Trail Run Review

Black Friday II

MUD! FUN! CARNAGE! WINCHING!

By Jim DeFord

Photos by: Rich, Mary, Paul & Zach

BROWNS CAMP, TSF, Oregon (Nov. 28, 2008) — We pre-staged at the Glencoe Road McDonalds as we normally do. This year was much cooler than Black Friday I and quite foggy. But, foggy and cool means less quads and bikes that run on the 4x4 trails. For Black Friday II we had eleven FJ’s and three Jeeps.

It had rained on and off all week, so we knew we’d be in for some mud and yes, we had mud!

We staged and aired down at Rogers Camp. The plan was to hit Powerline, and then over to Hood Raiser to install our trail sponsor signs.

The Northwest FJ Cruiser Club took a huge step as a club and signed the trail sponsorship papers two Saturdays prior to the BFII run. We now have the responsibility of maintaining the Hood Raiser trails. There is an easy section and a “more difficult” section and we plan on adding a Black Diamond loop sometime in the near future.

With the Brown’s Camp ORV Park as our home area for 4-wheeling it made perfect sense for us to take part in the Adopt-a-Trail program that the Oregon Department of Forestry created for the park.

It saves the ODF tons of money and their park is still maintained. In addition, all the time we put into maintaining the trail, the ODF is paid by the Federal government. So, it’s a total win-win situation and we, as a club, can contribute to one of the coolest ORV parks in the US.

The trip through Powerline was slick and snotty, but everyone held their ground and there were no issues, so we headed to Hood Raiser, planted our signs, scoped out possible areas for a Black Diamond loop and picked up trash.

Once we hit the top of Hood Raiser and finished installing our signs, it was time for lunch. After munchin’ Mark Hawley pulled out his Russian-made automatic bb-gun, so we played around with that a bit and headed off to Firebreak 5.

The middle of the lower, rocky area has been thrashed the past month since a few of us had last been there and the ruts around the big rocks are pretty deep. We got through with not too much issue, but not today. Getting through (or not in some cases) took over 2 hours with try after try and winching.

There was some minor carnage. Many scuffed wheels. A trashed pseudo bead-long ring, a smashed OEM rack-rail (Oooo. Big surprise there), many a scarred skid plate, but nothing major.

Moving further up FB5 to the sharp left through the roots, stump and tree, there were more challenges. A few drove right on through, while several others took several attempts with scarred bumpers and at least one smashed, stock, front bumper-wing. Again, nothing major.

We decided to skip the tight, upper portion of FB5 because it was starting to get pretty late, and decided to finish off with Cedar Tree, which the favorite trail of many with its tight twisties through the trees.

Add the wet and the slippery mud and the challenge of Cedar Tree increases a bit. Everyone made it through without issue.

We de-staged at Roger’s Camp. Aired back up, shared stories of the day’s run and viewed some of the days carnage.

Hungry, a few of headed out to the Helvetia Tavern for burgers, fries and onion rings. That was yummy and our first time there. We need to make that a regular stop on the way home for a dinner run!

So, again, the Black Friday run was a huge success. We had FJs and Jeeps and new and old members. Many familiar faces and many new.

It’s always a great time to get together, run some trails and share stories of mods to your vehicle, your kid’s latest accomplishment(s). Thank you all who participated and we’ll look forward to seeing you on the next club sanctioned run.
 

Trail Run Tech

Trail pinstripes optional

Step-by-step removal method

By Dean Rodgers

LAKE OSWEGO, Oregon (May 15, 2007) — In all my years of car ownership, I've never cared much about washing. The first one was a white S-10 pickup and the second was a pewter Silverado. Neither looked all that bad dirty. I think I might have waxed the S-10 once and I might have had the Silverado waxed once. Otherwise, it was a trip through the carwash or a quick douching with Tide every 3-6 months. I liked both vehicles fine, but they were just tools. I didn't worry about them too much. >> FULL STORY

FJ Mod Report

Installing the Lucrum winch mount

Install proves to be easy and straight forward

By Jim DeFord

VANCOUVER, Wash. (April 29, 2007) — I have had the Lucrum winch mount installed for about a month now. It gets rave reviews from both myself and everyone who sees it. The guys at my Toyota dealer were all over themselves when they saw what a cool mount this is.

What sold me from the start was the ability to keep the original designer's look to my FJ. I just do not care for the "Mad Max" look the aftermarket bumpers give. Granted they will give more protection from a 45-degree direction than the stock bumper or the Lucrum mount provides, keeping the stock look was paramount for me.  >> FULL STORY

NWFJCC News

What's Happenin'?

Been a busy Winter! Spring is here and the trails are beckoning, but...

By Jim DeFord

VANCOUVER, Washington (April 7, 2008) — But...There is still a lot of snow from about 3,000 feet on up. Some areas are still un-navigable at under 3,000 feet!

Must be all that global warming eh? Here's some global warming for ya from a recent run at GPNF.

Yeah, everyone's getting cabin fever, but running in that snow-cone snow is just plain no fun and it breaks stuff. At the run shown in the photo above two front axles bit the dust.

We just had an awesome Tech Day gathering at Metal Tech's headquarters. You can see a gallery of the event by CLICKING HERE.

We want to run up north in May, but that may be even too soon if the dang snow doesn't melt off. We can always run at Juniper Dunes north of Tri-Cities, WA for some cool fun!

The best way to stay in touch with what's going on in the NWFJCC is to join the forum. It is a private forum, so you have to join the club first and then register on the forum to be activated. The reason for running a private forum is to keep the SPAM checked to a big fat ZERO. No SPAM on the NWFJCC forums!!!

So.....Hope to see ya in the forums and on the trail soon!!