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In January a conversation with John Herrick from CRAWL Magazine started us thinking about a multi-day trail run to build content the magazine. We weren’t sure where or when, but knew this could be fun. In February the idea spread in the pits at King of the Hammers, drivers were interested and we knew we needed to get out on the trails as COVID-19 continued to hinder many events. By March we had a group of motivated drivers and it was time to pull the trigger on the deal and establish the dates and locations.
Yukon Gear & Axle’s headquarters are in Everett, WA, just north of Seattle. The trail system in the Pacific Northwest if ripe for adventure and only two of the groups chosen to ride had been here and wheeled. John Herrick knew of some respected wheelers down in the Mt. Rainier area that had run the Washington Backcountry Discovery route and although originally developed for motorcycles, there was enough room to get four wheelers on the trail and the idea had legs. We decide to go June 22nd to 25th and run three stages of the route. Initially there were concerns for snow and we had our eyes on it. Everyone in the group opened their calendars and dates worked. This meant we had participants from Tennessee, Los Angeles, Park City, Utah, Reno, Nevada, and the Seattle area. The Yukon Adventure Trek was on.
The Cast of Players
When the word got out, our friends from Mickey Thompson Tires asked if they could join us as the new Baja Boss A/T Premium Extreme Hybrid All Terrain Tires were just rolling out. This would become a great proving ground run and all participants were provided a set. So now, outfitted with new tires from Mickey, we were ready to roll. The group consisted of John Herrick from CRAWL Magazine, Ian Johnson from Big Tire Garage, John Matthews from Auburn Car Repair & Off Road, Nic Ashby from Rockstar Garage, Andrew McLaughlin from Letz Roll Offroad, Dustin Sexton from Sexton Offroad, media support and Neal Hollingsworth, Blake Torres, and Brian Booher from Yukon Gear & Axle. Due to scheduling issues, our friends from Mickey Thompson were not able to join us but we were ready to test some tires. Many thanks to their fantastic support during the ride.
Day One: The Roll-In
Day one was set to start in Packwood, WA., a small outdoor community in the Mt. Rainier National Forest. As they say…getting there is half the fun. The long-distance award went to Ian Johnson who made the run all the way from Nashville. Ian had just finished his two-door Gladiator build, rolled it out of the shop and strapped it to the trailer. A couple of stops for flat trailer tires and he made it with flying colors. Our friends from Rockstar Garage flew straight from Rausch Creek, PA to Portland OR, meeting up with the perfect deliver of the Mickey Thompson Gladiator and Official Truck of the Adventure Trek, the Toyota Tacoma. John Herrick deadheaded into Washington from Nevada with his brother David, hung with dad for a day on the Washington Peninsula, while Dusty and Laura Sexton ripped it from Park City to Packwood in a solid 12 hours.
No good story is complete without a little drama, ours just happened to be on the first day. We showed up at the Packwood Inn having 12 rooms rented only to be told there two available for the night. The road crew working the area had been staying there and were not moving out. Some quick jockeying for space throughout the city got us what we needed while Andrew chose to hit a lakeside trail and sleep in the roof top tent. That was the best idea of the night. We spent time at the local brewery, shared old trail stories, played some rousing Jenga, reviewed the trip maps for the next three days, had some amazing pizza pies, turns out that cashews on the pizza really are good, and made the most of the night.
Day Two: Packwood to Ellensburg
Isn’t it funny how small towns can produce the best baked goods. The Mountain Goat Coffee Roaster and Bakery had the Blueberry muffins recipe down and provided the fuel to get the morning started. After a quick introduction of the participants and the strategy over the next three days, John Herrick led the group of nine vehicles out across Hwy 12 over White Pass ski area, and Rimrock Lake to the trail head. Today’s ride would take us 122 miles to an elevation of 6,200 feet and back down to Ellensburg. After a brief air-down of the tires, we headed toward Bothell Ridge which opened up to some stunning mountain views of Mount Rainer and Mount Adams. The basalt ridges we climbed provided a solid footing to drive with steep drop offs below. After a rugged section of rutted roads, we geared down to a long decent towards the town of Nile. We were half way through the day with no vehicle issues.
The second half of the run was steep and rutted, threw some water crossings and snow on the hillside at us, all the while continuing to provide amazing views of the Rainier Valley. Ian suffered a flat tire, more on this later, and somewhere around the Umtanum Ridge area, John Mathews felt the left rear give way and found that his shock had had enough for the day. It was rebuildable when you travel with the best in the industry, so we kept the speed down and made it in to Ellensburg. Upon further assessment of Ian’s flat, he found a small crack in his wheel. The search was on for a welder in Ellensburg that would be open at 7 a.m. to get some welding on. Our fine hotel in Ellensburg let us take over their dining room so after some big plates of pasta and beers, day two was in the books.
Leave it fate that a new shock was a mere hour away by delivery from Mathews’ son out of Auburn and a welder in town was happy to open his shop to Ian. It was pretty cool to watch the door open and see the surprised look on the proprietor’s face go white as he says, “You’re Ian Johnson. Welcome to Ellensburg.” Just like the pro he is, Ian took time to give a quick 400 level welding clinic and was out the door and back on the road with a bitchin bead weld sealing that wheel like a champ. Mathews got his shock replaced and it was go-time for day three.
Day Three: Ellensburg to Cashmere
Today’s trek may be shorter, just over 77 miles, but the ascent to almost 7,000 feet was a solid climb for most of the morning. Paved roads head north from Ellensburg toward Table Mountain and Lion Rock Lookout in the Wenatchee National Forest. High elevations and twisty dirt roads gave us some amazing views of the Central Cascade mountains. If you’re not much for running ridgelines, this isn’t your cup of tea. While the views are magnificent, the sidehills are 3,000 feet straight down. You’ll soon understand the definition of ‘breathtaking’ when running these ridges.
Lunch at Beehive Reservoir was amazing. The aqua lake was perfect place to cool off. We were entertained by an American Bald Eagle that at first glimpse seemed to be fishing. What we soon found out was that we were keeping her from lunch as a scared family of ducklings were hunkered in the lush lake grass. We were about to see nature at its finest but lucky for those ducks the eagle found a couple nice lake trout and took to the sky.
We were now where the terrain has changed from tall evergreens to Ponderosa Pines telling us we’ve hit Easter Washington. The temperature is hitting mid-90’s and what happens, #elmo, the 2005 LJ is starting to cough up antifreeze. Come to find out, it’s a faulty radiator cap so just keeping the vehicle hydrated was the plan. We still had a full pass and loose shale to traverse but Neal kept the speed down while #elmo played nice for the remainder of the day. We hit Cashmere around 5 p.m. with the mercury hanging at a cool 100.
Just up the road is the German-themed town of Leavenworth. Saying this is a German town is an understatement. Leavenworth’s building code requires that “all” commercial building pass a strict German Alpine style/code and boom, put on your lederhosen and break out a tuba, you are in Bavaria. The place is amazing and the look and feel of the town is a must stop if you’re in the area. Nothing like a tasty brat and stein of lager to wash down some trail dust. I’m not sure that ice cream is German, but it played a big part of the evening and everyone was happy to roll home. Note to self, if you’re travelling with Nic, be sure to take a picture of the part he’s going to get you at the auto parts store. Just sayin.
Day Four: Cashmere to Wapato (Lake Chelan)
Day four got us up early as 107 miles ahead of us over two 6,000-foot hills will be a long day. A late night of camp chairs in the parking lot of the Cashmere Lodge didn’t help, but somehow everyone made it and was ready to roll. The group started our ascent up Nahahum (pronounced Nah-Hum) Canyon
from Cashmere to an amazing 360-degree view atop Chumstick Peak. This side of the valley burned around 40,000 acres about 10 years ago. What would normally be a green evergreen and pine is miles of grey sticks left standing in a weird eerie feel. Low vegetation is returning but the landscape is toothpicks of trees for as far as you can see. We ran slow for video and drone footage, needing to stop a couple of times to let traffic through. It’s amazing how gracious fellow trail riders are when everybody plays nice. After a couple of team shots, we began our long descent down what felt like a thousand switchbacks to the town of Ardenvoir. We made good time on another climb up to the 4,000-foot McKenzie Ridge for a much-needed stop to eat and tell stories.
This is a great time to throw a shout out to Laura Sexton for helping us with the trail lunches. It went like this; the night before each ride, I’d tell Laura to meet me at the store and we’d pick out items for snacks and lunches for the day. The way it really went was that Laura beat me to the store, did all the shopping, and I threw in some chips. On the trail, we dropped the tailgate of Ian’s Gladiator, Laura put out the spread, everybody ate and after a quick team cleanup we were out. Laura had handled food for the last 10 King of Hammers with our team and knows what she’s doing. We all ate well, poured some water over the tailgate for cleaning and we were off! Thanks for taking care of us girl!
I don’t know what got into us, but somebody mentioned race speed over the coms and we were off. The trails were ours and we were free to run, and run we did. We ran hard for a couple of hours to Chelan Ridge. We were at 3,500 feet and below us sat Lake Chelan. Looking east we could see about 20 miles of the lake and looking west reveal another 10 miles of lake. But there was more, Lake Chelan is a narrow, 50.5-mile long lake. With a depth of 1,486 feet, it’s the third deepest lake in the U.S. From our standpoint, the lake just looked huge. Now to the descent. Like always, we took the more difficult route and this was no picnic. The route was a series of switchbacks running a narrow ledge of low green jungle. The dust was heavy making the vehicles hang back and the fauna was thick green jungle-like, overgrown, and built to scratch to toughest of paint jobs. Steve was running his 3500 Dodge, took a stick to the compressor and about a thousand more to the sides of the vehicle. We all made it out slowly, compared scratches, and kept on truckin’.
Thanks to Nic and the Rockstar group, the Dometic cooler they had running provided popsicles and ice cream bars, still hard and frozen. Not a bad treat at 100 degrees. In front us laid paved roads for the run from 25 Mile Creek to the town of Wapato, 40 minutes to the other side of the lake.
Considering this was the final night of Adventure Trek, Yukon rented an eight-bedroom home in Wapato Point on Lake Chelan. This final evening had been prepared to provide a gourmet catered meal by Carli Osborne, consisting of local meats, cheeses, produce, wines and more. The coolers were stocked with local brews and of course, the mountains were blue. After a jump in the lake and some much-needed showers, the dust from earlier in the day had been dispatched. Lively conversation about the trails, a rousing overview of the Bronco rollout, interviews from drivers, and more stories from Ian filled the night with fun and laughter.
Day Five: Roll Out
The next morning was an early one as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Nashville, and Salt Lake City were the final destinations of many… and we were going to enjoy an epic drive through the backcountry of Washington State.
The ultimate acknowledgement of a great time is when the guests ask when’s the next party. Half way through the ride, interviews discussing the Yukon Adventure Trek began to change to Yukon’s First Annual Adventure Trek. At this point we have 100% participation to roll again in 2022. Destination TBD, but with so many amazing off-road trekking opportunities in this beautiful country, how can we go wrong?
Thanks again to Mickey Thompson Tires and Wheels, CRAWL Magazine, Sexton Offroad, Letz Roll Offroad, Auburn Car & Repair & Off Road, Big Tire Garage, Rockstar Performance Garage.
