We launched from the West Richland Maverik at 0700 and our patriotic trio of red, white, and blue JL Wranglers headed West and landed at the 4W688 trailhead a short time later:- IMG_2991.JPG (2.23 MiB) Viewed 174 times
As we gained elevation, we ran into a few patches of old rotten snow...
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...and a bunch of downed trees. This one in particular was a little too big to climb over, so OG pulled out the pruning device and we setup the winch and party pulley to get it yarded out of the way:
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Soon enough we were back underway, and found ourselves some legit spring snow wheeling:
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Jim and Paul stayed the course on the Pipeline trail, but I was tasked with meal prep so I hopped onto FS-1902 and made the rest of the ascent to the summit in order to get things going:
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Mission accomplished, we tooled around up top playing on the snow drifts around the tower structures and then made our way down to the hiking trailhead parking area, which was untouched and made for some great fun:
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With the day getting long, we beat feet back down the hill, airing up near Crow Creek:
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Sadly, the convenience store at Whistlin Jack's was closed which meant we were denied the requisite ice cream. However, as luck would have it, we stopped for a bio-break in Naches and parked literally right in front of a previously unknown hidden gem of an ice cream shoppe'!! Redemption:
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