Capitol Forest Snow Run on Sunday 16th (Still adding pics)

[WitchTits]

Planning on making a snow run up Capitol Forest from the Littlerock side of the hill Sunday.

Capitol Forest is 15 minutes South of Olympia,WA off I-5 exit 95. Summit elevation is 2700 feet, but
more than likely the gate will be closed so max elevation at the gate parking lot is roughly 2400 feet.
Tons of first tracks to be had. We are local and know most of the nooks and crannys.

Friday there was 2 inches at the 2000ft mark. NOAA report is promising, were hoping for 12"+ (low standards)

Last minute open invite to anyone that wants to meet up or is already going and wants to cruise in a bigger group.
Only 2-3 rigs so far, myself counted, 2 TJs on 33s and EB on 37s, 1 winch.
Basic area nothing crazy but Id recommend 33s minimum and good departure angle for the routes we're driving.

Planning on drinking cold ones and leaving the forest around noonish.
Trail cruise potential also.

If you are interested the plan is:

Littlerock Grocery Chevron
6410 128th Avenue Southwest,
Littlerock, WA 98556

SUN 8am Departure

Show up, comment or PM for more details.

Pictures to follow... (testing out new GoPro Hero 2)
Nice article by the way SNOWTREK

[Nobody]

Look forward to a trip report!

[n16ht5]

likewise.. too far south for me, but it sounds like fun.

[WitchTits]

The report back from our Capitol Forest run Sunday would probably rank as a 4 on snow quality and depth.
Deepest snow was around a foot, but lots of first tracks and fun was had.
Being such low elevation the snow was super slimy, making it really easy to get eaten up by ditches and such.

There was a rediculous powerstroke abandoned, after a party i assume, that blocked the last 1/4 mile to the towers.
I made it around but it was a pain in the ass.

Did some testing with the GoPro Hero2 though.
I will cut some of the video tonight and post up.

Learned alot of do's and don'ts..it was dumping wet snow, which made it nearly impossible to film with the camera
facing forward without stacking up with ice. In colder dry snow it would probably be more successful.

The only good videos that turned out were rear facing mounts on the fenders, still cool.

Killed more beers than pictures but here are some to give you an idea. Theyve been resized but the GoPro takes
excellent pictures also.

[Nobody]

Was that truck broke? I can't imagine what someone was thinking there.

I've been pretty happy with my gopro. You might try putting some rainx on the lense. They also make anti-fog inserts if you're having a problem with fogging up. I found that unless there is good light, the pictures leave a lot to be desired.

[WitchTits]

Guy was definately not broke down from what i saw...
Brand new 40 MTRs on Methods...

We assume party brigade went on a late night hillclimb...couldnt make it...tryed to turn around with 130+ wheelbase
and instead of backing down the ditch like every other person up there does...parked it and went home.

I can only imagine it went like this:
"Dude, its dark, im wasted... ..My reverse lights arent bright enough to back down the ditch. . Lets just walk to the bottom and get it in the morning after breakfast at Dennys...we'll wake up early...
..Dont worry about your lift or wheels....you got full coverage.."

Dickhead move for sure blocking the road for at least 24hrs..
We were polite and couldnt resist leaving a note though.

[WitchTits]

Classic

[WitchTits]

[Nobody]

[WitchTits]

Gonna keep this thread going a bit till i go somewhere cooler.
Went on an outing on Sunday 23rd to Capitol Forest.
I love to hate going there, its 15 minutes from home so I cant resist.

This time there was about 3ft of snow at the top.
First tracks everywhere. It was spooky all that snow to be had and didnt
see more than 1 person.
Met a fella up there that did cell tower checks. He had to go throwing his pay grade around
like it was nothing.
Owns and rents snow cats as a side job, 232 dollars/hr.

Anyways...got stuck twice..got out twice...air down down then 10 minutes of shoveling.

[WitchTits]

One of my kids.

[Nobody]

You found some snow! What's the elevation there? That looks like it could be a really fun road for the full throttle assaults.

You shouldn't be getting stuck at all. What air pressure are you running? Locked front/rear? Tranny? Gear ratio?

[WitchTits]

Those pics i wasnt stuck, but the first time was running 20psi coming from town...lazy didnt air down..got sucked into a ditch trying to go through a snowdrift.
Dropped to 8psi and backed right out. Didnt bring air so couldnt drop much more with 10min drive to a pump.

Next I was in a clearcut hammerdown and buried myself to the frame in hardpack..shoveled the slop out of way and
powered out easy.

Front is a D44 with track-lock..Rear is Open.

So its pretty easy to get stuck not being locked...
Plus I got a NP435 so reverse is super low so hammer down reverse doesnt help much.

Im not putting money into these axles (going hi60/shaved14) so i just gotta put up with it now.
There was a cheap 9inch on craigs with my gears (3.50) and track-lock though, thought bout throwing under
as a temporary upgrade.

[WitchTits]

Oh yea..the elevation is roughly 2200ft...so lots of snow for lowlands.

[Nobody]

You'll definitely want to get yourself some on-board air. It's pretty easy to do. What engine/belt system do you have? Once you can get aired down to 2-3psi, and locked front/rear, you won't really get stuck. I love my NP435!

I don't know what your ultimate plans are for your bronco, but you might want to reconsider those axle choices. For most folks, it's just a buch of added weight. Are you breaking stuff now? Or are you planning on much larger tires?

[jam session]

2-3 psi? Really? I have 35x12.50x17 on beadlocks. Should I be running that low? I've been running 5 and doing pretty well but couldn't get on top of the Cascade Concrete on my last run to Beckler River on Sunday. Snow was heavy and soft and already 4 ft deep at 1800ft elevation. When we hit the end of the tracks and hit virgin snow I was able to move ahead about 10-15ft at a time without getting stuck but it was really slow.

[Nobody]

I usually work down to 2psi. I ocassionally go to 1psi, but that's pretty hard on the tires. The snow you were in sounds like the same conditions we were in... very slow going. I was having a hard time getting traction on the steep sections. In this case it was more about getting lugs on the ground than floatation.

Did you go all the way out jacks pass?

[jam session]

Nope, didn't make it to Jack's Pass. We broke trail for about a 1/4 mile past 6520/6530, cut one tree out of the way and decided to turn around since it was very slow going and several of us wanted to watch the Seahawk game (good call!). Too much snow to get lugs to the ground...about 4ft. Based on your comments I'm going to try airing down even more next run. Thx