Capitol State Forest

It was a gorgeous day today in the Olympia area. Heidi was parent-helping at Daniel's preschool and Madeline was also at school, so I decided to get some fresh air...via XJ of course! I made a quick run into Capitol Forest to explore some areas that I hadn't been to.

On the way to the Waddell Creek entrance I spotted a very nice 'import tuner style' Mitsubishi Lancer pulled over to the side of the road. There were a couple of teenagers milling around next to it, and it was apparent that they had a flat tire. I stopped to see if I could lend a hand. The rims looked like they were wrapped with a rubber band rather than tires, but to each his own. The owner stated that he had a spare but didn't have a jack...oops. I had the Hi-Lift jack with me, but it required more height than the 4 inches of ground clearance the Lancer was sporting. It then occurred to me that I had a factory jack under the rear seat, although I had never used it. Time to break it in! After some coaxing the jack barely fit between the frame and the pavement, but the guys were on their way after putting on the little doughnut spare. The funny thing is, the little pizza-cutter-doughnut spare had WAY more sidewall than the regular tires!

After this little diversion it was time to drive around Capitol Forest. This was to be a very short excursion, and more of an exploratory trip rather than an obstacle filled one. I was searching for worthy 4x4 trails as well as mountain bike trails. I managed to make some new discoveries and snap some pictures of the Jeep in the forest on this beautiful day. Check'em out!

.

I encountered this beautiful view of Mt. Rainier near D-4900 on the west side of Mount Molly.

.

.

At 14,411 feet, Mt. Rainier is the tallest peak in the Cascade mountian range. It has a topographic prominence of 13,210 feet which is greater than the well known Himalayan peak, K2.

.

.

Just a short distance off of D-4900 :)

.

.

This is my favorite picture of the whole bunch, taken on D-4000. Notice the western edge of Capitol Peak on the left side of the picture and Rock Candy Mountain just poking up on the right side of the picture at 2,356 feet.

.

.

This picture was taken at a slightly different angle and shows Capitol Peak clearly in the background at 2,659 feet. The shorter hill in the foreground is Little Larch Mountain standing 1,340 feet tall.

.

.

I hope to get another day like this soon. The weather was spectacular and the temperature even got up to a very comfortable 41 degrees. Hopefully I can cover a little more ground next time but half the fun is stopping, shutting the engine off, and listening to the silence intermingled with the sounds of nature. A close second place is the sound of my 4.0L at wide open throttle heard through the K&N FIPK high flow air intake! Until next time, see ya!

Tahuya II

Jeff had some business with a client in Belfair so I decided to meet up with him afterwards for another run at Tahuya. What a blast!

There was A LOT more water than the last time we went, with a light dusting of snow in some spots. Our mission was to explore the southern half of the 4x4 loop. On our last trip we inadvertantly bypassed most of the loop after getting a little disoriented.

Let's just say the southern loop is MUCH more difficult to navigate. There was deep standing water...large roots...large rocks...washed out sections of trail with creeks running through them...steep...slippery...FUN! We also added some Jeep Forest Green (from Jeff's rig) and grey (from mine) to the landscape in a rutted steep washed out section of trail. The rock garden (not pictured) claimed some of my red paint as well:(

We started the trail at 2:00 pm and finally exited about 6:45. This was much later than we had planned, but we also hadn't planned on the southern part of the loop being so gnarly. Unfortunately there aren't many pictures of the southern part, as the sun had gone down, but you will see some at the end where I left some of my grey fender flares behind on the side of a rutted wash.

As usual the pictures don't do anything justice, and the best parts were largely unphotographed because it was dark or I was too busy driving. I'm waiting for Jeff's pictures from his camera. Maybe there will be some good ones. Evan's Creek is definitely in the future but we are going to wait until the snow melts a bit. We want to spend time driving, not winching! That's it until next time!

And it begins...

Did I mention that Jeff likes to go through water?

Korvettenkapitän Jeff Scott and his green U-boat...those are 35" tires, by the way.

A blurry picture of the XJ in the woods.

An easy part of the trail with a small creek running down the middle...we had no idea what we were in for later!

XJ on the rocks with a twist.

15 psi in the tires makes for a nice sidewall bulge.

Sure flexes better than when it was stock. The JKS quick disconnects really add some articulation to the Skyjacker lift in the front. The next project is to remove the rear anti-sway bar completely. It's also time to trim the fenderwells...:)

Nice articulation but nowhere near what this Jeep Unlimited Rubicon is capable of.

Note the chunks of ice on the front bumper. They were scooped from the surface of a "puddle" we had just navigated through.

Twisted up and getting dark FAST. This is what the south loop looked like in the easier parts.

Ooops! The pictures just don't do the angle justice but I was worried that the scraping was from the door. Turns out it was just the rear fender flare.

No, I am not tilting the camera. The gouges blend in beautifully with the scraped and peeling paint on the rest of the Jeep. I don't think anyone will even notice. It could have been a lot worse!