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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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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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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Here are a few photos from Saturday’s (April 19, 2008) road trip through the coulee country of Eastern Washington. Complete trip reports are posted on the forum at Tracking Ice Age Floods - April 19, 2008.

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Originally we had planned to meet in Montesano, Washington on Friday morning, however, because of a paving project on the Wynoochee Road from Montesano to Wynoochee Lake, the location of the meet up was changed to the Taylor Towne restaurant just South of Shelton.

Attending was Ray from Edgewood (driving his Toyota 4Runner), Kevin (riding with Ray), John in his Jeep YJ Wrangler, Dick (riding with John) and Randy from Shelton (riding with me in my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser).

Our goals for the this rainy spring day were to:

• Locate the train wreckage from the 1961 film titled “Ring of Fire”. During the filming of the movie they set an old railroad trestle and some passenger rail cars on fire and dropped them into the canyon. (See Brians site at Georgia-Pacific No. 9 and Ring of Fire Wreck Site for a great write up of the details of the movie and the wreckage site.)
• Visit the Wynoochee Dam and Lake.
• Visit the High Steel Bridge over the Skokomish River.

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On Saturday, 02.16.08, I made the 170 mile trip from my home to participate in the All Wheelers Off Road Club Presidents Day Run at the Slab near Zillah, Washington. After meeting up with the Backroad Drivers Northwest group at the McDonalds in Zillah, we made our way to the area outside of town known as The Slab.

With a name like “The Slab”, one would think that it is a rock crawler’s haven. Well the slab is exactly…a slab of concrete from an old pole building. That’s it. Well anyway, everybody uses the area around the slab and meeting place before heading out to go play in the surrounding countryside.

The surrounding area is on private land and consists of several hundred acres of rolling hills and sage brush. There are dirt roads and trails that cross every direction, something to challenge everybody.

The members of the All Wheelers Off Road Club are a great group of people. Very friendly and helpful when somebody gets stuck or breaks down.

The photos I shot are posted at All Wheelers Off Road Club Play Day at the Slab

You can view additional photos and read the write up of the trip on the forum at All Wheelers President’s Day Slab Run

Everybody has their own definition of these words. This is what the Merrian-Webster dictionary defines the meaning of these words that are used throughout this site.

Overland: by, on, or across land

Exploration: the act or an instance of exploring

Explore: to travel over (new territory) for adventure or discovery

Adventure: an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks; the encountering of risks; an exciting or remarkable experience

Expedition: journey or excursion undertaken for a specific purpose; the group of persons making such a journey

What is your definition of these terms?

Even though we never found that perfect Christmas tree, we had a great time with some great people under beautiful blue skies on this year’s Christmas Tree run to the Cle Elum, Washington area.

We all met for breakfast at the Cottage Cafe in Cle Elum. Already seated upon our arrival were Jerry (aka soggymountain) and Evelyn from Yakima, Brian (aka Photog) and Cindy from Gig Harbor, Valerie and her mother Ellen from Bothell and Kent, and friends of Ellen’s (whom I did not get their names). Of course I can’t forget to mention my wife Martha, daughter Korinne and our dog Tareva.

After breakfast, we headed out of town to the Roslyn Cyclery in Roslyn to purchase our tree permits. We were the only family on the hunt for a Christmas tree, everybody was out for the fun of it. After getting the permit, we headed out of town, past Ronald towards Salmon la Sac.
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For those of you living in the Pacific Northwest (mainly Washington and Oregon), there are a couple of upcoming 2007 Christmas tree runs that may be of interest to you.

Join us for a day of fun of looking for that special Christmas tree and hopefully some time in the snow. Even if you already have your tree or you’re putting up a plastic tree, it’ll be a good time.

The first Christmas Tree Run is on Saturday, December 8 and we will be meeting in Cle Elum, Washington. For details, see the forum discussion at Christmas Tree Run NORTH - 12/8/07

The second Christmas Tree Run is a week later on Saturday, December 15 at the Estacada Ranger Station, off Hwy 224 just West of Estacada, Oregon. For details, see the forum discussion at Christmas Tree Run SOUTH 12-15-2007.

If you’re in the area, I hope you can make one of the two runs.

Over on the forum, Jerry (aka soggymountain) posted a great trip report from our adventure to the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area near Cle Elum, Washington last Saturday (11.10.07). We had excellent weather and a great turn out for the trip.
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