Trip Report: Evans Creek ORV trail system on the NW side of Mt. Rainier, WA.
The Rigs: Silver Samurai - Noel VanHook - shackle lift, 29/10.50 Swamper SX's Black '88 Samurai - Tim Lund - Crawler T-case, OME springs, rear Lockright, 235/75 mud tires. (also owner of Wild West Offroad) Silver Samurai #2 - Greg ? - Springover, rear Lockright, Crawler T-case, 32/10.50 Swamper Radials Yellow Samurai - Jeff ? - Springover, 1.6 fuel injected Sidekick motor, Dana 44 rear, Dana 30 front, 33/12.50 BFG MT's, GRS II T-case, ARB air lockers front & rear, lots of cool body armor. Gold '88.5 Samurai - (me) Dewey Marler - springover, rear Lockright, 10" travel Rancho 9000's on custom shock mounts, virgin 32/11.50 Swamper TSL SX's, Crawler T-case, Thorley header & custom high flow exhaust.
Note: (The group was to include 2 Wranglers, a CJ, a Cherokee and a FJ40, but on the way up the first trail the groups split up and never seemed to be able to find the same trail at the same time till we all remet at the campground to leave.)
Early morning to the trail was extremely foggy but thoughts of a cold damp day of Northwest wheelin' quickly gave way to sun and blue skies as we rolled up to the trailhead at Evans Creek. While everyone aired down coats and wool sweaters came off and t-shirts and sunglasses appeared! This was going to be a good day on "the mountain". It had rained the previous week and early snow had fallen leaving a lot of the trails with "extensive" puddles. One such puddle swallowed up Greg's Silver Sami on the first trail. There was a huge hole with a teeny island in the middle. Tim in the lead Sami went left - no problem. Greg then tried right - big problem! Halfway across it got deeper and deeper and suddenly Greg wasn't going forward anymore. He wasn't going backwards either. Even his new Swamper radials weren't getting him out of this one. Water up to his doors and no one wanted to wade in with a strap. Luckily Greg isn't the biggest of guys and is able to manuever around inside his Sami pretty easily. He crawled to the back, unzipped his rear window and Tim tossed him a line. He then hung down and hooked up the clevis. (pretty slick) I got the other end and tugged him back out. The rest of us took the left line through. Up the trail a little further we broke out into a clearing right at the base of Mt. Rainier. Whoaa!!! Sun out, blue skies, 5 Samurais, Mt. Rainier in the background - can you say "photo op"?
5
Samis in front of Mt. Rainier.
On up the trail system we weaved. Lots of mud, roots, rocks, more mud, bigger slimier roots, which snagged up Noel's Silver Samurai next. The only Sam without a Crawler t-case or locker and the shortest tires at 29" he kept up amazingly well during the day (although the tires were Swampers) but in this case the root won and Noel had to give in to "the strap". One small tug and he was up and over. This was really getting FUN!!! The trails were tight & twisty and with fresh mud everywhere you really had to stay on the ball to keep from getting thrown into a hungry tree.
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The next trail had more of the same but then added some hill climbs complete with mud and runoff. This was where Tim's Black Samurai almost went over. The obstacle was a steep muddy hill with deep ruts and a 3 foot ledge half way up but only on the right side. Jeff's Yellow tricked out Sami went right through, up and over but Tim with smaller tires and only a rear locker tried to straddle the ledge to avoid the hole. He ended up slipping in and got crossed up sideways with one tire reaching towards the sky. Any forward momentum simply shortened the distance between his face and the mud (which might have been an improvement) ;-) but we opted for reinforcements. Jeff backed down the hill to hook the strap on Tim and 1.6 powered air lockers took over. Not only straightend him out but drug him up and over the ledge as well. Very nicely done!
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The only two rigs that didn't need help the whole day were Jeff's Yellow Sami and ...... you guessed it, MINE! I just went from 265/75 Firestone Wilderness AT's to the infamous 32/11.50 Super Swamper TSL/SX's and BOY AM I A HAPPY CAMPER!!!! 8) I didn't realize what an enormous difference they could make but along with my locker and t-case it's a pretty sweet package.
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The rest of the trails had equally gnarly obstacles and it turned out to be a GREAT day of 4 wheelin'. Nobody sustained any breakage and ear to ear smiles could be seen driving off into the sunset. This was my first trip to Evans Creek and definitely not my last. There's 20 or more miles of easy to extremely difficult trails in the system over a variety of terrains that will provide a challenge to the novice and seasoned wheeler alike.
All cleaned up and ready to go again !
Keep the shiny side up and the greasy
side down.
Dewey
88.5 Sami
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