The Timber Tamers ran the West Side of Naches Trail on the 23rd, the plan was to meet up at Safeway in Enumclaw at 9, however we were on Timber Tamer time so we left at 10.
Attending were Jeff and Nick LaFleur in the small but mighty Tracker, new guest Jeff Mars in his red TJ, Chris Brown in his green TJ, Curt Brady in his chevro-legs rode with Jeff Mars, Josh Wilcox in his red JK and a morning of addition of Dave Wilkinson in his red YJ.
After a nice drive up highway 410 and through the forest service road we got to the trail head and aired down, helping Jeff to get his tire pressure right for the day. Once aired up we headed up to check on the bottom of the trail, planning on starting there but willing to go further up if we couldn’t get any traction, but the weather was beautiful and the trough was dry so we started up. Chris was first up, getting 2/3 of the way up before getting hung up on an outcropping. After several tries winch line was pulled, all of the unlocked jeeps ended up winching past it and we were up the first hill.
Upward we continued, working through the new bypass to avoid the mud ruts that have formed. Somewhere on the second or third hillclimb Jeff Mars turned his passenger step into a set of curb feelers. Once we reached the meadow below the 2nd steep trough we decided to stop for lunch and help Jeff get his remaining step and bits of hardware off before he caught them on something else.
Once we were refueled we hit the trail again and started up the steepest trough with the stump in one side. Chris went up first again, hunting back and forth for traction in the hardpacked dirt and slickrock, and made it up with only a few backups. Next came Jeff Mars in his TJ, Jeff worked hard and made it up to just below the stump but had trouble getting slow enough wheelspeed popping over an especially large rock and was winched up and past the stump, then made his way the rest of the way up. Jeff LaFleur and Josh both drove up with minimal issues, Josh rolling up with his JK and Jeff pushing his four angry squirrels to bounce the tracker through the rocks. Dave brought up the rear sawing his wheel and rocking side to side to get himself through the slickrock and to the top.
Once up on the ridge we had a nice ride through the trees and meadows, stopping for pictures and views on an amazing Washington July Day. We stopped to explore the cabin at Government meadows and talked briefly with a group of ATV and side by side riders we had passed back on forth on the trail and took some more pictures. Finally we worked our way up to the summit and discussed whether to go on or turn back, and decided since it was getting later in the afternoon to head back, so we drove the trail back down the the forest service road intersection near Government Meadows and headed down.
After airing up and check rigs we headed down the hill, and a couple of us stopped to eat at the Naches Tavern in Greenwater. Headed home after that Chris and Curt ran across Josh sitting on the side of I5 near Kent and stopped to render assistance. After determining that Josh had called AAA already we decided to see if we could figure out what fluid another driver had seen coming out of the bottom of Josh’s JK. All seemed fine for a few minutes with it running, until all of a sudden coolant started gushing out the bottom of his radiator. With that mystery solved we all decided AAA was probably a better choice than messing with the radiator on the side of the highway, so we waited the remaining 20 minutes for the tow truck to arrive and made sure Josh was taken care of and headed home.
All in all it was a good day of wheeling.
Chris