dreamr
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- October 5, 2003
- Messages
- 3,636
- Reaction score
- 13
- City, State
- Lynnwood WA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 99 XL / 4x4 / 4.0 ohv
Albino and I decided to return to the Wenatchee national forest above Cle Elum to explore a bit more. Our original intentions were to follow the Fortune Creek Trail 4w301 to it’s end and camp at Gallagher Head Lake. But…………………………..
A few weekends back we were in this same area and were not able to make it very far at all due to the snow. For that report follow the link.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134709
Friday morning found us starting up the 4w301. The first leg of this trail is relatively easy with a couple stream crossings to challenge the Explorer departure angle. We made it through the first leg without any difficulty and crossed up to the second leg of the trail headed in to Gallagher Head Lake. The trail changes it’s personality a bit on this second leg but is still passable to a stock Ex if you don’t mind dragging the frame and your bumpers now and again. I chose to run this section in Auto 4x4 and it actually performed better than I expected. We traveled a considerable section of the trail before we ran into snow. The first snow pile was on a narrow section and was passable but we decided to hike up a bit and see how much more snow was around the corner. What we found was that we couldn’t get through the draw due to snow up to an adults waste (poor Albino sunk a bit ). We stopped for a bit to check the maps and found that we were just under a half mile from the lake. GRRRRR. Oh well it gave us a moment to play around in the alpine and let the kids stretch there legs.
After dropping back down the second leg of the 301 we decided to explore the fire road and look for a good campsite. Albino got a chance to try out his new winch dragging a tree out of the road, then we went on up. Toward the end of the road there had been a slide that had taken out most of the road. We skirted it with a few inches to spare only to find roads end right around the corner. It made for a beautiful view and lunch spot. But upon further investigation of the slide area we found the road to be crumbling and were grateful that we hadn’t slid on down the cliff with the dirt and rock. After lunch we dropped back down and found a nice campsite at the top end of the first leg of the 301 and settled in for a night of camping and a bit of RC 4 wheeling.
Saturday morning found us headed up the Van Epps Mine Trail 4w302 which had stopped us with snow not too far up a few weekends back. This trail is a bit more challenging than the 301 and is mostly made up of rock piles. Many of the stream crossings are deep “V’s” and we both slammed the front and rear hitches into countless rocks. Not to mention my little incident with a large branch popping up and wedging itself between my rear shock and axle. The trail had a few hairy spots and a bit of it got rather narrow but in the end we found ourselves sitting just under 6’000 feet on the top of Van Epps Pass. Here we stopped for lunch and a small hike. The Views were incredible!!!!! Sadly as we looked down the trail on the other side it quickly turned into deep snow so we were not able to travel all the way in to the Van Epps Mine itself. Down we went and back to camp to drag out the RC rock crawlers and the kids drug out there mini rock crawlers as well. Around dusk we had a visitor wander right in to camp. She was a pretty fair sized Mule Deer doe. No fear whatsoever as she walked within 5-10 feet of my front bumper. Sadly my pictures didn’t catch anything but black. I did however get a picture of another the next day coming off the 305.
Sunday morning was to be our last day so we broke down camp early and decided to run the Mine to Market trail 4w305. This trail proved to be a bit more challenging and quickly became severely overgrown. It was difficult to see the road for the branches brushing across my windshield. We didn’t go up all the way as we decided that this one wasn’t worth the scars it was leaving. I found the nasty stream cuts and rocks fun, but I don’t like scratches that go very deep from the overhanging trees. And Phil has got some U-bolts to cut down if he plans on getting a socket on there in the future. We only got a couple pics in the clear areas of this trail.
All in all a good weekend, but I still want to see the end of the 302 as well as fish Gallagher Head Lake.
Below I have attached several pictures. I tried to order them and provide a brief caption to tie into the write up. If I messed any of it up correct me Albino. It was difficult while reviewing 73 pictures to remember them all and pick out the best 20 or so.
Going up the 301
Snowy end to the road on the 301
A few views from the "End" of the 301
Turning around on the 301
Coming down the 301
Going up the 302. I didn't get many pictures of this trail as ......well I was concentrating I guess
Views from Van epps pass
The draw in this picture is were the Van epps mine actually sits
On top of the world
A view from Van Epps Pass down on Spirit lake
The snowy end to the 302
A few shots on the 305
Phil trying out his new toy on a fire road
A nice view on that same fire road
Our camp on the 301
Kids posing with their rock crawlers
Phil making friends with his rc truck
And lastly a deer off the 305
A few weekends back we were in this same area and were not able to make it very far at all due to the snow. For that report follow the link.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134709
Friday morning found us starting up the 4w301. The first leg of this trail is relatively easy with a couple stream crossings to challenge the Explorer departure angle. We made it through the first leg without any difficulty and crossed up to the second leg of the trail headed in to Gallagher Head Lake. The trail changes it’s personality a bit on this second leg but is still passable to a stock Ex if you don’t mind dragging the frame and your bumpers now and again. I chose to run this section in Auto 4x4 and it actually performed better than I expected. We traveled a considerable section of the trail before we ran into snow. The first snow pile was on a narrow section and was passable but we decided to hike up a bit and see how much more snow was around the corner. What we found was that we couldn’t get through the draw due to snow up to an adults waste (poor Albino sunk a bit ). We stopped for a bit to check the maps and found that we were just under a half mile from the lake. GRRRRR. Oh well it gave us a moment to play around in the alpine and let the kids stretch there legs.
After dropping back down the second leg of the 301 we decided to explore the fire road and look for a good campsite. Albino got a chance to try out his new winch dragging a tree out of the road, then we went on up. Toward the end of the road there had been a slide that had taken out most of the road. We skirted it with a few inches to spare only to find roads end right around the corner. It made for a beautiful view and lunch spot. But upon further investigation of the slide area we found the road to be crumbling and were grateful that we hadn’t slid on down the cliff with the dirt and rock. After lunch we dropped back down and found a nice campsite at the top end of the first leg of the 301 and settled in for a night of camping and a bit of RC 4 wheeling.
Saturday morning found us headed up the Van Epps Mine Trail 4w302 which had stopped us with snow not too far up a few weekends back. This trail is a bit more challenging than the 301 and is mostly made up of rock piles. Many of the stream crossings are deep “V’s” and we both slammed the front and rear hitches into countless rocks. Not to mention my little incident with a large branch popping up and wedging itself between my rear shock and axle. The trail had a few hairy spots and a bit of it got rather narrow but in the end we found ourselves sitting just under 6’000 feet on the top of Van Epps Pass. Here we stopped for lunch and a small hike. The Views were incredible!!!!! Sadly as we looked down the trail on the other side it quickly turned into deep snow so we were not able to travel all the way in to the Van Epps Mine itself. Down we went and back to camp to drag out the RC rock crawlers and the kids drug out there mini rock crawlers as well. Around dusk we had a visitor wander right in to camp. She was a pretty fair sized Mule Deer doe. No fear whatsoever as she walked within 5-10 feet of my front bumper. Sadly my pictures didn’t catch anything but black. I did however get a picture of another the next day coming off the 305.
Sunday morning was to be our last day so we broke down camp early and decided to run the Mine to Market trail 4w305. This trail proved to be a bit more challenging and quickly became severely overgrown. It was difficult to see the road for the branches brushing across my windshield. We didn’t go up all the way as we decided that this one wasn’t worth the scars it was leaving. I found the nasty stream cuts and rocks fun, but I don’t like scratches that go very deep from the overhanging trees. And Phil has got some U-bolts to cut down if he plans on getting a socket on there in the future. We only got a couple pics in the clear areas of this trail.
All in all a good weekend, but I still want to see the end of the 302 as well as fish Gallagher Head Lake.
Below I have attached several pictures. I tried to order them and provide a brief caption to tie into the write up. If I messed any of it up correct me Albino. It was difficult while reviewing 73 pictures to remember them all and pick out the best 20 or so.
Going up the 301
Snowy end to the road on the 301
A few views from the "End" of the 301
Turning around on the 301
Coming down the 301
Going up the 302. I didn't get many pictures of this trail as ......well I was concentrating I guess
Views from Van epps pass
The draw in this picture is were the Van epps mine actually sits
On top of the world
A view from Van Epps Pass down on Spirit lake
The snowy end to the 302
A few shots on the 305
Phil trying out his new toy on a fire road
A nice view on that same fire road
Our camp on the 301
Kids posing with their rock crawlers
Phil making friends with his rc truck
And lastly a deer off the 305