Seattle Cruiserheads

May 2008 Trip Report

Walker Valley

On Sunday, May 25 a group of the 'Cruiserheads and one Jeeper went on a trail run at the Walker Valley State ORV area, which is due east of Mount Vernon, WA. The group consisted of Andy in his SOA VJ40 with John riding shotgun; Tor in his VJ40, Todd in his FJ40, Ulises in his BJ70, Rochford (Newbie!) in his VJ40 with Matt Basher riding shotgun, Sondre (Tor's buddy) in a Jeep YJ Wrangler, and Alan in his FJ40.

We got to the main parking area around 11am, and after airing-down tires, dropping-windshield frames, locking hubs, and so on we proceeded to the first obstacle of the day - the "gatekeeper."

The "gatekeeper" is a bypass to a locked gate, designed to allow ORVers in but the rif-raf out. If your rig can't make it through the "gatekeeper" perhaps you should consider staying on the regular DNR forest roads!

We then ran some trails. Unfortunately I did not get in many photos. IIRC the only major damage was Todd loosing a BF Goodrich tire to a sidewall slash.

Quote of the day: "I must have tried making that corner 6 or 8 times. I tried what few lines there were. You said, "Hit it high", so I did. High didn't work. John said, "Hit it with more drama", so I did. Drama didn't work. I kept sliding over to the right and getting stuck with both ends having no traction. Every time I hit it, the left front tire threw more and more mud into the cab with me. I finally got out and stacked a couple of small rocks into the hole below the right side of the root and that gave me the traction to get through..." - Todd Bull

- Alan Wesley (photos by Alan Wesley and Rochford Guy)