Colockum Snow Wheeling
Hosted by Yakima/Kittitas Forest Watch
By Clay Graham / CegPics.com
On Saturday February 26, 2011 around 10 AM we met up at 4WheelingPlus.com in Kittitas Washington for a 4×4 run up Colockum Road. We had Forest Watch Volunteers come from all over Washington State to do this 4×4 snow run.
The weather was great and the snow was perfect for snow wheeling. The area on top of the ridge had a lot of use by snowmobiles. A few snowmobilers were friendly and happy to see we had a legal road to snow wheel on since most everything else for many miles was only open to snowmobiles. We made it up to the top of Colockum Pass and only lost the road once due to a blip on the GPS leading us. Lucky we found out we were off track not to far from Colockum Road.
On the way back we stopped at the point where we were off track earlier to check two of the GPSs since the one who lead us there had left before us. This is when our great day turned ugly. We met a Snowmobile group mad at wheelers because Kittitas County said they had to stop illegally grooming Colockum Road and wheel vehicle had a right to use the road. These guys were flying around between us at high speeds and taking down our license plate numbers. They remind me of the outlaw biker clubs you see on TV. Three guys were yelling at us saying we were off Colockum Road when we were all in the area of the road on top of deep snow doing no resource damage. I trying to talked to the one that seemed to be the gang leader calmly. He just got in my face yelling he was turning us into the Sheriff because we had no right to be on DNR land. These guys are giving the Snowmobile users group a bad name by harassing other users. User groups need to fight to keep public lands open for ALL users, not fight with each other. If they would have showed us where to road went after the markers, that would have helped us to be over the top of Colockum Road which we were trying to follow. So instead of educating us, they just made us mad and we still had no clue where the road really was since there was barbwire sticking up were the GPS said the road was. I reported what happened to the DNR I told them I take full responsibility since it was my run but do not see anything wrong with what we did.
This was a very fun run. We plan to go back soon as we can and of coarse have two GPSs up front to show the way.
Here are some photos of the Colockum 4×4 Snow Run:
4WheelingPlus.com in Kittitas Washington
Airing down.
Heading up Colockum Road.
Crossing the first soft area.
Stuck.
Rubiclone ordering pizza.
What you looking at me for Andy? It was just a guess.
Moving on.
Another stuck.
Another soft area that claimed many.
Some friendly people on snowmobiles came and talked with us.
Here they are moving off the road to make room for the rigs that are being pulled through the soft area.
The peanut gallery.
I like to see people having fun!
Deep wrong turn.
Foxracer needing a pull.
Now I need a pull.
At Halfway Station Colockum Pass.
Heading back.
We stopped for some to have lunch.
Bobs Racing was pulling out Rubiclone when the snowmobile gang showed up to harass us.
I did not take anymore pictures until we got to the bottom due to being upset about being verbally attacked by the snowmobile gang leader.
After the run Rubiclone and I had dinner at Yakima Craft Brewing Co.
