Running Liberty

[SuperBuickGuy]

This will be (probably) a two-part series, maybe even 3 if I do the follow up of what this is practice for. Liberty Washington has the first gold mine on the west coast. Before it all started in California, there were people in the hills finding gold in Washington. Western washington. Of course, there are still active, placer mines and it's something that many, even in the area, know nothing about. It's also a decent place to go 'wheeling. And that is why I'm going there - I'm leading a couple groups wheeling at the end of the month - but figured it'd be a good thing to pre-run. That is today, and next sunday....here's the pictures from today
really, the middle of nowhere.... I wonder how the original prospectors said "hey, I bet I can find gold here"...




hey look, an English Mastiff


this is also a place for dispersed camping. It's free, it's no services, but it's pretty quiet and you can pan for gold


did I mention wheeling?


I always laugh how cameras flatten this out - look at the trees for how steep


and mines


further out

so how did some bloke say, in the 1800s "yeah, I'll dig here for awhile?"

can you see the mine?


how about now?




$139000 and you can own a house with nothing square or straight


but built in 1883

living ghost town of LIberty
​

 

[twinmill28]

Awesome pics, thanks for posting up! After moving to the desert it becomes difficult to remember country that pretty. I envy your free reign to explore that place.

 

[SGT-Wright]

ohhh I drove by there going to Leavenworth. Thought I saw some mining equipment here and there. Never thought about wheeling there though. Count me in on a trip unless I have to work. I will bring a pan too.

 

[3Hummers]

Looks like an interesting and fun place to explore.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

ohhh I drove by there going to Leavenworth. Thought I saw some mining equipment here and there. Never thought about wheeling there though. Count me in on a trip unless I have to work. I will bring a pan too.

Next Sunday will be relatively early because I need to run all three trails, so 8 am. Here's the maps, we'll probably meet (there's a couple Jeeps and a '40 coming) at the Lion Gulch trailhead - FS 9712 at 4W339 (there really are signs).

The following run is the NW Overland Rally, and that's the group I'm leading, starting week on Friday we're running Billy Goat, then Sat we're running Hole in the Wall and potentially Lion Gulch.... there's an issue that I need to find out about where we might not be able to run because 9712 is closed at some point and if it's between HITW and Lion.... well, then we'll have to have another plan

 

[2010H3TAlpha]

That area looks awesome! I might have to check that out on our way to camping on Banks Lake for the 4th. I love this state, so much open area to wheel, but still close to the office. We've run Epp's pass which is a few ridges to the west, not quite as free range up there but it is also for mine access, though not sure what mineral it was for. Same deal though, middle of no where and half of the road is dry creek bed.

 

[Fish]

Looks nice up there. Those trails don't look too difficult, or are they?

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

look at how at the angle of the trees to the ground.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Today's story (answering a question)There are questions about Lion's Gate. I'm leading the trip and I pre-ran the trail today. Below you will find pictures, there have been questions about whether or not your set up will make. The short answer is it depends. I've seen Samurais on 28s in places where guys with 35s were having trouble. I've also seen the Cadillac at the bottom of Cadillac hill on the Rubicon Trail. It depends, if you have enough time and skill, I bet you could run much of this with a 2 wd pickup, winch, and lockers... 35s and a locker are what I believe what best guarantees success - but today I was running with a Willys on 32 Boggers. So it depends. Here are some pictures of where we're going. There IS a 'pre-run' part of the trail that will give you a taste of the harder section. When you run that first part, you can easily save a run for another day. We will have plenty of people who know what they're doing and will help you as needed. That said, the hill climb gives me pause - but I did it on mud today. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here it goesthere will be ditches to straddle there will be times when you have no choice but to ditch it anyone can do it the easy way, Larry but Larry said this was the first time his inclimeter said 45 degrees I believe him, I was leadingthere could be times when you have one tire hanging 6 feet in the air and sometimes you might have both front tires off the ground other parts are just a nice cruise in the woods this wasn't the steepest descent, but the part of the trail we're running won't have too much of this. Two solid climbs that get hairier the wetter it is, if it's dry, it's like Moab I hope this helps. My H3 has a V8, lockers front and rear, 35s and a bit of a torsion bar lift.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I promised more words about Liberty so here it goes...
There are ditches



at some point, you simply say "what's the worse that could happen" (don't answer that) "if I go in the ditch" in this case I was right...



what's impossible to see is just how steep this hill is



fuel and oil were drained because of it (note it doesn't smoke before or after this)



we've seen this before, but it's impressive



remember I said what was the worse? I'm glad he took his mirror off before this that would be 48 degrees



my hummer has safety features that activate when it thinks bad stuff is going down - for example, on extreme hills the seat belts lock (not to mention I had to replace my air bag computer because it was sure I'd rolled it)
I think it's kind of funny, actually


it's always fun to go from 48* sideways to 50 plus degrees vertically.



willy driver's wife walking... not sure I blame her



just about half way up the hill and the worse is yet to come



sometimes you just gotta spin and pray



this is actually before that hill, it's a good brake check and gets your blood flowing for what's coming



this won't be seen on the Friday run, but it's where my seat belts kept locking because it thought I'd crashed






a bit of pinstriping

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

there are a ton of trails like this, but too often you go from this to vertical - point is if you wheel here, do a bit of walking first



he may struggle with action pictures, but he does great with flowers?






okay, enough of that stuff
all sorts of fires happen in this area, this was a pretty recent one - nice view though



another random hill climb



Mt. Rainier



I think that's Mt. Adams



you think this is impressive, you should have seen the Unimog do this last year (this trail is called hole in the wall, this is the hole)






showoff



plenty of mud



48* sideways, lifts front tires on a hill, but goes around a mud puddle....



not so much around by bttw through



so last year, someone who will remain nameless kept stopping and flexing.... so I figured there was something to it.... no, it's just as boring when you're on the stump as when you're behind the guy doing the photo ops
but here were the cast of characters - as you might have guessed, this is me in my H3 Alpha (V8), e-lockers front/rear 35" tires, slight lift and overload springs in the back, skid plates, but pretty much how GM built it



Steve's Toyota FJ40, 305 chevy, 4L60e, lockers - super capable rig, 36s



Larry's CJ5, lockers, 36s, 350, dana 25 front end (and still no boom, amazing), 4 speed manual



Don's Willys, not much stock left, dana 44 axles, he used long, truck springs in the back and it flexes really well, move the front forward 2 1/2", 32" boggers, air locked rear, e-locked front (which doesn't work) 4.3 v6, 4 speed manual



last mud puddle



larry couldn't avoid it (he didn't shrink either)



wives like mud as long as it's not all over them... guess what was all over his wife?

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

So last week, I had a picture of a sign that said road closed. According to the USFS website there were actually 2 closures, one that was passable by Jeep, the other not so much. I know which one is passable



this is south of the end of Hole in the Wall



See the big puddle of trans fluid, I'm guessing someone missed the memo on short wheelbase



for us, pretty simple stuff



nice rig



muddy wife, but doesn't seem any worse for the wear - that said, we didn't hear what she said to her husband on the way home....



thanks for looking