memorial Colokum/Nanium trip

[backwoods3]

Saturday morning saw all the crew meeting at the truck stop in Kittitas as planned. We headed out at 9:30 sharp with the green XJ leading the pack. We stopped at the end of pavement and the start of the gravel to "air down".Then as Willie sings, it's "on the road again"! We had a very good run up through the Colokum road to the intersection of the 14 road. We turned off and headed east on the 14 rd headed towards "West bar". Many "BIO" breaks and photo ops later, we arived at a LOCKED gate! GRRRRRRRRRRRR, We wanted so baddly to be able to drive down to the banks of the mighty Columbia river to have a lunch break. We later found out that you need to obtain a key from the ranger at the Ginko ranger station to gain entry. Oh well, better luck next time. At least now we know! LOL On the way back we had one spot where the roads and the maps do NOT quite match up! We made one wrong judgment error as to where we "thought" we were and had to do a short back track to regain the correct route. Now we could make it back to black top with no other misshaps. On the way back down we saw a herd of elk that had to number well over 200 (at least thats my best guess). Once we got to terra ferma again, Steve Besig had a suprise in store for us! He had us all write our names on slips of paper and his Fiance drew a name out of a hat and Mr Steve from marrysville and his lovely wife took home a very nice gift certificate for 25% off any and all products from the newest ARB catalog for their 96 Jeep XJ! WAY to go Steve! And a very big thanks to Steve B for donating the gift certificate!

Sunday again found us at the truck stop, same time and place as Sat for another blast off! We did the same routine with airing down and again hit the trails. We headed up the Colokum road and turned west this time for the Nanium area and up towards Wenatchee mountain. We had good going through Very beautiful wooded terrain with spectacular views along the way. We found some small patches of snow as we crossed the top side of the wildlife preserve there. The farther we went, the patches became larger and longer until,,,,,,,,,YOURS TRULY, had to go beyond protical and try and show just how great his tired ols XJ was at traversing snow fields! LOLOLOL! Well, to make a really boring and unexciting story short,,, We BOMBED! Three tries later found John and his very capable black Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, litterally pulling the front bumper nearly off my purty lil XJ! LOL Oh well, I WAS planning on building and installing a new winch bumper. Now I dont have any choice! At least now I dont have to crawl under to take the mounting bolts out! They arent even there any more! LOL We heard from some quad riders that we could expect far more heavy wet snow just ahead, so it was decided to turn around and head back to the Colokum rd and go east again towards the Columbia river. On the way back to the Colokum rd, we came across a quad rider who had his 4X4 quad stuck so bad it took John and his trusty 8000 lb winch with the aid of a snatch block and several arm chair quarter backs (WHO ME!?) to get him out! The scenery was absolutly astounding this time! Very gorgeous pines and many different types of wild flowers graced our trip. We found a dead end again, but it had a spectacular over view of the columbia river as far north and south as you could see. We stayed long enough to let all take as many pics as they liked and turned around to head for home. Phil gave a very interesting and educational demonstration of a precise two point turn around with his Explorer! Way to go Phil! As we headed back to camp we saw a few more elk and three mule deer. All in all, it was a very beautiful day with more excitment thrown in than should be legal! LOL Thanks so much to all who made the trip each day and again to Steve B for his contribution. I would rate the trip a rousing success and hope to see many of you on future trails.

In attendance were, Steve B and his Fiance, Phil and his young son & the little black puppy, Ricky,Dan (speed bump), Steve and his wife from marrysville,Tom and his wife Jen from bellingham,John and Holly,Tammy and Trish,Dwight and lastly, yours truly and my lovely wife Vicki, (son Jared, and his friend Sammy on Sunday).
All but Tammy and crew, SteveB, Dwight and Dan made the trip with us on sunday.

I will try and get some pics up as soon as I am able to get them loaded and up.


I am sorry, but my photo bucket skills still need refinning! LOL SO, Ill post a link to my album there.

colockum trip pictures by backwoods3 - Photobucket

[ricky8587]

Now that WAS a GREAT weekend! Thanks Mark for getting this all together!! Nice to meet all the wonderful people and hope to see you on the trail again!!













Turn around point on Naneum

[ricky8587]

................. and here's a little video from Sundays run

YouTube - Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures Runs The Colockum Area

[Jerry]

I see from Ricky's video that you guys drove the lower leg of the Tarpiscan Road. Too bad it no longer goes all the way through to Malaga, but it is a neat road anyway. We drove it shortly after the burn and the canyon was still a mess from foam dropped by firefighter planes. Looks like you had a really good time. Thanks for sharing.

[T.Low]

Thanks again Mark for organizing the trip. It was perfect.

Great to meet everyone and look forward to driving with you all again. Excellent video, Ricky. That mount seems to work really well. Daniel, hope you get the alternator and coolant concerns worked out so we see you next time. It was fun having you there.

It was a good mixture of rigs, with Jeep being the most popular nameplate, then two Fords, a Toyota and a Chevy.

Here's a link to my pics.
Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

[speeD_Bump]

Great trip. I was sad that I missed the second day. I could've taken my suburban, but my wife wouldn't let me break both of our rigs in one weekend : ( It was great to meet so many people that share my love of the path less traveled. I hope to go on as many runs as possible this summer! Keep posting those pictures!

[smbisig]

Now that WAS a GREAT weekend! Thanks Mark for getting this all together!! Nice to meet all the wonderful people and hope to see you on the trail again!!













Turn around point on Naneum

Great photos. Mind if I borrow the second one for Amelia's (my fiancee) facebook page? This was the first time that she has ever driven off road.

To everyone else. Great trip and nice to meet everyone. Looking forward to meeting up again in the future. Just need to find time.

steven bisig

[jja]

Thanks to Backwoods3 for setting this up - I'm sure it took a lot of research and planning and it is much appreciatted. We had a great weekend meeting all of you. I think our favorite parts were the unintentional ones - getting stuck on the way up to wenatche and the gated road we all had to turn around on. (watching Phil turnaround on the tiny road with the big dropoff was quite a thrill - looking back from a hundred yards away it looked like he was going to flip over on the enbankment !)

Here's a vid of getting that quad we encountered unstuck. Kudo's to Phil for suggesting the re-direct, we would have never got that out pulling straight on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpkCO_5D9Xk

On Monday we decided to head back across the creek behind camp and head up to Colockum road - it turns out there was a large campsite (many vehicles, trailers and horses) that decided to make camp right in the middle of the road before it joined the Colockum. We ended up weaving our way through their camp and around their horses to join back to the main road.

From the Colockum we headed back into town to gas and air up then decided to continue taking the long way home. We took vantage hwy into Ellensburg and then continued on Old Hwy 10 west - what great country that travels through ! - and absolutely no traffic. After passing an intersecting dirt road (Hayward rd) and looking at the map we decided to set off on a dirt road headed generally nw towards the 97 / 970 intersection. This travels through Horse Canyon and reminded us of traveling through the alps with the rolling hills, homesteads and farms/ranches.

From 97 we headed up a forest road to red top mountain (just a little bit of snowed in road) for great views of Stuart and Rainier. We tried to head over to the North Fork Teanaway to get out that way, but the road was impassable due to snow (didn't want to push since we were alone) .. heading back into cle elum on 970 we finally saw the traffic on I90 and after a short break joined the bumper to bumper fun.

In Easton at mile 71 we tried a "shortcut" on the Cabin Creek Road which we thought would take us all the way into the 60's .. no such luck. After a few glorious west bound miles on open pavement it turned into FR 41 and Cabin Creek Road seemed to disappear after a turn into a wash and raging creek/river and never connect to FR4823. FR41 appeared to do a long loop and reconnect with I90 as well be we thought for sure it would head up into snow country. Oh well .. back to exit 71 and I 90 .. but lo and behold the traffic had cleared and we kept great speed up the rest of the way and made it back to Kirkland at 6PM.

Super weekend !! (will try and post some pics tonight).

john and holly.

[phishisgroovin]

Passed you all on the road heading to the point for snow. (see introduction area)
Ice melted at camp and going to town for ice isnt fun and costs more, free cloldness in the cooler is fun! trenching through the nasty mud to get the snow is fun hehe!

Photo from the point, must have been 200+ elk on the reserve over there.



I seen the decal for the website here on the first rig of your group, wrote it down and here i am!!!!

Members of forums like this should always sport the URL on ther rigs..they do get seen and noticed.

[Steve]

I received this email from a guy named Skip and wanted to pass it along to the group.

Here is his message:

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I wish to Thank the people and a guy named john that used his big winch on his jeep that pulled me out of the snow up on the nanuehm/clockum.

They were really freindly and kind and it was just peer luck to have people that will help other people in need of a emergency.

thank you very much

skip

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Great job to all on this trip. I wish I was off and could attend but had to work 2 out of 3 days this past weekend.

Steve