More trail pics...

[H3slate]

Nice!! Thanks for sharing. That looks like a cool area to check out. I will have to head up there sometime.

I get the same kind of looks and sneers at Brown's Camp. It's fun proving people wrong about what they think our Hummer's can't do.

Did you run some other trails too? Is there a decent map of the area? Are the trails well marked?

[Scarsman]

Well, this was kind of an exploratory trip. We only ran the 311 trail, and then checked out the camp ground and cruised some of the service roads. We also drove out to the lake at the end of Hwy 165. It is really beautiful country with awesome views of Mount Rainier.

The camp ground is pretty nice. It is set in old growth timber, and there are vault toilets. There is also water via a hand pump. Not sure if it is potable or not. Probably not. It is a little bit dusty when dry, but overall a pretty nice place.

On the way out there were fire and police in the lot and they were prepping the the lot with water for life flight to land. Someone had a roll over on a trail and was getting flown out.

This is the best map I have seen of it. The guy who made it does it with a GPS. He also has other Washington trails. Here is his site:

http://web.me.com/jgreening/Jeep_Adv..._ORV_Park.html

Yes, the trails and service roads are all marked with signs. They are not marked for difficulty, but they are on this map:

http://www.pnw4wda.org/trails/washin...vansmaps1.html

You really should come up. Let's meet for a weekend sometime soon before this nice weather goes away. Better yet, if you can do a week day thing there would be fewer people there. We went on a Sunday and it was kind of busy. Let's do it!

[H3slate]

Thanks for the links! I might try to get up there in September. I will let you know if I do.

[jmanley]

You'll appreciate this, based on your experience on that trail. I do some extreme snowmobiling in the winter in Cooke City, MT. Since we were in the area on vacation, I thought it'd be cool to drive up the mountain to show my wife/kids the area where I do my crazy stuff. I dropped off my trailer at the bottom of the mountain then started up (note that the entire back of my H2T (w/slantback) was FULL of food/cooler/clothes/etc.)

I was about to start up when two quads came up to me and pointed and chuckled at me. They said "no way you can get that fat pig up there". I asked why not and their response was "heck, we can barely make it up, you sure can't with that heavy wide thing". I just smiled, reached over, clicked to 4 Hi Lock and started up as they pointed and laughed. They decided to wait cause they assumed I was going to have issues.

After I got past the 6th switchback, which was the point they assured me I'd never get past because of how narrow it was and the huge rocks, I waved and continued up. I think I heard their jaws hitting the ground, but I can't confirm that. When we stopped to take pix at the top and head down a different pass, they caught up with us and told us now that we'd never be able to go down the other side cause it was too steep. I'd been over that pass 20x times on sled in the winter, but never saw it during the summer. I looked over and told them, "no issue, I'm not even going to put it in first gear, but rather just leave it in 2nd". And I proceeded to run right down the slope. They thought they could do the same. I helped right the quad that rolled down the mountain. LOL!

[Scarsman]

I totally appreciate that! What were you driving? An H3T, or H2 SUT?

Funny thing was no one there that day would come over to say anything after we made it all the way through the trail. I kept waiting, but not a word. They were all quick to point and say I was dumb for thinking I was going up that trail in an H2, but not a word once I actually did it.