GPS Mapping 4W613 Adjacent Trails
Report and photos by Clay Graham / Eastern Washington Off Road
Sunday July 13th, 2008 we headed out to GPS map the 4W613 Adjacent Trails at the Ahtanum for the Department of Natural Resources. We also had to move some down trees on 4W613. This is the first time we had a chance to work on the northeast section of 4W613 since we officially adopted it. Waycrazy & Bubz rode with me in the Tweety Jeep. Colemancooler was in his Toyota pickup.
We aired down at Nasty Creek Corrals and headed up Nasty Creek Road. On the way up we found deer in the road. They watched us for awhile before running off.
First we GPS Mapped the short cut everyone runs to the Strobach Mountain 4×4 Trail. We continued on Nasty Creek Road to the Louie Way Gap turnoff. This is the access road to the trailheads of Louie Way Gap. 1127 (single track), 4W608 and 4W613. A very inportant thing to add to the DNR Green Dot system.
Down at the three Trail Heads, we found the 4W608 Trail Marker was broken off. We fix it and then headed up 4W613.
We stopped at the Louie Way View Point. It is a nice view of Rimrock Lake and Mt Rainier.
We headed on up 4W613 and had to stop to fix part of the trail around the corner on a climb. Since we were already parked, we walked up to take a look off the cliff.
Next we GPS mapped the Strobach Mountain Vista. Another great place to see Rimrock Lake and Mount Rainier. There was a big forest fire many miles south of us. I believe the cloud is the Cold Springs fire.
We stopped at the 4W613 Upper Meadow near Dome Peak for lunch. We walked down to see some over grown 4×4 trails.
Next we headed through the Dome Peak fire area. We took the Dome Peak to GPS map it. We GPS mapped the trail to the end and then took a hike to the top of Dome Peak.
At the top of Dome Peak was a monument missing a plaque. I wonder what was written on it. The concrete says it was put there on my 16th birthday. There is also a survey marker from 1966.
We took in the views and then headed back down to the rigs. We turned around to backtrack the Dome Peak 4×4 Trail and Colemancooler looked like he came close to flopping it since we parked in a steep place.
Back on 4W613, we stopped to let my dogs out to drink some cool spring water. My small dog Pepper found some cow manure to roll in.
We continued on 4W613 through the are we worked on the day before. We turned down Jackass Road. Down near the last section of Jackass Road, we turned down the “Sylvester” 4×4 trail that we needed to GPS Map. Colemancooler had to get home and headed down the last section of Jackass Road.
We ran this 4×4 trail down to the Ahtanum North Fork. As soon as Waycrazy got everything logged into the GPS, we when down to the creek to let the dogs swim.
This was a very fun day.
Note: Please do not take any trail at the Ahtanum State Forest unless you see it has a Green Dot or Forest Service Trail Marker. You could get a fine for driving on non-marked trails without DNR approval. Trails are only post OPEN not all closed trails are posted closed.
Here are some photos of the GPS Mapping 4W613 Adjacent Trails:
