scott Frary Trail Tour 2009 - drivers Meeting - Photo 26400031

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The first day we 'wheeled an area called Wake Butte along old USFS roads. Here in the foreground, local trail leaders John and Patti "girls to the right" Pyland hold a driver's meeting explaining to us how their club, the DeschutesCounty4Wheelers.com, is working with the USFS to get these old roads reopened as official trails.

The first day we 'wheeled an area called Wake Butte along old USFS roads. Here in the foreground, local trail leaders John and Patti "girls to the right" Pyland hold a driver's meeting explaining to us how their club, the DeschutesCounty4Wheelers.com, is working with the USFS to get these old roads reopened as official trails.

First carnage of the day went to Mel Wade of Off Road Evolution. Mel wasn't 100 yards into the trail before he ripped off the charcoal canister on his monster JK. Brad Kilby was quick to point out that his company, Kilby Enterprises, offers a relocation bracket for the JK's smog canister.

After the canister episode, Mel Wade decided to keep the left side of his rig elevated so no further undercarriage damage would occur. Too bad he forgot about the top side of his big JK.

And Mel's hits just kept on coming! After losing its canister to a rock, his JK decided to get even and cracked this rock in half. Trail leader John Pyland was quite distraught, saying that this was his biggest rock in the area and he had worked hard to put it in the trail. Mel and RG Dickey worked equally hard removing its remains from the trail!

This looks just like a scene out of last year's Idaho trip. Trail Tour organizer Scott Frary leads Brad Kilby and Jim McGean of Dynatrac along the straight and narrow path while Andy Burleson steps out of line in his Cummins-powered Flatty.

Albert Vanderveide, editor of Canada's 4WD Magazine, seemed to enjoy 'wheeling his TJ in the open air despite the rain. Isn't there some old joke about Canadians and ducks?

As the day progressed we ran into snow. First stuck went to Susan Moss in her TJ. A quick yank on the strap and she was back playing in no time.

A special treat and the end of the first day was dinner at the Elk Lake Lodge. Again, shades of last year, this lodge is only accessible by snowmobile in the winter - until Trail Tour comes along! Owners Dan and Tony went all out for us with a special gourmet meal prepared just for us.

Our local trail guide John Pyland called our first day an easy run but promised that Tuesday would be a hard run. He did not disappoint. He took us 26 miles east of Bend to an area called "The Canyons" or Schwartz's Canyon. Here he puts on a show in his flexy '48 Willys on the second obstacle.

Joining John as our local guide was Mark Valente in his new and clean Toyota "Truggy." Sporting 44-inch Swampers, Mark showed us the lines through some of the area's nastiest obstacles.

The first obstacle on day two was this big, left-hand rocker knocker. It caught quite a few of us, and appears here to have simply stumped our fearless leader Frary.

Cory Stumpf did a great job of maneuvering Bill Sienkiewicz's long Scrambler around the rocks. Here he conquers the first rocker rock.

Randy Mark was not so lucky on the first obstacle in his diesel-powered Rubicon. A little rocking of the Jeep by his friends and he was on to obstacle No. 2.

Andy Burleson just blew us away with his driving skills behind the wheel of his 4BT Cummins-powered Flatfender. This little Willys is a tractor, and Andy's work as a log skidder operator makes for a mean 'crawling combination.

Not to be outdone by the heavyweight crawler Jeeps, Tom Wood, of driveshaft fame, cruised all over the rocks in his cool Grand Cherokee-and he didn't even need Rain-X on his windshield. Tom is one of the mainstays on Trail Tour, always quick with a joke and very generous every time the bar tab comes around. Thank you, Tom, for being you!

Phil Rohr joined us last year as a guide around his hometown of Hayden, Idaho. This year he was representing Aqualu with his beautiful, aluminum-bodied CJ-7. Here he conquers some big Oregon rocks despite his carburetor acting up. Fuel injection next year, Phil?

Drive it like you stole it! Jason Redfield shows some of the biggest rocks on the trail who's the boss in RG Dickey's "Goat." This year the TJ-based buggy sported a Mastercraft racing paint job after representing the company as a participant in the 2009 King of the Hammers race. Jason and RG hail from Montana and always seem to be right there, wrenches in hand, when someone's rig takes a dump.

Where would we be without Warn winches? Steve Schoenfelder showed up with his personal D-90, complete with an 8274, and performed winching recoveries all week. Here he extracts our fearless leader John Pyland. John had been kindly letting us play on the bigger rocks while he watched, but after yours truly urged him to jump in the fun, he was all over it. Unfortunately he had a little trouble getting to the bigger rocks and hence this extraction. Sorry, John.

Dusty Carlsen never met a burger he didn't like - or one he couldn't eat, until this one! The Pilot Butte Drive-In prides itself on this monster burger, but the rest of us opted for ones of a more normal size, along with fries and milkshakes. Yum! And thanks to Tom Wood for sponsoring this cholesterol fest.

Wednesday was a road trip day. We left Bend early and drove for four hours (in the rain) to Clackamas, Oregon, home of Warn Winch. Along the way we stopped at this green sign which announced we were crossing the 45th Parallel, which is half way between the Equator and the North Pole!

Robbie was a little standoffish towards his gift at first, but they eventually got chummy. Check out those fuzzy little sheep slippers!

Once inside, we found a lot more than Howard Hughes' famous wooden airship. The Evergreen Museum contains a fantastic display of aircraft, including helicopters. Here under the dominating left wing of the Spruce Goose, our guide (a Korean War vet) shows us a replica of the Wright Brothers' first plane. We went on to see examples of everything from WWI and WWII fighters to passenger airliners dating from the '20s through the '50s. It is a beautiful display and well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Besides all the cool airplanes there are various vehicles scattered around, including these two WWII Ford GPWs.

Blue skies, no rain, and a big beach to play on. Life is good. Oregon has some great stretches of beach and dunes that are open to vehicles. Sand Lake Recreation Area is one of the smaller ones but there is enough here for an afternoon of fun.

RG Dickey and Jason Redfield got to work on their own rig when the Goat had a little electrical fire.

Fortunately the boys had the fire extinguisher close and not much damage was done. A quick re-wire and they were back to hammering it.

And hammer it they did!

Robbie Pierce's right hand man, Lizard, showed up with his "golf cart" and attempted to have as much fun as those of us with real 4X4s.

Tom Wood gave his driveshafts a workout spinning donuts on the beach.

Not quite his Trophy Truck, but Robbie Pierce seemed to get some oomph out of the Mastercraft JK's wimpy V-6.

Cheryl Frary discovers the reason why we like four-wheel-drive.

Phil Rohr got a little too friendly with this tree and got stuck in the hole at its base. Oregon sand 'wheeling, with all the pine trees, is a lot different than romping around Glamis.

Ace retriever Steve Schoenfelder came to Phil's rescue with his trusty Warn 8274 on the D-90.

Then Steve got stuck and was rescued by yours truly.

Then the Killer Bee got stuck and I had to rescue myself!

After a (quieter) night in Tillamook we awoke to more rain and hit the trails in the Tillamook National Forest around Brown's Camp. This was the last day of Trail Tour 2009. 'Wheeling in the forests of the Pacific Northwest means always being on the lookout for logging trucks. This guy backed up his dump truck a 1/4 mile to let us all by!

'Wheeling in the Tillamook forest is driving around a maze of old logging roads amid thick stands of trees. Rarely do you get a view with a vista.

First break of the day was Brad Kilby's front track bar, which broke in two. Fortunately Brad has a Premier Power Welder on his TJ so Alan Hewitt quickly applied his welding skills and we were back on the trail in no time.

There were some tight spots throughout the day. Some so tight a full size would never fit through. Here Mr. Dynatrac, Jim McGean, threads his TJ Unlimited through the maze.

Tony Fox has been on every Trail Tour but we never get enough photos of him because he is always the tail gunner. This year he brought this newly-built, Chevy-powered TJ. Unfortunately, the Jeep spent part of the week on a trailer with tranny issues, but it was in action on the last day, flexing along this rutted section of trail.

A view! Our trail leader for the day was Sean Fogli in his clean CJ-ish, Ford-powered buggy. He brought us to this spot for lunch where we could see the ocean. Having a local to run with in these parts is almost mandatory if you don't want to get hopelessly lost in the maze.

Some guys just know how to do a trail lunch. While the rest of us were munching manifold burritos and Lunchables all week, the smell of BBQ was always emitting from the area around Phil Rohr's CJ. When we went to investigate we found this.

Alan Hewitt, a.k.a. The Rainbow Warrior, made "short" work of an obstacle called "The Can Opener". Alan's CJ-5 is a veteran of all the Trail Tours and always manages to show off that an old-school, leaf-sprung, short wheelbase '5 can still kick butt on the big boys. While some of us long, monster Jeeps wallowed on this obstacle, the Rainbow Man thought nothing of it.

There was still some snow to be found here and there. Mel Wade found enough to bury his 42s and flex his Evolever-equipped JK into all kinds of contorted positions.

You'd think there was a pretty girl under there! It's amazing how much attention the sound of carnage will draw. Phil Rohr's carburetor got him again as too much throttle was required to keep the big Chevy running on The Can Opener, leading to too much stress on the Dana 44 front axle.

Ouch! This carnage, which happened pretty late in the day, pretty much ended Trail Tour 2009. Phil had everything with him and fixed the Jeep on the trail, but by the time his was running it was time to head back to Tillamook for the farewell party.

We think Tom Wood (right) has some different ideas on how to install a U-joint in an axle shaft. However, he stood patiently by as Tom Cain and Corey Stumpf wrestled with Phil Rohr's parts while using Tom's mobile driveshaft shop, which is found in the back of his Grand Cherokee.

At the end of the day Steve Schoenfelder made quick work of airing up his (and a lot of other's) tires with his Warn VTC air compressor.