Pacific Northwest Meet This Spring June 14, 2009

[Riff Raff]

MARBLE MOUNTAIN "PRE-RECON" DATE/TIME IS SET:

This is the "pre-recon" trip of the actual MARBLE MOUNTAIN Off-Road site to be later formally conducted in Late August/Early September as an official Off-Road VX-MEET for members in Oregon & Washington State. The purpose of the "pre-recon" trip is to evaluate the actual Off-Road site of MARBLE MOUNTAIN in advance to determine its worthiness and specifically annotate any road hazards/obstacles beforehand and to verify the route. VX'ers interested in attending the "pre-recon" off-road trip to MARBLE MOUNTAIN will meet at the following location:


DATE/TIME:

Sunday, 19 July 2009 at 1:00 PM


LOCATION:

Rosie's Restaurant
1245 Lewis River Road (WA-503)
Woodland, WA 98674
TEL: (360) 225-9800
I-5, Exit #21, head East 1-mile on WA-503.


We will meet at Rosie's Restaurant for lunch, so come hungry. After lunch, we will travel 29 miles East on WA/SPUR-503 to Cougar, WA for a quick potty-break. Then travel East 8 more miles on WA/SPUR-503 to off-road exit of Road-7900, and travel off-road in a NorthEast direction to Marble Mountain Summit for about 5--11 miles (depending on private land access; hence, this pre-recon requirement).

Marble Mountain Summit is located directly North of "Swift Reservoir" with panoramic views of Mt. St. Helens to the North and picturisque surrounding scenary at a summit elevation of 4,116' ABSL. The main highway of WA/SPUR-503 is at 1,200' ABSL, so we will be traveling an increase in elevation of 2,916'.

[KeithVXlvr]

I am in.

[tworavens]

Can't make it to the recon but count me in for the meet in the Fall!

[don moore]

let us know how it looks and feels.........

[Riff Raff]

Well; Gang, there were three(3) of us VX'ers (Riff Raff; Travelin2; KeithVXlvr) who performed the pre-recon of MARBLE MOUNTAIN on Sunday, 19 July 2009. I would personally like to extend my sincere appreciation to both "Travelin2" and "KeithVXlvr" for their profound assistance in making this pre-recon trip a success. Their input was invaluable and they provided a security safety blanket by their sheer attendance. In addition; no one got hurt and no VX's were damaged, which was an underlying goal.

We tried an infinate number of off-road trails (marked on a map and unmarked); both on privately owned land (yes, we were prepared to return gunfire if encountered); and on U.S.F.S. land, in an attempt to reach the summit of MARBLE MOUNTAIN. Unfortunately, 100% of all trails leading up to the summit were blocked with huge bolders and/or intentionally fallen trees (the privately owned land) or they had nicely painted steel impassable gates with U.S. Govt high-security padlocks (U.S.F.S.) with appropriate warning placcards.

Some of the rarely traveled off-road trails were quite challenging and required "low-range" in order to navigate the terrain. Just when we thought we had found an available path, we encounterd a huge rock quarry of gigantic boulders perfectly dumped by a dump truck across the entire width of the trail on a blind slope.

What we did discover was how amazing the VX can slowly crawl up very steep rocky terrain in "low range" with huge ruts and deep ravenes without skipping a beat. Further, we discovered was how tight the VX can turn-a-round on a very narrow one-way trail bordered by a thick forest of trees using the Fred Flintstone jockeying method (ground guides recommended). Our official conclusion is the VX is simply amazing in its multiple capabilities!!!

Of special mention; fellow member "KeithVXlvr", has the bullet-proof Kilby Enterprises "belly-pan" skid plates installed on his VX and they absolutely saved his VX (again) from imminent doom. At one point on a very trecherous angled slope with huge jagged rocks, "KeithVXlvr" performed an extremely tight U-turn engaging direct combat between the large sharp jagged rocks and his armored Kilby "belly-pan" skid plates. The rocks hopelessly lost the battle against the impervious Kilby skid plates, which merely shrugged-off the encounter and asked for more. After seeing first hand the bullet-proof Kilby Enterprises "belly-pan" skid plates in action, I can attest they are worth every penny and a set will soon find a home on my VX as well.

Once we determined we were outwitted by a series of roadblocks, we decided to take the designated paved U.S.F.S. road as far as we could in hopes of reaching the summit using legitimate designated roads. NOT!!! Again; once the paved surface turned to a dirt trail, we immediately encountered an impassable U.S.F.S. road barrier.

Bottom Line-- The MARBLE MOUNTAIN off-road trip is officially terminated due to lack of any road access (public or private) to the summit. We were; however, able to see some very up-close majestic sights of Mt. St. Helens and see portions of the vast devastation caused by the mountain's eruption on May 18, 1980.

Stay tuned, we will continue to search for other off-road sites in the Pacific Northwest that may be worthy of forming an official off-road VX function. Still, this pre-recon trip to MARBLE MOUNTAIN was a true "success" in that we evaluated its "GO"/"NO-GO" status as a possible VX off-road venture which was our primary mission. Riff Raff

[don moore]

Good job guys....wow wish I was with you .......still good job... thx

[Riff Raff]

Just thought I'd this thread again for the rest of the gang.