Pacific Northwest Backroad Adventures

Even though we never found that perfect Christmas tree, we had a great time with some great people under beautiful blue skies on this year’s Christmas Tree run to the Cle Elum, Washington area.

We all met for breakfast at the Cottage Cafe in Cle Elum. Already seated upon our arrival were Jerry (aka soggymountain) and Evelyn from Yakima, Brian (aka Photog) and Cindy from Gig Harbor, Valerie and her mother Ellen from Bothell and Kent, and friends of Ellen’s (whom I did not get their names). Of course I can’t forget to mention my wife Martha, daughter Korinne and our dog Tareva.

After breakfast, we headed out of town to the Roslyn Cyclery in Roslyn to purchase our tree permits. We were the only family on the hunt for a Christmas tree, everybody was out for the fun of it. After getting the permit, we headed out of town, past Ronald towards Salmon la Sac.
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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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