Trip Report: Slide Ridge (07-19)

[Jerry]

Slide Ridge Tour
July 19, 2008

We met at a neat little pastry shop in the town of Entiat between Wenatchee and Chelan, Washington. Our cadre consisted of Tom & Jen from Bellingham in their Chevy Astro Van, Sid from Renton in his Jeep Wrangler, Floyd & Mary from Seattle in their Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, Dave & Roberta from Edmonds in their Kia Sportage and Evelyn and me from Yakima in our Ford Bronco II.

We followed the paved Entiat River Road for several miles into the Wenatchee National Forest. The road passed small horse farms, the community of Ardenvoir and several nice, newer homes on acreage before entering dense pine forest. We took FR5900, a dusty Forest Service road that zigzagged it's way to the top of Shady Pass at over 6100 feet elevation. We had some nice views of the Cascade Range, but we were looking for something a little more refreshing on this warm, summer day - views of Lake Chelan.

The 5900 Road continued across the Chelan Mountains and with the exception of only a couple of places held no real challenge. Passenger cars could easily make the trip. We made a few rest stops along the way before stopping for lunch on 25 Mile Creek about three miles up from the State Park. After lunch Dave & Roberta decided to drive down to the lake and take the more relaxed route back to civilization. For the rest of us, our objective was Slide Ridge and we were already pointed in the right direction.

Slide Ridge looms directly south of Lake Chelan, the first mountain you see from the lake. Our road wound along both sides of the ridge and while it followed the lakeside we found a couple of places where the views of Lake Chelan, Wapato Lake, Dry Lake and Roses Lake were spectacular.

We were on FR8410 and unfortunately most of its length veered away from the lake. It was a fun road, sort of rough in places and offered some nice mountain scenery, but it did not present the continual lake views I had expected.

As usual we were running late and had to forgo our planned trek to the top of Chelan Butte. It's a neat drive to Chelan Butte and if you haven't been up there I suggest you go the next time you are in Chelan. As it turns out we ended our tour at a road intersection about half way between Lake Chelan and the Entiat Valley. Tom & Jen turned north to the lake while the rest of us headed south to the valley. After a quick stop for something cool at the Ardenvoir General Store we, the "valley gang", headed in our respective directions.

Evelyn and I thank everyone for coming. It was real special that you guys drove such a long distance to meet us in Entiat. Thank You!!!

Jerry & Evelyn from Yakima

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BACKROAD DRIVERS NORTHWEST

[Jerry]

I forgot to mention all the ghost forests we passed on the 5900 Road. It seems like for the past several years there have been forest fires somewhere near FR5900, or if not near, the road was used by fire fighters as their base of operation because it was the closest to the fires. At any rate the road has been closed much of the time and this was our first opportunity to drive it since the fires.
Jerry