Kevin in San Diego

I read the first paragraph and fell asleep. Whats the readers digest
version?
KH


"Handywired" <handywired@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20041106014225.23417.00000183@mb-m03.aol.com...
> These would be the ones I mounted on my '97 TJ this fall. 31x10.50's.
>
> Up at elk camp this year, the conditions were tough for the second year in
> a
> row. We hunt a roadless wilderness area at 6000-7500 ft. in Oregon and
> it
> gets coooold, and snows. There's this one road that goes up and over
> the
> mountain, that you use to access the trailheads. It gets pretty hairy
> since
> there was also a big fire in this area 5 or 6 years ago and in some spots
> there's nothing to stop you if you go off the road since the trees all
> died and
> have fallen over now and it's steeper'n crap. You would just plunge.
> This is
> not really a problem if you are even a half-assed driver because USUALLY,
> if
> the road should happen to be that bad, it's where there IS timber to at
> least
> catch you if it all goes south on you. Or, in the spots where the timber
> burned, the road is icy or snowy but perfectly reasonable to drive on.
> Any old
> idgit could do it. Or, furthermore, most hunters would not have any need
> to
> go all the way up since 3 out of the 4 trailheads are accessible without
> risking a permanent pucker in one's nether regions. Or worse.
>
> However, for those sturdy, intrepid, brave and stupid hunters wishing to
> go in
> on the 4th trailhead, for the simple reason that judging from the
> bootprints
> nobody else is even hunting it, for those rare beings there exists a
> section
> of road. A section of road that seems designed to kill someone. A
> section of
> road that is a lawsuit waiting to happen. A section of road that, at
> it's
> worse, tests the limits of driver and machine. And tires. A section we
> shall
> call... Valhalla.
>
> Imagine you come over this mountain. You are 45 minutes of crawling up
> the
> snow and ice and muddy road from camp. it's had it's spots but nothing
> too
> bad. It's a dirt road at best, minimally maintained by the Forest
> Service.
> You come to the top. There's this like Official Regional Observation
> Tower up
> there. Even though you are hours from anywhere, your cell phone has 3
> bars.
> You can see for 60-80 miles in 3 directions (4 from the top of the tower)
> and
> it's all wild. There's elk all over down there, you just know it. So.
> You
> come over that mountain and hit the other side, and it's like they let the
> junior civil enginaeer take over. Suddenly the road seems designed to
> kill
> you. Sharp corners tilt wrong. It is steep; if you go off the road in
> some
> places, they MIGHT find your bleached bones in the spring. Maybe not.
> Depends
> on if the coyotes or crows got into you, I suppose. There's places
> where you
> can see other folks had trouble. They went off the road on this corner
> here
> and had to get yarded out, they spun their wheels there trying to turn
> around,
> in a rare wide spot, after chickening out. So all that happens THEN you
> hit
> the real killer, a long straight stretch about 100 yards long with about a
> 2-foot shoulder, max, between the road and oblivion. It's steep beyond
> belief,
> there's nothing to catch you, and here's the catch... the road slopes,
> subtly
> in some spots and glaringly in others, TOWARDS the edge. How friggin'
> hard is
> it to make a road right? Or fix a broken one? Sweet Jesus H. Christ, you
> get
> about 40 yeards out there, and your rig starts to let go... just a little,
> just
> enough to let you know who's (not) in charge here. Worst is still to
> come.
> You can see it coming since you are crawling in 4-lo with 4.10's and 31's
> as
> slow as you can go. You get to the worst part and it's not subtle now,
> the
> abyss is sucking the *** end of your Jeep into hell. That slope wants
> your
> ***. You can try and pull the rig along with the front end but that also
> makes you get sideways. The more sideways you get the more your apotions
> narrow. Nose slanted uphill, *** end slanted down and the slowdown of
> time
> and tunnel vision start. Fight or flight or sqeel like a pig and just
> give up,
> punch it and see WTF happens anythign is better than this slow torture...
>
> I did it both unchained (packed snow) and then chained up front (ice) and
> it
> sucked each of the 4 times i did it. Going downhill was the worse. I
> kept
> going up there because there were elk up there....
>
> ....so, and I hope you enjoyed my story, this is a long-winded way of
> knocking
> my MT/R's preformance on ice. They had almost no lateral control; if
> there was
> low spot, my TJ went to it pretty much always, the back end especially.
> Considerably worse than the BFG AT's I had on there last year. I knew
> knobby
> tires were gonna be bad on ice but this was sort of stunning. In snow,
> they
> were funny... slippery in general but they would reall "hook up" if I
> goosed it
> and spun 'em a little. So I found myself using the front end of the Jeep
> to
> sort of haul the back end around a lot. It was extreme, and that's coming
> from
> someone who normally drives a pickup.
>
> Next year I'll have chains for all 4 tires or different tires. I do like
> my
> MT/R's for the things I bought them for: commuting to work, and general
> wheelin' in western Oregon, which means sticky mud in the fall and winter
> and
> spring. But do NOT buy them as snow/ice tires!!
>
> That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
>
> -jeff
>

Tony

He's at the bottom of a ravine, dictating the events via wireless to
his wife who posted this as a warning to others. He said he wished he
just went to the supermarket instead of hunting.

Or, I could have mis-read it. :-)

Tony




On Sun, 7 Nov 2004 23:20:56 -0800, "Kevin in San Diego"
<kevin_hedstrom@yahoospam.com> wrote:

>I read the first paragraph and fell asleep. Whats the readers digest
>version?
>KH
>
>
>"Handywired" <handywired@aol.com> wrote in message
>news:20041106014225.23417.00000183@mb-m03.aol.com...
>> These would be the ones I mounted on my '97 TJ this fall. 31x10.50's.
>>
>> Up at elk camp this year, the conditions were tough for the second year in
>> a
>> row. We hunt a roadless wilderness area at 6000-7500 ft. in Oregon and
>> it
>> gets coooold, and snows. There's this one road that goes up and over
>> the
>> mountain, that you use to access the trailheads. It gets pretty hairy
>> since
>> there was also a big fire in this area 5 or 6 years ago and in some spots
>> there's nothing to stop you if you go off the road since the trees all
>> died and
>> have fallen over now and it's steeper'n crap. You would just plunge.
>> This is
>> not really a problem if you are even a half-assed driver because USUALLY,
>> if
>> the road should happen to be that bad, it's where there IS timber to at
>> least
>> catch you if it all goes south on you. Or, in the spots where the timber
>> burned, the road is icy or snowy but perfectly reasonable to drive on.
>> Any old
>> idgit could do it. Or, furthermore, most hunters would not have any need
>> to
>> go all the way up since 3 out of the 4 trailheads are accessible without
>> risking a permanent pucker in one's nether regions. Or worse.
>>
>> However, for those sturdy, intrepid, brave and stupid hunters wishing to
>> go in
>> on the 4th trailhead, for the simple reason that judging from the
>> bootprints
>> nobody else is even hunting it, for those rare beings there exists a
>> section
>> of road. A section of road that seems designed to kill someone. A
>> section of
>> road that is a lawsuit waiting to happen. A section of road that, at
>> it's
>> worse, tests the limits of driver and machine. And tires. A section we
>> shall
>> call... Valhalla.
>>
>> Imagine you come over this mountain. You are 45 minutes of crawling up
>> the
>> snow and ice and muddy road from camp. it's had it's spots but nothing
>> too
>> bad. It's a dirt road at best, minimally maintained by the Forest
>> Service.
>> You come to the top. There's this like Official Regional Observation
>> Tower up
>> there. Even though you are hours from anywhere, your cell phone has 3
>> bars.
>> You can see for 60-80 miles in 3 directions (4 from the top of the tower)
>> and
>> it's all wild. There's elk all over down there, you just know it. So.
>> You
>> come over that mountain and hit the other side, and it's like they let the
>> junior civil enginaeer take over. Suddenly the road seems designed to
>> kill
>> you. Sharp corners tilt wrong. It is steep; if you go off the road in
>> some
>> places, they MIGHT find your bleached bones in the spring. Maybe not.
>> Depends
>> on if the coyotes or crows got into you, I suppose. There's places
>> where you
>> can see other folks had trouble. They went off the road on this corner
>> here
>> and had to get yarded out, they spun their wheels there trying to turn
>> around,
>> in a rare wide spot, after chickening out. So all that happens THEN you
>> hit
>> the real killer, a long straight stretch about 100 yards long with about a
>> 2-foot shoulder, max, between the road and oblivion. It's steep beyond
>> belief,
>> there's nothing to catch you, and here's the catch... the road slopes,
>> subtly
>> in some spots and glaringly in others, TOWARDS the edge. How friggin'
>> hard is
>> it to make a road right? Or fix a broken one? Sweet Jesus H. Christ, you
>> get
>> about 40 yeards out there, and your rig starts to let go... just a little,
>> just
>> enough to let you know who's (not) in charge here. Worst is still to
>> come.
>> You can see it coming since you are crawling in 4-lo with 4.10's and 31's
>> as
>> slow as you can go. You get to the worst part and it's not subtle now,
>> the
>> abyss is sucking the *** end of your Jeep into hell. That slope wants
>> your
>> ***. You can try and pull the rig along with the front end but that also
>> makes you get sideways. The more sideways you get the more your apotions
>> narrow. Nose slanted uphill, *** end slanted down and the slowdown of
>> time
>> and tunnel vision start. Fight or flight or sqeel like a pig and just
>> give up,
>> punch it and see WTF happens anythign is better than this slow torture...
>>
>> I did it both unchained (packed snow) and then chained up front (ice) and
>> it
>> sucked each of the 4 times i did it. Going downhill was the worse. I
>> kept
>> going up there because there were elk up there....
>>
>> ....so, and I hope you enjoyed my story, this is a long-winded way of
>> knocking
>> my MT/R's preformance on ice. They had almost no lateral control; if
>> there was
>> low spot, my TJ went to it pretty much always, the back end especially.
>> Considerably worse than the BFG AT's I had on there last year. I knew
>> knobby
>> tires were gonna be bad on ice but this was sort of stunning. In snow,
>> they
>> were funny... slippery in general but they would reall "hook up" if I
>> goosed it
>> and spun 'em a little. So I found myself using the front end of the Jeep
>> to
>> sort of haul the back end around a lot. It was extreme, and that's coming
>> from
>> someone who normally drives a pickup.
>>
>> Next year I'll have chains for all 4 tires or different tires. I do like
>> my
>> MT/R's for the things I bought them for: commuting to work, and general
>> wheelin' in western Oregon, which means sticky mud in the fall and winter
>> and
>> spring. But do NOT buy them as snow/ice tires!!
>>
>> That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
>>
>> -jeff
>>
>

Tony

He's at the bottom of a ravine, dictating the events via wireless to
his wife who posted this as a warning to others. He said he wished he
just went to the supermarket instead of hunting.

Or, I could have mis-read it. :-)

Tony




On Sun, 7 Nov 2004 23:20:56 -0800, "Kevin in San Diego"
<kevin_hedstrom@yahoospam.com> wrote:

>I read the first paragraph and fell asleep. Whats the readers digest
>version?
>KH
>
>
>"Handywired" <handywired@aol.com> wrote in message
>news:20041106014225.23417.00000183@mb-m03.aol.com...
>> These would be the ones I mounted on my '97 TJ this fall. 31x10.50's.
>>
>> Up at elk camp this year, the conditions were tough for the second year in
>> a
>> row. We hunt a roadless wilderness area at 6000-7500 ft. in Oregon and
>> it
>> gets coooold, and snows. There's this one road that goes up and over
>> the
>> mountain, that you use to access the trailheads. It gets pretty hairy
>> since
>> there was also a big fire in this area 5 or 6 years ago and in some spots
>> there's nothing to stop you if you go off the road since the trees all
>> died and
>> have fallen over now and it's steeper'n crap. You would just plunge.
>> This is
>> not really a problem if you are even a half-assed driver because USUALLY,
>> if
>> the road should happen to be that bad, it's where there IS timber to at
>> least
>> catch you if it all goes south on you. Or, in the spots where the timber
>> burned, the road is icy or snowy but perfectly reasonable to drive on.
>> Any old
>> idgit could do it. Or, furthermore, most hunters would not have any need
>> to
>> go all the way up since 3 out of the 4 trailheads are accessible without
>> risking a permanent pucker in one's nether regions. Or worse.
>>
>> However, for those sturdy, intrepid, brave and stupid hunters wishing to
>> go in
>> on the 4th trailhead, for the simple reason that judging from the
>> bootprints
>> nobody else is even hunting it, for those rare beings there exists a
>> section
>> of road. A section of road that seems designed to kill someone. A
>> section of
>> road that is a lawsuit waiting to happen. A section of road that, at
>> it's
>> worse, tests the limits of driver and machine. And tires. A section we
>> shall
>> call... Valhalla.
>>
>> Imagine you come over this mountain. You are 45 minutes of crawling up
>> the
>> snow and ice and muddy road from camp. it's had it's spots but nothing
>> too
>> bad. It's a dirt road at best, minimally maintained by the Forest
>> Service.
>> You come to the top. There's this like Official Regional Observation
>> Tower up
>> there. Even though you are hours from anywhere, your cell phone has 3
>> bars.
>> You can see for 60-80 miles in 3 directions (4 from the top of the tower)
>> and
>> it's all wild. There's elk all over down there, you just know it. So.
>> You
>> come over that mountain and hit the other side, and it's like they let the
>> junior civil enginaeer take over. Suddenly the road seems designed to
>> kill
>> you. Sharp corners tilt wrong. It is steep; if you go off the road in
>> some
>> places, they MIGHT find your bleached bones in the spring. Maybe not.
>> Depends
>> on if the coyotes or crows got into you, I suppose. There's places
>> where you
>> can see other folks had trouble. They went off the road on this corner
>> here
>> and had to get yarded out, they spun their wheels there trying to turn
>> around,
>> in a rare wide spot, after chickening out. So all that happens THEN you
>> hit
>> the real killer, a long straight stretch about 100 yards long with about a
>> 2-foot shoulder, max, between the road and oblivion. It's steep beyond
>> belief,
>> there's nothing to catch you, and here's the catch... the road slopes,
>> subtly
>> in some spots and glaringly in others, TOWARDS the edge. How friggin'
>> hard is
>> it to make a road right? Or fix a broken one? Sweet Jesus H. Christ, you
>> get
>> about 40 yeards out there, and your rig starts to let go... just a little,
>> just
>> enough to let you know who's (not) in charge here. Worst is still to
>> come.
>> You can see it coming since you are crawling in 4-lo with 4.10's and 31's
>> as
>> slow as you can go. You get to the worst part and it's not subtle now,
>> the
>> abyss is sucking the *** end of your Jeep into hell. That slope wants
>> your
>> ***. You can try and pull the rig along with the front end but that also
>> makes you get sideways. The more sideways you get the more your apotions
>> narrow. Nose slanted uphill, *** end slanted down and the slowdown of
>> time
>> and tunnel vision start. Fight or flight or sqeel like a pig and just
>> give up,
>> punch it and see WTF happens anythign is better than this slow torture...
>>
>> I did it both unchained (packed snow) and then chained up front (ice) and
>> it
>> sucked each of the 4 times i did it. Going downhill was the worse. I
>> kept
>> going up there because there were elk up there....
>>
>> ....so, and I hope you enjoyed my story, this is a long-winded way of
>> knocking
>> my MT/R's preformance on ice. They had almost no lateral control; if
>> there was
>> low spot, my TJ went to it pretty much always, the back end especially.
>> Considerably worse than the BFG AT's I had on there last year. I knew
>> knobby
>> tires were gonna be bad on ice but this was sort of stunning. In snow,
>> they
>> were funny... slippery in general but they would reall "hook up" if I
>> goosed it
>> and spun 'em a little. So I found myself using the front end of the Jeep
>> to
>> sort of haul the back end around a lot. It was extreme, and that's coming
>> from
>> someone who normally drives a pickup.
>>
>> Next year I'll have chains for all 4 tires or different tires. I do like
>> my
>> MT/R's for the things I bought them for: commuting to work, and general
>> wheelin' in western Oregon, which means sticky mud in the fall and winter
>> and
>> spring. But do NOT buy them as snow/ice tires!!
>>
>> That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
>>
>> -jeff
>>
>