Gallaher Head Lake

[T.Low]

Was invited to go camping with Craig Miller and his North West Overland Society ( http://www.northwestoverlandsociety.org/ ) this weekend at Gallaher Head Lake, at about 5000' elevation in the Cascade Mountains. OK, I'll admit two things right off the bat: 1) I sort of invited myself. 2) As soon as he said it was a good idea, I immediately had a mild panic attack complete with visions of my Astro falling to pieces and all the other Land Rover guys looking at Craig as if to say "WTF? Craig, an Astro van? What were you thinking?"

But it wasn't like that at all. Not at all.

Once again I left Bellingham following my trusty Big Van Brother, Brian in his Sportsmobile, this time accompanied by his lovely (and rugged!) wife Kelly, and their lovely (and rugged) 16 year old Terrier, Angus. Brian, Kelly, and Angus seem to run well on Jack-in-the-Box Tacos; Me, not so well.

Yes, thats just one pillow on my Guacho couch. Fiancee Jen is in San Diego on business.

Heading East toward Snoqualmie Pass, sun setting in side view mirror.

Craig and some guys were already at the camp, and he would drive back down and meet us at the trail head at 10pm. Yep. Thats "easy 4x4 trail" in the dark. Sa-Wheet! : Can you say "Low Range"?

[T.Low]

We found the trail head and met another couple in a Land Rover (suprise!) also waiting for Craig. They mountain bike, play drums in a Rock-a-billy band, and 4x4 camp: who knew Land Rover people would be so cool. Craig arrived and after quick hellos, and checking out the massive size of the Sportsmobile, he gave us a trail breifing. 15-20 degree off cambers, a little rocky, ledges falling off to Lord knows where, some loose little climbs, keep the headlights of the guy behind you in sight, and communicate via radio contact. Sounds great, lets go.

I brought my million candle power hand held spot light that plugs into the 12v. It came in handy for seat scouting the dark hill climbs.

Well, I've got to post the night videos somehow, cuz we didn't stop for photos on the way up. Over an hour of low range driving, up the mountain, in the dark. The new 2spd NP233c transfer case worked well. Dean, I can't thank you enough for all the info! You made it possible. The van had no problems, but then neither did any of the rigs. No tire spin. It may have been an easy 4x4 trail, but you had to pay attention and pick your lines, although usually the consequences would have been minimal if you came off your line. There were some good sized rocks that gave cause for thought, though. Keeping in mind that I still don't have skid plates, I usually tried to stay high by running the tires over the rocks and thereby increasing the ground clearence. All in all, it was a sweet drive. I definitely took the next step in off roading the van; pushed the envelope without getting near the breaking point. The sheet metal still looks like street metal (as opposed to shiit metal!)

We were welcomed at camp by a beautiful campfire, nice rigs, good dogs, and warm handshakes, and the Perseides Meteor shower.

[T.Low]

Morning arrived and I awoke to "What the f&@K!??", as a small group of backpackers crested their huge climb to find an Astro van atop the mountain. Suprise! I was parked at the outer edge of our rather large group, right near the hiking trail.
The view from my guacho couch with the door open.

Craig and I decided I should move the van off the edge of the hiking trail, so I put 'er here.

I felt sick all day from...whatever, so I drank a lot of water and slept off and on in my cozy van. If I had known I was going to feel sick all day Saturday, I would have drank heavily Friday nite, but hindsight is 20/20. Maybe it was the Jack-in-the-Box Tacos...? Had the slider door open and the mountain breeze was great. Gazed out at the mountain peaks, the lake, and the rigs. With my eyes closed, however, it seemed as if I was at a KOA campground: probably half the rigs came equipped with young children and/or dogs. The kids were running around screaming and the dogs barking, then the kids were barking and chasing after the dogs and the dogs were screaming. All the while, the North West Overland peeps were hanging out at the camp fire eating and laughing so much, you'd think they were auditioning for a Seinfeld reunion show "laugh track"! Every 35 seconds, on cue, all day long; group laugh. I kid you not. Even with my dibilitating head ache I thought it was funny as hell.

Really a good group of peeps, for sure. They brought me chicken noodle soup, herbal energy drinks, and ? stuff, and talked about who got my van should I die here this weekend. Now those are good people.
And actually, on command, the kids would settle and the dogs obey. I just wish I could have been having fun with them all, too.


A little excerpt from Craig's trip attendance report:

"Thanks to everyone that came out this weekend. Soren and I had a great time despite the cloudy skies putting a damper on the star gazing. It was really fun to see so many different types of trucks on the trail at once. The final total was:

Brian and Kelly - Sportsmobile (which excercised its Atlas TC)
Tom - Astromobile (Very cool 4x4 converted Astro Van)
Cassidy - Super clean and very nice FJ40
Nate - Jeep Cherokee
Jay - Jeep
Max - Land Rover DII
Craig - Land Rover DII
Paul - Land Rover Range Rover SWB
Kevan - Land Rover Range Rover LWB
Forrest and Andrea - Land Rover D1

Craig"

Yeah, no kidding, ASV, the Land Rover guys gave us (read: ASV) the "very cool" stamp of approval.

[T.Low]

Roof top tents are really gaining in popularity around these parts. With bear, mountain lions, and other not so friendly creatures about, I guess it just makes sense. There were three or four of them at camp this weekend. This is Craig's Land Rover next to Brian and Kelly's Sportsmobile. Even the F-bomb dropping, backpackers wanted to look inside Brian's SMB, and ooo and ahh.

Rigs packed up and left at various times to meet various life schedules. We ended up being 5 rigs on the way down. I felt great, (but I'm sure I still looked like hell! )

[T.Low]

I'm disappointed with my lack of photos on this trip. These are just a few random shots of the way down, mostly when we would stop for no real reason.

I'll post a link to Craig's trip report and photos incase anyone wants to view more. I know he and Brian both got a couple shots of the Astro.

Cassidy's nicely outfitted FJ Cruiser. He followed me down the mountain and said he was suprised and impressed by the amount of articulation of the Astro's suspension.

[T.Low]

Cassidy's FJ descending into my dirty side view mirror.

Traffic.

Too slow with the camera to catch Cassidy in terrain.

[T.Low]

It was a great little trip, with the trail head being about 3 hours from home, and well worth it.

All in all, the van did great. I really could not have done the trip without low range. No way. Never did I feel that the tires were inadequate (aired down a bit) nor the suspension, and certainly not the power. The weak link right now is the front facia (rubbed again once or twice on the way down) and the undercarriage is obviously vulnerable without any armor under there.

Once again, most the guys in the group were intriqued with the modified Astro van. Definitely got some good compliments on it. While I joke about people having attitude toward the mini van, of course nobody did.. Really a great group of people. Even on the way down, the "traffic" would stop me to ask about it. One guy was taking pictures of it and asking questions as we were passing by less than a foot apart.

I'll post a link to Craig's trip report, or feal free to use the link in the first post and navigate to it yourself. Also hope to find a better way to post videos, my youtube vids haven't been clear enough for me to bother posting the nite vids. Thanks for reading.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Excellent write-up! Too bad you felt like crap and missed a lot of the fun. You are right about most fellow wheelers openly accepting the fact you have an Astro or Safari and are wheeling it. Once they see how well they really do work, they are pretty impressed with them.

Now get to work on that skid plate and rock rails!

[GEJ]

Tlow,

Thanks for shairing the photo's.I enjoyed them very much.Looks like a very cool spot.

[Rebel]

Beautiful country. Thanks for sharing the pics.

[dunedog]

Stoked !!!! again thanks Tom

[T.Low]

Stoked !!!! again thanks Tom

Hah, hey thanks guys. Always great to get out.

Here's 30 seconds of Brian's SMB, etc.

http://www.northwestoverlandsociety.org ... -Head.aspx

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Video won't work without a username and password.

[T.Low]

Video won't work without a username and password.

Uhhhhh, woops! We'll work something out.

[mdmead]

Thanks again for posting your trip. Many of us are jeleous!