Trip #23A
Saturday, December 8, 1996

As most of you witnessed, it was a wet and rainy weekend.  Trip #23
had a very good turnout, with approximately nine vehicles present.
Unfortunately the Estacada Ranger Station felt it was not a big Christmas
tree weekend, so they were closed.  You can only get permits there
during the week.  Those darn government workers.  For the four of us
that wanted Christmas trees, this meant we had to travel to Zigzag and
the Mt. Hood Visitors Center on Hwy 26.  So, before we even started,
the group split up into Trip #23A and #23B.  Hopefully someone will
report on the adventures of trip #23B.

The Great Christmas Tree Hunters took the 30 minute drive to the Mt. Hood
Visitors Center in stride.  For those who are heading out next weekend
to get a $5 tree, the Estacada Ranger Station will be open on Saturday
and Sunday for this purpose.  I would highly suggest visiting Estacada
because there are a lot more choices for tree selection (see below).

The Mt. Hood tree cutting area was up Lolo Pass Rd about 5.5 miles.
The lady at the visitors center told us "Unless you have chains, you
will not make it.  Better plan on hiking."  Our quick retort was that
we have very well equipped four wheel drives.  Not one to question, she
said that the government rig had four wheel drive and studs and it only
got 4 miles up the road.  Figuring that we wouldn't win this battle,
we bought our permits and headed out.  Of course all of us were grinning
from ear to ear.

On this trip we had Rick and family, Joe Lukas and family (his first
trip), Michael Kuperstein (and his makeshift family - I'll explain in
a second; his first trip), and Matt O'Brien and family (his first trip).
So it was a trip of BushHacker newbies and their families.

At the Visitor Center, Michael, the swinging bachelor, decided to make a
hit on this cute girl driving some small import that obviously wouldn't
make it far up Lolo Pass Rd.  She followed us up the road and eventually
piled into Michael's rig with her two kids in tow.  I left before Mike,
so I don't know what became of this impromptu relationship.  Did you
at least get her phone number, Mike?

As we progressed up Lolo Pass Road, it was first wet, the snowy and then
lots of snow.  Amazing what a little altitude will do.  In front of our
four trucks were three cars without chains.  It didn't take too long
before they were all hopelessly stuck and going now where.  The road
was not very wide and outside of the tracks previous vehicles had made,
the snow was probably 10" deep.  Everything stopped for 30 minutes while
these dumbos put on chains.  This was insane in itself as they were not
going any farther up the mountain.

Finally got their chains on, tried to move forward, had mixed success,
got up to a little turnaround area and then proceeded to take quite
a while to turn around.  Knowing this was gonna happen, we did the
smart thing and pulled off the side of the road and started looking
for a tree.

To sum up, Rick made a great kill - a 10 footer that was fairly well
rounded.  Joe's wife couldn't find the perfect tree, so they stopped
on the way out a little farther down the mountain (not sure if they found
one).  Matt and wife decided to try Estacada next week.  Michael's friend
basically gave up and cut the nearest tree in site.  So - it was definitely
a real hunt!

It was then time to get turned around.  This took a little work as we
all needed a bit of manpower or shovel assist.  However, in general
we made quick work of it.  We were a good team.  Coming down the 
mountain was a disaster as all these two wheel drive cars without
chains decided to make it up.  One guy in a lifted 2WD truck insisted
he driven on this stuff before and if we would just move out of the
track he could make it.  We did and he didn't move another two feet.
Out come the chains.  Still thought he could make it after putting 
them on.  Of course he wasn't going anywhere.  Decided to back up
and park it.  This whole time we are turning *every* rig around
unless they have 4WD and chains.  It was a big traffic jam and it
made no sense to go farther even with 4WD or chains.  Most people
listened and after about 60 minutes of directing traffic, we got
outta there.  Next year we could make this our community service
event!

Remember I said Estacada would of been better hunting.  You can cut
a tree anywhere down there except in a few areas.  This is much different
than Mt. Hood where you must cut in one specific area (that is all snow
covered).

I think we all left soaked to the bone (remember, it was raining this
whole time), but it was good to get out.

By the way, don't forget the party this Friday night.  I'll post the
directions and details again tomorrow.

-------
Rick Anderson  (ricka@mdhost.cse.tek.com)