Tonga Rerun

[jam session]

Anybody interested in running Tonga again on Sat? My brother in law from SF will be in town and I promised him a jeep run. According to nowires and the weather man we should have a firm base (raining now, freezing tomorrow and then a little more snow) so I think it should be good.

 

[kokomo]

what time? possibility

 

[jam session]

Flexible, I'm thinking 9 or 10 at the railroad bridge but let me know what you'd prefer.

 

[Jacob]

I might make this. I have to drop my wife off at Seatac at about 0730 that morning so I should be able to make up there by 830-900.

 

[crash2]

If I didn't have plans this weekend I would love to come back out again...

 

[jam session]

I might make this. I have to drop my wife off at Seatac at about 0730 that morning so I should be able to make up there by 830-900.

That'd work great. Now we need to get Bruce to come as well. I followed him for most of the run on New Year's and my daughter said he must be having fun cause he's always smiling. I'll only have 1 passenger so am thinking of bringing a small BBQ for burgers on top. Let me know.

 

[crash2]

That'd work great. Now we need to get Bruce to come as well. I followed him for most of the run on New Year's and my daughter said he must be having fun cause he's always smiling. I'll only have 1 passenger so am thinking of bringing a small BBQ for burgers on top. Let me know.

Ya Bruce is a good guy and known him for a very long time granted he used to be a toy guy :redneck:

 

[Jacob]

x 3 on Bruce, Awesome guy.

Grilling sounds good up top. Let me know if you are for sure going to bring a grill and I will get some sausages or something.

 

[jam session]

If I didn't have plans this weekend I would love to come back out again...

Hey crash would love to have you come out, but you showed us the way so now we will run without you. Nowires should come out and show us how his "get on top" theory works however. Thanks again for the hangover run. Still telling people what a good time we had and the sunshine and snow pics are pretty convincing!

 

[jam session]

x 3 on Bruce, Awesome guy.

Grilling sounds good up top. Let me know if you are for sure going to bring a grill and I will get some sausages or something.

Count on it. Grill is coming. It's a portable propane thingy I use with my camper but will work great for burgers or sausages. Gotta impress the relative from SF you know Tailgate on Tonga Ridge instead of football watching from the couch! Its a jeep thing, I think I saw the Toy guys eating store bought sandwiches .

 

[nowires]

Hmmmm I got a little project that I have been working on for a couple years that needs my attention and I should do that. But wheelin in the snow sounds fun also. I will have to think on that one.

 

[whiterice]

Hey the last run was great, and thanks for the nice comments. Really enjoy getting out and meeting new people. For this Sat. I will at work. Sad but it happens.. Would really like to check out fresh roasted dogs too. Picked up a few extra poundage over the holiday, but can't turn down a BBQ.
I had a snow board friend say the pass got dumped on Tues so there should be plenty of new snow.

 

[jam session]

Hey Bruce thanks for chiming in. Sorry you can't make it, maybe next time, gotta work to pay for our toys I'm always looking for someone interested in a day or half day trip up to Walker if that is of interest down the road.

Anybody else please confirm if you're coming. Would like to meet at the railroad bridge pullover around 9. I'll bring you a burger if you let me know.

 

[Jacob]

I am still planning on making it, but I sliced my hand open at work today so I am going to wait until later and see how it and the medication are treating me before I give you a sure answer.

 

[jam session]

I am still planning on making it, but I sliced my hand open at work today so I am going to wait until later and see how it and the medication are treating me before I give you a sure answer.

Ok, thanks for the heads up. Will send a PM with a phone #

 

[nowires]

Pics or band for life :fawkdancesmiley::stirpot::haha:

 

[mark]

Pics or band for life :fawkdancesmiley::stirpot::haha:

haaahhha


what he said

 

[jeepmauler]

Hey the last run was great, and thanks for the nice comments. Really enjoy getting out and meeting new people. For this Sat. I will at work. Sad but it happens.. Would really like to check out fresh roasted dogs too. Picked up a few extra poundage over the holiday, but can't turn down a BBQ.
I had a snow board friend say the pass got dumped on Tues so there should be plenty of new snow.

Bruce.......did those spacers work out?

 

[jam session]

Ok, took a while to figure out how to transfer pics from my BIL camera since he forgot his USB cable, which of course is not standard, but here they are:

Start of the day leaving home:

Aired down here, not as much snow down low as last week.

No tracks past here

Nobody at the fire pit yet

Playin on the little hill climbs

Tonga trailhead GPS. This elevation is correct but the GPS was really goofy coming up here. That spike in the yellow trail going to the left at the top of the map,that goes back to the main road is completely bogus and for some reason it was also stuck on 1653ft in elevation all the way up until we turned off the jeep and restarted

BIL at tonga trailhead, first time on snowshoes

Heading up the trail

Snowshoe hike scenery

We've earned this, Winterhook (only 1) and BBQ burgers after the hike

Tailgating jeepin style

Heading down, just a bit of sunshine and one set of tracks

What do we have here? Hello ladies do you need some help?
They said "we saw your tracks and thought we could follow you up to the trailhead." Reminded me of my favorite jeep bumper sticker "Don't follow me, you won't get there!"

Winched them out of the holes they had dug, but they got stuck again in about 20ft. Checked their tire pressure and aired down to 15 fr, 13 rear and pulled em out again. Turned the jeep around and let them follow me up to the trailhead which was less than 1/2 mile away. Helped them turn around and then headed down again.

Now we're going for a big one! Next obstacle was a full size Dodge Ram. He was about 1/2 mile below the fire pit. Open axles and too much skinny pedal made big holes in the road. Couldn't budge him with the tow strap even with 20ft of slack for a head start. It was really slick here. Ended up backing the jeep off the track into the deep snow with almost all the winch line out for max pulling power. Then turned the wheels to anchor the front end. I know the Smitty XRC8 isn't the best winch there is but it pulled this guy out and I'm sure he outweighed us by about double. He generously offered to pay for the tow but we told him to just pass it forward and help somebody else.

Wish there was more sun, but still a nice view on the way home.

Charlie, that should be enough pics to keep me on for a while. And thanks again for being my emergency contact since this was a solo run.

 

[whiterice]

Bruce.......did those spacers work out?

Yep, perfect. I spent over an hour each cleaning up the rims. Looked great, ran just under 5 psi all day with no broken bolts