6th annual Christmas Tree Run: Part 1

6th annual Christmas Tree Run: Part 1

Every year the Seattle Cruiserheads heads out in the the cascades to explore, get stuck, test vehicles, play and find Christmas Trees to take home.  This was 6th year in a row we have gone out and every year is a little different depending on the winter conditions. This year was unlike anything we had ever seen.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving I wanted to check out an area for the Christmas Tree Run that we hadn’t been to before. Some years we are trying to climb to 3,000 or 4,000ft to go substantial snow other years snow can start as we turn off the highway.

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Rallied a few other LC owners to make the trek out and had a blast. An easy climb up to 2700 feet to find snow. As we hit that high the clouds parted and the sunshine was out. Great visibility and views as we wound through the Forest service roads as we climbed up to a place further down the trail than we had been previously.

As we round the bend to the turn off we have a short steep section that was the most exciting part of the drive so far. Everyone gets moving up the hill one at a time to ensure that we don’t have a bumper car Barney Rubble situation in the snow. Good momentum and even throttle input and we each crest the top of the rise with our incident. First sight we see a nice clearing with a great slope to the hill side but a nice flat place to park and hang out. This afforded a great spot for people to sled and hang out and the down slope also provided better views.

We hung out, talked about Land Cruisers played in the snow, warmed up by a fire and enjoyed the day. One of the group harvested his first wild Christmas tree and the rest of us gave good and bad advice to make the experience memorable.

As the sun moved lower in the sky and the clouds move in we started to pack up for the day. Right out of the gate we had a quick down hill slope to navigate. Taking it slow and in first gear everyone navigated it well and we were off.

Other than passing a group headed up the forest service road on our way down which involved some spicy and narrow passing off to the side the drive down was uneventful. High fives were shared and hubs were unlocked as we reached the end of the snow.

It is crazy to think of how perfect and tranquil this experience was in comparison to what we would experience the next week.

Tune in later this week for what happened the following weekend!

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