Northwest Overlanding

Shady Pass – June ‘09

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:03:30 GMT

Since hearing about this pass we wanted to trek over it. We tried early in June from the Chelan side after camping at 25 mile creek.

This road is not difficult but extremely rewarding with the views!

Uh oh! There’s still snow on the road.

Point of go-no-further… wet snow on top of mud, three amigos brightly shining and solo, yeah, not gonna do it.

So we waited exactly two weeks and decided to camp on the Entiat side of the pass…

Then it was off to tackle Shady.

The forest changes quickly and dramatically between burnt to a crisp and very lush.

Total time over the pass was about 3 hours, you could do this faster, but I would ask you… why?

A hidden nugget that some of the locals literally told me not to share is Silver Falls. It’s up the Entiat near the entrance to Shady Pass and has a great 1.5 mi kid-friendly hiking trail. Enjoy, and please don’t tell anybody else. ;-)

Naneum Ridge & Colockum

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:00:27 GMT

I don’t have much to say so this will mostly be a pictorial description of what we did today. Love this area, but learned that so do hunters! We encountered more traffic on these roads than all of HWY 2 to Grand Coulee Dam last weekend.

I created a GPX track if anyone would like it, let me know. I’m thinking of creating a series of “Day Trips” from Wenatchee. We’ve found quite a few that we enjoy repeating… we’ll see.

The view from the top is stunning, 360 degrees of views.

We love Tamaracks!!

The wind at the top was really howling (literally) and made the ambient 36 degrees feel a little lower.

Finally got to the spot on Colockum I saw (but couldn’t figure out how to get to) when we came down from the Quilomene last time… it’s awesome!

Enjoy! Have a safe and happy Halloween!

The Evolution of “Rovey”

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:25:20 GMT

Truck BuildWed, 14 Oct 2009 22:25:20 GMT

It all started out when we had our first child 5 years ago… We would go from fun-loving his/her 5.0 Mustang driving young people to responsible adults in the matter of months. (har har).

First things first, we needed a bigger, safer vehicle. My wife told me that she really wanted a Land Rover. Ever since she’d bummed a ride in a D90, she’d always been interested in them. Working at a Credit Union at the time, she talked to folks purchasing them and learned that their owners seemed “fanatical” about them. One member even had an incredible tale of surviving a roll-over in hers.

I was sold. I began searching and we found this lovely 2000 D2 for a very reasonable price. An employee loan from the Credit Union and a week later we began our Rover Adventure.

A bit misguided at first, I wanted everything I saw in the photo albums on message boards, but I waited a while before purchasing the first mod- the TJ-15 bumper from TJM and a couple Hella 4000 cornering beams.

It would be a long time before anything else came down the pike for modifications, but we sure proved you don’t need much to get a lot out of these vehicles!

My kids have dubbed the term “Going Losting”. This is derived from when we moved from Vancouver to Wenatchee and pretty much every weekend we’d jump in “Rovey” and we would tell the kiddos we were going to go get lost and explore our new surroundings. From then on the nicknames have stuck.

Now Rovey sits taller and better protected with a lift, tires and rock sliders. There is still a very long “wish list” but it’s really rewarding to have time to enjoy every modification you make (and repair!).

Our most recent Going Losting trip: Burch Mtn, Wenatchee. It’s short, steep, and ranges from super easy to the insane. If you’re ever in town for just a day- contact me and we’ll go play!