Windy ridge trail August long weekend (1 Viewer)

[604mike]

This trial has been on my list as well as a few other cruiser heads for some time now but the trip has never come together.
Well Myself and Kim have decided that this coming long weekend we are going to take a crack at it.
I thought I would throw an invite out to anyone else who has been interested in the trip. It will be a tough go, dead fall, washouts, as far as I can tell no one has been through it in 2 years again. It won't be a easy trail and best suited for people with experience and reasonably capable trucks who are afraid of work.

I know it's short notice and we haven't even ironed out the details yet but I thought I would ask anyways. If your interested let me know!

 

[cruiserpilot]

Looks like a blast. Pics when you’re done please.

 

[bladedog]

Oh, I wish, but unfortunatelyi can't. Especially because I don't like work . I want to hear all about it, and see photos (or it didn't happen). Darryl may be in, I'll let him know.

 

[604mike]

We made it, I will post more details later today

 

[604mike]

 

[kim]

Great trip Mike!!!

 

[cruiserpilot]

Really like to hit that trail soon. Looks like beautiful area.

 

[604mike]

Day one, travel day.
We started our adventure around 8 am leaving maple ridge. We had not even hit Harrison yet and I encountered my first problem. I did a coolant flush days before and didn't seat a hose clamp well and it was leaking everywhere. there we were on the side of the highway... a great start. once that was resolved it was smooth sailing up to Clinton. Roads were abnormally quiet for Friday of a long weekend. We left the highway at meadow lake road and headed towards churn creek. Even though that road isn't much of a "offroad" route it is a really nice drive, with lots to look at.

 

[604mike]

Day 2, part 1
We departed churn creek before the sun hit out side of the valley. Heading past churn creek info station and up empire valley road. This was a good hour of gravel travel before we started taking turns, with each one, the trails began to get more over grown. There is a lot of shelf road on the first half of the trail. All in pretty good shape, some off camber spots but they were all stable and not to bad.

 

[604mike]

Day 2 part 2,
This is where the shenanigans began, as you wind down the shelf roads you get the the bottom of the valley. At the bottom is a lot of fun multiple creek crossings and a good wash out. Kim attempted to roll over going down the one slide sections but the ol 60 refused to give in. Shortly after we realized Kim's swing out was completely missing. So we turned around and did about an hour of back treking through all the fun spots. We eventually found his tire at a cross ditch he hit hard earlier that day. We had to winch Kim out of one of the creek beds, that portion of the trail is definitely harder going towards churn.

 

[604mike]

Day 2 part 3...
Now heading back the right direction again. I hooked a tree and blew out a tire... fun location to change along a narrow shelf roads but like a Nascar crew we had it swapped in about 15 minutes. Fast forwarding to where we had to turn around.... the trail is one big shelf road winding up and down the valley. A few good washouts with bypasses. Some in good shape, some not so much. Every time you got comfortable the trial threw another obstacle at you. Finally you land in the valley floor it was very overgrown. We camped at roaster lake that night.

 

[604mike]

Day 3
It was a chilly morning. I wish we could have had a fire. We packed up and carried on. There was evidence people has been in to the lake from the poison side. As suspected the trail was cleared already and we didnt need to bring the saw out at all. Yodel cabin, the old corral where I had turned around 2 years before and some fun creek crossing ditches that worked the suspension pretty good. Then followed up by the infamous hill. The hill has drastically changed. There is way more vegetation growing on it. We didnt even realize we were doing the ridge until we were almost to the top.

 

[kim]

The weather on this trip was excellent, but we had threats of thunder/lightning and rain but it didn't materialize, or so we thought. A few pics to supplement Mike's.

 

[604mike]

More day 3 photos

 

[kim]

Some alternative day 3 photos with Windy Ridge outside road.

 

[604mike]

Day 3, rest of the trip after the trail,
Since we were ahead of schedule we decided we would take the lower poison road and go out yalokom and head back towards the coast. Find some where to camp closer to nahatlatch. But yalokom had other plans... a washout at nine mile ridge. We decided to dig it out and cross. Took about 2.5 hours and we were across. We decided to change our plans and camp at beaver creek rec site.

All in I think the trial took us around 8 hours to drive the windy ridge trail section. We cut probably 30 trees, most of which were 4" or less. Trail is a good mix of everything, I wouldn't run it with less than 33" tires and proper recovery gear.

Hopefully we will see some more people on the next one!

My next goal, black dome, and either run it all the way out or connect up with windy ridge trail about half way. Maybe the summer of 2026.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Looks like tremendous fun! Definitely going to try and spend more time in that area.

 

[Ol Yeller]

Nice trip!

Any chance of popping a rough map of the area in this thread?

 

[BC40]

Looks like a fantastic trip. Thanks for sharing
Funny I spotted a 60 I'd have sworn was Kim's at the gas station in Rock Creek Saturday night. Guess not.