Friday, May 7, Nathan C and Grant traveled from the North Sound, and Garrett G traveled from Wenatchee to meet Jon S in Ellensburg, WA. Campus U-Tote-Um burgers were excellent.
1:00 PM- after driving east on Vantage highway past the windfarms we reached the Whiskey Dick Corral Road, the southern/western entry to the WD and Quilomene units of the L.T. Murray Wildlife Area. Aired down, Nathan took the lead to guide us north and east across much of the units with the goal of a camp site near the Columbia on the northeast side of the Quilomene.
The area is stunning in its starkness- rolling hills, basalt, sage, with the everpresent, slowly turning wind generators providing the only point of reference in much of the lowlands. Being the early spring with evidence of recent moisture, the dust was not bad, and flowers dotted much of the landscape.
At about 4 miles we reached a mild water crossing; the hillsides were snow free, but the run off earlier had flooded a small shallow above a creek bed. This will be a bad spot at some point as its eroding on the south side- see the video in the video’s section of NWOS.
2:30 PM Continued North then east to junction with the Cayuse Road/Road 19.2. The option was to continue east to camping north of Ginkgo State Park, or continue travel north to the Quilomene Ridge. We were about 2-3 hours ahead of schedule, so opted to cover more ground before camping.
We’d gained considerable elevation from the entrance, and now had views of the Columbia far to the east. The sage grew denser as we climbed, as did the pungent aroma. Nathan makes a great guide, with his knowledge of unique spots along the route including several homesteads and an abandoned cabin. Good places to stop for a break from the rattling your bones get from the rocky road surface.
The rolling hills give way to steeper canyons, with roads cut sometimes straight up and down the elevation. The weather was good, but in the rain these could be difficult ascents. We were now crossing the Skookumchuck Ridge and Drainage, which WDFW acquired recently to join the WD and Q units into one continuous game management area.
5:20 PM Climbing up out of the drainage, we intersected the Box Canyon Road/Road 19, and opted for a quick detour for a view over the Columbia before continuing Northeast to the campsite.
Conditions on the bluff were beautiful, and with the varying cloud cover the landscape changes dramatically with shade and bright sunlight. The small ground hugging steppe flowers added a unique color to the landscape, which I am not photographically skillful enough to capture. But it was pretty, really, you had to be there…
6:04 PM on the Quilomene Ridge, heading to camp well below our current position. Nathan lead us along the ridge and down a significant elevation loss with amazing geological transitions to arrive at the campsite at approximately 6:30 PM. The wind was pretty howly so we opted to forego a campfire and avoid lighting up the whole valley. Dinner, then huddling around the Hibatchi. A little spitting rain, then stars as the night set it.
Approximate mileage off highway Friday: 27
Saturday Morning- overcast and cool… walked down to the west bank of the Columbia for beautiful view of the river, and the stunning cliffs above the sand dunes. Great way to start the day!
9:00 AM depart camp, travel back up to the Quilomene Ridge and follow the spine above the Wildhorse Windfarm and the valleys we’d crossed yesterday. This is a pretty miserable road that’ll beat you up and rattle all your gear loose… The reward are the absolutely gorgeous vistas in all directions, particularly as the higher Colockum treelines come into view.
11:07 AM Garrett lead us up out of the steppe into the timber along the Caribou Canyon to the 4 point junction with Powerline, Colockum, Caribou Canyon Road. Weather was setting in, overcast and much cooler now that we’re above 4000. Road is a little muddy, some standing water in places. Set out up Colockum road north towards the pass.
We quickly encountered snowcover. There were faint tracks visible, but gave no hint if the previous travelers had gone up and returned. While we weighed options, and the hail started in, a group of 4 or 5 well suited out ATV’s came down the road, towing one damaged ATV, and did not slow down as they passed. Hmmm. If the ATV guys had to turn back…
We opted to give it a go, see how far we could get- it was still early enough in the day that we could return to powerline road and bypass the pass. Then two of the ATV’s returned headed North, just as the hail really got its act together. Their compadre had lost control and piled into a tree, but they were returning to camp at Crescent Bar. They felt we’d make it if we stayed on top of the snowmobile grooming that remained. The road was completely snow covered for approximately 3 miles.
So with that cheery outlook, we pressed forward, Garrett leading with Overland Navigator keeping us on track in the snow cover and difficult visibility.
We got about .2 miles, Garrett getting slightly hung up, A quick winch extraction, then back on our way. By now its snowing. Temps have dropped. We advanced through several drifted areas, then came to a clearing were some buffoon had gotten stuck earlier in the season, creating two breakthroughs in the groomed surface. Garrett fell through the first, making it obvious further travel on the road was impossible, or at least pretty difficult.
Best option was to try the more solid snow on either side of the roadway. To the East side, grass visibly stuck through the snow, so it was no more than 4” deep in places. We decided as long as we did not cut through the snowcover to the soil below we could drive on the roadside. Jon made valiant attempts at both sides, to no success. Eventually we had to use Garrett’s track and Jon was able to finesse his CJ-7 onto the eastside of the road, and bypassed the obstacle. While I, Garrett and Nathan progressed through the obstacle, Jon went ahead to check the passability of the road. All three vehicles made it up and out of the clearing, and once in the timber the road was entirely passable, so long as one kept an even, mild foot on the throttle.
Approximately 12:30 PM- I’d sorta stopped taking notes by now, so I’m going off my memory. Jon made it to another clearing, where the track was not very clear at all. The snow covered deep ruts, which Jon’s CJ fell to the bottom of. As Nathan and I breached the hill, Jon had cable stretched to a tree at about 130’. And it was snowing. A Lot. This was decision time- extracate Jon and turn around, or attempt to press on? Overland Navigator told Garrett we were only a few hundred yards from the summit… so we opted to push on.
See the image library for pics of this period- I truthfully was too cold to think of filming.
Unfortunately Jon’s front winch failed- an issue with the hydraulics and the temperature drop. Garrett got within winch distance, and Jon’s rear winch pulled him to solid snow. He was then able to proceed on top of the grooming, at times straddling the ruts, and went ahead again to assess conditions. All three of the other vehicles followed Jon’s track, and once back ion the trees we were fine, even a little blue sky up ahead!
The next clearing presented a problem- the ruts again were deeper than Jon’s 33”s, but the snow over most of the roadbed was only 8’10” deep. Jon made an attempt, and was putted into the ruts (which went into the bar ditch, I think). Some winching, then some very strong and nimble throttle work by Jon got him back on top, and down the road. Garrett was able to straddle the mess, and avoiding the ruts cut through the snow to roadbed and reached solid ground. Then I dropped in- slipped right into the ruts and lost forward traction- lowrange, backed up, gave it a run and almost popped out of it… but no. Locker just got me in worse. Garrett backed up to the edge of solid ground, winched to him while trying not to cut deep ruts that Nathan would have to cross.
Then Nathan, displaying what was I think the pinnacle of driving excellence for the whole trip, took his little XJ Cherokee with 30” All Terrains, and drove through the snow bog that Jon and I had made of the obstacle. Brilliant. Nathan, you are one primo operator.
The rest of the road out became easier as we quickly lost elevation, the snow quickly giving way to sloppy run off on the rocky road. Then as if to welcome our victorious conquest of the Colockum pass in a driving May snow, the sky opened up to brilliant, almost overwhelming sunshine.
Garrett lead us to two great viewpoints with views of the Columbia, the ridgelines and weather we’d just come through, and the farmland across the valley.
3:18 PM- bottom of Colockum road, airing up and heading back to civilization. Total recorded mileage off highway: 64