Red Dog

April 22, 2007

Written By Fred

 

Our Red Dog run is the Gold Hills Posse once a year 4x4 and firearms run.  The four wheeling on this trip is mild and firearms use is closely monitored and performed safely.  
This year's participants included  Rod and Robert in Rod's newly constructed XJ, Johh in his TJ, Teddi and myself with our TJ.  This was the first time I've been able to participate in this run and I was leery of the weather with rain rolling in the day before the trip.  Rod assured us this was a rain or shine event.

We met in Auburn at the In-N-Out Burger in the drizzling rain.  Rob showed up in his pickup to visit for a while, but more likely to laugh at us fools headed out.  Once we were sure no one else would be joining us we headed up highway 49 toward Grass Valley.  Between the weather and my not paying attention, I'm not exactly sure where we turned off, but we left the hightway and followed a two-lane road back into the woods between Grass Valley and Colfax.

The closer we got to the trail head at the river the harder it rained and even hailed a bit.  We aired down and headed down into the riverbed.  With all the rain the river was flowing pretty quickly and John advised us to head upstream when crossing the river because it can be deceiving and is more likely to push you downstream that it looks.  We crossed the river uneventfully a few times and made it to our destination for shooting.  This was the perfect safe location as there was a semi-circle of hillsides surrounding us making a great backstop.  

We set up the EZ-Up canopy, unpacked the firearms and ammunition, set up our targets, and enjoyed a couple hours of target practice.  When the ammunition was spent we had a quick picnic lunch then went exploring up the river a ways.  When we reached the end of the riverbed we turned around, headed back, exited the riverbed on the opposite side and returned home via Colfax.