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

[Barry Donovan]

looks like maine.

Who would think squashy pines and gold mines in the same spot.
that's like mush land.


gold likes hard..very hard, like diamonds.
dreamers.

I would not be enthused to be there..but that west wind with some coast in it would feel nice.
one of my first cousins finally made his move.. staying out there, not coming back.

wheeling would be natural.. the warmer temps just heading down elevation. Real tempting.
nice shots..that dog came out perfect.

[Deaf Bob]

Would love to live there in the peace and quiet! Not that it'd matter to me, my wife jumps at little noises...

[Dan Barlow]

A living ghost town .....never heard that one before. Is that a town that was dead that is alive again ? Looks like a blast . I have not been off roading in 20 years . I really need a 4x4 before winter .

[STINEY]

Sounds like a good trail. What time do I meet you?

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'm sure you Jeep won't start that day, but if it does.... here''s the instructions

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 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

A living ghost town .....never heard that one before. Is that a town that was dead that is alive again ? Looks like a blast . I have not been off roading in 20 years . I really need a 4x4 before winter .

Calico in California is probably the most famous - but generally refers to a town that only did gold, the gold stopped, but the town keeps plugging along.

[Loren]

Seriously beautiful area, looks a lot better without all that white stuff.

[SuperBuickGuy]

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 goes
there 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 leading

there 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.

[ratpatrol66]

Looks like fun!

[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

[ratpatrol66]

This is a great state!

[STINEY]

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

That is very funny. I'd say that's a sure indicator that you are doing it right.


I was going to ask if those were Wagoneer 44's under the Willys.........you answered the 44 part, are they stock width Wagoneer?

Never though of just running long leafs on only one end. I've seen exactly ONE CJ running full-size truck leafs in the sand dunes. It was in the late 90's and I was so captivated at seeing a CJ Jeep floating at speed on the rough stuff instead of porpoising like a pogo stick that I had to go over and compliment him on his magic.

Subtle and simple. Ex-sand drag jeep pulled from a field. Even looking closely they didn't stand out visually. Worked great though, amazing!

How did he manage the rear frame mount of the longer leafs? Do they stick out 10"? Looks like the bumper incorporates them to a large degree.

Thanks for taking us along!

[74NovaMan]

Cool trip! Thanks for sharing.