2005 Northwest Challenge Write Up

[DaveB]

As Submitted by Carl Beilstein...

Lucky Charms
Northwest Challenge October 7, 8 & 9, 2005
Tripod Flats, Manastash Ridge, Washington
Carl G. Beilstein

The PCRC Northwest Challenge took place west of Ellensburg, Washington on the Manastash Ridge of Mt. Rainier. Only eight vehicles participated as contestants. It was almost an all V-8 powered affair this year. The only non-V-8 contestant was Dave Blair with his 1966 88" 2.25, and our Master’s of Ceremonies Matt and Lan Mills and families.

I arrived solo, due to illness in the family, around 7:15 P.M. at Rider’s Camp. I would have arrived sooner but when I had stopped in Ellensburg to fuel up my train of thought was interrupted by John Parsons and Carl Nylund from Vancouver, B.C. calling me on the CB radio. They had come down to compete in the challenge and had spotted my rig as they went through town. John is a perennial front runner in his ’82 Range Rover and I have always enjoyed his and Carl’s company and competitive spirit.

Anyway, I was supposed to check in at home when I arrived in E-burg to let them know I wasn’t carnage on the freeway. I was halfway up Manastash Canyon before I remembered. So, I reversed tracks and headed back down the canyon until I got cell phone reception. The wide spot I found was populated by about 50 quail with another 50 across the road. A chicken joke comes to mind, but, back to the story. The quail scattered as I pulled over. But, only for a minute, by the time I finished my phone call I was surrounded. They all scattered again when I got headed back up the canyon as the sun just set. I was impressed with the deer standing in people’s front yards. Deer season is open in Oregon and you would be hard presses to see even one this time of year.

John and Carl, Pamela and Emily Petroff and Lan Mills were waiting at Riders Camp when I arrived. The other contestants and volunteers trickled in. Don McDonald was the last to arrive at 9:00 P.M. and the Challenge began.

I was teamed up with Dennis Bell and David Tauper in their V-8 powered 109 for the GPS orienteering portion of the evening. But first we had an individual task to perform. I drove down the trail and across the raised wooden track to the start. Pamela and Emily were there to greet me and were a little bit flustered that I didn’t have a co-pilot. The task was to blindfold the driver and the co-pilot would direct the driver up the trail. I almost had Emily volunteering when it was decided that I could hold one hand over one eye and tie the other arm behind my back. NOT REALLY! I told them they could give me a DNF (Did Not Finish), the average time of all contestants, or the worst time, their choice.

I ran the trail easily two hands, two eyes. Dennis and Dave were next through which gave us a twenty minute head start on the other teams.

Number One coordinate was a cinch. Two was shown as about a mile and a half away, but Three was close. We opted to go for Three, then Four, Five, Six….to Nine. These all came in good order as we ran the trails and roads. I should have taken notice that Two was out of line. The route to Two went past Riders Camp, that we were supposed to report back to for directions to our camp for the night. We stopped, chatted with Matt and got directions to Tripod Flats Camp Ground, and told him we were headed for Number Two. Matt probably wondered where we were headed, but the coordinates led us to Manastash Ridge Rd. just a little ways back towards E-burg. Dennis, David and I cruised up and down a quarter mile section of the road with spotlights gleaming looking for the last pumpkin. Dennis’ right hand drive 109 is a perfect match for this. His being on the opposite side gives him a different viewpoint. He had spotted a majority of the pumpkins hanging in the trees so far and I was kind of disappointed he couldn’t find this one. 2:00 A.M. and we decided to check the coordinates I had hurriedly punched in 5 hours earlier. We had done this before on a few others that hadn’t immediately jumped out of the trees at us. I had missed the N-S coordinate by one one-hundredth of a minute. I’m amazed that this even put us on a road. That rarely happens. But, with the new coordinate we headed back to where we had originally started and took the road versus the trail to get us close to Number Two. A quick hill climb with room at the top for only one vehicle and no turn-around and I was at the spot. I shined my light all over the upper portion as Dennis and David did the same at the bottom. At 2:30 A.M we decide sleep is more important than one pumpkin.

We hit Tripod Flats Trail and soon catch up with Don McDonald and his family Disco (no winch) and another tricked out Disco (with winch) attempting to get up a small dirt slope. When we arrived Don backed down into what appeared to be a widening in the trail to allow the winched Disco to winch up and then tug Don up. The second Disco ran up to the crux of the problem, a two foot high step just before the crest. He spun his tires for a few minutes before deciding he should winch. David Tauber and I disengaged his Ramsey winch and ran out the Kevlar line to the nearest in-line tree, a six-inch pine. Plenty big in my book, but the driver and Donald were questioning our judgment. Then the driver decided to get out his controls and a tree strap. The one David had already in place wasn’t good enough. I struggled to plug in the controls as the bull bar was so close to the receptacle I could barely get it plugged in. We were set, I thought. Then the driver complained that his line would chafe on the rocks and he needed something under it, like he thought I should lay on the ground for him. Another delay as he rummaged to find a tarp. Finally he’s winching. Are all Ramsey winches this slow? It took five minutes just to wind up the ten feet of slack. Line taught, he’s just creeping up the step. We suggest that maybe he should put it in gear and “OH! YEAH!â€