Liberty State Overland Club
Wagons East
Hosted by Eastern Washington Off Road / Graham Family Farm NW
By Clay Graham / CegPics.com
Wagons East is our annual Jeep trip on the Historical Naches Pass Trail running the trail the opposite way as the Longmire party wagon train did. The trail is famous because the Longmire party was the first wagon train to used it to head west in 1853. The trail was not finished so they had a rough time getting across. They had to winch down the Naches Trail Cliffs near Greenwater. On our Wagons East Jeep trip, we start at the Naches Trail Cliffs and go west to east.
On Thursday, October 8th 2020, the Liberty State Overland Club members headed up to the Lost Meadow Campground in the Little Naches area to set up camp for the weekend. TJ40 came up a few hours after we got there.
Friday we went out and got firewood. After that we hung around camp playing with the dog. MrWilsonWJ showed up in the evening and set up camp.
Early Saturday morning it started raining and did not let up much. A few more people showed up for the Naches Pass Trail run around 9:30 AM. We headed out at 10:00 AM and drove to FS1914 to air down. Once everyone was aired down, we then headed over Pyramid Pass to the west end of the Naches Pass 4×4 Trail. It was snowing on top of the pass.
We broken into two groups to head back east. The two groups met up at the first cross road on the Naches Trail and then again at FS7080 where we all ran together the rest of the trail. We stopped for lunch at Government Meadows and walked to the cabin on the Pacific Crest Trail. Of coarse the rain did not let up.
After lunch, we headed on east. At the Naches Pass sign the rain turned into snow. Down the trail we came across a deep hole in the trail. The taller rigs walked through it but Charlies tires were not tall enough for the ruts. He backed out as far as he could. James gave Charlie a pull out of the hole and we moved on passing another group of Jeeps.
The last part of the trail was really slick. The last down hill section all the rigs slid down it. Sliding down, Charlie came close to ahead on with a tree. He came to a stop inches away.
At the pavement we headed back to camp at Lost Meadow for a potluck dinner. Some went home.
Sunday morning after breakfast, we headed up to Raven Roost. We hit snow as we went up. The view up at Raven Roost was not so good due the clouds. We still had fun going. It was cold so we headed back down and headed home.
This was a great time.
Here are some photos of the 2020 “Wagons East”:
