PICTURES: Reiter Trails (Washington State)

[lupinsea]

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Reiter Trail Network
April 8th, 2006

A trail run was thrown together at the last minute for this Saturday, the 8th. The goal was to explore some trails we hadn't been on before and learn about another ORV area for the Jeeps. Our group gathered at the "trail head" to the Reiter Trails area and consisted of myself, Micah (I Flex), Chris (Kizer), and two members of the Seattle Jeep Club (Don and Jeff) as well as my friend Carrie who came up on her dual sport bike to survey the two wheeled opportunities.

Geography
Reiter Trails is an odd place located 40 minutes NE of Seattle. There is a wide range of trails for Jeeps, quads, and dirt bikes squeezed into an area bordered by a highway to the south and tall mountains roughly 1/2 - 3/4 miles to the north. The area stretches east and west with a major powerline route running through the middle. The trails stretch out under the power lines and climb up the side of the mountains. The west end barely touches Gold Bar, WA and east end of the area is terminated by a 400+ ft tall shear granite cliff overlooking the town of Index below. Trails consist of dirt roads, rock gardens, forest trails, mud pits, sand hill climbs, rock, and river crossings. NW weather conspires to keep the trails very damp wiith large mud puddles throughout much of the year. This dampness also promotes the lush, moss covered vegetation common to Western Washington trails.

History
For the last 2 - 3 decades Reiter Trails went by the name Reiter Pits (due to its proximity to a quarry) and was a no-mans-land of sorts. There was no official agency controling or enforcing the area and a trail network began developing. Now, in the last month or so, the local dirt bike and 4x4 clubs have gotten the county executive to sign a land use zoning code to allow ORV parks in the county. . . the first step to converting this area to an ORV park. That reality is still years out but a major obstacle has been removed. For now everybody is continuing to enjoy the trails.

Our Adventure
As we were airing down our tires at 10:30am trying to figure out where to go first one of the locals zoomed up in his kitted out beat-up Toyota trail rig and began doing the same. Curious I headed over to talk to him and he agreed to be out "trail guide" for a while showing us some good trails.

The first we went on was one of the easier forest trails winding through the trees at the base of the mountain where the land was still relatively flat. A rocky, bumpy access made going slow at first but things "smoothed out" once we got onto the moist dirt of the trail proper. Turns were tight in some sections and the Toyota picked lines that the rest of our group had to by-pass. I tried to follow as best I could but still needed to back off on a number of obstacles. I "may" have been able to conquer a few with substantial throttle input but I decided that wasn't in the cards for me. At the end of the trail we gathered about to figure out where to go next. Our guide's friend called and said he was on the way so the plan now was to head to the rock garden.

The Rock Garden was a partially covered field of boulders that had tumbled down the mountain some hundreds of years before. They rested just inside the treeline from the powerline route. With the rain and mud that day the rocks were particularly trecherous. The Toyota enthusiastically tackled the rocks as I wandered of on the by-passes again. Even the by-passes were proving challenging as I became stuck. I had no sooner driven over a rock and dropped down the other side when I noticed I had inadvertently straddled a log. I was wedged in with only 5" to manouver and no way to get out. Even winching wouldn't have done much good. Out came my axe as I spent the next 20 minutes hacking my way through the offending obstacle and spraying my Jeep with wood chips. Within 100 ft of that I was stuck again. . . sort of. I could move but could not surmount a rocky out cropping that was my best plan of escape from the "garden." Too small of tires, too short of wheel base, and just not enough traction in the slick conditions. At least this time I could use my winch.

Of course, Mr. Toyota showed us how it was done and just climbed right up the rocks. Feel'n ****y he set off to tackle the next challenge and high-centered on a car-sized boulder. Fortunately, I was ready wiith my winch and tugged him free. It was here we decided we were in over our heads and said our thanks and goodbyes.

Just as we were coming out of rock garden we encountered another local who offered to take us up the Index Wall trail. I had heard about this trail but had not been on it before and so accepted his offer. After a bit of drivinig on some trails and fire roads we reached the trail head further up in the mountains. Much of the trail is actually submerged beneath a series of small lake-sized puddles with some semi-technical trail work over broken forest ground. The trail terminates about 1/8 mile from the granite wall. It was here we disembarked and walked the last bit to stand above the town of Index, WA looking into the heart of the Cascade mountain range. The view was impressive yet we stayed well clear of the shear drop from the edge (about 5 ft back). Well, most of us anyways.

The last trail of the day was the Lake Isabel trail. Each of the two times I had been on that trail I've sustained damage to my Jeep. The first time a mangled exhaust system. The second time I shattered my transfercase and had to abandon my Jeep over night while I went for help (never wheel alone!). This time I was determined, yet nervous, to reach the end of the trail. We set off and had no problem fording the river. From there a loooong abandon logging road took us up the mountain. Substantial wash outs and eroded rock outcroppings along the way made things challenging. At the top of the trail is an ancient log bridge that does not have much longer in this world. On the other side of that the trail REALLY deteriorated as it became, basically, a river bed with water washing out the road and leaving beach ball size boulders behind. Onward we pressed with my TJ in the lead. I took care to avoid scraping my undercarriage over the rocks, yet there was still plenty of scrapage. At one point I backed up into a log denting my rear corner. Bummer, bent sheet metal. So far it's 0-3 for trail damage. At least now my tail gate opens easier! We finally made it to the top just as it was getting dark and time to turn around.

8:30pm and darkness arrive just as we were returning to the trail head. We all had a lot of fun that day despite some damage. The local boys out there with their own toys were very friendly and eager to share their favorite Reiter Trails with us. I had a blast and look forward to heading up there again, albeit after some wounds have healed.

Pictures

There are a lot more pictures on my website.




Pinned in between a rock and a hard place: Whacking my way through a log to escape.




Winching up the slimy mud-covered rock obstacle.




Our "trail guide" showing us how it's done in a Toyota. Luckily one of us had a winch.




Micah driving through puddles on the Index Wall Trail. Big puddles.




Enjoying the view from the top of the cliff.




Micah charging into the mud puddle.




Micah STUCK in the mud puddle.




Jeff in his FJ40 playing on rocks in the middle of the river.




Crossing the old log bridge at the top of the Lake Isabel trail.

[BigPeters]

the fj40 looks like a toy , nice writeup

[CBlakeNS]

Awesome pics, nice post!

[I FLEX]

I love the way the pics always turn out.



It was a fun trip...expensive but fun none the less.

[MCanavan]

Originally Posted by BigPeters

the fj40 looks like a toy , nice writeup

You're right! I had to go back and look at it again but it looks like a model FJ40.

[murgg]

how far from the border is this place. wouldnt mind checking it out as i live right on the canadian side, closest to vancouver.great pics looks like fun
edit:40mi from seatle

[charlescho]

one of my favorite websites for background pics

[snwchris]

Awesome frickin pics... I can't wait to get out there this summer.
One of my friend lives out there and wheels with 4x4Whore and I'm working on a trip to head out there to wheel with them.

Chris

[I FLEX]

Originally Posted by snwchris

Awesome frickin pics... I can't wait to get out there this summer.
One of my friend lives out there and wheels with 4x4Whore and I'm working on a trip to head out there to wheel with them.

Chris

The guy driving the old Toyota in some of the other pics had some 4x4Whore stickers on his rig. He lead us through some of the trails. So did his friend that had a Daihatsu (it kinda looked like a Suzuki) that tagged along.

[snwchris]

ahhh... sweet..
Yea.. I've seen some of the pics she has from wheelin with them & on there site and remember seeing a few of those rigs.
Yea my friend Nicole has a steel blue 98TJ and think she has a 3"BDS lift & 33's as well. I think she joined up with them over the summer.

Chris

[trailblaze]

what kinda camera are you guys using....those pics always come out sweeet

[tahoe wheelers]

As usuall, great pics and write-up. Man maybe one of these days I can get up there and go on a run w/ you guys. Beautiful up there.

[lupinsea]

Originally Posted by trailblaze

what kinda camera are you guys using....those pics always come out sweeet

Thanks.

The camera is a Kodak Easyshare DX7590 I picked up last year about this time. It works reasonably well and offers enough extra manual controls without being too fussy.

[BlueJ]

Originally Posted by lupinsea

Thanks.

The camera is a Kodak Easyshare DX7590 I picked up last year about this time. It works reasonably well and offers enough extra manual controls without being too fussy.

That camera takes very clear pictures, is it a slower film? Beautiful pictures by the way. Oh, and the FJ-40 does indeed look like a toy. You should photshop a hand above it like it was picking it up. Just for kicks, lol.

[UCTJ]

Dude you always have some really cool wheeling pictures/trips and awesome writeups...you make me sick because I dont live there.... thanks for posting them...