The general plan was to explore an area familiar to each of us, showing the other some of the highlights. My traveling companion for the weekend is a co-worker of mine, Ellis, and he’s got a mostly stock ’05 Rubi that he uses strictly for hunting season and weekend jaunts around town. It’s only got a little over 12k on the ticker, and he bought it brand new... Anyhow, his stomping grounds are up North of Ellensburg, in the Naneum Forest area. Unfortunately, this area has just recently fallen under the Green Dot program, which basically means any road or trail that is not clearly marked with a green dot is effectively closed. Ellis was shocked at the numerous trails that were now closed, as his hunting areas are now severely limited unless he wants to hike several miles in some pretty steep terrain… Even his hunting camp, which was established some 65 years ago by his great grandfather, is now inaccessible by road. Interesting side-story: his great grandfather, at the tender age of 11, was in charge of the hay wagons supporting the release of elk from Yellowstone Park to that area of Washington back in 1923!! The area I chose was the Manastash Ridge, coming from the Ellensburg side up and over the top and back down to Cliffdel. Along the way we ran into the AWORC bunch enjoying a leisurely trip along 694 helping with the Pick Up A Mountain effort. About that time it began to rain pretty heavily and the fog was rolling in along the top of the ridge. Our stop and the Funny Rocks was brief, as the wind was howling and the rain was driving its way through every open gap in my ailing (thanks to tipping into that tree well last year at Rim Rock) soft top… We bombed down Milk Creek and headed for home, arriving back in Tri-Cities around 4:00pm Saturday afternoon. All told, we traveled about 300 miles and each of us saw a lot of new ground and generally enjoyed an excellent two-day trip.
On to the pics…
Glad to hear that you enjoyed the trip!! 
