OG was up camping in the Naches area and was connected to the interwebs with his portable Elon device. He was telling tale of beautiful weather and majestic sites, so naturally we had to go see what it was all about. The group met up at the Maverik for an 0730 departure in absolutely stunning early fall weather. In attendance were the full dollop of Wilcox plus one rental minion, and Boyscout running solo in their JLU-R:
Things were tidy at mission control in the absolutely perfect weather conditions:
As we rolled West on 82 we came upon the balloon rally in Prosser, which is always a cool thing to see as you cruise by:
We pulled into the sno-park at the base of FS-1708 to unload and air down:
From here, we eased up to FS-590 where we met up with OG at exactly 1000hrs, just as planned:
I haven't been up 590 in a hot second, but Boyscout had recently come down it and mentioned it has changed pretty dramatically in the past few years. He was absolutely correct, and it's funner than ever to weave through the trees, across the bridges, and navigate through some relatively technical sections:
One particular spot got me hung up in the LJ however, as I chose the wrong line and ended up high-centered on the bellypan. These are notoriously shovel-esque on the '03-'06 models, and I plowed plenty of dirt before finally making a quick winch tug to get up and over:
After that brief debacle, we quickly made our way up to Lily Pond:
Not too far into the upper section of the 676 trail, OG put out the call that something looked amiss on the minion's XJ, so we stopped to take a quick look:
The leaf spring center pin had left the building, forcing me to make a trail repair with some all-thread and a couple spare hex nuts. The rest of the group ate lunch while I was getting things cobbled back together:
The yellow mutt and female minion were not overly impressed with the delay:
With that "fixed", we carried on along through the boulder fields toward the intersection with the Manastash Ridge Trail:
We stopped for a quick break at the 676/306 intersection, and when I tried to pull the LJ into gear and head out, I was greeted with a completely limp shifter stalk... A quick investigation revealed this:
The little rubber/plastic bushing that is supposed to hold the shifter cable to the shifter mechanism was MIA... So, out came the zip ties for the second field fix of the day:
With THAT handled, we headed up on 306 toward the intersection with Shoestring, and proceeded to bounce our way across to Tripod Flat:
A quick right-hander on 307 and back up to the top of the ridge, and then back down Upper Woodpecker to the gravel on FS-1708, and soon enough we were back down to the sno-park to load up and air up:
We cruised home with the sun having already set behind us, but leaving enough ambient light and colors in the sky to thoroughly enjoy the evening drive:
It had been a long and dusty day on the trails, with a few unexpected surprises mixed in just to keep it interesting. Days like this prompt the review of my onboard tools and repair supplies, as well as complete nut/bolt czeks on the fleet... Always wheel with friends, go as prepared as you can (without going too far overboard), but most importantly just get out there
Cheese and Stash 25Sept2022
Moderator: SPR
Cheese and Stash 25Sept2022
Yep, I've wheeled one of those, too...
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