Friday: Most folks rolled into the snow park by midafternoon or early evening. Rich and his buddy rolled in from Boise after dark. As a group, we were fortunate to roll in before the hords of Side-by-Side ATV groups filled up the entire parking lot with RV's and trailers. Roy managed to stake claim to the fire pit area on the most upstream end of the park. He also managed to drag down and cut of enough firewood for the night. It was a chilly and little breezy at times, but a very pleasant time around the fire pit.
Saturday: Burrrr, It froze over the night and some freezing rain froze the doors shut on a few rigs. The day started out sunny and the group was on the road by 845AM. A few day trippers arrived in time to catch us sneaking out of camp prior to the pending mass exodus of the ATV folks.
Rigs joining this trip were driven by Curtis, Steve, Tim, Al, David, Roy, Dan, Rich, Andrew, Bill, Bill's bronco buddy, Craig, Paul H and guests Ed and Paul
We found a little snow at Tree Phones, where we took a little different route to Darland Mt. Only two slippery side hills and we were on top playing in mostly packed deep snow.
Just passed the second side hill, we re-grouped.
Steve's and Andrew's brief periods of breaking trail.
Good snow conditions, with sunny, windy, snowy weather. Here are a bunch of pictures of Saturday's run. Please post more if you have them.
I could post this picture twice since Paul got stuck and winched out of the same hole twice in less than 10 minutes.
Most of us crested Darland MT with no issues. However, last slope was too slippery for some and they needed a little tug up. You can't tell from the picture, but Al's rig is in gear and wheels are a turning. I have a video.
Al and Paul (Ed's friend) had a near miss after this shot. Paul's rig nearly slid down the hill into Al's when Paul tried to tug him up hill. Al was in the rig and able to put it into reverse and out run Paul's sliding rig. It was funny to watch since they were strapped together. Al had to keep enough slack in the short strap until Paul's rig stopped sliding toward him.
From the summit, a few folks shot done the face of the super bowl while most took the slower road around. We all met at the intersection to eat lunch and tell stories. The smell of Roy's burgers burning on the grill was a nice touch. Tim's rig suffered a minor electrical issue and wouldn't start. Fortunately, he found the problem and was able to continue on in Bronco fashion.
I believe David has some good photos from the super bowl route and the side trip to Blue Lake, so I'll stop here and let him finish up the day's events. Day 2 (aka... Winch Fest) to follow.
....Let me count....7
