Spring Fever 4×4 Run at the Wenas Wildlife Area
Hosted by Eastern Washington Off Road.
By Clay Graham / CegPics.com
UPDATE: The Washington Department of Wildlife has fixed the area with the multiple trails going the same direction. They put in a nice gravel road lined with big rock keeping vehicles on the right path.
On Saturday, March 15th, 2008, at 10 AM we met up on Sheep Company Road at the Wenas Wildlife Area AKA L. T. Murray for the Spring Fever Run. We had 5 rigs on this run; Bronco (Demontang), CJ5 (Waycrazy), SJ (Soggymountain), and two XJs (Scuba and 99). I rode shotgun with 99 in her Tweety Jeep. Demontang was the Trail Boss on this run. He took us out on some trails we had never been on before.
We found a little snow to play in here and there. Some off camber areas and some roads were muddy. On the top of the ridge the views where great. You could see the Kittitas, Wenas, Selah, and Yakima valleys.
There is an area called the Oasis with trees. Just west of it on top of Umtanum Ridge, there are many trails heading the same direction. None of them are marked to show what one to take. Going toward the Oasis we took one that was real off camber. We took a different one back and it wasn’t too bad but we were on top of snow.
As we topped the area with all those trails, 99 took one covered with off camber snow for the challenge. That did not work so well because she could not stay up on the snow and the rig slide down into the bank. Her Jeep decided it could not run in reverse due to a sensor messing up. She work the rig forward some, but just could not get away from the bank. Soggymountain thought he would try to winch 99’s XJ up the hill. That did not work so well so he pulled her back. The Tweety Jeep took on some carnage.
Scuba decide to drive down the trail 99 didn’t make it up. I missed the photo. Scube made it so Waycrazy decided he wanted to drive down it too. The snow gave way and the CJ started siding in the low part. He was all the way on his side. Waycrazy drove out of that on his own.
Scuba came up to ask us if we would pull him back if he couldn’t make it up the off camber climb since his sensor would not let him back up either. Soggymountain said he would so Scuba went for it. That didn’t work so Soggymountain pulled Scuba out too.
The Wenas Wildlife Area was more than I thought it would be. That was a very fun day riding around with 99 in her Tweety Jeep.
Here are some photos of the Spring Fever 4×4 Run at the Wenas Wildlife Area:
