The Colockum Road

The Colockum Road runs from Wenatchee south to the Vantage Highway, bisecting the Colockum Wildlife Area and parts of the Naneum Ridge State Forest. The road is a popular Snowmobile Route in the winter, with a snowmobile club performing grooming at their own expense. Generally the road closes as soon as the club grooms the roads, so I wanted to try to cross the pass north to south prior to this closure. Attempts to contact the club were futile (hello, its 1998 calling, they want their chat room back), so I contacted the State DNR and Kittitas County Roads Department for guidance on when the grooming would begin. Both agencies were very responsive and helpful, and said they were in the dark about as much as I; Kittitas County had so many problems over the closure they were holding a hearing December 7 to set when the closure officially occurs. Both said they expected this to be December 15, and that there is no official closing to wheeled vehicles, simply a “Memorandum of Agreement” between the Snowmobile club and the county. With that info, I planned to make a crossing on Saturday December 4/ Sunday December 5 with a small group of 4 or 5 vehicles rigged to meet the challenge.

Saturday Caleb, Mike and I met for breakfast at Wild Huckleberry’s on Garrett’s recommendation- Good breakfast, damn good coffee, and hot, too! Craig met us just before 9 and we were at the final rendezvous point on time and ready to head up. The road is paved or gravel to approximately the Chelan/Kittitas County line where it becomes a primitive road. We encountered snow pretty much right away as all of Wenatchee had snow on the ground. As the road gained elevation, and the primitive nature of the road increased, we were following fewer vehicle tracks and more snowmobile tracks. Snow depth increased but only to about 12-14” max. By about mile 2 all we were following were snowmobile tracks, which can be a real chore; cutting trail was taking more effort than I expected with so little ground cover.

11:01 AM Though still not chained up, I was able to make progress through the thin pine forest around to the large open ridgeline that overlooks Wenatchee and the Columbia. Mike directly behind me was building base on the track I cut, Caleb and Craig following were having a nice drive on a snowy day.

The image at right shows that the snow depth was not bad at all. Traction was the issue.

 

 

 

 

After some pictures and video, we proceeded up the ridge and back into the trees, gaining elevation mildly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The light powdery snow was not developing structure and provided little consistent traction until enough momentum was generated to get on top of it a bit. Now in 4lo and locked, I rounded two ridges and was finally slowed to a point that chains were clearly necessary to proceed (and avoid burning gobs of fuel to keep all four unchained wheels churning).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11:44 AM Caleb and I chained our rear axles, we took some more pictures and enjoyed the cold still day, then began again south towards the pass. I decided to only chain the rear at this point so that I’d have a good handle on how well I could proceed (and return). With the rear chains, forward progress was much less taxing and the vehicle climbed up on the snow quickly with momentum, limited only by the clanking of the chains against the fender edge.

Caleb and I both stopped a couple of times to re-adjust, we were both making very good progress and not really cutting too deep a track. We proceeded to gain a little elevation and as the forest became denser the snowcover depth decreased somewhat. By the time we began the slight descent to the Naneum Ridge Road we were chugging along nicely.

12:00 PM We reached the Naneum Ridge Road intersection, which had been groomed. A family on new sleds came up as Caleb and I discussed options, warning us that wheeled vehicles were prohibited on the grooming. We discussed conditions and where the grooming began and ended as several more snowmobilers passed. 

Mike and Craig arrived and we all agreed we were making progress but did not want to be poor stewards. I drove the trail about 150 feet further, confirming we were capable of proceeding, but decided we should not be “those guys” that wreck the fun for everyone. We unchained, turned back north and had an easy time (mostly) following our fresh cut track back down the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1:45 PM after stopping for video, firewood and more pictures, we ventured along a spur greendot road to an overlook of the Columbia for a group snow run picture, then headed back down to Wenatchee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total miles pavement to pavement: 30 on my odometer, but I was spinning a little bit :)

 

 

The Quilomene in Winter

My goal was to run the Colockum from Wenatchee to Kittitas. With this a bust, my backup was to explore the Whiskey Dick and Quilomene Wild Life Areas under winter conditions. Caleb and Mike were good sports, and although it meant a pretty good drive through Quincy to Vantage, were enthusiastic about seeing the area. The weather was very overcast and growing darker as we reached the Vantage Highway about 4:30. We picked our way along the road and located the western entrance to the Whiskey Dick area just as it got dark. I’d only been on this road once before, in the daylight, so we proceeded cautiously. It was pretty cool and the breeze was bordering on biting, but not yet cutting.

4:45 PM Caleb's lights were invaluable in illuminating the track. The snow on the ground made up for lack of stars or moon providing good enough visibility to navigate. I was just sorry Mike and Caleb did not get to see the rolling hillsides and towering windmills on the ridges.

The snow cover was only a few inches and in the south presented little trouble. We followed tracks of several vehicles, which helped insure we stayed on Greendot approved roads as we met the various unmarked intersections of the spider web of roads that crisscross the area.

I had several possible camp sites in mind. We checked out two in the lower elevations and decided to keep pushing on as we were making good time; the snow makes the miserable road surfaces a little less jarring.

The road crosses several valleys as it proceeds north and gains general elevation. In the bottoms the traction was fine, but on the slopes and the bluffs the snow could get a little slick. Each of us had a few “controlled skids” down some of the steeper descents, but overall had no major issues on the ascents. Getting later, there was one more possible camp site I had in mind before the road climbs up to the Quilomene Ridge into the wind, so we headed for it; Caleb and Mike had little problem as I video taped them dropping down. When I sped to catch up, I completely lost traction on the slick snow with the rear end racing the front to the bottom. It almost won. By the good grace of God the truck somehow managed to stay upright as it pitched sideways down the road with me doing everything I could to get it to climb the uphill side of the road to no success. Suddenly the scene in Strange Brew came to mind when they lose the brakes on the Van: “No sense steering now!”

7:15 PM With that near calamity avoided, I joined up with Caleb and Mike who had found the clearing I was looking for. We set up camp in the wind sheltered road bed, and racked out.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Morning we took our time gathering gear and making breakfast.  A small herd of Deer meander down the hillside for a morning drink, then we were spotted and circled by a plane several times. The Sun made an appearance, vanished as we got underway. The rest of the day was under a blanket of low gray clouds above a whitewashed landscape.

 

 

 

 

10:00 AM We climbed out of the canyon up onto the crest of the ridges which open up expansive views of the entire valley and farmland to the east across the Columbia. Cool but not very cold morning with no overnight snow, but in areas run off had frozen under the snow making some ascents slick in spots.

10:48 AM Near Box Canyon we stopped to plan our route for the day and Eagle Eye Mike spotted a small herd of Elk concealed just below a small ridge, then spotted a Bull Elk galloping eastward along the horizon, its body a dark pinpoint between the gray sky and gray/white snowscape. Soon after we spotted a Coyote chasing a rabbit not more than 50 yards in front of us, then overlooking the Columbia Mike spotted a bald eagle cruising up stream almost at eyelevel with us.

 

 

 

12:40 PM We covered much of the eastern Quilomene highlands and traveled westward towards the wind farm, following hunters in a Dodge diesel who surprisingly were having little success finding any Elk that would run up to their truck to be filled full of arrows. The landscape is shades of white gray and blue with the treeline of the Colockum southern border across the Perkins Creek valley to our North.

We decided to try an alternate route out of the area that would put us further west on the Vantage Highway than where we entered. We passed the north end of the tree farm and proceeded west into the thin Pine forest of the Naneum area. Mike lead us through several intersecting roads , picking our way west and south down the the valley Parke Creek drains through, which is mostly private land on the map.

1:15 PM We found a road that took us all the way back to I-5. Aired Up, Fueled Up and headed back west to normal life after a cold, incomplete attempt at the Colockum and a nice day in the Quilomene early winter wonderland. I’m already eager for the late spring south to north crossing attempt.

Approximately 40 miles off highway in the Quilomene

See the NWOS Picture Gallery and Video Gallery for more images of this outing.