Date, Location
Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 12:25 pm
I figure it's time to start planning for next year!
For 2013, I thought about trying something a little different. The historic Naches Wagon Trail runs through the Cascades in western Washington, and is open to 4x4's around July 15th of each year. I can plot a course that takes us over the Naches Trail, then up some other 4x4 trails to some fun rock gardens (google "funny rocks, WA"), down to Ellensburg on more 4WD trails, then over to Liberty (the site of the 2006 meet.) via FS and DNR roads. For the 2013 meet, I'd like to start out with a 2-3 day trail run starting with the Naches trail, and ending at Liberty. Once at Liberty, we can spend a few days there running trails.
This would mean effectively living out of your LJ for 2-3 days, until we get to Liberty. I haven't checked mileage, but I expect up to 50 miles of 4WD trails, plus a lot of dirt roads, and fewer than ten miles of paved roads. For those who prefer not to camp on the trail, there is gas and cabins near the end of the Naches Trail (first night) and gas, food, & lodging in Ellensburg WA (second night), but you would still have to carry everything you needed (i.e. food, clothes) in your LJ.
These trails are a bit more difficult than what we have run at some of the past meets (they are a lot like the Liberty trails), but there are also FS roads people can use to bypass areas they do not want to try, or to get into town early if needed. The trails aren’t all that hard, just very tight (lots of trees!) I’ve taken my LJ’s on nearly all of them in the past. Funny Rocks and Moon Rocks are completely optional; on holiday weekends they get pretty crowded, so we will sometimes just have lunch up there and watch everyone else break their stuff.
My parents have already committed to going, but will not want to camp on the trail, so they’ll set up a base camp at Liberty. Thus, for those bringing tow rigs/RV’s/etc., you can leave them at the Liberty campsite, and we can ferry the LJ’s over the mountains to my house or closer. If you just want to do the Liberty trails, you can do a few before we get there. It’s about 1.5 - 2 hours by LJ from my house to the start of the Naches Trail; if we want to stay closer to the beginning of the trail we can stay in Enumclaw or maybe Greenwater, or a FS campground.
Hopefully we can encourage some of you Canadian’s to bring your LJ’s down for this one, as it has been awhile since we’ve seen you guys at a meet (the first part of this is similar to the Whipsaw run we did a couple of years ago, but without most of the bugs!) I also expect some guys in my local club will want to join us. My trailer holds two LJ’s, and a couple of guys in my club have trailers that will also hold two rigs, so I don’t think it’ll be too much of a problem getting all of the LJ’s from Liberty to the starting point.
Please post up here if you can make it. If you only want to do part of the run, please let me know that as well.
For 2013, I thought about trying something a little different. The historic Naches Wagon Trail runs through the Cascades in western Washington, and is open to 4x4's around July 15th of each year. I can plot a course that takes us over the Naches Trail, then up some other 4x4 trails to some fun rock gardens (google "funny rocks, WA"), down to Ellensburg on more 4WD trails, then over to Liberty (the site of the 2006 meet.) via FS and DNR roads. For the 2013 meet, I'd like to start out with a 2-3 day trail run starting with the Naches trail, and ending at Liberty. Once at Liberty, we can spend a few days there running trails.
This would mean effectively living out of your LJ for 2-3 days, until we get to Liberty. I haven't checked mileage, but I expect up to 50 miles of 4WD trails, plus a lot of dirt roads, and fewer than ten miles of paved roads. For those who prefer not to camp on the trail, there is gas and cabins near the end of the Naches Trail (first night) and gas, food, & lodging in Ellensburg WA (second night), but you would still have to carry everything you needed (i.e. food, clothes) in your LJ.
These trails are a bit more difficult than what we have run at some of the past meets (they are a lot like the Liberty trails), but there are also FS roads people can use to bypass areas they do not want to try, or to get into town early if needed. The trails aren’t all that hard, just very tight (lots of trees!) I’ve taken my LJ’s on nearly all of them in the past. Funny Rocks and Moon Rocks are completely optional; on holiday weekends they get pretty crowded, so we will sometimes just have lunch up there and watch everyone else break their stuff.
My parents have already committed to going, but will not want to camp on the trail, so they’ll set up a base camp at Liberty. Thus, for those bringing tow rigs/RV’s/etc., you can leave them at the Liberty campsite, and we can ferry the LJ’s over the mountains to my house or closer. If you just want to do the Liberty trails, you can do a few before we get there. It’s about 1.5 - 2 hours by LJ from my house to the start of the Naches Trail; if we want to stay closer to the beginning of the trail we can stay in Enumclaw or maybe Greenwater, or a FS campground.
Hopefully we can encourage some of you Canadian’s to bring your LJ’s down for this one, as it has been awhile since we’ve seen you guys at a meet (the first part of this is similar to the Whipsaw run we did a couple of years ago, but without most of the bugs!) I also expect some guys in my local club will want to join us. My trailer holds two LJ’s, and a couple of guys in my club have trailers that will also hold two rigs, so I don’t think it’ll be too much of a problem getting all of the LJ’s from Liberty to the starting point.
Please post up here if you can make it. If you only want to do part of the run, please let me know that as well.