Pickett Peak L.O.

December 17, 2000

(Photo's below story)

This run started at Denny’s Restaurant in Fortuna at 8am with a departure time of 9am. I left Fortuna early with the plan of meeting the rest of the club at the junction of route 36 and Horse Range Lookout road on South Fork Mountain. Apparently I missed some of the action as Dave Tiller hit a spot of ice on highway 36 and smashed his Jeep into the bank! Fortunately, he wasn’t in the Jeep as he was flat towing it. I heard the tow rig (and Dave) wasn’t hurt. This is definitely a bad way to start a run.

Eight rigs showed up at Horse Range Lookout Road about 11:15 (Mike & Kat arrived about 20 minutes earlier), so we had a total of 10 rigs for the run. After everyone locked up and some aired down, we headed for Pickett’s Peak Lookout (Elev. 5781’). Mike and I took the direct route, while the others took a little detour. There was roughly a foot of snow on the way to the lookout. We were climbing the L.O. tower when the others arrived.

After taking some photos around the tower in the freezing wind, we pushed on toward the Horse Range Lookout; (Elev. 6070’) which I would estimate was ten miles away. Our plan was to visit the lookout, then continue on to Barry Road, which would take us down to the Ruth Lake Road. Needless to say, but I’ll say it, “this didn’t happen”.

We stopped for a hot lunch at about 1pm (Jo Anna’s had brought her stove for a potluck soup) and the kids took to the snow with their sleds. Mike and I scouted ahead looking for Horse Range Lookout and the snow got deeper and deeper; we let some more air out of the tires and pushed on toward the top! After getting to the top of the ridge and still not finding the road to the lookout, we turned around and headed back to join up with the group. After a two-hour break, we decided that we had better head back to dry land (no snow)

When Mike, Jake and I got back to the Pickett Peak Lookout, we heard on the radio that some of the group were having trouble making it back to the L.O. Mike headed back down to where they were, but they had decided by that time to bypass the lookout via the main road. Mike came back up to the lookout and we decided to go back to the main road (the way we came in) then travel south until we met up with group. Our thinking was that we would break trail through the snow until we met them!

Fortunately, there were some tracks ahead of us, unfortunately, we came upon 3 pickups that were having problems. It was dark by now and as we approached the 3 rigs, the lights from the rest of our group could be seen approaching from the other side. Our group helped the 3 rigs get out of the way enough to pass and we were once again headed home.

We all stopped at Route 36 and aired up (thanks to Mike Eagan), whose air compressor is about 3 times as fast as mine. Mike and I brought up the rear as we headed toward civilization. I think it was about 7:30 when I got home. I expected to be in the doghouse with my wife, since she had promised to fix me my favorite southern meal for dinner and I was late! She wasn’t upset, so I guess she is used to my 4x4 adventures by now.

I think everyone had a good time, but would have liked to got home earlier since the next day was a work day for most people. As the saying goes, “Doo Doo Occurs”. I led a run that got home at 2AM in the morning, but I’m hoping everyone has forgotten that!

Jim Boyett

Miscellaneous Photos of Trip below.

Dave Tiller's Jeep View of Red Lassic from Pickett Peak

Just before hitting the snow. View behind

Richard moving on! Traffic Jam

Kitchen (work in progress) Having fun

Road Ahead Headed for home

Note: Photo's were various shots from Carl, Jim and Kat