DuckTruck
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
For the TLDR crowd, here's the short version:
1. Mt. Defiance is a challengIng, but doable track, with a beautiful view at the end.
2. @av8or is a really good guy.
3. @portland rivian new is wonderful at organizing & planning any number of things, herding cats, and tolerating my luddite nature.
4. The time needed for the Mt. Defiance route will split us up, which still works. If interested, make sure to start the journey with a pretty decent charge.
5. The weather is slated to worsen, which may make offroading slower.
6. The schedule is as follows:
- The caravan will leave Edgefield at 10:30 Sunday morning. Feel free to join me for breakfast beforehand, at the Black Rabbit restaurant inside the hotel
- We should be at the ElectrifyAmerica station in Sandy by 11:00.
- We plan to arrive at Timberline Lodge around Noon. A few people have expressed that they may meet us there.. From Timberline, we'll stop at Trillium Lake before heading to around the mountain to Hood River.
- Whether someone chooses to summit Mt. Defiance or head to the riverfront, the plan is to meet back at the Power Station at Edgefield to relax.
- For those interested only in the gathering at end of the trip, please let me know and I'll give you a heads-up an hour before we get to Edgefield.
_________________________
If that wasn't long enough, here's the full version of recent events related to this Sunday's trip:
Through happenstance, @av8or and I connected yesterday morning and found that we were both heading out the door to test the route. We ended up going together in my R1T to Hood River to try out the Mt. Defiance Trail. It was a great day for it, although the smoke grew heavier throughout our journey.
I want to take a moment right now to say how thankful I was to have @av8or's vast offroading experience available, as he's a great teacher of how to safely maneuver once the pavement's in the rear view mirror. Being a newbie at this, it was invaluable for me to get lessons at every step. Also, having never met before, we also had great conversation all along the way.
After bumping up the charge to 70% at the ElectrifyAmerica station in Hood River, we took off to take on Mt. Defiance. We left H.R. a little before 12:30 to find the trailhead. The navigation system had us there in about 30 minutes, up an easy gravel road Southwest of town. As listed in the trail notes, you pass through an old gate to begin the low-speed climb to the summit.
It is a slow, steep slog to the top over a very bumpy road of good-sized rock. You need to pick your path carefully over the surface to avoid the sharp rocks used to make this track. There currently isn't much to worry about with respect to hitting your skidplate when in Rock Crawl mode (with 15 inches of clearance dialed-up) as long as you choose the right line. That said, the tire sidewalls are at risk due to the size and shape of rocks you'll encounter most all of the way up and back.
We stopped early along the 1.6 mile "road" to air down the tires to about 30 psi. This helped improve the grip and soften the ride considerably. The Rivian had no trouble slowly climbing to the summit, but the "20-minute" duration mentioned in the guide apparently refers to just the drivetime from the gate to the top. It doesn't appear to include the time to come back down, which the Rivian performed flawlessly. Further, they're likely referencing someone with more experience and they're not accounting for the time needed to reach the gate, and the roughly 15 minutes needed to air-down the tires and another 15 to air them back up once you return to the pavement.
Our best guess is that adding this side-trip to this Sunday's drive will add at least two hours, and likely more time to charge, to comfortably get back to Edgefield. With the weather changing, doing this in the wet will only make it slower. I'm also guessing the view may not be there, due to clouds.
Accordingly, if folks want to do Mt. Defiance on Sunday, those of us passing on it will hit the riverfront on the The Hook in Hood River. We can also hit pFriem Family Brewers Restaurant, which is at 707 Portway Ave 101, Hood River, a few blocks from The Hook, if folks are up for it. Even if we split the group, we can meet up at the Power Station in the back Edgefield for burgers, pizza, or whatever, and visit for a bit before heading home.
Thanks to the insights and drive of @portland rivian new, a schedule of upcoming dates to save for the next several months will follow shortly. We'll include driving events and local get-togethers, all to make it easier to avoid scheduling conflicts.
Of course anyone wanting to lead an offroading adventure or any kind of gathering should post it here, and in Rivian Stories, as well as the many other social media sites developed by Rivian folks. I'm not one for reinventing the wheel, so if someone has a great idea of how best to insure communiques reach all of us, please advise. Even posting messages in all of the usual places still results in people missing them, which means they miss these events. My goal is to build some great adventures to be had, and make certain everyone knows about them.
1. Mt. Defiance is a challengIng, but doable track, with a beautiful view at the end.
2. @av8or is a really good guy.
3. @portland rivian new is wonderful at organizing & planning any number of things, herding cats, and tolerating my luddite nature.
4. The time needed for the Mt. Defiance route will split us up, which still works. If interested, make sure to start the journey with a pretty decent charge.
5. The weather is slated to worsen, which may make offroading slower.
6. The schedule is as follows:
- The caravan will leave Edgefield at 10:30 Sunday morning. Feel free to join me for breakfast beforehand, at the Black Rabbit restaurant inside the hotel
- We should be at the ElectrifyAmerica station in Sandy by 11:00.
- We plan to arrive at Timberline Lodge around Noon. A few people have expressed that they may meet us there.. From Timberline, we'll stop at Trillium Lake before heading to around the mountain to Hood River.
- Whether someone chooses to summit Mt. Defiance or head to the riverfront, the plan is to meet back at the Power Station at Edgefield to relax.
- For those interested only in the gathering at end of the trip, please let me know and I'll give you a heads-up an hour before we get to Edgefield.
_________________________
If that wasn't long enough, here's the full version of recent events related to this Sunday's trip:
Through happenstance, @av8or and I connected yesterday morning and found that we were both heading out the door to test the route. We ended up going together in my R1T to Hood River to try out the Mt. Defiance Trail. It was a great day for it, although the smoke grew heavier throughout our journey.
I want to take a moment right now to say how thankful I was to have @av8or's vast offroading experience available, as he's a great teacher of how to safely maneuver once the pavement's in the rear view mirror. Being a newbie at this, it was invaluable for me to get lessons at every step. Also, having never met before, we also had great conversation all along the way.
After bumping up the charge to 70% at the ElectrifyAmerica station in Hood River, we took off to take on Mt. Defiance. We left H.R. a little before 12:30 to find the trailhead. The navigation system had us there in about 30 minutes, up an easy gravel road Southwest of town. As listed in the trail notes, you pass through an old gate to begin the low-speed climb to the summit.
It is a slow, steep slog to the top over a very bumpy road of good-sized rock. You need to pick your path carefully over the surface to avoid the sharp rocks used to make this track. There currently isn't much to worry about with respect to hitting your skidplate when in Rock Crawl mode (with 15 inches of clearance dialed-up) as long as you choose the right line. That said, the tire sidewalls are at risk due to the size and shape of rocks you'll encounter most all of the way up and back.
We stopped early along the 1.6 mile "road" to air down the tires to about 30 psi. This helped improve the grip and soften the ride considerably. The Rivian had no trouble slowly climbing to the summit, but the "20-minute" duration mentioned in the guide apparently refers to just the drivetime from the gate to the top. It doesn't appear to include the time to come back down, which the Rivian performed flawlessly. Further, they're likely referencing someone with more experience and they're not accounting for the time needed to reach the gate, and the roughly 15 minutes needed to air-down the tires and another 15 to air them back up once you return to the pavement.
Our best guess is that adding this side-trip to this Sunday's drive will add at least two hours, and likely more time to charge, to comfortably get back to Edgefield. With the weather changing, doing this in the wet will only make it slower. I'm also guessing the view may not be there, due to clouds.
Accordingly, if folks want to do Mt. Defiance on Sunday, those of us passing on it will hit the riverfront on the The Hook in Hood River. We can also hit pFriem Family Brewers Restaurant, which is at 707 Portway Ave 101, Hood River, a few blocks from The Hook, if folks are up for it. Even if we split the group, we can meet up at the Power Station in the back Edgefield for burgers, pizza, or whatever, and visit for a bit before heading home.
Thanks to the insights and drive of @portland rivian new, a schedule of upcoming dates to save for the next several months will follow shortly. We'll include driving events and local get-togethers, all to make it easier to avoid scheduling conflicts.
Of course anyone wanting to lead an offroading adventure or any kind of gathering should post it here, and in Rivian Stories, as well as the many other social media sites developed by Rivian folks. I'm not one for reinventing the wheel, so if someone has a great idea of how best to insure communiques reach all of us, please advise. Even posting messages in all of the usual places still results in people missing them, which means they miss these events. My goal is to build some great adventures to be had, and make certain everyone knows about them.
Sponsored
We're coming from E. WA. Not sure if we'd have any empty seats, since we'll be packed for staying overnight in HR (no tonneau cover ya know 
so the back seat will probably be full) and we'll have our camera equipment/drone pack, too.
