The Iron Mountain Road patrol started off with a bit of a hitch. Brad, Kathleen, and Garrett were sick so they weren’t going to make the trip. Unfortunately, they had the heater and easy up canopy. Larry, Cole, Kelly, and Keane in Larry’s full size Dodge decided to skip the official Starbucks meeting place in order to swing by and pick everything up on the way up the hill. The big Dodge proved to be too much for the Jeeps to keep up with and got up to the Forest Service kiosk around 9:30. The rest of the group (Rob and Sue in their Jeep, Rod in his Dodge and John, Elena, Ben and Ryan in their Jeep and Earl’s friends AJ and his wife) showed up around 10. There was plenty of snow down low, but we decided to make our way up a bit farther. After a bit, we caught up to about 9 or 10 Jeeps airing down in the middle of the road. They turned out to be the El Dorado County Search and Rescue who were out conducting cold weather training. After talking for a bit we decided to move on. When we got moving again, Pat and family had caught up to us in their Commando
We set up our check point at (WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE ROAD?(I can't remember)) and began the difficult task of sitting in the sun waiting for people to pass by. The weather was perfect for the first part of the day, but started to turn around 1. After finishing the count the group in the Dodge decided to call it a day. The rest of the group headed up the hill. The exact numbers that we counted are a bit hazy, but I think we had about 25 vehicles, around 10 quads, 2 snowmobiles and 1 "other". We may have set up a bit high because on our way out there were a lot of people down below us.
The rest of the group headed up Iron Mountain Road. We were treated to weather that ranged from sunny to rainy to heavy snow. We took one of the side trails that parallels the main road for about a mile. Parts of the trail were uphill with turns that made for some pretty slippery driving conditions. Rob did a great job breaking the trail with his big Jeep. John wasn’t allowed to lead after last month’s fiasco (thanks Fred (just kidding)). Pat soon figured out that his Commando didn’t like the slippery stuff with his tires full of air. We stopped a couple of times until we got them low enough to start floating. After that it behaved like a tractor. AJ had fun when his Jeep started sliding backwards down a slope when he had to stop part way up. Everyone did very well and we hooked back up with the main road and continued our climb.
When we reached the top of the grade we were treated to sunshine and spectacular views. We parked there for a while before heading back down the hill the way we came. Of course no Posse snow run is complete without an all-out snowball war. It was every man/woman for them selves. That was until Rod started getting the better of all of us and we all ganged up on him. I’m still not sure who won but it sure was fun with all that fresh snow to toss around. We finally called it quits and headed back down.
On the way down we came across a full sized Expedition buried in a snow bank. Rod tried pulling him out with his big Dodge truck without success. Pat ended up giving a hand. The Commando pulled on the Dodge and the Dodge pulled on the Expedition. Success! The Expedition was free. We aired all the tires back up at the information booth. From there Rod took off home to sell an engine out of his Cherokee project rig and Rob, John, and Pat (with families in tow) headed to Placerville to find some nice hot pizza. We ended up resurrecting an old Posse tradition and had Pizza at Spankey’s. It’s kind of a hole in the wall with only average pizza but we go there for the atmosphere (insert smiley here). We all had a great time but all agreed we are anxious for warm weather and ROCKS!!!