HorsePower Ranch's 5th. Annual: Mobbin in the New Year.
by Dani Wiebe

Picture this; a cold frosty January morning and a ten acre horse pasture full of off road enthusiasts in every conceivable type of four wheel drive vehicle imaginable. This is every off road guys dream vision and the staging area for the 5th. annual HPR New Year's event. There was a vehicle for every taste and some that defied description, a few conjured up visions of Mel in a Mad Max film.
A good portion of these rigs were loving customized by their owners and as such named after I am sure countless hours of wrenching swearing and driving. Names like Chris Kingston's Scout "the Trout" or Andy Blazer of Little Bit Ranches Bronco "donkey" and Jake Hall's one ton Toyota truck "taco". Then there is Doug Wiebe's "weepers" the 49 Willys and John McCullough's Toyota "tinkerbell" and "stomper" the mega Bronco on 2 1/2 ton Rockwell's appropriately named after the 70's toy series. Our cover photo shows Doug Phillips of Dads Automotive moving through the course. This is about pride of ownership driving skills, bragging rights and the trophies made of various welded broken parts proclaiming victory. This year's course winner was Chris Kingston in his much modified barely recognizable Scout. The "oh ****" award went to Don Wolff of Wolff's Auto in Missoula driving a Toyota Forerunner that had a few moments during the day Saturday that would test any drivers fortitude. And the award for most try went to Justin Marks in his Toyota truck that came up as part of the Montana Toyota Off-road group. A few of the rigs were built by various shops and sported an odd assortment of decals proudly proclaiming everything from crawler boxes to chrome molly axels.
Tucked into a small section of the HorsePower Ranch located on the picturesque east shore of Flathead lake at mile marker #7 on Hwy 35 is a private proving ground designed to challenge the strongest most extreme four wheel drive vehicle out there. Saturday was spent on a full day trail ride to the top of the mountain with breathtaking views of the Mission Valley and Flathead Lake and was topped off with a dinner at the always fabulous Ricciardi's Italian Seafood restaurant where Chris Kingston of Nukeproff Fabrication was heard to say "This is the toughest manmade made course I have seen". The following morning Chris neatly spanked the course with just a few "holy cow you guys" moments uttered. The guys he was talking about were Doug Wiebe and
John McCullough of HorsePower Ranch the designers and builders of this challenging course.
Set on a few acres the course is not long but certainly takes a while to navigate. Especially if you have trouble keeping all four tires on the ground; which is likely to be
the case at least a few times through the torturous twisting and turning course. The top of the course starts on a rise and requires the driver to navigate down and through three stair steps each a six to eight foot drop. This managed to break hang up and otherwise disable a few of the guys. From there it’s on to the remaining section of continuously deeper holes and ruts strewn with rocks, logs, stumps, roots and just for good measure a hole at the end you could bury a full size lifted Dodge truck in.
At the end of the day the course had taken a toll on many of the vehicles that gave it a go. A few were trailerd home but most were able to crawl to the HPR's shop and be repaired enough to get home. There was the occasional new dent or scratch but no real damage and not a scrape or cut on a single driver. This is good clean fun at its best with a crowd of folks that show up each year to watch and cheer for there favorites and a chili feed that warms the soul while standing around a roaring bon fire. "Every year this gets bigger and better" stated Amber Ashby who helped with the chili feed and annually brings a huge bag of fresh fry bread that is always the crowd favorite.
Every year sees a larger group of drivers and their families who come to camp at the ranch or stay at one of the local hotels from across the Northwest. With the entire two day event sponsored by HorsePower Ranch and free to both the drivers and the viewing public it is a very affordably weekend for all. This is one of two big events HPR sponsors yearly with several smaller trail rides scattered throughout the year just for fun. In 2001 HPR built a smaller course towards the back of the ranch that is designed as a safe place for the most inexperienced beginner to the trail wise but stock driver to test their rig. Several times a year HPR offers driving and winching workshops to new and experienced drivers "safety and knowing what your rig is capable of is essential to enjoying a trip out to the forest and being able to test that knowledge in a safe controlled environment is a great tool in learning how to tread lightly on our public lands" says Doug owner of the ranch and partner with John in the fabrication and welding shop.
For information on coming safety classes, future events, trail rides or just to shoot the breeze give the guys at HorsePower Ranch a call or stop in. The shops always warm and these guys live and breathe four wheeling, bending steele and building rigs.
Every year we loose the use of various areas of our public lands due to the negligent behavior of a few. Most people attribute this to those lifted jeeps and trucks they see in town sporting the big tires with aggressive tread. In fact as a general rule the majority of devoted off road enthusiasts are not the problem. And those big tires definitely are not the problem. The tread on those tires is designed to achieve maximum traction at slow speed thus no erosion.
The goal of just about every guy with a rig set up for off road is to have it geared so low that he could get out of the jeep put it in 1st. and out walk it up a hill. That’s why it is called crawling. The majority of damage done to our forest roads is done by the person with street tires fooling around and driving to fast or the irresponsible ATV rider that takes the corner at 50 miles per hour and then dives off the side of the road to make a short cut. One rider taking a short cut is bad but the 20 that take the same route following tracks thus creating a new road is the real problem. Closing public land is not the answer,
creating responsible use through public education is the answer.
When roads are closed we all loose. Especially those that can not walk or bike out into the forest like my 78 year old mother that we recently took for a ride to the top of the mountain to see the most spectacular view imaginable. Then there is the family I know who has a child with Multiple Sclerosis that would not be able to take their kids camping in remote areas to pristine lakes creating family memories that will last a life time. Four wheeling is a great family recreation, teaching children the value of our land and allowing them to experience memories that can be achieved no where else. This is the American dream fulfilled, the free and open use of our national treasure.

HorsePower Ranch (406) 887-2858 31863 Holmes Creek Lane Polson, Mt. 59860 info@horsepowerranch.net www.horsepowerranch.net