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My wife and I took a trip out to the Wenas Wildlife Area with the Pacific Northwest Backroads Adventure forum. There were 9 rigs in all, including a couple very well equipped rigs with winches and lockers. We had the only Rover with no lockers and no winch and didn't struggle much at all. The route was fantastic and turned out to be pretty challenging (for some in the group, haha). We had quite a few obstacles and road conditions : water crossing, slick mud, snow, ice, more snow, thick mud, it was GREAT! We were out on the trail from about 9-4, but had 3 hour long recovery efforts that slowed us down and kept us from seeing more.
Here's the first half of our pictures
Airing Down :
Heading out towards the Wildlife Area, pretty tame so far :
Up at the highest elevation point taking lunch and soaking up some sun. The H3 next to my Disco was our recovery rig for the day. Thank goodness we never got stuck, I don't think I could have suffered the humiliation of being saved by a non H1 Hummer.
MORE PICS SOON TO COME!
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Rob
----------- 2002 DII Kalahari (139K)
“We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have-nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon-to-haves”
Great pictures!! Very scenic. Looks like a very fun day. Thanks for putting them on. Where is this Wenas WL area located?
Yeah, the pictures from our dinky little digital camera don't do the views justice At the radio towers we could see both Mt. Rainier and Mt. St Helens, it was incredible. The area and the roads we were on are in between Ellensburg, WA and Yakima, WA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hilltoppersx
how many times did the hummer winch out? lol... nice pics! looks like a fun place to wheel.
The Hummer actually never got stuck and ended up winching the same truck out of trouble 2 times. I was actually very impressed with the H3 and more importantly, the driver's skill, he had a rear locker and had bypassed his traction control, ARB front bumper, winch, and roof rack, 315/65 Duratracs, and a plethora of recovery gear.
It was an awesome time, got some new trail pinstipes and took about 4 lbs of mud home with us
__________________
Rob
----------- 2002 DII Kalahari (139K)
“We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have-nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon-to-haves”
We passed by this truck as we were exiting the wildlife area, his tires were all buried about 12" in thick mud, with the direction he was facing he was probably on the road for all of 2 minutes before this happened....we all suspected alcohol was involved because there was NO reason for this to happen if the driver was paying attention.
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Rob
----------- 2002 DII Kalahari (139K)
“We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have-nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon-to-haves”
Would I attempt this run with 2 Land Rovers or other capable 4x4 SUV, YES.....I had little to no issue and I don't have CDL. There were a icy couple spots that I needed to backup and get a little extra momentum, but that was it.
Our issues and "recoveries" included :
1. Jeep (trail leader) made a wrong turn and quickly got high-centered <--- POS F-250 pulled him back and out
2. Old POS Toyota p/u on bald mud tires couldn't make it up a muddy hill <---he drove up backwards to help "pull" himself up the hill
3. Old POS Toyota p/u on bald mud tires couldn't get up a snowy/icy hill <---H3 winched him up
4. Old POS F-250 (long as a cruise ship) got stuck going up several steep inclined hills (terrible ground clearance and too long of a wheelbase) <---miscellaneous rigs pulled him up or out. Once he just decided to get up by driving off the road, around the difficult area on the road, destroying the wildlife, pissing the rest of us off....he was a very big douche.
5. FJ Cruiser got stuck in a small mud pit. This was his first time out "off-roading" in his new truck so he was trying to take it easy and didn't get enough momentum.
All in all, it was the crappy rigs, or bad decisions that got our group into trouble. Take out those 2 pickups and 2 missteps by capable trucks and we would have been just fine.
__________________
Rob
----------- 2002 DII Kalahari (139K)
“We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have-nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon-to-haves”
TRIP REPORT : 3/19/11 *PICS* Wenas Wildlife Area
At the radio towers we could see both Mt. Rainier and Mt. St Helens, it was incredible. The area and the roads we were on are in between Ellensburg, WA and Yakima, WA.
