Our 4-wheel drive club, the Timber Tamers, puts on an annual event where participants come to test their skill, knowledge and endurance in a 24-hour off-road based challenge called TTCW. This year, it was near the town of Liberty in eastern Washington. Terry and I had the courtesy task this year. Our job was to sit on one of the fire roads in our little Kia with our mountain bikes on the roof rake with the hood up waiting for the contestants to stop and offer help.
We had most of our gear loaded up on Wednesday night. Terry came home from work early on Thursday and loaded the car on the trailer. We ended up leaving our house around 2:45 and headed east. Our drive was very uneventful. We arrived at camp a little after 5:00. As soon as we arrived, we hid the car behind Gary and Lori’s motor home and covered it with a tarp. We had to hide the car and ourselves to keep the contestants from seeing us since if they recognized us it would ruin our task.
We got the camper leveled and unpacked some gear after we first arrived. The weather wasn’t bad yet, but we set up the canopy preparing for the rain that was predicted for the weekend. We weren’t too hungry, so for dinner just barbequed some hot dogs. After eating, we took our chairs to enjoy the fire with the rest of the Tamers that arrived. It was fun relaxing and talking with the group. Terry went to bed first but I stayed up a little later. It was cool since after most of the people went to bed, you could hear elk bugling in the distance.
On Friday, we slept in until about 7:30. Terry took off with Russ to find out where we were suppose to park our car on Saturday since we hadn’t been in the area before. I chatted with people around the camp while he was gone and enjoyed a non-fat, sugar-free, cinnamon dolce latte that Gary made me. When Terry got back, I had breakfast ready for us. I made sausage and egg sandwiches on English muffins. I got the idea from my mom at OSP and they turned out really good.
Most of Friday was spent hanging out at camp. It drizzled most of the day and the rain picked up as the day progressed. The club had put up several canopies and tied tarps around them so when the competitors came to check in and do tech Terry, Zeus and I had a place to hide. 
For dinner, the club had extra tri-tips from OSP that we barbequed. Terry helped with the cooking. They also served potato salad and corn. It was fun getting to eat as a club and bonding a little more with the various members. After dinner we relaxed around the fire for a little bit before Mark made us go to bed. We wanted to make sure everyone was up bright and early and ready for their task on Saturday.
Luckily, Terry and I didn’t have to be up too early on Saturday morning. He still wasn’t feeling well, so getting the extra hours of sleep was nice for both of us. We got up after everyone else left and loaded up the car. I took a quick shower in the morning before we left. We ended up leaving camp around 9:00 and drove a few minutes up the main road, took a left on a forest road and then parked about a mile up the gravel road on the shoulder. Terry lifted to hood and we were there for the day.
Overall, it was fairly boring day. I got a lot of reading in and Zeus spent most of the time napping. We were parked for 12 hours and had 8 teams cross our path. Two blew right past us (one told the girls at the next check point they would never stop for mountain bikers before they were told that we were wheelers and they failed that task), one group said they would send help (but forgot to tell the girls at the check point), and 5 of the teams offered gas without any, or much, hesitation. All the people Terry talked to seem to be enjoying their time and were thankful that we were there to put on the event.
Our task ended at 9:00 at night. We turned the car around and headed back to camp. We stopped at the communications tent and talked with some of the other Tamers to see how their days went. From what we could hear, we had it pretty easy. About the time we were there, we heard on the radio that someone in the competition had rolled and needed some help. With all that rain, the trails got a little hairy during the day and even worse once it got dark.
We drove back to the camper around 10:30 and I got changed and headed for bed. Terry decided to stay up a little later to talk with the other members and hear more about what went on during the day. I finally heard him come in at 12:30ish, which is incredibly late for him. I woke up, so he chatted excitedly to me quickly before crawling into bed.
It was cold and wet thru the night. When we awoke on Sunday morning, Terry turned on the heater in the camper. It was the first time we had ever used the heat and it was sure nice to have, as it was only 40 degrees outside. I took a quick shower in the morning, and then went outside to see the others. As part of the competition, the Tamers supply breakfast for the competitors. They made biscuits and gravy and had muffins.
After people were done eating breakfast, the awards where given out. The first award to be given out was the Hard Luck award. It was given to Kyle, who rolled his truck on Saturday night. Then the first, second and third place team trophies were handed out. Everyone who was there seemed to enjoy the day. After the awards, we started to pack up our gear. Terry offered to tow the kid who rolled over the pass since I could drive the car and he wasn’t able to drive his truck.
We left camp around 12:30. The drive home was windy, but not bad. Terry said the truck and trailer handled well with the Toyota on the back. We unloaded the car, and had dinner while we waited for Kyle’s dad to show up from Oregon and tow him back to Beaverton. It was a fun weekend and we can’t wait to do it again next year. At least, next year we won’t be the newbies, so will hopefully have a more eventful task.
Click here to see the rest of my TTCW pictures!
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