Snow Crawl 2010

Albany to Cinnebar Park, Wyoming

April 17, 2010

Trip leader was Rod Pepper

8 member rigs and 1 guest rig attended

Trip report below by Rod Pepper

These photos contributed by Mike Jacob

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These photos contributed by Dewey Williams

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These photos contributed by Rod Pepper

These photos contributed by Ken Beach (visitor who rode with member Andy Heyd)

Snow Crawl! 2010

Wowzers! Just when you think it can’t get any better…..it does. The April run saw 9 rigs show up for Snow Crawl. RC4W members on this run were Dewey Williams, Brian Kubal, Scott Grimm, Eric Brown, Mike and Krissy Jacob, Lenny and Jane Golding, Andy Heyd and myself. Andy also brought a guest, Ken, in another Samurai.     We were greeted with sweatshirt weather all day and everyone was a little red-faced at the end of the day. We even had a couple of snow squalls move through during the day which made it feel more like an Arctic expedition, which was pretty cool.     After unloading at Albany we made our way up the road to the Hell’s Canyon trail. We made it about as far as we got last year before falling off the snowmobile tracks. That was about as much, or more snow, as I’ve ever seen up there. We were never in less than 4-5 ft. of snow all day. While we were getting turned around Lenny popped a tire off the bead, winching out of a big hole. It took a while to get that bugger re-seated! Once back on the main road we headed for the monster snow at Cinnebar Park.     The bridge at Rob Roy was nothing but a large round mound of snow. From there we turned North towards Cinnebar Park. I thought, “Dang, we’re not gonna make it to Cinnebar and the big drifts”. There were huge amounts of snow everywhere. I didn’t see it happening. The bridge at Douglas Creek had 5-6ft. of snow on it in the shape of an inverted “U”. You had to straddle the top of it and keep moving. One slip either way would have put you upside down in the creek.     The next tough spot really slowed the group down. Where the road crosses a low-lying meadow to a shelf road on the other side, was really deep and hard to float across without falling in. My karma must have been good that day, or maybe I was holding my mouth just right, but I made it across without incident. It was also the last time I saw the rest of the group for the next couple of hours. This is the point where a good working CB is your lifeline! I made my way up to where the road goes into the trees. At that point there was no way to tell where the road went so I signed off on the CB and took off on foot to find a route through the trees that I thought was probably pretty close to where the road was. I walked it all the way to the clearing at Cinnebar Park and then backtracked the same way to give me tracks to follow.     Once back at the Jeep I took it down a couple more psi just because I figured that was what it was going to take. I had seen “Jeepeater” on every one of those trees! For the next 200 yards you couldn’t have pried my butt off the seat. I went from, “Hey, this is really cool” to “You dumb shit!” several times as I crawled over big drifts and through tight trees, not knowing if the next one was going to be my “Gotcha”! As it turned out, my “Gotcha” came later in the day!     Those big IROK’s stuck everywhere I pointed them and I was soon in the clearing at Cinnebar Park! A mile long, ¾ mile wide and 5 ft. of level snow. And, it was snowing! I took a few pictures of buried signs. It was very quiet and peaceful but the lure of THAT much virgin snow became too much for me to bear! What an opportunity! I can’t not! My rationale was that, “Hey it’s only another mile to the big drifts and they WILL catch up eventually”. Truth was, I really just wanted to give that mile of snow a good shot! It was there….. and I was there….. and the Oatster was runnin‘ good and all I had to do was pull the trigger, sooo….…..     The first dicey section was only 200 yards long and had lots of trees to winch to. Now, I’m looking at a MILE of 5 ft. deep snow with NOTHING to winch to…… and I‘m by myself. Part of me is saying, “Let’s do it, no guts, no glory!” “You ain’t gettin’ any younger” “How cool would it be if I made it”! The down side would be A LOT of digging……..by myself! With a half-broke shoulder! I took off, butt firmly glued to the seat, crawlin’ in low range. I had the “really cool/dumb shit” thing really going on! Things were going pretty well, it felt like wallowing through big marshmallows. “Okay, I’m gettin’ a little bored here, let’s pick it up a little and see what happens”. So far, so good, “OK, let’s stand on it and see what happens”. “Hey, this is really a hoot but I’m on the rev-limiter in high gear”. Roll to a stop and put it in high range, that’ll do the trick! Why do we boys always just want to go faster?     It took about 30 yards to get it up to speed but once it hit about 35-40+ mph it was just hitting the high spots across the snow! That was one of the best rides I’ve ever had and “Dumb shit” never showed up!     I hung out at the big drifts for awhile enjoying the peace and quiet and waiting for everyone to get there. After a while I kept hearing weird little noises off and on. Kind of a cross between a snowmobile and a gas-powered RC airplane. And pretty soon, damned if those two Samurai’s didn’t come buzzing around the corner. They were the first to catch up with me! They had started farther back in the group and “picked ‘em off”! You couldn’t have blasted the grins off Andy and Ken’s faces!     Soon, everyone was there and we headed up onto the big drifts to play. And play we did! We climbed, we high-marked and we played follow the leader all over the snow dunes. What a hoot! Our lunch spot was a very cool snow cove 20 ft. above the ground and surrounded by a 20 ft. wall of snow. My “Gotcha” came as we were starting to leave. I decided that I could drive off the back side of it and through the trees and out the other end. “Dumb Shit” was back onboard ! I dang near made it too! ONE spot got a little off-camber and it just kind of laid itself over into the trees…… a little. But hey, it sure made gettin’ out a lot easier! All I had to do was push the door open far enough, release my seat belt and I just fell right out……no problem! A little digging, a short winch pull, and I was back to my original plan. I still drove out the other end!     We got back to Albany just before dark. The Albany Lodge was closing but agreed to stay open after hours to feed us, so 10 of us stayed for dinner and laughed and reminisced about all of the day’s events and happenings, followed by a beautiful starlit ride home. Wowzers! Ride ‘Till Ya Can’t !     Rod