Full disclosure, this was NOT intended to be a wheeling trip. But, well, decisions were made....
With the searing heat bearing down on the Tri-Cities and all surrounding areas, the only answer was to find cooler temps at elevation. With that in mind, we hatched a loose plan to tour Rainier park, with a night of camping on either end somewhere above 4,000ft. The ball was kicked around for a couple of days, and we finally settled upon a counter-clockwise route following Hwy 410, Hwy 123, Stevens Canyon Road through Rainier park, and back via Hwy 12. Our campsites were generally mapped out ahead of time, with fingers crossed they would not already be occupied upon arrival. We went 1 for 2 on that end of the deal, but it all turned out just fine regardless.
In the group were Mr. & Mrs. OG with Ginger the JLU-R and their 100% hand-built adventure trailer, with myself and my daughter in our F-150 and E-Pro trailer. Oh, and we brought a yellow mutt. Launch was just a touch after 1pm on Friday, with temps consistently above 110*F until we reached the Hwy 12/410 intersection, where it dropped to 108* on the truck's readout. We stopped at the sno-park at the base of NF-1708 to air down a bit for the long climb up toward Milk Lake:
We arrived at our top secret meadow just after 4pm, with ambient temps in the low 90's and a nice breeze. Camp was setup in a matter of minutes thanks to the tents on wheels we had both brought along:
Fire restrictions had taken effect at 12:01am that very morning, so the propane fire pit made due for the evening chill, which for the record felt amazing:
A few hours of shut eye, some breakfast and a quick cleanup, and it was time to hit the road. We plotted a course for Paradise inside Rainier Park, which took us to the summit of Chinook Pass and then down the Hwy 123 cut-off and into the park via Steven's Canyon road. The entire stretch was simply gorgeous:
As soon as we entered the park, the big dirt pile started to really peek out around every corner, until we were finally THERE at the top of the Paradise loop:
The rest of the trip through the park was equally scenic, with large old-growth trees reminiscent of the giant redwoods along the CA/OR coast. This was my first visit to the park, and if you haven't been, I'd highly recommend adding it to your to-do list. Exiting the park on the Tacoma side we stopped for a late lunch at the Copper Creek Inn, in the metropolis of Ashford. Needless to say these folks do it right, with farm fresh fixins and portions that even left me stufft!! With droopy eyelids we pointed the steeds south on NF-52, which dropped us right into Packwood and was a beautiful drive in it's own right. From Packwood, we headed South and again up in elevation following NF-1260 and NF-4830 in search of a place for the night:
The initial plan was to stay at Art Lake, but that unfortunately was already well populated with local hippies and tweakers, so we continued on up the trail to find our final destination well away from the crowds. What we weren't able to stay away from was the mosquito population, and despite our best efforts with smelly candles, bug spray and even a smoky camp fire, the little buggers got a belly full from our group. Oh well, still better than sweating it out at home...
The following morning, we made the conscious decision to not backtrack, and instead run the remainder of NF-4830 out to the intersection with NF-48, which leads back down to Hwy 12 just West of Packwood. Overall this was a relatively easy decision to make, save the knowledge of a substantial wash-out right at the terminus of NF-4830... we had pre-run the course the evening before in Ginger, and I will openly admit it was probably the wrong answer for the vehicle I was in. The washout was substantial on both the ingress and egress sides, and attempting it in the F-150 with a trailer in tow was nothing short of a dumb idea. Like, really dumb. Thankfully OG was there to go first and make it look easy, so I could follow up and make it look hard:
And back up the other side to the intersection with NF-48:
From here it was a hop, skip and a jump back down to pavement, where we aired back up, grabbed a splash of fuel, and sadly headed East over White Pass to return to the oppressive heat. It had been an incredible weekend of camping, exploring, bull-chitting, and pushing our rigs to their relative limits. Can't wait for the next one
400.9 Miles, 100 Yards of Wheeling
Moderator: SPR
400.9 Miles, 100 Yards of Wheeling
Yep, I've wheeled one of those, too...
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