Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

Generally, I don’t like to travel on holiday weekends, especially when it involves going to Eastern Washington. However a day trip on a Sunday isn’t bad - no Monday stop and go traffic over Snoqualmie Pass to contend with.

On Sunday, my son Steven, our dog and myself headed out around 6:00 a.m. over Snoqualmie Pass to Eastern Washington on a photographic tour. After a stop in Ellensburg for gas, coffee and food (plus a few stops on the way for the dog), we headed east on I-90 to Vantage, across the Columbia River and south on SR 243 towards Beverly to head up Lower Crab Creek.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Seattle, May 28, 2008
ARB 4×4 Accessories

Due to the ever growing popularity and recent release in Australia, ARB 4×4 Accessories is proud to announce the release of the newest accessory in the Hummer H3 ARB product line up, the ARB Deluxe Winch Bumper.

Considering ARB’s twenty-year history manufacturing both original and after market accessories for vehicles around the world, you can be sure to expect a customized mounting system and sleek yet, functional winch compatible bumper system specifically engineered to enhance the look and operation of your H3.
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Brandon over at olympiafj60.net mentioned to me on the Whiskey Dick trip about a thread over on ih8mud.com in the 60-series forum on an adjustment that can be made to the Toyota Land Cruiser 3FE engines. There happens to be some type of fuel regulator on the fuel rail near the firewall that be adjusted. People are reporting increased power and even better yet, increased fuel ecomony.

You can see the thread at What the deuce is this thing?.

Well I went ahead and popped the plastic cap off and tightened the screw a couple of turns. Initial impressions while driving around my house seemed to be an increase in low end torque (a very unscientific approach).

I now need to take a test run over Snoqualmie Pass to check against my baseline mpg of 13.4 when traveling from Federal Way to Ellensburg, Washington. Hopefully, I’ll have a little more power on the climb to the summit. When I have the data, I’ll report it back here.

Thanks Brandon for the tip.

Steve

BLUERIBBON COALITION ACTION ALERT!

Forest Service to Host Next Series of Open Houses on Motorized Access

The Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests and Crooked River Grassland are formulating a new travel plan that will limit ALL vehicle use to designated roads, trails and areas. The public is invited to attend any of several upcoming open houses scheduled in Central Oregon communities. The Forest Service (FS) is asking for your input during the 45-day public comment period, which will run through June 15, 2008.

Over the past year, personnel at the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests have been working with citizens, as well as state, county and local governments to identify how to provide for motorized access to dispersed campsites. The FS is now ready to begin environmental analysis of the proposal.
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Who would have thought that a Friday trip to the Whiskey Dick Road Management Area near Ellensburg, Washington would bring out more participants than most weekend trips.

Well Jerry (aka SoggyMountain) picked a wonderful day for a Backroad Drivers Northwest tour of the Whiskey Dick. Hands down, this was the warmest day of 2008 to date.

The meeting place that morning was the Bar 14 restaurant in Ellensburg. In attendance for the days trip was of course Jerry from Yakima driving his full size Jeep SJ Wagoneer; (and if I get the names wrong, please forgive and let me know to correct them) Phil and his son Travis from Newcastle, driving the white Ford Explorer; Paul from Tacoma driving the other Ford Explorer; Jim (stucky) driving the white Chevy Pickup (I forgot to ask where Jim was from); Trish and Tammy from Bothel driving a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon; John and Cindy from Monroe driving a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon; Sid from Renton driving his Jeep Wrangler, Peter and Don (I forgot to ask where they were from or if I did, I didn’t write it down) driving the Sportsmobile van; myself in my 80-series Toyota Land Cruiser; and Bill from Ellensburg who joined us for breakfast but had to supervise a fencing property today so he couldn’t join us.

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The photos I shot during the Backroad Drivers Northwest trip to the Whiskey Dick Road Management Area are now posted for your viewing. You can view them at Exploring the Whiskey Dick

Enjoy.

What were you doing the day Mt. St. Helens blew it’s top?

I realize that anybody under the age of 28 wasn’t even born so this question does not apply to you.

I was 16 at the time. I was with my dad and cousin Frank at a bass fishing tournament with the Evergreen Bass Club on Silver Lake in Cowlitz County (only about 30 miles West of Mt. St. Helens). It was a beautiful clear sunny morning (much like it is this morning as I’m writing this). All weekend, we were hoping to see a puff of steam or a small ash plume, but all was quiet. I has witnessed several before on my frequent trips to Kelso.

Sometime around 8:30 AM, my dad had to head back to the resort to use the facilities. So he powered up the motor and we were heading back to the resort and he pointed at the mountain and when I looked up, we watched the initial blast and then Mt St Helens disappeared (just like the footage you always see of the initial eruption and landslide).

So we continued heading back to the resort. When we arrived, a lot of people were freaking out that they were going to die. My dad just calmly observed the chaos and decided to wait a little while until all the drama died down. Eventually word got to us about the I-5 bridge over the Toutle River was closed. That’s when my dad made the decision that we were staying for a while longer.

So what did we do, we motored the boat over to a store on the lake where one could dock a boat, he went inside the store and bought a case of beer, and we motored the boat into the middle of the lake and watched the ash plume (obviously this is nothing I would recommend doing today - time were different then).

After a few hours, we eventually got word that the Toutle River bridge was open again, and that’s when we loaded the boat on the trailer and headed home.

We never got any ash on us. I think most of it ended up in eastern Washington. The sky got dark (because it blocked out the morning sun) and the coolest part was all the lightening in the ash cloud. We never heard the explosion from our location. I’m not sure if that was because the motor idling or not.

This experience is something that I’ll never forget. I feel very lucky to be in the right spot at the right time to actually witness history and see the actual initial explosion and landslide occur.

What were you doing that day?

If you happen to have a problem logging into the forum, be sure you are logging into http://www.pnwadventures.com/forum rather than the old URL format of forum.pnwadventures.com

If you receive the “server busy” error message, be sure to log into your account.

Steve

As you can tell if you’ve been a regular visitor to pnwadventures.com, I made changes to the theme of the blog. The change from a black background to a white background better matches the forum’s theme (though not exactly — yet). I also included a flash header image that rotates through photos I have taken over the past several years on various outdoor vehicle dependent adventures.

Anybody who has Friday, May 16 available, we have a great off-road trip to the Whiskey Dick area near Ellensburg, Washington. We explored some this area last year and there is a lot more roads we missed. There’s going be some nice weather as well. Read more about the details of this trip at Scouting The Whiskey Dick

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