Toyota – Page 4 – Not Your Average Engineer

August 12, 2017January 3, 2018

Big 4×4 Trail Day with Ken in the Mount Hood National Forest

My buddy Ken and I went out to do some 4x4ing around the Bennett Pass to Tygh Valley area in the Mount Hood National Forest. We did mapping for Trails Offroad while we were out and about. This is at the top of Bonney Meadows Road.

I always carry 10 gallons of spare fuel with me when I’m away from gas stations just in case we ever run into problems.

We camped out overnight on the trail. We saw some lightning in the distance and had a few spits of rain but nothing too major.

Up on top of Bonney Butte. If there weren’t clouds, there would be a great view of Mount Hood behind the truck.

Playing around in the dust.

At the old Friend School.

There is a piano inside. The old school is now a community center.

We went up to the Flag Point Fire Lookout up on the east flank of Mount Hood. If it hadn’t been so smoky, it would have had some excellent views.

Some of the gear up in the lookout tower. The lookout was very friendly and invited us upstairs to check out his room.

Mount hood through the haze and smoke.

Down in the White River Wildlife Refuge that’s run by the state of Oregon.

All done with adventures for the day!

August 6, 2017January 2, 2018

Mapping Day on Bennett Pass

We started playing around with something new this summer. Now we’re contributing to Trails Offroad. The first couple trails we logged included Bennett Pass Trail. Even though we just ran this trail a few weekends ago, we’re back again and now mapping it.

Plus it gives us a good excuse to take pictures of our truck, the Albino Rhino.

I mean, you never can have too many pictures of your truck, can you?

Coming over the gap. I bet this was blasted open.

Keep on trucking.

This sign tells the story of a French Canadian sheep herder whose name was Jack and who always wore gum shoes camping here. Now the area is named after him.

One of the beautiful alpine meadows at the end of Bennett Pass Road.

Another beautiful meadow heading down Lookout Mountain Road.

July 22, 2017January 2, 2018

Our First Time on Bennett Pass and Barlow Trail

Heather and I went up with Matt and his wife and family to go run Bennett Pass and the Barlow Trail on the east side of Mount Hood down to Tygh Valley.

There are a lot of huge views of Mount Hood on Bennett Pass Trail. We love these views and can’t wait to go back again soon.

Driving along on the trail with Mount Hood in the background.

Our little 4runner does great on this trail.

Behind the truck is Mount Jefferson, Three Finger Jack, The Three Sisters, and maybe Diamond Peak is even visible.

Our truck looks awesome with the top down.

This road is so much fun!

This little log was very naughty to our truck.

This particular nub caused a double sidewall puncture on one of our tires.

The puncture was much too severe to trail repair.

Luckily Matt and I put the spare on in short order onto the truck and away we went!

Going through the little rocky notch.

There’s that big mountain through the window!

On the dry side of the mountains, we went past this neat old abandoned house.

This old seed planter was rusting away in the weeds by the house.

After we passed by the house, the trail got much dustier and we stopped taking pictures. We ended up looping back up Barlow Trail and back to Government Camp to get over to the Willamette Valley once more.