dreamr
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- October 5, 2003
- Messages
- 3,643
- Reaction score
- 10
- City, State
- Lynnwood WA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 99 XL / 4x4 / 4.0 ohv
I've been waiting for Albino 94LTD to start this thread, but he's slacking' and I'm bored so here's the story 
In researching for a potential summer Explorer run, Albino discovered a bunch of trails around the Fortune Creek drainage, as well as the Manastash area. Sadly none of us know anything about this area, so..................... We had to go check it out. Albino sent me a PM a few nights ago asking if I was interested in heading up to the Fortune Creek/Table Mountain area this weekend for a bit of wheelin', and how could I refuse
We met up at his home a bit before 9 this morning and headed over the cascades to explore. We had decided on sticking to the "easier" trails as we knew little of the area, and I figure they were likely rated as such by them itty bitty Jeep Wranglers favored around here. Being in a bulky Explorer tends to alter those ratings a bit
Upon arriving at the Salmon Le Sac campground we took a few moments to eat brunch, and remove those pesky sway bars along with a few pounds of air from our tires. We then headed in for the days explorations.
We started out on the Fortune Creek Trail #4W301. The trail started out relatively easy.
The ground up here is quite a bit rockier than our muddy western side of the Cascades, and kept it interesting. As we wound up the mountain on the trail the side quickly fell away leaving us with a nice long drop on one side and the brush/rocks on the other. It was very narrow too . We persevered over the many rock gardens though and found ourselves once again in the forests. Travel was comfortable in the woods and through the streams. But alas the snow started creeping up over the trail.
After a few minor snow areas we came to a long field of snow and pulled off to take a look. As we waded through the deeper snow deciding it wasn't for us, a built Jeep on 33's or 35's pulls up. He takes a look and let's us know that he'll drive on through and pack it down for us. I grinned and laughed a little inside He proceeded to drive in about 10-15 feet before he was stuck and unlimbering the winch cable to drag himself the rest of the way through.
Finally he has winched himself free, and left a nice path for us. Though I still wasn't too interested in trying, so I sent Albino He made it about as far as the Jeep before burying his axle and getting stuck as well. The Jeeper offered to winch us through, but we opted for a tow strap backwards and headed down to find a different trail.
You can see from the pic that Albino's diff was creating a good furrow there
Now you ask yourself where was Dreamers little mountain goat during all of this? Why She was sitting on the dry patch giggling to herself and waiting for rescue duty
After getting turned around we headed back up to the main road and looped back across to access another trail. This time we headed up the Van Epps Mine trail #4W302. The trail once again started out relatively mellow, but soon turned into a narrow rock wash with some pretty good sized boulders hanging out in the way. Phil made it up without a lot of trouble though he did add a bit of rock rash to his running boards and rim, not to mention crushing a center cap. Me? Well I stopped to watch the fun and move the rim gouging rock. I had a bit of trouble getting started again and had to engage the rear locker to avoid heavy use of the skinny pedal. Needless to say we were busy driving on the way in and didn't get any pictures to speak of. Once we cleared the rocks and crossed a couple streams we once again ran into the snow. This time we just turned around for it looked to have only more rock under it all. Not a happy combination that snow and rock
Coming back down through the rocks was about the same as going up (even down to the crushed center cap on the opposite side ) Here are a couple pics from the top of the rock wash. Once I was in it I didn’t take any more.
To give you an idea of why we had to turn around on these trails I took a shot out of my window looking into the woods. There still be a bit of snow up there.
All in all it was a fun day and a couple of fun trails. It is too bad that we weren't able to run them to their ends or take the spurs up above, but I think we'll be back in a month or so............. ehhhhhh Albino. This area would also be great to set up a summer weekend run. There are several trails, and I think a stocker would be fine on 301 and maybe 302. There are also a few others we did not try (or have access to) that are rated as More Difficult, so a bit of fun for all is available.
Thanks for the invite and playing leader all day Phil!!!! Now get the rest of them pics up
In researching for a potential summer Explorer run, Albino discovered a bunch of trails around the Fortune Creek drainage, as well as the Manastash area. Sadly none of us know anything about this area, so..................... We had to go check it out. Albino sent me a PM a few nights ago asking if I was interested in heading up to the Fortune Creek/Table Mountain area this weekend for a bit of wheelin', and how could I refuse
We met up at his home a bit before 9 this morning and headed over the cascades to explore. We had decided on sticking to the "easier" trails as we knew little of the area, and I figure they were likely rated as such by them itty bitty Jeep Wranglers favored around here. Being in a bulky Explorer tends to alter those ratings a bit
Upon arriving at the Salmon Le Sac campground we took a few moments to eat brunch, and remove those pesky sway bars along with a few pounds of air from our tires. We then headed in for the days explorations.
We started out on the Fortune Creek Trail #4W301. The trail started out relatively easy.
The ground up here is quite a bit rockier than our muddy western side of the Cascades, and kept it interesting. As we wound up the mountain on the trail the side quickly fell away leaving us with a nice long drop on one side and the brush/rocks on the other. It was very narrow too
. We persevered over the many rock gardens though and found ourselves once again in the forests. Travel was comfortable in the woods and through the streams. But alas the snow started creeping up over the trail.After a few minor snow areas we came to a long field of snow and pulled off to take a look. As we waded through the deeper snow deciding it wasn't for us, a built Jeep on 33's or 35's pulls up. He takes a look and let's us know that he'll drive on through and pack it down for us. I grinned and laughed a little inside
He proceeded to drive in about 10-15 feet before he was stuck and unlimbering the winch cable to drag himself the rest of the way through.Finally he has winched himself free, and left a nice path for us. Though I still wasn't too interested in trying, so I sent Albino
He made it about as far as the Jeep before burying his axle and getting stuck as well. The Jeeper offered to winch us through, but we opted for a tow strap backwards and headed down to find a different trail.You can see from the pic that Albino's diff was creating a good furrow there
Now you ask yourself where was Dreamers little mountain goat during all of this? Why She was sitting on the dry patch giggling to herself and waiting for rescue duty
After getting turned around we headed back up to the main road and looped back across to access another trail. This time we headed up the Van Epps Mine trail #4W302. The trail once again started out relatively mellow, but soon turned into a narrow rock wash with some pretty good sized boulders hanging out in the way. Phil made it up without a lot of trouble though he did add a bit of rock rash to his running boards and rim, not to mention crushing a center cap. Me? Well I stopped to watch the fun and move the rim gouging rock. I had a bit of trouble getting started again and had to engage the rear locker to avoid heavy use of the skinny pedal. Needless to say we were busy driving on the way in and didn't get any pictures to speak of. Once we cleared the rocks and crossed a couple streams we once again ran into the snow. This time we just turned around for it looked to have only more rock under it all. Not a happy combination that snow and rock
Coming back down through the rocks was about the same as going up (even down to the crushed center cap on the opposite side
) Here are a couple pics from the top of the rock wash. Once I was in it I didn’t take any more.To give you an idea of why we had to turn around on these trails I took a shot out of my window looking into the woods. There still be a bit of snow up there.
All in all it was a fun day and a couple of fun trails. It is too bad that we weren't able to run them to their ends or take the spurs up above, but I think we'll be back in a month or so............. ehhhhhh Albino. This area would also be great to set up a summer weekend run. There are several trails, and I think a stocker would be fine on 301 and maybe 302. There are also a few others we did not try (or have access to) that are rated as More Difficult, so a bit of fun for all is available.
Thanks for the invite and playing leader all day Phil!!!! Now get the rest of them pics up
