She'll be comin' DOWN the mountain when she comes...

My brother and I went for a little spin in Capitol Forest. I was in search of a large landslide on the north side of Capitol Forest but we had been repeatedly thwarted by downed trees and slushy slippery snow. Just when we were making progress, we came upon this.

We grabbed a stick and took some measurements for the camera.




You'll notice that the crevice continues in a full half-circle. This road won't last with the Washington rain funneling past it.

Powerline Road/Landslide

The family and I made a quick trip to Capitol Forest to check out the powerline road and view the massive landslide that had occurred during previous heavy rains. I can't find the impressive pictures of the landslide, so I will update the post with those pictures later.

Madeline enjoys the wind in her hair and the warm summer drive

Daniel laughing with his sister

Me...didn't get one of the prettiest passenger, Heidi.

A beautiful view of Summit Lake from a forest service road at the top of a ridge

A section of the powerline road


Time to get out for a walk

Here lies an XJ that has seen better days. It looked like a joyride to me. I had seen this wreck earlier in the year when it was very intact, complete with 31" Super Swampers. I posted it's existence (but not it's exact location) on NAXJA in hopes of finding the owner before it was stripped. By now the the vandals and looters have worked it over pretty good and flipped it over.

During our hike up the landslide Heidi spotted a horseshoe in the debris and commissioned me to retrieve it. Who knows how old this is or where it came from, but it managed to avoid burial during the carnage.

Time to go home by reversing our route!

Yeehaw!

This picture was taken on the powerline road near the Rock Candy Mountain entrance of Capitol State Forest by Derek Pearson. He is a professional photographer and managed to get this shot as the daylight waned. If you need a wedding photographer, he's your man. Evidently he does Jeeps now too. Nice picture Derek!

Muddy Lunch

I took Madeline, Daniel, and Rosie into Capitol Forest for a quick trail run with lunch. We stopped on a ridge and enjoyed the view while scarfing down PB&J.

We got to put a little bit of mud on the Jeep...just enough to keep me busy washing for an hour or so. I figured I would fortify my front lawn with new soil at the same time and kill two birds with one stone.

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!

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

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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.

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Just a short distance off of D-4900 :)

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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.

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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.

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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!

Snowy Capitol Forest

We went up to Capitol Forest to check out the snow and got more than we bargained for. The snow was being rained upon and the combination made for extremely slippery conditions. Jeff slid into a ditch requiring help from his winch after pulling over for some idiots in a Subaru. We had our own ditch excursion but it was much smaller. With a little momentum, lot's of spinning wheels, and help from an unseen (but rather large) rock we were able to exit the ditch at a time and place of IT'S choosing. After all of this we aborted our drive to "The Peak" but ended up playing around at a lower area for a few minutes before returning to the warmth of our Jeeps. Here are some pictures!

Ahhhh my hand is freezing!!

This snow is deep and cold but I can still find the warmth to laugh!

It looked a lot steeper from inside the Jeep...

Jeff sure has a great looking Jeep.

Jeff and his daughters, Katie (left) and Marie.

From left: Madeline, Heidi, Daniel, and me wearing the same sweater I was wearing last time we went off-road...RAD...and of course, our Jeep XJ in the background.

The early stages of a short lived snowball (ice ball?) fight.

And finally, the kids all together: Katie, Marie, Madeline, Daniel.

After this brief break to stretch our legs we scurried back to the warmth of our Jeeps and called it a day. We will be sure to take some pictures on our next adventure, but until then take care!!

Note to self: Deep snow that is being vigorously rained upon + Mud tires = BAAAAD!!

Capitol State Forest

Heidi, Madeline, Daniel and I went up to Capitol Peak in Capitol State Forest right after some fresh snow. The kids were in need of some snow sledding time, and I figured what better way to accomplish that than run the Jeep up to 'the peak'!


We didn't get many pictures, but we definitely had a good time. The new snow was beautiful and nearly untouched by others. We will definitely be doing this again!