Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

Generally, I don’t like to travel on holiday weekends, especially when it involves going to Eastern Washington. However a day trip on a Sunday isn’t bad - no Monday stop and go traffic over Snoqualmie Pass to contend with.

On Sunday, my son Steven, our dog and myself headed out around 6:00 a.m. over Snoqualmie Pass to Eastern Washington on a photographic tour. After a stop in Ellensburg for gas, coffee and food (plus a few stops on the way for the dog), we headed east on I-90 to Vantage, across the Columbia River and south on SR 243 towards Beverly to head up Lower Crab Creek.
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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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