Jerry
Adventurer
THAT'S MY JEEP WRANGLER YJ ON THE RIGHT
The Shoestring and Other 4x4 Trails
Eastern Slopes of the Cascade Mountains, Washington State
August 9, 2008
We had another great day of four-wheeling with Clay and the All Wheelers Off Road Club last Saturday. Clay is the manager of the All Wheelers Club, owner of the Eastern Washington Off Road Forum, a member of Backroad Drivers Northwest as well as a member of the PNW Adventures Forum. Besides enjoying the people, the great weather and just getting out of the house, our goal was to run the Shoestring Trail in the Manastash Ridge area of the central Cascades.
I spent Friday night at our cabin near Cliffdell and drove up to the group campsite off the Milk Creek Road on Saturday morning. It wasn’t long before everyone was up and around and other rigs were pulling into camp for the days run. I think we had a total of nine modified off-road rigs, including my Jeep Wrangler YJ, a Wrangler TJ, a short wheelbase CJ, three Cherokee XJ’s, a Toyota 4-Runner and a Toy Pickup plus a Suzuki Samari. And a full contingency of spouses, kids and dogs.
If you want to follow our route check out the trail descriptions at NW Jeepin.com
Wade, our trail leader, limbered us up by taking us over the Lilly Pond Trail, 4W617, to Lilly Pond Lake, or what’s left of the lake. Mostly swamp now. One of the guys was having mechanical difficulties so he and his family turned back to camp. After a short break near the lake we drove the Upper Kaner Trail, 4W676, to an intersection at the top of Manastash Ridge (6,000 ft.). There were trails everywhere that created some confusion as to which one we should take. While the guys were trying to figure it out, I welcomed the break after only a few hours sleep. Hey, the weather was great and it had rained a little bit the night before so that helped with the dust. It was a perfect morning for four-wheelin’ AND for catching very few Zzzzz's
We got the trail situation figured out and started off on the Manastash Ridge Trail, 4W306. After only a few hundred feet into the trail, and on a hill no less, my Wrangler started making a terrible noise. Normally I would have stopped immediately, but considering the hill I pushed for the top. Near the crest it finally just quit moving. The engine ran, but there was no power to the wheels. I was concerned for the guys behind me still on the hill. It wasn’t more than a minute later that my Jeep was surrounded by concerned fellow wheelers. Thank God there were some real savvy mechanics in our group because they spotted the problem immediately. The bolts in the skid plate/transfer case mount had worked their way loose and fell out leaving the case, transmission and engine hanging at such an angle as to put a bind in the drive train. While the guys were crawling under my Jeep a couple of us walked down the hill looking for the bolts. We found two of the six and a couple more were supplied by one of the other guys out of his stock of hardware. Unfortunately we didn’t have a bottle or scissor jack to lift the skid plate so a couple of guys came up with an ingenious method of doing it. They ran a chain from my left rocker guard, under the skid plate, over the top of the right rocker guard and attached it to a come-along tied off to a tree. The pressure exerted by tightening the chain was enough to lift the skid plate. Pretty cool. There were six or seven guys involved in getting me going again and with their help I finished out the day.
We were hoping to make it further down the trail before stopping for lunch, but I think most of the crowd took the opportunity while I was broke down. I really feel bad about holding everyone up.
So we continued down the Manastash Ridge Trail and turned off on the String Trail, 4W309. String is a short trail, twisty and tight between the trees. Somewhere near the end of the trail we turned off on an alternate trail (?) that took us up a rocky wash. Of course we were making snide comments about the boulder field over the radio. Clay, our tail gunner, heard our conversations over the CB so he went exploring and found the correct route. He radioed his findings and the rest of us turned around and caught up with him at the intersection with the Shoestring Trail where we took another break.
The Shoestring Trail was our main goal for the day, but it had taken us a long time to reach it. Shoestring, 4W308, is another twisty trail that is often tight between the trees. It seems like a fairly easy trail, but it is rated as "more difficult". It really offers a lot of diversity. And wouldn’t you know it, that is where Wade, our trail leader, began to experience steering problems. What a place for steering problems! The Shoestring has a reputation for being the twistiest trail in the area. Evidently the steering gear had come loose from the frame on his Jeep CJ-5, a typical malfunction in older Jeeps. Once again, the guys flocked around his rig and got him rolling again. They used a ratchet strap to hold the steering gear to the frame. It was a temporary fix that allowed him to finish the day.
The Shoestring ended at the dusty intersection with the Tripod Flat Trail. Yup, the moisture from the previous nights shower had dried out and we were back to good old dust. The Tripod Trail, 4W307, is steep, loaded with roots and switchbacks. Shortly after turning onto it we drove through a meadow with a reproduction log tripod next to the trail in honor of the trail’s original namesake. We made our way back up to Manastash Ridge and dropped down the other side to the Milk Lake Road where we drove at high rates of speed (20 mph) back to camp.
It was another fun day with good company and the All Wheelers Off Road Club. Learn more about them at the Eastern Washington Off Road Forum
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