After 4W608 Work Run
August 23rd & 24th, 2008
On Saturday August 23rd, 2008 after the All Wheelers Off Road Club 4W608 work day we had a run to check out the rest of 4W608.
We only had two rigs going that stayed for the run. Ghost Rider and mine. Here are a few pictures a long the trail.
A nice little hill climb.
Off camber is not my favorite.
After the off camber area, the trail had some more fun stuff. It was getting dark at this point and tension was high.
I wish I had pictures of this next part because it was a real adventure.
The trail dropped down to what looked to be a by-pass made years ago.
On the climb back up the trail was very steep. I gave it about four runs but could not top the hill.
Having only one working rear axle could have had one thing to do will it. The other axle was broken earlier that day from pulling the Forest Service trailer full of rock.
The last time trying the climb, the Tweety Jeep came back down sideways where I couldn’t get another run.
There was a big down tree that was a long the left side of the climb and the rear hatch of the XJ was almost against the down tree.
I had to get out and run the winch cable. Just my luck I left part of my extended recovery gear in my tow rig.
I could not reach anything to winch on but a big old stump. The big stump seemed to be solid in the ground.
The big stump worked great to get the rig straight beside the down tree.
The problem was I was still to close to swing the nose around to miss the trees behind me to back up.
I winched a little more and the big stump came out of the ground and was rolling down the hill toward my rig.
The stump came to a stop about twenty feet up the hill from my rig but my cable was stuck under it.
I could not roll the stump off the cable. The stump was way too heavy to move by hand.
I had no choice but the stand to the side of the Tweety Jeep and continue winching the cable in.
The stump slid on down the hill with my cable as I winched in.
Finely the cable came lose from the stump that was now about 10 feet away from the front of my rig.
By this time it was very dark. I helped Ghost Rider get his rig turned around and then was hoping to get my rig backed out.
I got very lucky. I was able to swing the XJ’s nose under the down tree to miss the trees behind the rig.
The XJ’s windshield came very near to hitting the down tree as I swung the nose under.
I was able to get turned around where Ghost Rider was and we headed back to camp for the night.
On Sunday August 24th, 2008 we decided to go Scout out the upper 4W608 trail and maybe run it on up to the Ahtanum.
We took FS570 up and then ran FS1201 to FS653.
We ran FS653 to Long Lake where the 4W608A trail head is.
Here is looking across the lake that I had only seen from the ridge above.
From the rock on top of the ridge with the dead tree (Louie Way Climb Vista), I have looked down at Long Lake many times.
The lake has a lot of green stuff floating on it. We saw frogs everywhere.
We took a walk up 4W608A to see how the trail was.
At the top of the first small climb you have to take a hard right.
Not far on the ridge you have this rocky area to drop down.
Here is looking from the bottom of the same part of the trail.
We took a walk down to 4W608 and the rest of the trail to there looked good.
We decide not to take 4W608A since I had a broken axle and Ghost Riders carburetor was giving him problems.
We drove around to 4W608 off FS1201.
It got real tight just the way I like trails. We turned around where the trail dropped down a hill.
Here we are heading back out 4W608.
We ran FS1201 out to Hwy-12. We took Hwy-12 to Wind Point.
Here is looking off FS1302 at where we turned up.
We turned up FS511 to get on top of the ridge.
Here is a nice climb for a FS road.
Back on FS1302
Looking across at Pine Mountain Lookout Tower.
Here we are coming up on Jump Off Lookout Tower
Looking down on Rimrock Lake.
Jump Off Lookout Tower
Weird things people do.
Here we are above Louie Way Gap
4W613 climbs up Divide Ridge from Louie Way Gap.
It doesn’t seem that much of a climb when you run the trail.
Coming back out the view of the Yakima Valleys are cool.
Turning off FS1302 onto FS663 to run down to Cowiche Mill Road.
Bubz having fun riding in the Tweety Jeep.
Nice log cabin.
Ghost Rider found the ruts are deep.
The kids thought this stump would be cool for Halloween.
We made our way down and out Cowiche Mill Road. This was over all another great weekend.