FEB 25 2006. What a great day!! The weather was perfect for some major fun in the sun and snow.  Out for the day were Steve Reedy in his 91 FJ80, Tom Baker tagged along with Donna, Colt, and Cody Kinsella in their 93 FJ80, Charlie Rupp was sporting his 88 4 Runner.  Also along were Jon Renstron and his wife in their 73 Jeep CJ and a newcomer to DTC trail riding Jeff Simon in his 94 Jeep Wrangler.  Also along was the Bender family, there was me (Rayland) with my son Korbin, my nephew Deangalo in my 93 4 Runner.  We all met up at Baken Park, fortunately they waited for me, because I was the trail leader, I blamed my lateness on my son, always a good excuse.

 We headed our rigs towards the Rochford area and for the snow that waited there for us.   We all locked in our hubs and started down the snow-covered road.  It didn’t start out to deep but the farther we drove the deeper it got.  What Fun!!!  Poor Jon in his narrow short wheel based vehicle was having a time of it trying to keep between the ditches, with little success.  He discovered a ditch with deeply plied snow.  We let Jeff in his J**p pull him out.  He did pretty well for quite awhile until we came to another section that got the better of him.  I was really glad that I had gone through my winch with some much-needed repairs.  He gave us all a show sliding this way and that way, and finally coming to rest in some pretty deep snow.   The snow was at least 5 feet deep in this ditch.  With some awesome winching techniques we were able to retrieve him from his snow bound trap.  We soon had him back on the road and ready to finish out the trail.

 We wondered on towards Roabaix Lake where we stopped for lunch, and gave the kids an opportunity to play in the snow.  It was after lunch that some of our crew, Donna, Steve, and Charlie decided to head back to their homes. 

 Jon, Jeff, and I decided we hadn’t had enough fun yet so we went looking for some fresh snow.  We found some great fresh snow to romp in, and romp is what we did.  Fresh snow always holds fresh challenges, we came across a hill that proved to be as hard going down as it was a major challenge to go up, as we were looking at the map it said it was a dead end, so we really had no choice but to go back up.  What a challenge, what a blast, a lot of sling shotting and we all made it back up.  I really had a great time and I want to thank everyone for showing up.  Toyota and Jeep owners, we are all the same.  We are out to have a good time with our rigs and our fellow wheelers. Until we meet again always keep at least 2 wheels on the ground at all times.