Father’s Day Weekend Camp-out & 4×4 Run on Manastash Ridge
Hosted by Eastern Washington Off Road
Report by Clay Graham. Photos by Clay & Hank Graham / Eastern Washington Off Road
On Friday June 13th, 2008, we headed up FS1701 to set up camp at the FS1701-530 intersection for the Eastern Washington Off Road Father’s Day Weekend Camp-out & 4×4 Run on Manastash Ridge.
Saturday morning most of the people showed up at camp and others were planning to met us up at Funny Rocks. Around 10 AM we headed on FS1701 and turn on 4W694. We stopped for a break at the Manastash Lake Viewpoint on the way to Funny Rocks.
At Funny Rocks we met with the others and then headed out turning onto 4W695. We had a hard time getting some of the rigs through the snow around Moon Rocks. We drove through Moon Rocks and headed down toward FS1701. At the creek crossing we hit a lot of deep snow in the trees. Again it was a challenge to get through the deep snow covered area. At the tree line, I had to cut a down tree off of the trail to get through. We made it down to FS1701 at ran it back to camp.
After a break at camp, we headed up FS1701-530 and went across Bald Mountain to 4W644. As we got into the trees where the trail started down hill, the snow was deep and off camber. I started down through that area and slid sideways on the off camber snow and came very close to hitting a tree. I made it around and then Test Dummy did the same thing. Everyone behind him decided they didn’t want to try it. We were to committed to change our minds. We told the others we would meet them back at Moon Rocks and we continued down.
Test Dummy and I had a great time working the rigs, trying not to hit the tree on the downhill slope. We keep falling through the snow were water was running underneath. With some winching and pulling we made it down to the bottom and out of the snow. We could not put through the snow going uphill on 4W644A to get the Moon Rocks. We had to run 4W644 out to 4W694, then onto 4W695 to get to Moon Rocks. We made it there before the other part of our group.
Once everyone was at Moon Rocks, we headed back out 4W695, onto 4W694 and then down 4W686 to FS1708. Most headed for home and the rest of us head back to camp.
On Sunday Blind-Pilot came up to camp for the day’s run. I drove our family XJ, my wife drove her Tweety Jeep, Test Dummy had his XJ, and Blind-Pilot had a TJ. The ran FS1701-530 up to where the Bald Mountain Lookout once stood for the view. Next we ran back down and turned on 4W966. We ran 4W966 to FS1702 and down to SR410. We turned on SR410 and headed toward Little Naches. My XJ had a bad case of death wobble from the tires we had just put on. We stopped at Gold Creek Restaurant to see what was wrong with the XJ. Test Dummy pulled some weights off the front rims and we were on our way again. That helped a lot.
We turned onto NF19 and then went up FS1902 toward Raven Roost. We pasted the Peak Putters coming down. They pointed out my XJ’s rear shocks were hanging. The top bolts had pulled out. We headed on up to the snow level. The ruts were deep and my XJ tires were not great. We turned around and headed back down. We did some exploring campgrounds in the area and headed out. We stopped off at Whistlin’ Jack’s before going back to camp to get our tow rig.
This was a great Father’s Day weekend thanks to all who came.
Here are some photos of the EWOR Father’s Day 4×4 Camp Out:
Eastern Washington Adventures
is an Outdoor Recreation Information Center that holds many free events.
