Last weekend The Spawn and I loaded up the Jeeps after we each got off work and did a 150 mile loop over 3 days on part of the Washington Backroads Discovery Route. We live just a few miles from where the route passes. We camped the first night at the junction where one of the local trails feeds into the route.
The smoke from from the fires was still thick first full day. All the views were pretty obscured as we went over Chumstick Mtn and stopped for lunch.
Pretty soon we were back on pavement long enough to cross through the town of Cashmere and back on dirt up Mission Creek and across Mission Ridge to Wenatchee for gas. From there it was pavement up Squilchuck to the Liberty/Beehive road and onto dirt again. There was a cold front coming, with lightning and rain expected, so we wanted to make some distance and hopefully get to Haney Meadows before it hit. We didn’t quite make it and found a campsite that wasn’t exposed on the side of a ridge. Neither of us desired to be a carbon based lightning rod. We hunkered down and made jambalaya for dinner and played cribbage as the front passed over.
With the frontal passage, the temps that had been mid 80°s during the day and mid 50°s at night had dropped to upper 60°s and mid 30°s overnight. The front cleared out the smoke, first time in a good three weeks. After a large breakfast to stoke the fires, we headed down to Haney Meadows.
We continued on down the Liberty/Beehive road, departing from the BDR where it branched for Ellensburg and turned towards Liberty, a historic mining town.
We turned north on Hwy 97 for a couple miles and then took Old Blewett Pass road, the original route before US 97 was built. (Blewett Pass nowadays is actually Swauk Pass, Old Blewett Pass is the Blewett Pass) We camped the last night on Peshastin Creek.
Sunday morning we did our last short leg, all on pavement back to where we started out from Thursday afternoon.
No really technical trails, just fun traveling and enjoying the scenery. We seemed to have left in the Summer and returned in the Fall, all in the space of three days.
The smoke from from the fires was still thick first full day. All the views were pretty obscured as we went over Chumstick Mtn and stopped for lunch.
Pretty soon we were back on pavement long enough to cross through the town of Cashmere and back on dirt up Mission Creek and across Mission Ridge to Wenatchee for gas. From there it was pavement up Squilchuck to the Liberty/Beehive road and onto dirt again. There was a cold front coming, with lightning and rain expected, so we wanted to make some distance and hopefully get to Haney Meadows before it hit. We didn’t quite make it and found a campsite that wasn’t exposed on the side of a ridge. Neither of us desired to be a carbon based lightning rod. We hunkered down and made jambalaya for dinner and played cribbage as the front passed over.
With the frontal passage, the temps that had been mid 80°s during the day and mid 50°s at night had dropped to upper 60°s and mid 30°s overnight. The front cleared out the smoke, first time in a good three weeks. After a large breakfast to stoke the fires, we headed down to Haney Meadows.
We continued on down the Liberty/Beehive road, departing from the BDR where it branched for Ellensburg and turned towards Liberty, a historic mining town.
We turned north on Hwy 97 for a couple miles and then took Old Blewett Pass road, the original route before US 97 was built. (Blewett Pass nowadays is actually Swauk Pass, Old Blewett Pass is the Blewett Pass) We camped the last night on Peshastin Creek.
Sunday morning we did our last short leg, all on pavement back to where we started out from Thursday afternoon.
No really technical trails, just fun traveling and enjoying the scenery. We seemed to have left in the Summer and returned in the Fall, all in the space of three days.
