September 28, 1997 & October 11, 1997
Yamhill, Oregon
Trask River Basin/Tillamook State Forest

At this point we took a break to check the maps. This day was Al and Jenny Temple's anniversary and they needed to get home due to other engagements. Being that Al is the Brush Buster's vice president and Jenny loves the sport, it was fitting that they spent at least part of their special day wheeling. The rest of us kept going following a medium difficulty trail with one good mud hole that some conquered and some bypassed.

The trail led us to a climb to the top of a hill known as 'Spar'. Not entirely difficult as most of us are locked up, but it did pose a challenge to a few rigs. There are two trails to the top. The main one which is more difficult is full of many loose rocks ranging from the size of a baseball to the size of a suitcase and a section which is predominantly loose dirt. This is the way most of us went. The other trail is a bypass which isn't quite as steep and not nearly as rough.

Also near the gravel pile was a long mud hole which, I'm told, was deeper the last time one of the guys had been here. I don't know how deep it was then, but I gave it a go with my 5" springover lifted CJ-5 and I had water pouring in my doors. Not a problem since this is a trail rig and the floors are bare steel with a few plugs removed for just this purpose.

I crawled right through it and popped out the other side. Nobody else decide to go for it. I don't know if it was due to seeing it's depth or simply to avoid the pending cleanup it would incur. We all played around the hill for a bit and eventually decided to keep moving. Some of the group decided to head home from here so we bid them farewell and headed down one of the gravel roads leading away from Murphy's Camp. The next trail led us through a section of woods with some tight turns between some small trees. The radio crackled with "the Blazer will never make it through here", but Denny proved us all wrong. He made it through and although I didn't see him, I'd bet he never even had to back up anywhere. That's how good a driver he is. Farther along there was a long rocky climb which made for some good crawling and articulation. Unfortunatley we were all too busy having fun to get any pictures. At the top I found Dan under his rig.

He cut one of his power steering pressure lines and lost his fluid. I had more, but it wasn't going to hold.

He was going to remove his belt and drive out without power steering, but I had an idea. I took a short piece of spare hose from my trail kit and sliced it length-wise. Then Dan wrapped it around the cut part of his hose and tightend it down with a hose clamp. This setup managed to get him home without leaking, even after more wheeling.

Once atop this knoll, we took another map break and enjoyed the wonderful view of the forest below us. A few members of the group made some quick undercarriage checks and we headed back down. After a quick jaunt through a small mud hole we were on our way.

Next we came upon a crossroads known as Murphy's Camp. At this spot is a large open area with a large gravel pile used by the loogers and the Forestry Dept. for repairing the roads in the area. This gravel pile is inviting to all who encounter it and it wasn't long before we were all climbing up one side or the other. It was pretty challenging since it was about 25' high and the sides were very steep and getting steeper as each rig who climbed the hill dug out more gravel. The top was flat and we posted a few people on top to direct traffic to avoid two rigs coming up opposite sides simultaneously.

The next trail we followed turned out to be the best. First there was short climb through some low hanging trees. The trail was littered with small, medium, and large sized boulders which made for some fantastic crawling for those of us with low gears, and kidney pounding bouncing for those without. One rig got sideways at one point but managed to straighten himself out and continue up the trail. It too had a bypass but I don't believe anyone needed to use it.

Further down the trail was another similar section. Although not quite as steep, the ruts were deeper and provided a nice challenging ride. Just at the top of this section was a well hidden trail that headed to the top of 'Ginsberg', a hill similar to 'Spar' but much steeper, much rockier, and no bypass to the top. Most of us missed it on the way by but we hit it on the way back, which I'll talk about shortly.

Continued...