NWC 2011, Central Washington

[pdxrovermech]

i know none of you actually off road your vehicles, but if you live in the Northwest and feel like giving it a shot then check out the Northwest Challenge.

http://www.nwchallenge.com/
located out in the middle of nowhere, between Puyallup and Ellensburg in the Snoqualmie National Forest, it will be a 2-3 day event that you are sure to enjoy.

 

[Tugela]

Boo hoo hoo. Can't make it because I will be driving my Rover up a FS road to access a trailhead for a 3-day mountaineering trip. This particular road turns back most attempts as it involves creek crossings that are a couple feet deep and is pretty damaged from snowmelt. While not technically "off road", I'll be glad to have my Disco for it, even if it is mostly stock.

Oh, wait, double check the dates. I will be around that weekend. There are some enjoyable trails out that way, but since I don't off road my vehicle I'm just parroting what other people say.

 

[pdxrovermech]

it would be awesome if you could make it. its pretty sad that its being held in WA and they have the least amount of competitors (if any), but thats been the trend lately. we've been wussing the events up too in an attempt to attract more rover owners. we've got some hardcore contenders from OR and Canada already signed up, so dont expect to win, but there's nothing keeping you from having a good time. Les from Rovers North is going to be my dads co-pilot so that should be interesting. i dont know what they have going on for giveaways, but RN usually takes care of us and last year at the event in Canada, BFG gave away a set of tires.

 

[pdxrovermech]

well it was a fun event. mostly along the kanar flats trail. i had to drop out after the first evening due to busted motor and tranny mounts, so i volunteered the rest of the weekend. a cherry NAS D90 with a 300tdi slid down a hill 75 yards into a tree and then the next day he rolled it and landed on his wheels. needless to say this will soon be a soft top rig. one rig lost its center dif lock and had to rely on front and rear lockers, he also got a flat. another rig had a flat and lost half his exhaust. the winner in his '57(?) Series 1 with a V8 blew a water pump on the way up, busted his motor and tranny mounts on day two (rounded up two to replace the motor's), and his fuel pump went out on the way back to camp after the last task. and plenty of various body damage. all this among only 10 teams.

 

[Tugela]

This sounds like a war, not a weekend of fun. Did any vehicle emerge unscathed?

 

[pdxrovermech]

i forgot to mention that 3 people burned up their winches. a couple rigs came out unscathed. it was really up to the owner whether or not they wanted to go balls out. the 4th place team was in a NAS 110 and the 5th place guy had a completely stock disco aside from larger tires, both untouched. the disco guy had never really wheeled before, so he just took his time, listened, and learned. Gord'n had a fairly stock lwb that i saw no major damage on. for the last timed hill climb he took everything out of the back of the car and even took his rear doors off. just to be different i guess. i've never seen that much carnage before, but there were a lot of people there gunning for first and much of the mechanical failures were just flukes.

 

[craig]

Other than dislocating my knee and tearing a tendon Gord'n and I had a GREAT time!

We unloaded the gear to make it lighter. It's tough competing against locked up rigs on a timed hill climb so we wanted every edge we could get.

Craig

 

[pdxrovermech]

glad you had fun! there are plenty of pictures up on the roverlanders website and the official challenge site has a short video. sounds like Les is writing up an article about it for the next RN magazine too.