Seattle Area Tercel 4WD Meet

[Jahmez]

Gah!

I really wish I would have been able to come. I handed out two of the T4WD flyers yesterday because oddly I saw two blue Tercels just like mine on my way home. Well maybe next year I'll ditch the fam and come out, it looked like it was a lot of fun.

[Petros]

Here are a few of pics I took for everyone to enjoy.

Three of us met at the Arlington Pull-A-Part at about 10:30 am on Saturday, and proceeded to strip the six Tercel4wd in the yard of good parts. Neu brought his girl friend, my daughter rode with me (she was looking for new seats for her CRX), and Synth was alone. So there were five people and three Tercels at the wrecking yard parking lot.


Here we are in the Parking lot. Neu's car on the left, Synth in the center and mine on the right. Notice the rear sun visor I added. I wanted to modernize the look of the car, and perhaps improve economy a bit by keeping the little arrows, as they slide over the roof, from tumbling down behind the car causing all kinds of drag and confusion.



There we are: Neu, Synth and me! with our cars. This is the "before" shot. We had so much fun in the Pull-A-Part we left about an hour behind schedule. Oh well, good T4wd parts are worth being late over.


We picked up list member Log Bear and his son Kelly along the way, they joined us along the way to the parking area of the Granite Falls fish ladder. So now we had five cars, and seven participants. WE all lined up for a "Le Mans" style start. The cars (left to right) mine, Neu's, Synth's, Logbear's, and Kelly's. That is Synth crossing the hwy.



This is the falls that gives the town of Granite Falls its name. That grate is the fish ladder in the foreground. Kelly is standing there looking for salmon in the river. We stopped in the town for a pit stop and got some interesting looks, including one guy in a pick-up, who grabbed his camera to take a picture of us filling the McDs parking lot.



Here we are in the Ice Cave parking area, five Tercel4wds filled the parking area. Too bad we could not park all together.



Inside the ice caves after a short 20 min hike. That is Neu on the left trying to stay warm, Kelly, Snyth heading deeper into the cave, an my daughter in the red parka on the right. Despite the nice warm day, a few feet into the ice cave was like being in a freezer, but with showers of ice water raining down from above.



Looking back at the entrance to one of the ice caves. That is Log bear waiting for us to emerge at the right cave entrance in the sunlight.



Synth, my daughter, kelly and me (taking the picture) exploring the top side of the glacier. Looking for the top end of the caves by the burgsrund crevas (large crack at the head of the glacier).



My daughter and Kelly posing by an ice bridge and water fall at the top of the small glacier. It is these water falls that form the ice caves under the glacier. There are a number of spectacular water falls that come down the face of the mountain from glaciers much higher up on the mountain.



After spending way too much time at the ice caves, we made our way over Barlow pass, and drove up 14 miles of gravel roads to the North fork falls. We all hiked down to it, but no one was brave enough to go for a swim in that glacier melt. That is kelly getting a good look at the falls. Logbear had to leave us early since he was working that night, but Kelly continued on with us.


I had also planned to explore some old mine shafts and another waterfall on some remote roads. But it was late so we descended into the small town of Darrington. This is the IGA grocery store where we bought stuff for the BBQ and headed to my house. that is Neu's girlfriend on the left, Neu and Kelly inspecting the iron grate Synth uses for a front bumper.

Unfortunately I did not think to get any pictures of our BBQ (starting much later than I planned), but we had a good time anyway. Synth made some excellent marinade for the meat, we all had more than enough of our fill and finished up about 11 pm. I presume everyone made it home okay.

It was a great day, we could have done this for several more days. We will have to plan for more drive time next event, I know of lots of fun places to go visit with our little Tercel4wd. This will motivate everyone in the area to make the next meet. The more the merrier.

WE drove about 100 miles, up over mountains and on steep gravel roads and no one had any mechanical problems. Not bad I would say.

[garyfish]

NICE travelog w/ pics, Petros!

Definitely worth a double post, lol

[gasha]

Great pictures. You pick nice place for meeting. Tnx again

[sdoan]

Ack! missed it! Looks like a great time, thanks for the pictures and story. I need to read this forum more often in the summer...

[toughtercel]

picture of three guys with three 4WD at rear , at the rear hatchdoor "4WD tercel" logo , both baige color has "4WD' in red color but red car has "4WD' in white color , did he paint it or factory-made because of RED CAR

[Petros]

Sdoan,

I knew we had a member in Bellingham and was wondering why you did not show up. I figured perhaps you were out for the summer or something.

The "4wd" is red in all of the cars, you just can not see it on Synth's car because of the color. the "Tercel" is white, and that is what you can see against the red car body.

[blade]

no is "4wd" is white and the "Tercel" is red you got it backwards. but ya i think hes painted it unless for the red cars the gave them white logos.

[Neu]

Yes he changed his to a white 4wd and took tercel off of yet.

[SynthDesign]

Thank you all!
So..... for the first Pacific North West meet, things could not of gone better or been more enjoyable. I think we all had a blast. It was greet to be able to put faces with members and I'm sure we all are happy to have such a great community of friends.

Petros came up with a wonderful trail plan and proved to be an invaluable tour guide and director.

We had no mechanical issues or any problems what so ever.. Wait we ran out time having so much fun.
Sorry to all who didn't make it.

Yes he changed his to a white 4wd and took tercel off of yet.

Yep sorry guys. Had to de-badge the front and rear. The 4wd on my 83 came white BTW. Nothing on my car says tercel except the door vin plate on my red guy. Keeps people wondering. I guess that will changed when it's plastered from all sides with tercel4wd.com stickers.

I'll add my picks to the t4wd gallery like Neu did when I have time.

[Neu]

I would love to host one down here. It'd be more mud/snow based and pushing out cars then this meet was.

If anyone would be down, I can maybe accommodate one couple, so synth could come down no problem. Bring the air mattress if yuo'd be down.

I could take us on 100+ miles of hardcore logging road, or we could do snow if the timing is right.

I also have a place that's maybe 2 inches of good clay/mud and we can do some cool stunts there.

Again, it'd be mud/snow based, and only about 30 miles would be on pavement.

Who would be down?

and I'd also love to do a seattle meet next year.

[teranfirbt]

I'd be totally down, just gotta get my oil leak taken care of. I've got a couple couches at my place in Corvallis if anyone needs accommodations for a night or so.

[Neu]

I now have 2 couches and a nice floor that someone could use!

[teranfirbt]

Oil leak and front end wobble are all taken care of, I'm just a set of brake soft lines away from being completely confident in the car, although the weather can be a little unpredictable this time of year.