All is well in the woods around Lake Billy Chinook...
I herded up a few city friends with the intention of dragging them up to Elk Lake. By the time I got there we had a pretty good storm percolating so we decided to try the drier east side of the Cascade Mtns. I knew a place that might work and satisfy the wives' outhouse requirements. Heading over the Santiam pass in some early autumn snow we appeared to lose two rigs from the convoy. After a half hour wait at the summit a call came through that someone's wipers weren't cutting it, wives were complaining, and half the group decided to call it a weekend... it was Friday night.
A friend and I headed on and after finding our road make quick work of finding a decent spot in the black and stormy night. Man it was cold, but after a few minutes getting kindling and dragging the lighters from gear boxes, we had a nice little fire that took the edge off. Saturday we woke to 20 degree weather with a little snow on the tents. Decided we'd kill the day exploring so I unhitched the trailer and my friend and our two dogs headed out in the cruiser. We made a loop around the area, hitting Balancing Rocks and Smith Rock. Passed by a monstrous pumpkin festival on a farmer's acreage near Terrebonne but kept rolling. The day was falling off. Gassed up in Sisters and ran back up to the camp while we had a couple hours light. Lots of downed juniper were lying around from recent forest fires so I cut up a dead tree partially blocking our camp entrance. Juniper is really sweet burning firewood, too bad it takes so long to grow. We had a nice fire going that night, the weather abated and we were given clear skies. I decided to try out some long exposure shots (still need work) and roasted brots and marshmallows over the coals. The dogs were worn out and barely able to get up or notice embers singing their hair.
Up and early in the morning, we got out of camp Sunday at 9am. Not bad for me. After parting ways on top the passes, I headed into a sno park I knew had a clean toilet and ran into 2-3ft of snow with a lot of cars unprepared on their way out of a weekend youth camp at Big Lake. I really didn't want to stick around for family plans that afternoon, but I headed down the road to see how bad people were doing. A few hours of snow driving instructions, relatively few tugs with the straps and I got the leaders of the camp squared away with vehicle recovery and driving strategy for the campers. The leader had an FZJ80 with "lockers" (yep, just the center locker). I showed him what 10lbs of pressure and BFG ATs can do on an FJ62 with open diffs pulling a military trailer. I walked with ease through anything I pointed the nose at and was able to get around trouble cars to get to the difficult stucks. Was nice to help out and most the drivers now know how to drive in snowy road conditions (and hopefully pass the knowledge along!).
Was a good weekend.
I herded up a few city friends with the intention of dragging them up to Elk Lake. By the time I got there we had a pretty good storm percolating so we decided to try the drier east side of the Cascade Mtns. I knew a place that might work and satisfy the wives' outhouse requirements. Heading over the Santiam pass in some early autumn snow we appeared to lose two rigs from the convoy. After a half hour wait at the summit a call came through that someone's wipers weren't cutting it, wives were complaining, and half the group decided to call it a weekend... it was Friday night.
A friend and I headed on and after finding our road make quick work of finding a decent spot in the black and stormy night. Man it was cold, but after a few minutes getting kindling and dragging the lighters from gear boxes, we had a nice little fire that took the edge off. Saturday we woke to 20 degree weather with a little snow on the tents. Decided we'd kill the day exploring so I unhitched the trailer and my friend and our two dogs headed out in the cruiser. We made a loop around the area, hitting Balancing Rocks and Smith Rock. Passed by a monstrous pumpkin festival on a farmer's acreage near Terrebonne but kept rolling. The day was falling off. Gassed up in Sisters and ran back up to the camp while we had a couple hours light. Lots of downed juniper were lying around from recent forest fires so I cut up a dead tree partially blocking our camp entrance. Juniper is really sweet burning firewood, too bad it takes so long to grow. We had a nice fire going that night, the weather abated and we were given clear skies. I decided to try out some long exposure shots (still need work) and roasted brots and marshmallows over the coals. The dogs were worn out and barely able to get up or notice embers singing their hair.
Up and early in the morning, we got out of camp Sunday at 9am. Not bad for me. After parting ways on top the passes, I headed into a sno park I knew had a clean toilet and ran into 2-3ft of snow with a lot of cars unprepared on their way out of a weekend youth camp at Big Lake. I really didn't want to stick around for family plans that afternoon, but I headed down the road to see how bad people were doing. A few hours of snow driving instructions, relatively few tugs with the straps and I got the leaders of the camp squared away with vehicle recovery and driving strategy for the campers. The leader had an FZJ80 with "lockers" (yep, just the center locker). I showed him what 10lbs of pressure and BFG ATs can do on an FJ62 with open diffs pulling a military trailer. I walked with ease through anything I pointed the nose at and was able to get around trouble cars to get to the difficult stucks. Was nice to help out and most the drivers now know how to drive in snowy road conditions (and hopefully pass the knowledge along!).
Was a good weekend.
