Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

No. 08-103
May 29, 2008
Contact: Princess Jackson-Smith, 360-902-1066

Public Hearings Will Be Held Around The State In June

OLYMPIA - The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is in the process of revising Chapter 332-52 of the Washington Administrative Code, pertaining to recreation on DNR-managed lands. The rules provide basic standards for public safety and natural resource protection when accessing and recreating on these lands.

The department invites the public to participate by reviewing the draft rule language and attending one of the public hearings to be held in June in the following locations: Mount Vernon, Port Angeles, Hoquiam, Issaquah, Vancouver, Ellensburg, Olympia, and Okanogan.

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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 some new discussions on the pnwadventures.com forums in the past week:

Trip Planning:

Scouting The Whiskey Dick - May 16, 2008 [Friday] - A weekday trip to explore the Whiskey Dick Road Management Area just east of Ellensburg, Washington.

Papa’s Toys Tour, 05-10-08 - the 6th annual trip to Papa’s Toy Collection in Cornelius, OR.

Completed Trips:

Tracking Ice Age Floods - April 19, 2008 - The trip report from the previous Saturday’s road trip through the coulee country of Eastern Washington.

And of course, there are many on-going discussions.

Brandon over on OlympiaFJ60.net has a piece on driving what he calls “Blue Highways” (the secondary highways on the maps), and specifically a loop he recently completed beginning and ending in Yakima and taking him along the Columbia River to Vantage, Ellensburg, and through the Yakima River canyon.

Read the entire trip report at Driving the Blue Highways - Yakima to Vantage to Ellensburg.

Enjoy.

After a nice peaceful night in a hotel in Ellensburg, Washington, we loaded up the Land Cruiser and headed out for a day trip to the Quilomene Wildlife Area. After topping off the fuel tank, we met up with the Northwest Backroads Drivers group for breakfast. Today, in addition to the participants from the previous days trip to the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area (see Whiskey Dick Overland Tour), we were joined for breakfast by Bill and Ed, both of Ellensburg.

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After a night of camping along the Yakima River, my daughter and I got up early, broke camp and headed to Ellensburg, Washington to meet up with the Northwest Backroad Drivers group to explore the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area just east of Ellensburg.

After a stop for a quad iced americano and to top off the gas tank, we pulled into the Bar 14 Restaurant for the morning meet up. We were running a little late by time we arrived. Already eating breakfast were Rich (driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee), Jan and their 4 year old granddaughter Tara and Jerry our tour leader for the weekend (driving his Ford Bronco II).

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My daughter and I planned a weekend of camping in between the two day trip to the Quilomene area with the Northwest Backroad Drivers group. As luck would have it, the camping trip did not pan out as I would have hoped for. But we still had fun.

After a late start getting out of town, we finally made Ellensburg, Washington around 8:00 PM on Friday night. Not a lot of time to find a camping site, especially on Friday night. I spotted some campgrounds on the Yakima River in the Washington Road & Recreation Atlas south of Ellensburg in the canyon, so we headed that direction.

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Photos of an overland day trip on 07.21.07 to explore the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area near Ellensburg, Washington have been posted at Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area Photos.

Photos from Sundays overland trip to the Quilomene and Colockum Wildlife Areas as well as a full trip report will be posted soon.

This past Saturday was a typical spring day in Western Washington - “Rain Turning to Showers”. Of course, if you never lived in Washington, you may be puzzled by such a forecast. I wanted to get out of the house and do something outside so I checked the statewide forecast for Washington. The coast was supposed to clear up that afternoon and Eastern Washington was going to mostly cloudy but only a 20 percent chance of rain. Sweet, over the Cascades we go.

With no real destination in mind, my son Steven and I loaded up the dog, camera gear and some basic emergency supplies (sleeping bag, tools, water, food, etc. in case the unexpected happens) in the Land Cruiser and left our home in Edgewood, Washington and headed east on I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass.

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