Jeep Run: Evan's Creek in early spring 3-27-2010

[lupinsea]

Evan's Creek
Near Mt. Rainier in WA State

March 27th, 2010

This weekend I met up with my Jeep club and we hit the trails at Evan's Creek, a local ORV park. There was a surprisingly strong turn out of about 8 Jeeps and when we arrived at the staging area at the trail head added to the other people already there.

The first trail we did (311 trail) was a lot of fun, an old stand by. Lots of rock ledges, and slick mud in spots but otherwise easy to traverse and we had no problems at all. But as we headed higher up in elevation on subsequent trails (520 trail) we ran into fresh snowfall and thats when the day started dragging on.

Lots of off-camber sections of the trail on sloping hill sides. The first 3-4 Jeeps in the group didn't have an issue. Fresh snow actually provides a surprising amount of traction. But once you get a few Jeeps over the trail, the snow packs down and gets almost as slick as ice. At that point, we had a number of Jeeps in the back half of the convoy that went off the trail and needed to get winched back on. This included myself at one point. One guy slid off on a sloped area and fortunately landed against some trees, cracking his hard top in the process. At least he didn't end up at the bottom of the slope.

At some point we picked up a few extra guys who were following us and finally caught up with our group. I'm not sure what happened, exactly, buy one of them snapped an axle shaft. Fortunately, one of our members with us that day was George. George runs a Jeep parts business out of his house and had some spare axle shafts. A call to his daughter (who helps run the business with him) and the guy with the broken axle had some new parts, gear oil, RTV gasket maker, and a gasket scraper enroute up to the trails. He hopped in his buddy's Jeep and followed us back to the staging area. By the time we got there the parts and supplies had shown up and he was on his way back up the mountain to his broken down Jeep to start an axle shaft replacement operation on the side of the trail, in the snow, 5,000 ft up the side of a mountain. George and the guy exchanged info and would settle up later for the parts cost. Still, darn nice service and fortunate George was on the trail with us when the gentleman had a problem.

More photos here.



I can't remember the last time I saw the staging area this crowded with
people and vehicles. Seems everyone was out enjoying the sunshine.




One of our group heading up the hill climb on the lower section of the 311, the beginner trail.




A lower portion of the 520 trail winds through some tall, old trees.




Upper portions of the 520 trail were buried under a foot of snow.
The snow definitely smoothed out the trail.




The lead Jeep had decent traction while breaking fresh trail through the new fallen snow.




Off camber section of the 520 trail on hill sides proved interesting. Definitely
caused people to watch their step.




This wasn't a time to take chances, if you start feeling your Jeep slide off
the trail it's the time to stop and rig up the winch. In this case, using a
shovel to help dig a trench / track for the uphill tire also helped, too. It gave
the tire a channel to ride in to keep from plowing further off the crown of the trail.




Nearing the end of the 520 trail on the back side of the ORV park. Still
plenty of side-hill but it's not so bad here.

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