Backcountry Trip Report - Fortune Creek Trail, NE LT Murray and Cle Elum Ridge

Cee-Jay

Sasquatch
With the wife and kids out of town for a few days I decided to do some driving and camping alone in EWA this past weekend. I Hit Wenatchee National Forest on Friday with the intent of making it to Gallagher Head Lake via the Fortune Creek Trail in my humble, stock Mitsubishi Endeavor SLS crossover... understanding that even an "easy" jeep trail might prove too difficult. Roads traveled included FS 4330, 4W301 and FS 160.
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Cee-Jay

Sasquatch
The Fortune Creek Trail (4W301) proved immediately challenging from a ground clearance perspective. But carefully choosing my line and keeping the speed down proved effective and I was making it up just fine, even after it started pouring down rain.

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Eventually I came to a large, rock covered clearing where a number of streams met (not the one pictured above). I stopped my vehicle just past the edge of this opening in the forest and walked around a bit trying to figure out where the road continued since the various rocky stream beds heading out through the trees looked like roads. Just as I was about to enter my vehicle, "BAM!!!" Lightning struck right where I had been standing only moments before, about 40 yards away or so. I jumped in my vehicle, backed out of the clearing and just sat there for a while, collecting myself for a few minutes.
 
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Cee-Jay

Sasquatch
After calming down a bit I decided to continue on towards the lake... but no more getting out of the vehicle until this lightning calms down! I plodded along slowly but surely, eventually crossing FS 160 and working the the upper section of 4W301/Fortune Creek Trail. Pretty close to the lake I believe, I had difficulty with a somewhat steep incline following a stream crossing. The heavy rain made the rocks very slick and in some places quite a bit of water was coming down the trail. I tried to avoid the rocks but my front wheels quickly sank in sandy, silt-like stuff and my rear wheels nearly slid off of the road due to the angle of the wet road surface, causing me to come close to getting stuck in a position that would have been impossible to get out of by myself. I thought I could probably accomplish the area I was having difficulty with by trying again using a different line but it would have been a zero margin for error kind of line and I decided it wasn't worth the risk of getting stuck. I very, very carefully backed off of the incline (which was quite a challenge), turned around, headed down to FS 301 and looked for a campsite.
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Cee-Jay

Sasquatch
Saturday morning I packed up and headed to the LT Murray Wildlife Area after picking up breakfast at Cle Elum's Sunset Cafe. Oh and I drove by 4 grouse off of FS 4330 (I ended up seeing 14 during the trip plus two mule deer... grouse season opens 9/1). I drove Shadow Creek, Morrison Canyon, Microwave, Horseshoe Canyon and Moonlight Canyon roads and finally set up camp in a nice little view spot just off of the later.

The green dot roads in the northeastern corner of LT Murray are trickier than elsewhere in the wildlife area. There are a number of very rutted up sections along with some larger-sized rocks here and there. My vehicle did just fine with no real issues, but there were certainly times I felt I was one mistake away from a pita recovery job involving much human powered earth moving via shovel and pick ax.
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PS: I find simple roadside memorials beautiful and moving.
 
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Cee-Jay

Sasquatch
Sunday morning I finished up Moonlight Canyon and then did Skull Spring, the Cle Elum Ridge Loop (FS 3350 and 3352) and was just about to head home as I was feeling pretty darn tired. Then I made an ill-fated spur of the moment decision to use a "short-cut" discovered via Nokia Maps. This ended up taking me to a "road" about one step up from a donkey trail, causing me to eventually turn around and leave via my originally planned route. On my way from the donkey trail back to FS 3352 I passed two people on ATVs; a gentlemen and his daughter I presumed. I gave him a wave but he didn't wave back, rather he gave me a look that said "keep your distance from us you maniac." And then it all came together; the noise I'd thought I might have heard a while back, the slightly rougher seeming ride, the rock I was surprised to scrape against since it wasn't very big, my mud flap hitting a few things, the crazy look from the ATV rider... I have a flat tire! Sure enough I had a nail in my right front tire. It would have been an easy fix had I not already completely shredded the sidewall by driving over rough terrain on a completely flat tire for I don't know exactly how long. Anyway I changed the tire, fueled up at Pioneer Coffee Company in Cle Elum and then headed back to Seattle battling I-90 construction traffic and a hail storm. Overall, I great weekend... peace and quite with a bit of excitement mixed in.

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PS: Thanks for your patience... took me a bit of time to set up a flickr account to support the pics and finish the report.
 
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tip

Adventurer
Looks like a cool trip. I'm very fond of the LT Murray.

Any way to make your pics bigger? I'm curious which roadside memorial that is.
 

ljrunner05

Adventurer
Absolutely Beautiful! My mother lives in the Seattle area and I've always found the scenery beautiful. We used to go backpacking around the Olympic Peninsula and I've considered shipping my jeep out there for a couple weeks of exploring. These pics may have made the decision for me!
 

Jerry

Adventurer
Wow, what a trip! That was a real workout for a Mitsubishi Endeavor. And that lightning strike, Holy Cow! It would be interesting to attempt Gallagher Head Lake again in better weather and with some capable vehicles around in case you get into trouble. And I am surprised you made it over some of those roads in the LT Murray considering how rutted and rocky it gets in places. Quite a trip for an Endeavor, indeed.
 
Great report! I haven't had a chance to run those trails yet. But they look fun! Have you explored any of the trails or roads to the south of I-90?
 

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