More exploration of the North Fork

Exploring the North Fork

Griselda and I went exploring some of the forest behind us today and it was fun!

And the snow starts to melt

Alas the snow has melted and the mongel hoards are upon us once again. It was good whilst it lasted. I took these pictures this afternoon of the Snoqualmie river near Fall City.

Digging out the driveway

We are nice people! Christmas day we went to go and make sure CJ and Pauline's place was not destroyed in the snow and to make sure that we would be able to get in when we fetched them from the airport. As you can see Duvall had a lot more snow than us and we needed to dig out the driveway in order to be able to get the car in.


Snowboarding shovel works like a dream


Removing about 2 feet of snow so we can get the car in the driveway


Yup, its past my knees


Toyota; manufacturer of fine snow ploughs

Adventuring in the snow

I thought these pictures of the car came out so nicely with the bright contrast between the yellow and the white background.

New tires for the FJ

Yesterday and this morning were pretty hairy. This morning even with chains on our ride into the office took almost an hour and we still slipped and slid in a few places. Needless to say it was time for new tires.

Today we went to Les Schwab and got some new all seasons put on. What a difference! Traction has once again been restored!


All wheels removed


Old OEM Bridgestone Dueler AT's


Closeup showing tread wear. The tire has about 2mm of tread left.


Testing out the new Toyo Open-country AT's


Closeup of what tread should look like

Toyota FJ Cruiser and tomorows snow

Today was a nightmare for a couple of reasons. Firstly I have OEM all season tires on my vehicle that are now almost ready to be replaced; secondly the conditions today where predominantly hard packed ice. On the way into the office this morning I slipped out a few times but was going slow enough that this was not an issue.

In preparation for tomorrow I put my chains on tonight and gave them a couple of test runs to make sure that they were fitted correctly. The difference was amazing. From having little to no traction and skidding out at stops the vehicle handled like it was on rails and stuck to the snow like glue.

If you look at the last picture in the set you can see that the snow chains really dig into the compacted snow and ice and give a lot of extra traction.


Toyota recommends chains on the rear wheels only


Closeup of the chains


Chains vs regular all seasons.

Snow this morning

Around the valley

Our beloved FJ
The snoqualmie valley
Looking down our street

Our first day of the season at Stevens

Griselda with the FJ
The snow that you see on the car accumalted during the morning that we where there.
Parking lot outside the Ski area.

Our trip to Canadia

The steam clock
Apparantly this is the mandatory tourist photo.
The only FJ in the village
Our lonesome FJ. Not another in sight.

Dog barrier for the car

Eeyore loves us again since we got the doggy barrier for the car. Now he get to join us on more walks again. Here are some pictures.

FJ Cruiser pictures

Looks like my FJ found a friend at work

Car accident.

Today Griselda was in a car accident. Fortunately she is OK (although I suspect that she may have some sort of whiplash).

To make things worse the damage to the car is pretty bad and we are worried that the insurance company may choose to “Write-off” the Jeep instead of repairing it. This truly sucks as the car has been paid-off for over a year now and I am not in the mood to have to make car payments again.

If we choose to replace the Jeep we are looking at approximately $28,000. We could instead choose to go for a lower milage late-model used vehicle where we should be able to get something in the $15,000 to $20,000 price range.


What about an Element?
Another option might be the Honda Element. It has the advantage of being a lot cheaper than a new Jeep Wrangler as well as being a lot more practical for our sort of lifestyle. It does not however have the same fun factor as the Jeep. Still I think it may be the better choice to make.

Still hopefully everything works out with the Jeep and we will not have to replace the car.