A sunny a mostly pleasant day greeted us Sat morning at 9:00 AM in Baken Park.  I grabbed some bagels for lunch and downed a couple for breakfast on the way to Baken Park to meet the group. The trail ride was my responsibility this month and I was thinking something like Raspberry Ridge.  The recent snow made the conditions promising for a snow run.  There were soon discussions of heading towards Custer Crossing and checking out the experimental forest road.  This area seems to provide a good mix of fun snow challenges, even when there is no snow in Rapid City.  Charlie Rupp and Rhonda Mumm met the group at 9:00 but were unable to make the trail run due to busy schedules.  After visiting for a while the group headed up hwy 44.  The caravan consisted of Mike and his family Bobby, Mikayla and Carlie in their 4Runner.  I followed in the Tacoma with lab Zoie.  Donna and her German Shepard Elsa piloted the Kinsella Fj60.  New member Brian in his 4Runner, Cody and his dad Craig in Cody's mini truck were along too.  Mike and his wife Kim joined us in their newer 4Runner.  The snow was deep but negotiable.  Earlier tracks covered by the more recent snows made staying in the center of the road difficult at times.  An icy granular case of snow was covered by a heavy wet layer and a thin icy crust on top.  This made even moderately deep snow a challenge.  The skinny pedal got a good workout, at least it did in my Tacoma.  Mike and Kim got some experience with the traction control in their 4Runner.  It basically rendered the 4Runner useless in the deep snow.  Turning it off found the V8 to have plenty of power to turn the tires and actually do very well in the snow.  This feature makes my 4Runner boring in the snow as I have the only way I can turn it off is in low range.  It's a nice safty feature (I guess) but could possibly leave leave me stuck in deep snow where momentum and wheel speed are often needed.  This brings about an interesting campfire discussion when considering the automation and "dumbing down" of some of our favorite vehicles.  Those with the new Atrac systems such as the FJ Cruiser would be the first to tell you that those systems work well.  I've seen them work and agree.  We had no campfire so we continued on.  Cody doesn't have traction control in his mini - maybe this is why he was seen stuck in the ditch as we made our way back to hwy 44.  A strap and Brian's 4Runner had him back on the road.  The dogs and kids played in the snow and we decided to keep moving North and West.  Custer Crossing was next and there are several open forest service roads with deep snow.  We took turns leading and were turned around by a road with a steep incline and bumper deep snow.  We all gave it a good try but couldn't quite crest the hill.  The decision to make out way towards Robaix Lake found us on a road that would have taken us to the campground.  A brief encounter with a dump truck driver stopped us before getting far.  We quickly backed to a fork in the road to let him pass without trouble.  I suspect we caused him a good one minute delay in his journey.  As he passed he stopped and didn't exit the truck but seemed to be trying to communicate with us.  It was a unanimous agreement in the group that this dude was angry and not cheering us on.  Maybe we were in his driveway.  A quick check of the map confirmed this was not his driveway or even his road.  Public open forest service road.  Up to that point it was plowed anyway so we turned around and followed him out at a safe distance.  Too bad he didn't get stuck, it would have been fun not helping him out.  We quickly found some of the deepest snow of the trip.  I was leading and quickly became buried as the snow deepend fast and unexpectedly.  Cody was last and the only one not stuck.  He traded stuck and unstuck with Donna and her 60 for a good while as they used his winch and a combination of tow straps.  While they were playing Mike and I winched my Tacoma forward through the deep stuff to a more shallow spot.  I was able to turn around at that point.   Brian was extracted and I was able to get back through the deep section with a lot more speed the second try.  The afternoon was slipping away and it was time to return home and get ready for dinner and meeting at the Gas Light.  The ride home was without incident and we joined other club members that evening for food and fun.

                                                                                      Kent Renaud