John and Friends head back to the mountains.
They went to play in the snow and got more than they bargained for.
The following is John's account of the weekend
we were in the mountains in southwest washington and hit a
little snow.... actually a bunch of snow.... actually truthfully we ended
up stranded, lost in the snow, out of gas...
we contacted cowlitz county
sheriff search and rescue to bring us some fuel and they had to get a D8
caterpillar to get to us.... we were going through about 28" of new snow on
saturday, kurt was leading since this was his stomping grounds and we got
lost and ended up getting way back up in the hills...
there were 4 bajas and
3 jeeps... the bajas ran out of gas about 6 saturday night so we decided to
all load up in the jeeps and try to get out and get gas and come back to get
the bajas... at about 12:30 sunday morning the jeeps were out of gas only
about 1/2 mile from the bajas...
it was dumping snow all night and colder
than you know what.... the sheriffs search and rescue finally made it to us
about noon sunday with the cat... this thing was a monster with a 14' blade
on the front... when it came around the corner towards us it was pushing
about a 15' wall of snow....
there was 30" of new snow on a 4' base of old
snow we were on....
the V-6s in our bajas ran flawlessly though and we had
lots of heat... even running that hard in the snow mine stayed cool, todds
did heat up a little one time and he had to add some water.... economy
wise, they are about the same as a bug motor untill you start working them
hard...
on the trip home i was running right around 60 mph and averaged 20
mpg..... considerably better than the cat... they told me it took them 50
gallons of diesel to run it 11 miles to get to us... they plowed the road all
the way to us.... a great bunch of people they are... i figured we were
going to get our ass's chewed for being stupid, but they showed up with food,
water, hot coffee, and some gas... they checked us all to make sure nobody
had hypothermia or frostbite....
they were also really impressed that the
bajas would go in all that snow.... i know what you're thinking... there
wasn't really all that much snow... he's exagerating a little... so look at
the pic and see for yourself.... most of them were taken early saturday when
we were lower but a couple were taken up hi and you can see by the sides of
the road how deep it was... also remember we were the only ones through.....
at the time i wasn't having a good time, but looking back, i'd go do it
again in a heartbeat.... only better equiped... (gas can & blanket, we had
food and drinks) can't wait for the next trip... john
I asked john if he had any pics of the rescue team to share. He said by the time they arrived all he was concerned with was food and getting moving again, so he didn't get any pics. I think I can fully understand that!