Flagpole Knob – George Washington National Forest – 01/29/2011



Inspiration for the trip to GW came from talking to a lifelong friend of mine,
Toshi Eto, and the need for his to get his nice new 2010 Toyota Tacoma TRD
Offroad lifted supercharged rig a little dirty. He purchased the truck a year
ago, and has modified it for his needs over that time, but hadn't been afforded
the opportunity to properly take it off road. We kicked the idea around and
decided on the weekend of the 29th.

Alan Staiman is also at the top of my invite list any time I plan to get off
pavement and initially it was just going to be the three of us heading down
towards Harrisonburg. Then Toshi invited his friend John from tacomaworld.com to
come with his new lifted Tacoma, and with the pending snow fall I thought others
may be pretty interested so posted to the OCC message list to offer the ride to
any other list members.



Our final tally for the trip was:

Alex Melnichak – '97 XJ – Guest

Alan Staiman – '86 CJ7 – Member/MAL

Toshi Eto +1 – '10 Tacoma – Guest

John Davis – '10 Tacoma – Guest

Chris Stewart +1 +dog – JK Rubicon - Member

DKStewart +'01 TJ full of girls – Member

Steven Ortiz +1 – '97 TJ – Guest


We all met at Sheetz in Harrisonburg around 10am, departed by 1030 and stopped
at the closed down Food Lion a few more miles down 33 for me to de-trailer and
Alan to de-flat tow. After that we headed out to Flagpole Knob via Clover Hill
Rd to Union Springs Road.

The weather couldn't have been better for us today. Temps were 36-45, sunny,
clear skies. Snow on the trail was anywhere from 2" to 24" depending on what
side of the mountain we were on at the time and how the wind moved the drifts
around. I'd say average depth we were driving through was probably 5-8" of hard
packing slick snow.

Once passed the end of state maintenance, we were quickly stopped at the first
switchback/gate with Alan's engine steaming over. It was realized that his
coolant/water level was simply too low and needed to be filled after throwing up
some mud colored water. Max the dog loaned Alan a half gallon of water and we
were off again.

Our next incident reared up during the first long steady uphill section prior to
the sharp left switchback. Toshi was stopped on the uphill climb and couldn't
find any traction to get moving again. All attempts came with more downhill
sliding towards John's rig and various trees. Once we reversed all rigs behind
his Tacoma, DK loaned his tire deflators to try to grab more traction before
attempting the hill again. At this time, everyone else in the group aired down
too for good measure. Except for me. I'm lazy. After positioning Toshi for a
better approach, he was able to make the rest of the climb without issue.

The only strap of the day appeared on the steep hill climb with small off camber
rocks. Steven couldn't get his well worn Baja Claws to grab hold of anything
after several attempts, so he was snatched up and over the obstacle.

Those Claws would soon become the biggest obstacle of the day, lending a hand in
teaching Steven how to pick the proper lines especially in the snow. Several
more of the hill climbs proved to be a challenge for those tires, but with much
finesse and skinny pedal all were conquered.

While the main group stopped at the Meadow to check out the clear views, DK hit
the road to get Shania back to town for theater tonight.


The rest of us continued on to Flagpole Knob for some photos, then down the
mountain to pavement. We decided to run up the winding narrow road to Reddish
Knob also for some gorgeous snow covered valley views before departing for the
day.