The Trail of Madness

"NKato" (NKato) 09/29/2018 at 20:30 • Filed to: Killer Queen

2

11

So I went up to Skykomish and picked a forest road at random. The one I chose ended up being more suitable for jeeps. Proper, offroad vehicles. The Queen still managed, though, until I hit a very large washout that was deep enough to make me think that my car wouldn’t clear it. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Before that, though, I went up on a more steeper forest road and snapped this shot.

At the washout on the route I took, I h ad to turn around in very cramped space, but I managed. One thing’s for sure, AestheticsInMotion’s Miata, even if he implements the lift he’s planning, wouldn’t likely get halfway up that road. Would sooner knock out his oil pan. It also doesn’t help that the foliage was encroaching, constantly brushing against my car. It’s definitely a route that’s less traveled than the others.

After doubling back to Beckler Road, I went north on the street and enjoyed the road until I ran out of pavement. Picture below is of the Queen’s condition afterward. It’s hard to see, but the left corner light housing sustained some minor cracks, presumably during the U-turn because I hit some rather thick brush.

I’m thinking I’ll probably stick to country roads from now on. I’ll upload some videos when I figure out how to pull ‘em off my Surface Pro that I used to download ‘em off the crap camera.

Just Jeepin' > NKato 09/29/2018 at 20:52

0

Seems like there’s an obvious next step here: get thee a Jeep!

NKato > Just Jeepin' 09/29/2018 at 20:59

1

Haha, it’s an idea, but no. An SUV would probably clear it just fine.  That said, it was an interesting experience. Hoping I didn’t damage anything vital today.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > NKato 09/29/2018 at 21:12

2

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KFwPXEeJ3aI

NKato > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 09/29/2018 at 21:33

0

But why?

wafflesnfalafel > NKato 09/29/2018 at 21:35

1

damn.. that’s way in the heck up there...  (the Skykomish makes a nice breakfast sandwich by the way, perfect with a Rainier tallboy...)

AestheticsInMotion > NKato 09/29/2018 at 22:12

1

Where you snapped that picture is the trail I use to warm up before hitting the rough stuff. You’d be surprised by what the Miata can handle. Speed and sliding can make up for a decent amount of ride height, and I’m pretty sure we have about the same ride height right now.

Glad you went up there. It's beautiful, and even better when covered in snow! 

NKato > AestheticsInMotion 09/29/2018 at 22:17

0

I’m just gonna stick with the roads that aren’t messed up by storm runoff. Finding those will be hard, though. Did you ever take the route I indicated in that link? It’s pretty cramped in some parts that I had branches scraping both sides of the car.

As an aside, some of the ruts were as deep as 8 inches, and had some large exposed rocks that could easily mess up the oil pan if you took the wrong line. I didn’t go any faster than 20MPH because I wasn’t about to risk skidding off a cliff.

DipodomysDeserti > NKato 09/29/2018 at 23:46

0

Because you can’t hide body parts in a Jeep.

AestheticsInMotion > NKato 09/30/2018 at 00:54

0

Parts of it, yes. But that was during winter so it’s a bit tricky to tell where the trail matches up with my location.

Those deep ruts are rough. I always try to approach them as parallel as possible and at speed, even so I’ve gotten stuck twice in situations with a deep rut. I’m hoping the fairly thick skid plate will help out this season.

The Miata obviously isn't meant to be great for this type of thing, but having full visibility in every direction is an incredibly useful tool up in the mountains

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > NKato 09/30/2018 at 10:50

0

Old BOF cars have more in common with modern trucks than they do with cars. Slickrock crawling is pretty easy in them aside from poorer  approach, breakover, and departure angles on rougher stuff.

Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW! > Just Jeepin' 09/30/2018 at 15:10

0

No this is: