Over on Expedition Portal, there is a great post on a backroads trip a member (beers_52) took from basically John Day to Prineville, Oregon. Great story and photos.
You can read the post at http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7122
Enjoy.
After a nice peaceful night in a hotel in Ellensburg, Washington, we loaded up the Land Cruiser and headed out for a day trip to the Quilomene Wildlife Area. After topping off the fuel tank, we met up with the Northwest Backroads Drivers group for breakfast. Today, in addition to the participants from the previous days trip to the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area (see Whiskey Dick Overland Tour), we were joined for breakfast by Bill and Ed, both of Ellensburg.
After a night of camping along the Yakima River, my daughter and I got up early, broke camp and headed to Ellensburg, Washington to meet up with the Northwest Backroad Drivers group to explore the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area just east of Ellensburg.
After a stop for a quad iced americano and to top off the gas tank, we pulled into the Bar 14 Restaurant for the morning meet up. We were running a little late by time we arrived. Already eating breakfast were Rich (driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee), Jan and their 4 year old granddaughter Tara and Jerry our tour leader for the weekend (driving his Ford Bronco II).
My daughter and I planned a weekend of camping in between the two day trip to the Quilomene area with the Northwest Backroad Drivers group. As luck would have it, the camping trip did not pan out as I would have hoped for. But we still had fun.
After a late start getting out of town, we finally made Ellensburg, Washington around 8:00 PM on Friday night. Not a lot of time to find a camping site, especially on Friday night. I spotted some campgrounds on the Yakima River in the Washington Road & Recreation Atlas south of Ellensburg in the canyon, so we headed that direction.
Photos of an overland day trip on 07.22.07 to explore the Quilomene Wildlife Area near Ellensburg, Washington have been posted at Quilomene Wildlife Area Photos.
A full trip report will be posted soon.
Photos of an overland day trip on 07.21.07 to explore the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area near Ellensburg, Washington have been posted at Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area Photos.
Photos from Sundays overland trip to the Quilomene and Colockum Wildlife Areas as well as a full trip report will be posted soon.
This year was the third year attending the annual PNW4WDA annual jamboree. As in years past, I volunteered to help ARB serve their annual Friday dinner for the event. This is always a lot of fun and a great group of people to work with. They do a great job on putting on the dinner.
Since the event was a sellout, all the trail runs on Saturday were quickly filled. This was also the first time I was actually going to wheel my FJ-80 Land Cruiser, so I decided to sit in and attend (and assist where needed) the Four Wheel Drive 101 class presented by Chris Wood of ARB. This is a great class and you will pick up tips whether you are brand new to wheeling or a seasoned veteran. A great emphasis is placed on personal safety and preparedness. There were also some excellent discussion and demonstration on vehicle recovery techniques including a demonstration on how to winch you vehicle backwards with a front mounted winch.
After the presentation, the rest of the day was spent on the Clover Springs Trail with a few stops along the way to practice off-road driving techniques. An especially important practice session was backing down a hill using only your mirrors.
By time we got back to the jamboree base camp, we had been on the trail nearly eleven hours. A long and fun day. I look forward to next year.
You can view my photos of the trail run at Clover Springs Trail Run.
Last Saturday, we just completed another wonderful trip with the Backroad Drivers Northwest group. On this trip we explored some of the roads near Rimrock Lake off Highway 12 in Washington state. Our focus for the day was the Wildcat Creek and Russell Ridge areas.
Jerry, our tour leader posted a nice write-up of the trip and it is posted at Rimrock Roads and Trails.
You can view more of the photos I shot on the trip at Rimrock Roads and Trails Photos.
BLUERIBBON COALITION ACTION ALERT!
Attention Oregon Recreationists!
The Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests and Crooked River National Grassland are formulating new travel plans that will limit ALL vehicle use to designated roads, trails and areas. Over the past few months the Deschutes/Ochoco Travel Management Working Group has been busy. The working group is made up of Tribal, Federal, State, and Local Government Agencies; interest groups such as tourism, recreationists (both motorize and non-motorized), users and industry; and private individuals that use or are neighbors to the forest.
Read More at Off-Road.com
MISSOULA - Congress is considering a $65 million program to decommission roads the U.S. Forest Service doesnt want or didnt authorize.
The agency currently faces a $10 billion backlog of road maintenance needs and has struggled for years to find the money to keep up its 400,000 miles of road that crisscross national forests.
The “Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation Initiative” being considered by the House of Representatives would set aside funds for road decommissioning, road and trail repair and maintenance and the removal of fish barriers.
Read more at BillingsGazette.com: Congress aims at unwanted roads