yeah, I meant drink

 

bump////

 

I'm in for the 'non-dirt' drive. And no gravels too? All pavement?

 

sounds interesting, I might be interested. will have to check holiday plans

 

Don't want to spoil the party but just a word of caution. If we have any more rain before the 22 this will be more correctly titled Geysers and MUD. It may already have that status since last week's rain was quite heavy.

Most gravel roads are "not maintained during wet weather" and probably "not maintained during the wet season."

Driving on mud without mud tires is fun for short distances but not if you get stuck and that can really suck if you are 15 miles in.

Remember, you're driving a performance passenger car not an SUV or a 4X4 or even a Rally car. You don't have high ground clearance or a low ratio gear box or mud tires.

You should seriously consider not going if you have summer tires or your tires do not have alot of tread left. In any case you should have a full size spare tire

You should take some gear to help you get out of trouble just in case. Tow line, shovel, wood block for jacks etc. jacks, duct tape, first aid kit etc. Do some research if you've never thought about this. Make sure several people have this stuff.

A word of caution on tow straps. Since they stretch, they can be extremly dangerous if they break under strain. Think decaptiation! The general recommedation is to get the kind that does not have the sewn on hooks since this can act as a projectile. However I haven't figure out how you would attach it to the WRX tow points. The safe way to use a tow strap when getting someone unstuck is to have a secondary safety line of some kind wrapped loosely around the tow line to keep the main strap under control if it breaks. Also if you have to tie a knot, use a bowline or your tow line will be trashed. Make sure you know how.

Just to clarify, I'm not an "expert" at this but I did some research after I got stuck on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere earlier this year. Fortunately I did it with others around and I wasn't badly stuck but I did make me think about it a bit.

The gravel roads in question seem pretty good when I drove them in the summer. Most likley they are still fine and quite possibly remain so through the winter but things can change quite fast with a bit of water so be prepared.

tim

 

That's cool, thanks tim.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's the deal:

This drive is still on.

If we encounter difficult passage (remember, my car is set up for the street, but has been in dirt several times, happily!) than we will revert to the available paved road alternates, as posted by Pete Soper.

All those still in, say aye!

David

 

I'm down for whatever gets thrown at us.....

 

bump!

 

well i not going to be able to goo for sure now. For one the 22nd is my birthday and i'm getting together with friends and family. and two we're having a "Fellowship of the Ring" "Two Towers" both director edition film fest that day. 8 hours of movie watching joy.

Sorry, i'd love to go and do a dirt/gravel/mud drive with all of you. But it'll have to be next time

rich

 

is they a carvan or something from the far east bay like meeting at the concord kk or some place around here dahveed

 

Weather:

as of tonight, Sunday 11-16-04 the weather for this trip is:

Good Chanve of Rain or Periodic Showers AND Snow at higher elevations.

I'll post up something more concrete thursday.

-Gagan

 

I'm gonna have to skip this one. Girlfriend's son's 5th birthday! woot.

 

i won't be there
sorries

 

I don't know about an East Bay Caravan at this point.

How many ppl signed up are from the East Bay?

Myself I was prolly going to take teh Richmond/San Rafael Bridge, but then If we leave from Concord, we can still take 4-West to 80-West to that bridge too.

 

so is it like down to the three of us?

who wants to go for a fun drive this weekend?