Tillamook State Forest

Murphy's Camp

Feb 1, 1998

Attendees
Name	Rig	Roll
Dan Patrick	88 S10 Blazer	Driver, Report Writer
Mike Yorba		Passenger
Mike Leppelman	98 Ford Ranger	Driver

Well on the morning of the 1st my buddy (Mike) in his '98 Ranger and I waited for Brit to show up at Texaco in Yamhill until 8:00 and then took off toward Murphy's Camp.

Brit's comments:

I have no excuse. I'm am thoroughly ashamed of myself. I know you don't want to hear an excuse. But, here goes:

Wife and self go to going away party for best friend. Self proceeds to drink about 400 beers too many. Wife drives us home. Self defiantly insists he will get up in 5 hours to go wheeling with some soon-to-be-new friends. Self sets the alarm for 6:00 am. Self fails to push the button that would actually make the alarm go off in 5 hours. Self wakes up at 7:35 am, anguished. Self cannot be ready and drive about 45 minutes in less than 25. Self goes back to sleep, dreaming of mud puddles and fir trees.

Back to report:

We took a left on Rockyford Rd and then a right to follow the river quite a ways I don't know the rivers name, and somehow I managed to get us up to the trail head of pinball without making a wrong turn. After I had to get towed over the lip at the bottom of pinball and attempting to drive a few feet up the hill we gave up and headed for spar. We only took one wrong turn heading toward spar and I figured that out quick and then a couple of right guesses and we were at spar. I started up the base of spar in the Blazer and at the first rut in the road I straddled it very well and was ready to go on but I wanted to see what the rest of the hill was like so I got out and walked up a little further and decided that if I couldn't make it up the hill I didn't want to straddle the rut in reverse so we opted to go up the bypass. when we got to the top of the hill we tested our articulation in the hole and hill , my blazer has very little articulation , I very quickly lifted the back tire off the ground, Mike's pickup on the other hand drove all the way through the hole without losing any traction, I was impressed now he only needs some 10.50/31/15 BFG AT's and he'll like things even more.

After that little bit of fun we drove down the regular road to see just how bad it was. I liked it and had no problems, Mike had even less. On the main road we headed on down to Murphys Camp and played on the gravel pile and in the mud pit where we realized that my front tires were not turning so we shut my rig down and Mike and I rode with Mike in the pickup. we headed for Ginsburg first and the ruts after the first big mudhole were too deep, we had to turn around and go at it from the back side, using the bypass for the first hill we made it all the way to ginsburg with no problems except for Driver error (he is still a novice).

At the top we decided to head back down the way we came up, cross the road and have some more fun.

All in all we had a fun day but I took my Blazer to the shop today and found out that my front axle is blown up so I have a call into Leonard right now to find out if the shift collar or fork is under warranty, hope to find out soon.