis and Ben were MIA from the group. Last they were seen was on top of the ridge. Josh and Nick ran back up the road to see if they could reach them on the radio.

Eventually they made their way to the top of Five Fingers with no sign or communication from them. We put our heads together, and concluded they most likely headed down Tripod Flats rather than making the turn off the ridge. With the afternoon coming to an end we decided to continue on, and trace their route later if it came down to it.

Leading the group up Lilly Pond, we had a total of eight really solid rigs along to run the trail.

A few low hanging trees, but we all were able to clear them.

 

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Lilly Pond was a lot of fun, and the perfect ending to a fun day of wheeling. The climb out from the bottom was a challenge with some slicked up tires.

Mike at the bottom of the last climb.

Joe tail gunning.

After we all made it out of Lilly Pond, the group took the 1903 back to camp to gear up for the evenings festivities. After not really eating a solid meal the whole trip, Scott's "Fiesta Night" totally hit the spot. I think I had three massive burritos by the end of the night. Thanks you, Scott Family!!!

Chillin.

Once dinner was ready Curtis and Ben rolled into camp on fumes. It turns out they did continue on along the ridge wheeling, Tripod Flats, Shoestring, Manastash Ridge, Lilly Pond, and then back to camp before dinner. The two of them looks like they had been sweeping chimneys.

After a tasty dinner, we had an award to give away that the BOD dubbed the "making it happen award." We all felt this had to go to Curtis after drove up and down every line possible, wheeled the entire Manastash Ridge solo, was always was willing to lend a hand, and never complained. Thank you Curtis for making it happen this year!

We also had a "Bought not Built" trophy to hand out. I think everyone kind of unanimously decided it had to go to Dan.

Time to give away some cool prizes!

 

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Overall, this years event was a huge success. Thanks to all who made the trek out, and supported our chapter. We put this event on for you guys to enjoy, and it's really rewarding seeing everyone come together.

After the festivities we had some good times around the synthetic-fire, and then called it a night. The next morning our camp was slowly over run while we packed up with dirt bikers for the Sunday poker run. Nick bribed Curtis into hauling his pile into Yakima for AAA to pick up.

Rolling out with Dan, Joe, and the USS-Curtis.

108 degrees in Yakima was pretty brutal.

Heading home after a fun filled five days.

Until next year, guys!