Denny, Hyak, and Tinkham

snow · **Joined:** Sun Nov 30, 2014 7:38 pm **Posts:** 246

Started out going up Denny Creek. Came to a tree with a vehicle on the other side. They had been trapped overnight, some people came with chainsaws to rescue them and then I wheeled all the way through. Had been run the night before and had about 6" of fresh snow. One abandoned vehicle at the final switchback in the clearing. The Alpental side currently has a snow ramp built.

Then went to Hyak which looked to have not been run in a very long time. Ran to the second to last switchback at which point it was ram the snowpack endlessly or leave so I left.

Ran the Denny Creek off-road-proving-grounds back down, complete mess with probably 100+ vehicles at Franklin Falls trailhead, everyone spun out and just a disaster. Pushed a Prius off the bridge, some people just don't think about what they're doing.

Then went up Tinkham but didn't get too far before hitting another disaster of a dozen vehicles, pulled someone out of the ditch, heard there was a mess of vehicles above, some wrecked Jeeps that hit each other going down, and a road of ice so I just left at that point. Went down the road below the power lines and then went home.

Overall a fun day, and a classic I-90 snow wheeling day.

Avanteone · **Posted:** Sun Dec 11, 2016 4:58 pm

Sounds like fun. I ran Tinkham and Denny yesterday. Made the last switchback on Denny at the boulder field and went up until approx. 1/4 mile from the overpass where the trees stopped, and turned around there since I was by myself.

Barnyard · **Posted:** Mon Dec 12, 2016 4:37 pm

Nice report and pics. :thumbsup:

Title Fight · **Posted:** Tue Feb 07, 2017 4:20 pm

Nice report, looks like it was great!

01cherokeesport · **Joined:** Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:31 am **Posts:** 64

So looks like the days of running Denny creek are over. Just checked forest service website and Denny creek road is marked as closed from both ends. I remember there was discussion that it was only closed at the bottom but not at the top. Can anyone shine any light on why they closed it completely this year? Same with how they now put road closed except search and rescue signs on tinkham road...

Avanteone · **Posted:** Tue Dec 18, 2018 1:36 pm

01cherokeesport wrote:

So looks like the days of running Denny creek are over. Just checked forest service website and Denny creek road is marked as closed from both ends. I remember there was discussion that it was only closed at the bottom but not at the top. Can anyone shine any light on why they closed it completely this year? Same with how they now put road closed except search and rescue signs on tinkham road...

Saw a shared post from KCSAR that they were closing them, such bullshit.

01cherokeesport · **Joined:** Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:31 am **Posts:** 64

Is there any way to fight it? At this rate there will be no snow wheeling.

POR · **Joined:** Mon Dec 05, 2011 10:06 am **Posts:** 104

Identify as a snowmobile ?? :dunno:

01cherokeesport · **Joined:** Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:31 am **Posts:** 64

POR wrote:

Identify as a snowmobile ?? :dunno:

No.

Avanteone · **Posted:** Thu Dec 20, 2018 7:26 am

01cherokeesport wrote:

Is there any way to fight it? At this rate there will be no snow wheeling.

I was gonna go up and check it out at some point. Is it just small barriers or did they drop eco blocks and stuff to physically block it?

bgbubabrwn · **Posted:** Thu Dec 20, 2018 8:37 am

01cherokeesport wrote:

Is there any way to fight it? At this rate there will be no snow wheeling.

Not sure about fighting it, but there are plenty of other areas for snow wheeling. I've heard of good stuff outside of Packwood area, I like Plum Creek outside of Wilkeson, I'm sure there is plenty of side roads to wander off of the 70 and 72 without getting into snowmobile area.

01cherokeesport · **Joined:** Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:31 am **Posts:** 64

Avanteone wrote:

01cherokeesport wrote:

Is there any way to fight it? At this rate there will be no snow wheeling.

I was gonna go up and check it out at some point. Is it just small barriers or did they drop eco blocks and stuff to physically block it?

Last year they had just signs that you could easily go around. The sign said search and rescue access only. Not sure about this year. Technically the road going up off tinkham road isn't closed...but you'd have to take tinkham to get there.

01cherokeesport · **Joined:** Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:31 am **Posts:** 64

bgbubabrwn wrote:

01cherokeesport wrote:

Is there any way to fight it? At this rate there will be no snow wheeling.

Not sure about fighting it, but there are plenty of other areas for snow wheeling. I've heard of good stuff outside of Packwood area, I like Plum Creek outside of Wilkeson, I'm sure there is plenty of side roads to wander off of the 70 and 72 without getting into snowmobile area.

Packwood is too far plus now everyone is keeping there sweet snow wheeling spots all secret in fear that tons of people will start showing up and for whatever reason more places would get shut down. I don't understand why they can't allow only 4wd access.

Todd1803 · **Posted:** Fri Dec 21, 2018 3:47 pm

01cherokeesport wrote:

I don't understand why they can't allow only 4wd access.

Under-prepared, under-skilled hipsters in their awd/4wd station wagons, SUV's and Jeeps are what created the shit show up there.

Sent from my SM-T377V using Tapatalk

snow · **Joined:** Sun Nov 30, 2014 7:38 pm **Posts:** 246

I would guess that overall these roads end up close largely because the forest service and/or SAR doesn't quite understand that our hobby exists to the extent that it does. Every single person outside the 4x4 community I talk to about snow wheeling says it's impossible when I describe what we do. 25% of people literally say they think I'm lying to them.

SAR gets called all the time on hikers caught in avalanches etc. yet we don't see closure signs going up everywhere that it snows and you could go walking off into the woods. I bet they close roads because they don't really see a value in keeping them open, so why not close it. I don't know this for a fact but that's my guess at what's going on here. I'd sadly also guess that in 10-15 years there will be absolutely zero legal snow wheeling.

01cherokeesport · **Joined:** Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:31 am **Posts:** 64

snow wrote:

I would guess that overall these roads end up close largely because the forest service and/or SAR doesn't quite understand that our hobby exists to the extent that it does. Every single person outside the 4x4 community I talk to about snow wheeling says it's impossible when I describe what we do. 25% of people literally say they think I'm lying to them.

SAR gets called all the time on hikers caught in avalanches etc. yet we don't see closure signs going up everywhere that it snows and you could go walking off into the woods. I bet they close roads because they don't really see a value in keeping them open, so why not close it. I don't know this for a fact but that's my guess at what's going on here. I'd sadly also guess that in 10-15 years there will be absolutely zero legal snow wheeling.

Agreed! Luckily they haven't put barricades in front of most of the roads. I went up to tinkham and the signs don't seem to be stopping many people. There were tons of tracks going past the signs.

There are still places to go snow wheeling but they are usually far and on forgotten gravel roads that don't ever attract much attention. Tinkham and Denny creek attract too many people...hence the closures. Hyak is still technically not closed. Any good snow wheeling that way?

RockFace · **Posted:** Wed Dec 26, 2018 12:00 pm

snow wrote:

Started out going up Denny Creek. Came to a tree with a vehicle on the other side. They had been trapped overnight, some people came with chainsaws to rescue them and then I wheeled all the way through. Had been run the night before and had about 6" of fresh snow. One abandoned vehicle at the final switchback in the clearing. The Alpental side currently has a snow ramp built.

Then went to Hyak which looked to have not been run in a very long time. Ran to the second to last switchback at which point it was ram the snowpack endlessly or leave so I left.

Ran the Denny Creek off-road-proving-grounds back down, complete mess with probably 100+ vehicles at Franklin Falls trailhead, everyone spun out and just a disaster. Pushed a Prius off the bridge, some people just don't think about what they're doing.

Then went up Tinkham but didn't get too far before hitting another disaster of a dozen vehicles, pulled someone out of the ditch, heard there was a mess of vehicles above, some wrecked Jeeps that hit each other going down, and a road of ice so I just left at that point. Went down the road below the power lines and then went home.

Overall a fun day, and a classic I-90 snow wheeling day.

Great report and love the pics! Glad you made it through unscathed!

www.PNWJeep.com

Denny, Hyak, and Tinkham

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