Due to family plans getting cancelled/altered, my wife and I decided on somewhat of a last minute trip out to scout the roads leading out to Gallaher Head Lake. We ended up meeting up with Luke and his wife in North Bend, and our last minute trip turned into a great day behind the wheel.

Working with my Android GPS and the app 'My Tracks.,' my trip report won't be much, but those that have been out in that area will probaby have an idea where we were. After getting through Roslyn and following Cle Elum Lake north along Hwy 903, we slipped through Cle Elum campground and hopped onto FR4330 and followed it up. Without a map we spend the day exploring/wandering around off-shoots until we hit a gate or the forest had taken over the road. We picked up some new trail pinstripes, we encountered a few gates, and didn't quite make it all the way to the lake, but we had a great day out of the house and made some new friends.

That's what it's all about.  Do what you can, when you can do it. Excellent day to be sure.  Cheers to you guys!

 JUST missed the 3-wheel action, need some more practice with the new camera, sorry Luke! 

Didn't make it to the lake, and didn't see too much snow either. I'll attribute it to me being a bum, and doing a poor job of planning. Didn't print out maps before leaving work on Sat, and then I must have missed the Ranger station (or it was the boarded up building we ate lunch at) so no maps their either....so I wasn't able to get us to the lake , but we still had a great time.

According to the app I used, it looks like we turned around when we were about 3/4 of the way to the lake, and our max elevation was about 3200 ft. We hit a gate or 2 at the higher elevations, but I'm not positive if those gates would have blocked us from getting up to the lake or not since we were flying blind. Next time I will plan better, have the route ready, and will be packed to camp as we ran into plenty of primitive spots that would have worked for a night or two. We will definitely be back out!

EDIT : Just remembered that the guy in the Jeep (pictured above) warned us there was some pretty heavy tree fell up ahead blocking the road, he had worked for a little while with his small chainsaw but gave up. He said heavier duty chainsaws would be needed to clear the road.

That picture was taken right after his Jeep was about an inch from rolling over onto Luke's Disco!

I'm not sure we were even in the right area, the lake (according to google) was North West of our location on a different set of roads. I'm probably wrong, all I did was do a google search for Gallagher Head Lake and then trace the forest service roads back to the highway, and what I have found out in the past is that the road may not even exist even though it shows up on Google! We should go back there, possibly sooner than later, armed with better maps and more info, and find that lake! In the mean time I will be trying to buff the scratches off my rig. 

The pictures are great Rob, the adventures of the "Smurf" and "Charley Brown"!

Sorry for the ridicules saturation in these photos, I had a camera setting out of wack. Props to my wife for taking most of these, it was her first time with the camera!

 Nice pics Luke. We should definitely head back there sometime soon...only problem is that summer 'free time' seems to be dissapearing by the second! I've got a bunch more photos, if you wanted add yours, I could start an album.

Dumb question for computer the more computer/technology savvy than I : This phone app "My Tracks" that I used to track our wanderings works very well at showing where I've been, but I have not been able to figure out how to open the info on my computer once I email the file to myself. Anyone want to steer me in the right direction? I can "share" our "Tracks" via email from my phone in any of the following file formats : GPX (attached), KML, CSV, or TCX. I've tried sending all of these to myself and don't seem to have the right program to open the file. What gives? Thanks gents.

Looking at your track, I don't think you went far enough north. If you follow the main FS road just a little further north on the map you'll see another 4wd trail that runs along the Fourtune creek. I've only been there once and maybe someone else on here can offer some more in depth knowledge but I think you missed it by that much! From what I remember there were no gates on the fourtune creek trail and it is a pretty mello trail. So far that is one of my most memorable trails I've taken the Jeep on and if I get some more free time this summer I'm going to head back up there..

Awesome pics by the way, Thanks for sharing.

 Yep,  I think we were on the right track to the lake when we encountered the JK telling us about the fallen trees...bummer, so close!

We will definitely be back there this summer for some camping it was a beautiful area.

Oh, and please school me...how the heck did you open that file? What program? Thanks Benny.

With Overland Navigator of course  

 Yahtzee! I had to 'drag and drop' the file onto GoogleEarth to get it to work. Thank you Mike!

Luke,

I think Benny is correct.

it looks to me that you took 4330 to 1392 and then took a left early on , because I believe that is where the " caution " sign by that cool little wooden bridge is. (There is an old building like a little mill or soemthing within sight). If you would have stayed on 1392 instead of turning left toward the little caution bridge, you would have dead ended at a traihead for hiking/motorcycling (there's a combination if I've ever seen one) but too narrow for Jeeps.  It looks like you may have done that as well from the pics with open vista views from the shelf road.

1392 hiking trail take may take  you to Gallaher Head itself, (and around to Deroux Camp) but not necessarily the lake. Not sure.

Fortune Creek trail is one more intersection north on 4330. I just rode it this weekend on my enduro ( June 25/26) and it is nicely trashed from the winter. Water crossings, while short, are flowing and there is a creek flowing right down long sections of trail. It's really cool. Your rigs would have loved it until you hit the big 4' diameter tree that is crossing the trail. That is on the 2nd part of the trail.

While my Delorme Gazetteer shows more detail than my Benchmark, neither are too clear on this area. i know there is a fs road just to the north (FR 160 I'm thinking)  and to the south (1392 and it's spurs) of the Fortune Creek trail. part one of the trail ends at FR 160 and then picks up again 1/4 mile down the road for part 2, which takes you too the lake.

Part 1 of the trail is doable right now. (If there were trees down on the first part of the trail, I rode over them and quickly forgot they were there.) i got by the 4' dia tree (no way for Jeeps to get by though) but the snow was finally too much at the long hill where Craig said to get some momentum for it. That was my turn around point.

FR 160 is blocked by an avalanche before it intersects the trail.

I realized how tricky this area is to navigate because as I was still scouting for a staging area to park the van I saw a stock Taco and a realatively stock SExtera coming off FR160 onto 4330. I stopped them and asked about the trail. From their description of the avalanche, a couple of views, the cleanliness of thier trucks, the lack of things I found while on the trail, and also thier general lack of enthusiasm, I realized they went on all the roads in the area but not the actual trail itself. It's an exiting little trail this time of year.  I would make the drive from Bellingham again just to do the trail.

If you have a video camera, and if I am available, I could ride ahead with a FMRS (handheld)radio and video you guys coming up the trail.