[nightfoam]

First of all, I did in fact screw up on the directions, the Shari's
was at the EAST end of Newberg, not the west. But everybody made it
to the right place, myself and my friend James in my Cherokee, Rich
and Jan in their Grand Cherokee, Richard in his chevy pickup and Eric
in his nicely built Wrangler Rubicon 4dr.

After standing around talking for a bit, we got on the road out of
Newberg, off through Carlton and up into the hills. As we climbed we
started seeing snow on the sides of the road until eventually the
road was mostly covered with old snow. It really didn't create much
of a problem except for one icey downhill stretch.

We stopped into the Rocky Bend campground to use the facilties and
stretch our legs the continued downriver. There was plenty of storm
damage to be seen including one massive 487 year-old tree that had
fallen accross the river and the road.

The plan was to turn up Clarence Creek and follow that to the top
and crest over into the Trask drainage. However winter weather had
other plans. Clarence Creek road was closed just above the turn-off
so we turned around and headed down to Beaver to eat.

After our meal, Richard decided to head back to town while the
remainder of the group decided to head up and check out Munson Creek
Falls, the tallest waterfall in the Coast Range at 319 feet. From
there we drove through Tillamook and out towards Portland with a stop
at the Tillamook Forest Center.

Eric continued on from there while Richard & Jan and James and I
spent a little more time there checking out the exhibits then decided
to try driving up to the Idiot Creek overlook. It went well for a
while but a few miles up we had to turn around when we got into snow
that was just too deep.

From there we headed home. It was a good trip, the weather wasn't
too bad, even a bit of sun here and there. Hopefully in the future we
won't have to contend with closed roads so much.

Pictures soon.......