All Wheelers President's Day Slab Run (Feb 16th, 2008)

[Ceg]

All Wheelers Off Road Club -
President's Day Weekend Slab Run

We meet up at the Slab parking area around 11 AM on Saturday February 16th, 2008. There were a lot of ORVs that were out there. Mostly 4x4 rigs. People kind of grouped up and went there own way and we ran around each other during the day. Here are some pictures I took.








































It was a lot of fun thanks to all that came out.

[Steve]

Thanks for inviting the Backroads group. I made the journey over from the west side and had a great time. I even attempted a few hill climbs in my Land Cruiser.

I posted the photos I took at All Wheelers Off Road Club Play Day at the Slab 02.16.08

Here are a few for the forum:







Enjoy.

[Jerry]

President's Day Slab Run
February 16, 2008

Clay did it again; he chose fantastic weather for another of his fun events. Besides being a member of Backroad Drivers Northwest, Clay is better known as administrator of the All Wheelers Off Road Club and owner of the Eastern Washington Off Road Forum. On behalf of the All Wheelers, the hosts of The Slab event, Clay extended an invitation to BDNW members.

The Backroad Drivers contingency met at McDonalds in Zillah and consisted of 6 vehicles and ten people. Bill from Ellensburg; his grandson, Jack; son-in-law, Tim; and Tim's friend, Dahl; all drove down in Bills Chevy Astro Van. Ed from Clarkston was driving his Chevy Tracker, Doug & Kathy from Lynnwood were in their Jeep Cherokee, Steve from Edgewood drove his Toyota Land Cruiser, Bill from Kirkland (the other Bill's son) drove his modified Early Ford Bronco and I, Jerry from Yakima, was in my Ford Bronco II. We left Zillah at 10:30 AM driving past orchards and vineyards on our way to "The Slab". The Slab is a nickname for a privately owned, wide-open, shrub-steppe sagebrush, ORV area at the base of Rattlesnake Hills. It's a great place to play and test vehicles, especially this time of year since most forest and mountain roads are closed for the season.

As we neared the entrance we saw at least 20 vehicles of all shapes and sizes; SUV's, pickups and all sorts of modified 4x4's had already gathered in the parking area. There were also groups of dirt bikers and quad riders sharing the parking area and would be sharing the trails as well. While we waited for latecomers we aired down our tires for better traction, made acquaintance with some new friends and Bill and his family made arrangements to leave his low ground clearance Astro Van in the parking area and hitch rides with Ed and young Bill…as in younger than not-so-old Bill. From the parking area we followed Clay over a narrow, rutted dirt road to the first action.

Just over the first hill was a small valley with a V-shaped crack that the guys refer to as Flex Canyon. At the narrowest point is a wall of protruding rock with a hole on the rocky side of the trail and a raised step on the other. It requires some finesse to drive your vehicle through the crack without tilting into the rocks. This obstacle has a reputation for body damage so most of the folks watch the action from the slopes above. Several rigs drove through running downhill, all very slowly. A couple of them got a little too close as evidenced by some new scratches. Bill took his Early Bronco into the crack in an uphill direction and ended up making friends with the rock. At least he gave it a shot. Hey, Bill, that should buff out…with a hammer!

Next was a caravan over some rutted roads and trails including some fun whoop-de-dos. It was a short, but neat little jaunt for stock SUV's. Clay led the group up a narrow, muddy trail with paint scraping sagebrush and off camber angles to another stop where we had a great view of the lower Yakima Valley. Our BDNW group of SUV's took the easy way around since most of us did not want to scratch up our rigs. This viewpoint was a good opportunity to see the lay of the land and get into the lunch bag.

Next was a canyon with hill climbs in every direction. There was something for everyone. It had long hills, short slopes, steep and bumpy climbs and easy little nodes - just right for a fun time. And if that wasn't enough, Clay took us to the next canyon for what they call Roll Over Hill. The hill was much steeper and longer than those in the last canyon and it had a rock step about two-thirds of the way up forcing vehicles to slow their momentum in order to clear the bump then apply the gas to start up again. The catch is that after the step, where they started up again, the surface turned to loose rock. It takes some experience and a cool head to make it to the top. Lacking either of those attributes could easily show first hand why it was dubbed Roll Over Hill.

In the same canyon were some short, but wet, hill climbs. All the other hills we played on were facing south or west so they were relatively dry. But, these little hills were in the shade and still muddy. It was great fun for several of the guys.

The afternoon went by fast and many of us still had a long drive home so we headed for the barn at around 4:00 PM. We drove back to Zillah where we aired up our tires, sped up the freeway and said our goodbyes until next time.
Jerry

PS Our special thanks to Clay for inviting us and you should check out his Eastern Washington Off Road Forum at:
http://cegranch.com/phpBB/index.php

[RidgeRunner]

Looks like lotsa fun!!

Thanks for sharing, very nice write ups and pix...

Mick