Calvary 4-Wheelers

Sunday, December 16th Matt and I found it impossible to stop ourselves from parking atop two piles of snow in Calvary Church’s parking lot. Seeing our Jeeps sitting there ready and willing after the services let out inspired us to go on a little impulsive snow-wheeling trip. Matt invited Grace his girlfriend and Peter & I piled into my Jeep along with all the necessary stuff and headed up to the Switz to burn off some energy.

We arrived at the trail head at about 3:30pm and decided not to chain up, air down or un-hook swaybars. If we had done any of the three however, our afternoon would have been a whole lot easier, but not nearly as fun.

Matt took the lead after a bit breaking fresh tracks in perhaps 8” of snow with the top 2” of it being frozen and almost hard enough to stand on. The Switz’s gradual 4% grade helped us glide downhill to the first place where we got stuck. Snow was drifted quite a lot deeper around the cut in the hillside that makes the Play Hill area. Matt sunk to his axles and drifted closer and closer to the steep hillside and trees as he spun his wheels.

Out came the shovels and tow straps. We rigged a tree strap with a large D-ring as a pulley. With plenty of snow shoveling and the help of the tree we were eventually able to pull the MJ back up on the trail. For the rest of the trail down to Sunset we found that every time the trail went through a narrow cut, the snow had piled up in it much deeper and the ice on top was much thicker preventing further progress. Matt and his trusty MJ only got stuck while breaking trail through these deepest sections and we had to employ the straps and shovels 2 or 3 more times.

At one point Peter hollered for us to stop and look out across the valley at the beautiful view. It was close to 8pm by now and the twinkling lights of the city below were framed by pale blue moonlit hillsides on each side and the crystal clear starry sky above. We have driven this trail many times but never before at night. Wow! Sights like this are beautiful to see but impossible to photograph. This is the kind of view I have always told my sons was a gift from God for our EYES only.

We left the Switz at the town of Sunset tired, cold, wet and happy to see plowed roads again. However cold and wet we were though, we were also quite satisfied with our adventure and the much needed sense of accomplishment it had given us. Thank you God.
[Trip Pics]

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