Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

Lets say that you are out on an off-road adventure with a group of other people and the vehicle in front (or back) slides into you and causes damage to your vehicle. What is the right thing to do? Should the person who slides into you pay for the damage? Should you take the responsibility because you should have recognized the situation and waited for the other vehicle to clear the obstacle? Do you call it even and move on?

What are your thoughts? Join the discussion on the forum at Accident Protocol.

Most of you with a c-clip rear axle knows what happens if you ever break a rear axle shaft. If you don’t know, just remember that most likely you’ll be leaving your vehicle near the location you broke your rear axle.

Now there is a tool that may help you limp off the trail and to a more accessible location. Its called the Broken Axle Tool (very fitting name indeed) and it’s available on the web from Off Road Trail Tools for $109.95.

I’ve never physically laid eyes on the tool or read a review on its use, but if the idea works as well as it sounds, this would be a great addition to your recovery gear. Now if I only had a full floating rear axle in my Land Cruiser.

Over on the forum, there is a great discussion on Hand Winches. Manual winches (also commonly known as “come-alongs”) are a great alternative (but not a substitute) for a vehicle mounted electric, hydraulic or PTO winch. Hand powered winches can be used alone or in conjunction with your vehicle mounted winch in those especially sticky situations. Of course, just as with a vehicle mounted winch, the use of a manual winch will require additional recovery gear such as straps, tree savers, cable or winch rope, d-shackles and recovery points on your vehicle.

See the forum discussion at Hand Power Pullers.

Here are a couple photos of a Toyota FJ Cruiser convertible prototype from the SEMA show courtesy of supercarstuning.com.

This would be a great option for Toyota to make available on the new FJ Cruisers. The soft top may actually provide more visibility than the hardtop version.

Discuss on the forums at Toyota FJ Cruiser Convertible

A couple of my coworkers (Adam and James) had been planing a trail run to Evans Creek ORV for a little over week. My wife had plans to volunteer that day so I kept saying no. Finally, Thursday came and Adam needed to use my jigsaw to do a little wheel well trimming on his Jeep. Well my wife’s plans for the day changed and she said to go. Sweet.

Knowing very well that the trail system at the Evans Creek ORV area was not designed to larger vehicles like my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser, my intent was that we would stick to the easier trails and/or forest roads. So off we went for the day’s adventure.

Once we pulled into the parking lot of the Evans Creek, we were met by a group of three other Jeeps. We decided to tag along. The emotional fun of wheeling overcame my common sense that my Land Cruiser may not fit on the trails. Luckily there there was minimal recent rain.

I’m not sure what trail we started on because there was no sign (unless I missed it). I know it was just west of the day use parking area. We started off climbing from the road shortly an obstacle that gave a couple of the Jeeps a challenge. Basically the key was to keep to the left of a few rocks in the trail (easier said then done). The long wheelbase of my Land Cruiser definitely helped in this section. Because the trail was relatively dry, it was a pretty easy time in my FJ80 and the trail provided plenty of width to navigate my 112 inch wheelbase through the obstacles (if you’re not familiar with my Land Cruiser, I’m only running an 2.5 OME lift, 31 inch BFG AT tires and unlocked diffs).

We eventually came to trail 198 (which was marked “most difficult”). I was having fun and the trail wasn’t bad so far, so I decided to continue with the group. Well this section of trail ended up being very tight for my 80-series pig. There was quite a few close calls where the off camber sections would push me very close obstacles along side of the trail. I made several attempts to get around certain root but in the end, my flare hit it and I heard a cracking sound. I thought the flair was toast. Somehow, I managed to get by with only deep scrapes in my left rear fender flair.

A little further down the trail, there was a turn that I didn’t think I could make so I tried a alternate route. The path would initially lead me between two trees (with minimal clearance on each side). I should have gotten out and sized up the obstacle first, but I didn’t. I drove up over the roots of the tree and then got high centered on my side steps when my front tires dropped into the hole on the other side. Had I built up a ramp with readily available materials (logs and rocks) I probably would have negotiated the obstacle. To continue, I had to get winched off (the only time all day). After that, the trail was still tight but I was able pass the remaining tight sections with out problem (just throw in a few multi-point turns and some spotting).

After we reached the gravel forest road, we headed up Forest Road 7930 until we reached the ridge. Normally you have a great view of Mt. Rainier from this location but today, you could only see the lower part of the glaciers. In the opposite direction, there are views of the Puget Sound lowlands, however those views were limited by the cloud cover.

By this time, one of the Jeeps in the group headed out, so we took a little time to fire a few rounds through our guns. It had been a while since I shot my 9mm Ruger, but I was actually able to hit a fairly decent grouping at 20 yards. Adam had his .44 Smith cannon and shot a few rounds also.

After making some noise, we headed down to the main road in, stopping to play and take some photos along the way.

We were able to air up at Chuck’s Service & Gas in Wilkeson. We real appreciated the hospitality because air is not a normally provided service. At one time it was, but a few people ruined for everybody.

It was a fun day. If the weather was clear, I could have had some great pictures of Mt. Rainier. I got lucky that the conditions were mostly dry (except for a few puddles). If it had been wetter conditions, my BFG ATs would not have had any traction and I would have probably ended up sliding into something and denting a quarter panel (like James in his Cherokee). The only damage I suffered was some deep scrapes in the left rear fender flare and a little tweaking of my side steps. Would I take my Land Cruiser on those trails again? On the forest roads, not a problem. On the 4WD trails. Nope. The FJ80 is just too much body and wheelbase.

You can view all of the photos from this trail run at Evans Creek Trail Run Photos.

Over four days, I completed a 671 mile adventure (not counting the additional 465 miles to get to the starting point and back home again) following an overland route through the Cascade Mountains of Washington state, stretching from the Columbia River near Carson, Washington to Chopaka at the border crossing with British Columbia. From my records, about 63% of the overland route was on forest roads.

Over these four days, my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser was driven hard, physically traveling roughly the same mileage that it would take to get to Los Angeles from Seattle via I-5 without leaving Washington state (is this what is considered “severe service” by the manufacturer?). Near the British Columbia border, the odometer on my LandCruiser also achieved the 190,000 mark.

Through all the abuse I dished out to my 80-series Land Cruiser (all these forest roads were not nice graded roads), the only mechanical failure I had was a broken catalytic converter support bracket (once I had climbed up the Bethel Ridge road I noticed a new knocking sound that was terrain specific). The only physical damage occurred while driving the FS-1701 on Manastash Ridge when I heard something hit (stick, rock ?) underneath the body. I stopped and could not locate any damage, so I continued. It wasn’t until I was at home, under the vehicle doing maintenance, that I noticed a dented rocker panel under the drivers door.

Had I known local road closures and conditions better, I could have eliminated some of the backtracking and alternate routes that I followed. I guess that’s why this was also an exploratory route finding trip.

Since I began posting my trip reports, I’ve received suggestions for several possible alternative routes to explore. Obviously, a person could substitute more 4×4 trails to the route, especially in the Naches/Cle Elum/Liberty areas. There may also more 4×4 trails or unimproved roads that are not clear on the maps that could be added in the route. Since I was traveling solo, driving designated 4×4 trails was not a goal for this trip.

After mapping out and driving this route, I’m hoping that this trip may lay the groundwork for an official overland route such as the Oregon Discovery Route (too bad the Oregon Discovery Route ended near Walla Walla and not closer to the Cascades).

My goal for this trip was to break down the North-South route through the Washington Cascades into manageable daily drives. I had originally planned each as follows:

Day One: Carson to Packwood.
Day Tow: Packwood to Cle Elum.
Day Three: Cle Elum to Chelan.
Day Four: Chelan to Chopaka.

The only day I did not reach my daily driving goal was on day one. Had I got an earlier start and eliminated some backtracking and/or driving dead end roads, it would have been an easily achievable goal. If a person desired to stay in comfortable accommodations, you could easily plan out each nights stay.

Would I do this again? In a heartbeat! (probably not this year though). I would rather have some friends/vehicles along to include more designated 4×4 trails. I would also add an extra day or more to the time frame to not be so rushed. I would also like to spend a day exploring the ghost towns and mines of the Okanogan region of Washington state.

Trip Summary:
Total Miles Driven: 671 miles (approximate)
Paved Highway: 95 miles (14%)
Paved County Roads: 158 miles (23%)
Paved Forest Service Road: 133 miles (20%)
Improved Gravel Forest Service Roads: 252 miles (38%)
Limited Maintenance Forest Roads: 33 miles (5%)

In case you missed some of the trip reports, you can catch up on each day by following these links.

Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Introduction
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Day One
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Day Two
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Day Three
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Day Four
Trip Report: Washington Cascades Overland Tour 2007 - Final Thoughts

Day Two: August 11, 2007.

Daily Goal: To Drive from Babyshoe Pass (on FS-23 near Mt. Adams) to Cle Elum, Washington (I-90).

Map Reference:
Gifford Pinchot National Forest Map
Wenatchee National Forest Map

After a surprisingly comfortable night of sleep in the back of my 80-series Land Cruiser (with my dog Tareva right next to me), I arose just after daybreak to the awesome views of Mt. Adams and Mt Hood. This was my first attempt at sleeping in my FJ80. I initially had my doubts on how comfortable it would be, considering my height. My newly built cargo box, the back seat folded down, a plastic tub on the second row footwell and the front passenger seat folded forward and all the way to the dash provided a great support for my air mattress. All that I had to do to rearrange from the days trip was to move the ARB refrigerator to the drivers side and throw some of my bags in the front seats.
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For the past year, I’ve had the desire to map out and drive an overland route through the Cascade Mountains of Washington state from the Columbia River near Oregon all the way to northern border with British Columbia.

Last year (August 2006), my son and I completed a portion of this route from Cle Elum to Mt. Adams (see Cascade Overland Adventure - August 2006) but did not go any further South because of time constraints. At the time, I knew little of any possible routes from I-90 North to British Columbia.

Shortly after that trip last August, I sold my Jeep YJ Wrangler and purchased my Toyota FJ80 Land Cruiser with the goal in mind to make it into an overland expedition vehicle.

Winter and Spring came and finally the snow thawed in the high country. With vacation scheduled for August, I started getting serious about mapping out a route through the Washington Cascades.
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This year was the third year attending the annual PNW4WDA annual jamboree. As in years past, I volunteered to help ARB serve their annual Friday dinner for the event. This is always a lot of fun and a great group of people to work with. They do a great job on putting on the dinner.

Since the event was a sellout, all the trail runs on Saturday were quickly filled. This was also the first time I was actually going to wheel my FJ-80 Land Cruiser, so I decided to sit in and attend (and assist where needed) the Four Wheel Drive 101 class presented by Chris Wood of ARB. This is a great class and you will pick up tips whether you are brand new to wheeling or a seasoned veteran. A great emphasis is placed on personal safety and preparedness. There were also some excellent discussion and demonstration on vehicle recovery techniques including a demonstration on how to winch you vehicle backwards with a front mounted winch.

After the presentation, the rest of the day was spent on the Clover Springs Trail with a few stops along the way to practice off-road driving techniques. An especially important practice session was backing down a hill using only your mirrors.

By time we got back to the jamboree base camp, we had been on the trail nearly eleven hours. A long and fun day. I look forward to next year.

You can view my photos of the trail run at Clover Springs Trail Run.

Summer in Western Washington usually doesn’t start officially (at least weather wise) until July 5 of each year. Today (06.24.07) was no exception. The forecast for the day was for rain and a snow level of 5000 feet.

Since I worked the night before and my wife’s nephew was coming over for dinner, I had to keep the day’s adventure somewhat local from my home. Flipping through the book Washington Byways, I found Tour 49 - High Rock Lookout Loop and it fit perfectly into the day’s time restraints. I loaded up the dog in the Land Cruiser and headed towards the Cascades in hopes of finding some sun above the low hanging clouds.

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