Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

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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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.