Cascade Overland Adventure - August 2006
Day Two
After a very restful night of sleep on my new inflatable camping mattress, I awoke to something dropping on and around my tent. Upon investigation, I found a squirrel in the tree above my tent chewing off pinecones and sending them down upon my tent. These weren’t ordinary pinecones, they were solid and heavy. When the pinecones hit the ground, they would bounce up several feet in the air. One even bounced onto the picnic table to hit my cook set.
After a while, I realized that this bombardment with pinecones seemed to be intentional. The squirrel was at work only over my tent and the picnic table. It was a large tree so there were other areas that the pinecones could have dropped, but that wasn’t the case. Either it was a territorial instinct or the squirrel did not like the presence of my dog.
Once I began breaking down my tent, the rain of pinecones intensified. After each drop, I could hear the squirrel chattering, almost like it was laughing each time a pinecone was dropped. After I pulled the stakes on my tent, I picked up the tent and moved to a safer area. Once the tent was removed, the pinecones stopped falling.
Once everything was packed up, it was time for the day’s adventure. Our goal for the day was to travel from Highway 410 to Highway 12 via logging roads, then over White Pass by highway to Packwood, Washington. Then from Packwood, we would head south via logging roads to the Mt. Adams area and locate a campsite for the night.
As in the previous day’s adventure, we chose another route outlined in the book, Washington Byways. This day, we again started the route outlined in the book in reverse. The route we chose is listed in Washington Byways
From our campsite at Crow Creek, we traveled back to Highway 410 and headed East toward Yakima. We turned right at the first sign for the Nile Road. The Nile Road parallels SR 410 and loops back to the highway. We took the longer scenic route to get to our turnoff.
From our direction of travel, we turned right on Forest Service Rd. 1500 (follow signs to Highway 12). FS 1500 starts out as a single lane, paved road with turnouts. The road climbs up and travels through the Rattlesnake Creek canyon. There are some great views to the surrounding peaks and the canyon below.
After about 8 miles, the pavement ends and the road transitions to gravel. FS 1500 continues through the forest eventually ending up on Bethel Ridge. At about 17 miles (only an approximation because of my odometer) is the turnoff for Timberwolf Mountain FS 1500-90). On a clear day, this excursion is worth the side trip for the extensive views. Along the way, the road climbs, passing open meadows and an old cabin. The road ends in about 3 miles. At the roads end is the site of an old forest fire lookout. Nothing remains of the original fire lookout structure. The 360 degree views are fantastic, including Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Goat Rocks, the Cascades, and even views in to high desert of Eastern Washington. If you need to check in with the family, there is excellent cellular phone reception on the peak.
After lunch and photographs, we headed back down to FS 1500. If a person had more time and wanted to explore, there are many side roads that travel miles from FS 1500. From the Timberwolf Mountain road, the FS 1500 switch backs down into the Tieton River valley to Highway 12. Along the way are views of the valley and Rimrock Lake below. At approximately 34 miles, we arrived on Highway 12.
If one wanted to continue the backroads journey east, you could take FS 1200 around the south side of Rimrock Lake which will lead back to Highway 12. Since we had +30 miles of dust in an open Jeep, we opted to travel on Highway 12. The pavement was a welcomed change.
We traveled over scenic White Pass down into Packwood in approximately 40 miles. After a fuel stop, lunch and a quick stop in the grocery store, we headed east a short distance to FS 21 (follow signs to Walupt Lake). Our next destination was to locate a campsite for the night.
FS 21 starts out steadily climbing through the forest, following the Johnson Creek canyon. In about 18 miles, we reached the junction with FS 2160, which is a paved road that leads to Walupt Lake (a popular destination for camping). We headed east on FS 2160 for about two miles, then a right on FS 21 in order to head a little further south and get away from the crowds.
A short distance later, we took a right on FS 2329. Since FS 2329 was marked as not maintained, we assumed that there would be very little traffic. We were wrong of course. We encountered many vehicles including trailers on the narrow, winding gravel road.
After a few miles of traveling on FS 2329, we came to a junction with a wide, well maintained road that leads to the Yakima Indian Reservation only a few miles from the junction. This vast area, much of it wilderness, is closed to the public.
FS 2329 eventually becomes the western border of the Mt. Adams Wilderness area. This easy access makes it a popular starting point for hikes into the wilderness area.
Our desire for a campsite in a designated campground (in order to have a legal camp fire) was soon spoiled. Every high country campground we stopped at, including Horseshoe Lake, Killen Creek, Takhlakh Lake, Chain of Lakes and Olallie Lake were all full. Our only choice was head to the lowlands and hopefully find a primitive site along a creek or river to camp.
We followed FS 23 until it intersected with FS 2801. FS 2801 follows the Cispus River on its south side. Unfortunately, most of it was on high bank so there was minimal river access. Every campsite we found that was near any water was already claimed.
Our quest for a camp site continued until near dark when we finally located an isolated campsite, only yards from the Cispus River, just upstream from Tower Rock.
Once we arrived, it was time for an ice cold beer while setting up camp. Obsidian Stout was the selection of the evening. After cleaning up a bit and eating a gourmet dinner of hot dogs, it was time to kick back and relax (my dog decided to relax early on). 
Since our camp site was literally on the bank of the river, we had a beautiful scenic setting to just sit and enjoy. Just before dusk, the trout in the river had a feeding frenzy on all the insects that were buzzing the river’s surface. I wish I had brought along a rod and reel.
After the sun set, the stars would out in full glory, with the Milky Way nearly direct over us. With no city lights, satellites and shooting stars were easy to spot. Eventually, we heard some splashing in the river near our camp. Upon further investigation (with a spotlight), we found a large salmon resting in the water near the river bank. The spot light would spook the fish, but it would soon return to the bank. We also found a large frog on the river bank feeding on insects on the sand. Just like the fish, the light would scare the frog, but in a few minutes, it returned to continue feeding.
I don’t think we could have found a better camp site to spend the night. Good things come to those who wait.
Cascade Overland Adventure: Intro | Day One | Day Two | Day Three
Tags: 4wd, 4x4, 80-series, Adventures, bethel ridge, buck meadows, burley mountain, camp, campground, camping, campsite, cascade mountains, cascades, chain of lakes, cispus river, cle elum, cliffdell, crow creek, crow creek campground, ellensburg, expedition, forest, four wheel drive, french butte, goat rocks, gps, green river, horseshoe lake, huckleberries, hunting, jeep, johnson creek, killen creek, land cruiser, landcruiser, little naches river, lookout, manastash, meadows, meta lake, milk creek road, mt adams, mt hood, mt st helens, national forest, nile road, olallie lake, oregon, overland, packwood, pinto rock, quartz creek, quartz mountain, rattlesnake creek, rimrock lake, ryan lake, snoqualmie pass, south cle elum ridge road, spirit lake, strawberry mountain, takhlakh lake, taneum, taneum campground, tieton river, timberwolf mountain, tower rock, trail, travel, tripod flats, walupt lake, washington, washington cascades, wenatchee national forest, white pass, windy ridge, wrangler, yakima, yj