Hood River

Middle Mountain

Aug ??, 1997

Attendees
Name	Rig	Roll
Rick Anderson	77 Chevy Blazer	Driver, Report Writer
Clark Mason	81 Jeep CJ-8	Driver
Toby Mason		Passenger

Well they say that the worst day four wheeling is better than the best day in the office. And of course, it is true. But I can't saw we had a "worst" day wheelin'. Just an uneventful one. Didn't have much of a turnout for Trip #31B to Hood River. Besides myself, the trail boss (77 Chevy Blazer), Clark Mason and his son Toby (81 Jeep Scrambler) joined me for some frolicking in the dust. We met at Starvation Creek on I-84 and waited around for a few minutes to see if anyone else would show. We though Doug Carmen was joining us in Monster Sub, but I guess he didn't make it. Took the short jaunt to Hood River and then to Gilhouley Road which goes right down the center of Middle Mountain.

First order of business was to bleed my brakes. I did some adjustments at home and they just were not "under pressure" like they should be. Luckily I brought all the right equipment and after 5 minutes, we got them adjusted so at least I could stop a bit better. This is gonna take more research in the garage though. Maybe my proportioning valve is going south after 20 years. The master cylinder seems to be pumping fine, but the pedal just wants to dive to the floor. Anyway, Clark removed his doors. We didn't bother airing down.

Our first obstacle was just off to the left of the main road. A short, rutted hill loop. Those who have been there before will remember this well. When the weather is nasty, this can be quite a challenge, but in the middle of summer, it was pretty tame. After an easy trip up in 4WD high, I decided to try in 2WD and with some momentum from the new 400ci and just a bit of sideways action, I made it up.

A little farther down the trail we came to the small water reservoir. Normally in the winter this is full of water, but of course, in the middle of summer this makes for a nice mud hole. It was only about four truck lengths long and maybe three wide, but it was at least 15"-20" deep. We each took three runs though this. Without doors, Clark had to be a little careful, lest he and Toby get a mud facial. I, of course, ended-up with mud on my windshield (read: wasn't careful). Both our Super Swampers (my 32" TSL SX's and Clark's 33" bias SS) worked well here. I even decided to try backing through the obstacle and again had no problem.

Clark noticed a bit of a problem with his new spring-over. Seemed to be rubbing somewhere. Happened when going straight-ahead and he gets some front-end articulation. We tried to diagnosis it and found a few possible areas for research. The mud actually acted like chalk, showing us where things were rubbing. With both our rigs dripping with big goopy mud, we went on to the next obstacle.

The 1995/96 winter mudslide that was there during Trip #15 (Apr '96) was totally cleaned-up. This provided some interesting bogging during that trip (remember Denny, Tom, Guy and Rock?). We then hit that little area where there are those three little play hills. Just about this time, two horse riders come up. Seems everytime I'm there we see horses at this point. Coincidence? Anyway, seems a bulldozer has been in the area doing some work and resculptured those hills for us. The middle one, which use to be pretty easy, was more of a challenge, as it had a decent "hole" on the passenger side, half-way up. If you can visualize these, they are only about 8' high and about a 20 degree angle.

My first attempt in 4WD high was unsuccessful. Clark, eager for a go, jumped right in and made it look pretty simple in 4WD lo. He then came down the left hill. This hill, also modified, was now much steeper. It also had a little whoopdee-do in the middle and we figured we would get high-centered coming down. But Clark just pointed the nose down and let gravity do its thing. Slight rear bumper hit, but no big deal.

Not to be outdone, Rick puts it in 4-lo and easily climbs up the middle hill, making the 4-point turn at the top, and comes down the left hill. Slight receiver hitch drag, but no problem. That was kinda fun. So we did it again. The right-most hill was steeper than before as well. During Trip #1, Matt Nelson broke is front spindle trying to go up this hill. During Trip #15, I think Denny and Tom might of tried this hill. Don't recall if they made it, but I think they did. Today, according to my tilt-o-gauge, this hill was 30 degrees. Clark gave it a go, but just couldn't get enough traction to get the front wheels over the top. Unless you can do that, you just aren't going to make it. I decided it wasn't worth the effort to try, so we moved on. Did a little exploring towards the end of the trail, but couldn't find any additional wheelin' spots.

It was about noon at this point. Decided to head-over to Mt. Defiance and see if the gate was open. Figured we'd eat lunch at the top. Got to the gate, and of course, just our luck, it was locked. Bummer. A Forest Service Patrol was there, but he didn't have a key (what kinda of patrol is that?). He was a nice guy and we talked a bit. Guess the gate is double locked and either the forest service or the microwave receiver station repair guys can unlock the gate. Oh well, maybe some other time. The trail up to the gate was uneventual (about 8 miles, all dust). We headed back down the trail and found an awesome place to eat lunch. Pull down our tailgates and ate lunch in full view of Mt. Hood.

After our late lunch (well, 1:00ish), we decided to call it day. In sum, it was pretty tame wheeling as we expected. But we had fun, did a little vehicle debugging in the process. Yep, it was definitely better than a day in the office.