Last wheeling trip 2023....Idaho

[FINOCJ]

Went to northern Idaho at the last minute for a quick wheeling trip....Everyone in the group is associated through old CJs, although Roy brought is TJ. Trail is Denver Creek near Pinehurst, ID. Winter is starting to show itself around here - temps were cold and some snow on the ground. I am stealing some of the write up of others - the sort of winter wheeling pics came out nice...

We met this morning at 10 am at ITLEKSEZ' campsite. Fireball and FinoCJ had long drives to get there. FinoCJ left home at 4:30 am. Here's the start of the rock crawl up Denver Creek. This route has been on Dirt Every Day at least a couple of times.


ITLKSEZ is tackling one of the first challenging obstacles.


Here comes Fireball approaching the same obstacle. He made it look easy.


FinoCJ's CJ on a beautiful, but very cold day.


We've climbed high out of the valley below to an old mine site (on the left). Rigs from L to R: ITLKSEZ, FinoCJ, Fireball, Tomasinator. All different eras of jeeps and still running.


This waterfall was the toughest challenge of the day. This is ITLKSEZ' second lap up the rocks and it was close to tipping. If a mosquito landed on the passenger fender, the jeep would have tipped.


Taking a different route up the falls.


Not too far after this, ITLKSEZ' jeep emitted a loud bang. The rear driveshaft had enough of Denver Creek and tapped out.


Backing back down in FWD to a nearby access road.


Fireball (and his two cool dogs) had to head home and ITLKSEZ needed to nurse his jeep in FWD back down to camp. FinoCJ and I decided to head up to Pine Point, the former site of a fire lookout overlooking Pine Creek and the area behind Silver Mountain ski resort. We climbed up a ridge trail. Some parts were covered in snow and as the trail followed the ridge, there were some steep downhills. We wondered if we'd be able to climb back up in the snow (this isn't a picture of the snow-covered sections)


We made it up to Pine Point.


View of Latour Baldy (left) and Frost Peak (right). The rounded knob of Frost Peak was the site of yet another fire lookout.


FinoCJ and I followed our tracks back down from the summit. We made it up the snow covered ridges and came out of the mountains at Highland Creek. ITLKSEZ was still at his campsite. We aired up, trailered up, and headed out around 4 pm. We had a great time wheeling today. Have a safe drive home!

[FINOCJ]

A few more....



It's sort of a giant choose your own adventure book:



The 3b is unstoppable, at least until the rear driveshaft turns to laffy-taffy:


ITLKSEZ is the only one who did this line since he didn't care about left-side body damage:


The rest of us went around the right side and fought the log:


Tom's intermediate with a Chevy 350, truck 4-speed, D300, and a lunchbox locker in the back is surprisingly capable. I think it surprises him what it can do:


Getting up into the sunshine:



Tom:


James:


The drive out looked like a Thomas Kinkade painting:

[FINOCJ]

Last set....
Everyone showed up by 10 and we hit the trail.


























The waterfall…

[Jim]

Nice scenery with the snow covered pine trees.

What's going on with the front end of the camo jeep?

Any idea what 1,2,3 are for?

1 looks to be a lever / actuator
2 looks to be a hydraulic cylinder - but for what
3 look to be mounting points - plow? log splitter? I'd think log splitter with the lever where snow plow would have a switch in the cab.

[FINOCJ]

Jim previously posted: