Nate in his Jeep XJ met me at my house in Mount Vernon on Friday afternoon. With just a *few* more things to pack into my Land Rover Discovery 2, we headed off to meet up with Gene in North Bend. Gene had all of his gear, his daughter, and her friend all packed up and ready to go when we arrived. We were quickly back on the freeway and headed over the pass. Other than Gene almost losing us when we exited at Snoqualmie Summit in the fog, the trip over was uneventful. He quickly found us and we tried to get a slice of pizza at the pizza/coffee shop on the summit. With a late start and night falling we had decided to eat dinner at a restaurant rather than waiting to get to camp. Unfortunately, they locked the door about 10 seconds before we reached for the handle. We decided to hit up the Taco Del Mar in Ellensburg after getting gas. In Ellensburg, we met up with fellow NWOS member John Rohrbaugh and his son Seth. I checked out his new Suburu and tried to talk him into going with us as we ate our meal... no luck. After filling our stomaches we headed out to nearby Manastash Creek where we quickly found a campsite, setup our tents in the dark, and enjoyed a couple of hours around the campfire. Fortunately the rain seemed to stop just in time for the campfire. The next morning we got up about 7:30. Well all of us except Nate who likes to get up before the birds. We had a pretty quick breakfast and made final preparations for hitting the trail. Pack up, strap the gear down, and in my case get my GPS setup. About an hour before meeting Nate at my house, I went and picked up a bracket I had made for my EO Tuftab. I was eager to give Overland Navigator a go for the first time since I pulled the carputer out of the truck over a year ago! Before I could give it a test I had to route the GPS cable from the rooftop antenna to the dash where it was mounted (the old system was under the seat). Nate waited patiently and we were able to hit the trail about 9:30. Unfortunately, I had maps for every state in the West installed except Washington... I had a GPX Track of the route we planned to take though, so we just followed that w/o the maps. No problem. The route we had planned began easy and slowly increased in difficulty. Tripod Flats North, Tripod Flats South, Bald Mtn, Mud Springs, and then on Sunday we'd run the Naches Wagon Trail in reverse. Tripod flats North begins with a short hill climb where you have to pick your way through the trees. After than the trail is pretty easy up to Tripod Flats. There is one 15 degree off-camber section and one 20 degree section just past the bridge before Tripod Flats. Yep, they put a new bridge in just before Tripod. 
Nate picks his way through the trees at the beginning of 4W307
The new bridge, just before Tripod Flats.
Tripod flats South gets a little more technical as you have to carefully pick your way between trees to avoid body damage. Gene had one incident where he ran a body panel along a stump, but was fortunate in that it didn't dent or even scratch the truck. I was surprised at first when I saw that they'd built a bridge over the creek just before you get to Tripod flats. Then I remembered seeing that people had started ripping up new lines and mudding nearby. The bridge should fix that, but it does make that section of the trail quite a bit easier. 
Nate and Gene on 4W307 just before stopping for lunch
It was pretty slow going, so we stopped at the top, just before the turn off to the Funny Rocks for a quick bite to eat. It was C-O-L-D up there and everyone quickly grabbed their coats and tried to warm up. When the rain started to fall harder, we decided to cut it short and get moving. CJs Hideout and Bald Mtn were *supposed* to offer magnificent sweeping views of the surrounding area, unfortunately with solid clouds and even fog we couldn't see a thing. I tried to keep my spirits high, but I admit I was more than a little dissapointed. The highlight of all of these trails was the scenery and we weren't going to have any today. Both of these trails were very easy and neither deserves the "More Difficult" trail raiting they've been given. After picking our way down off the ridge we arrived at Hwy 410. We drove Hwy 410 for a couple of miles and headed up to the Mud Springs trail. It was a fairly long drive to the trailhead; especially since I had forgotten to load maps into my Tuftab I made a couple of wrong turns... oops. We made it and ran the first mile or so of the trail before stopping for a cup of coffee and to give the dog a chance to run around. Gene demonstrated his Kelly Kettle. In 4 minutes he had 2 quarts of water boiling using nothing but twigs. It's performance was on par with the Jetboil, it had that very cool "classic" gear look to it, has a nearly unlimited fuel supply (twigs), and was cool to the touch within a few minutes of pouring the liquid out. Very cool! After a bit more conversation we headed on our way. Gene's truck was pretty top-heavy on this run which required him to pay very careful attention to wheel placement and line selection to keep from rolling or sliding the truck along a tree. Nate's XJ quietly went through just about everything. Things were going pretty smoothly until I stopped to take a quick photo and Gene noticed that there was steam coming from under the hood. It turns out that one of the heater hoses came loose when Gene was installing his onboard shower last week. We pushed the hose on tighter, and Gene dug out an extra hose clamp which Nate tightened on. A few minutes, 2 gallons of water later and we were back on the trail. 
Nate tightens a hose clamp
About 3/4 of the way through the trail there is a short hill-climb with a few large rocks and a big hole in front of a large root where tires have dug it out. I went up and took the line to the left, got hung up on the root even with the locker engaged. I backed down a few feet 3 times before backing up even more and taking the line to the right with a little momentum. Nate, seeing what happened got a good amount of momentum (but not too much) and scrambled over the right side of the root too. Gene couldn't see what was happening from where his truck was stopped and tried going straight up the middle. He got his front tires up, but the back tires couldn't clear the root. He backed down a little and tried again a few times. He then backed down to the bottom and got a little momentum and took the line on the right. The truck was really heavily loadedand when he couldn't make the line and the rear wheel fell off the root it got really tippy. We decided to keep it safe and just winch up. Nate grabbed a tree strap, and I setup up the winch controller, and pulled cable. We managed to get the truck over the root, and around the last few rocks. People were getting a bit tired, and nerves were getting a frayed, so we took a quick break and regrouped. 
Gene approaches an off camber section of trail
Once past the hill-climb, I had not remembered there being any additional difficult spots. The trail runs right next to a massive drop-off though, and with a lot of slippery roots/rocks what was easy last summer required a little more attention this time. One spot in particular requires that your left wheel go up high on a rock which forces the roof into a tree. With the extra height and weight of the roofrack on Gene's truck, I was pretty concerned. We tried to jimmy it through a couple of different times before Gene just backed up and drove right through with a complete new line snapping a dried branch off in the process. 
Gene decends a moderately off-camber slope
Other than clearing a whole slew of trees/branches from the trail that Gene couldn't fit under we made it off the trail at 6:30. There was a great place to camp at the top, but with occasional thunderstorms in the forecast we decided to head down to a lower elevation. 1.5 hours later we were still on the Forest Service Road headed down when Nate spotted a campsite. It was much warmer here and we had a lot of trees around us to help keep the rain off of our heads. Perfect.... or so we thought. After setting up camp, Gene's daughter headed out to find some firewood and observed a deer head sticking out from under a tarp about 20ft from our camp. Thankfully it didn't smell. We just left it, figured that if the wolves came at least they'd be distracted by the fresh meat. j/k. :-) We each made dinner. Nate with a can of chili, me with Ravioli/Salad, and Gene made Stir Fry. We enjoyed a warm rain free campfire and decided that we had run enough trails for the weekend. The next morning, Nate woke up before god and was packed up and headed home before the rest of us were out of bed. I slept in until around 9am, had a quick breakfast and decided to head off to Mount Rainer before going home. 
Nate enjoying the campfire
Craig and Khuno's camp
I'm really looking forward to doing the Mud Springs trail again. In fact, if the weather permits, I think we'll do it the weekend of the Naches Wagon Trail run. We'll camp Friday night someplace near Whistlin' Jack Lodge, run Mud Springs on Saturday, and run the Naches Wagon Trail on Sunday. It should be a great weekend! Craig |