I just popped the video I bought the other day into the VCR. The quality of my digicam taking vids of the TV screen is poor, but it will give you an idea of somewhat the Naches trail is.

The guy doing the narrating looks like ha has a lot of fun doing this.
He brings along a nice motorhome and hauls his yellow Jeep behind it.

The black Jeep belongs to the guy who I bought my ARB & winch from.
The guy with the orange Jeep I bought the vid from the other day.
They both work at the local 4WD store.

Lots of hard parts in there getting around the rocks & trees. It shows it in parts that I recorded here.
Fun trail, but very narrow in many places.

http://www.pnw4runners.net/naches_vid/

 

Thanks Corey. That was pretty cool. Since I have now done the Naches almost 3 times now - I should buy the video. Did they have more copies? Central4WD?

 

Hi Gene, they have plenty of copies down there.
You know, that one spot in the vid where they are crossing that small road in the clearing I don't remember that at all.

That may have been a different section than what I was on.
Unbeleivable though how you can wrap a longer wheel based rig than a Jeep around some of those tight corners.
They looked like they were almost hanging up going around some of them.

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I don't remember that section either. I ran that trail from 410 to 410 and didn't see anything like that. Do you know what year that was made? Perhaps the clearcut area has now grown back to offer a different look. I do remember a couple of clearcut areas.

We made it around the tight spots by what I heard termed as “The Washington Maneuver”. You suck up really tight to one of the trees and drive until your rear tire is up on the roots right at its base. Then you give it some throttle so that your rear slides out and it helps you around the turn. Its fun – but I think it was what made my ball joints finally give up the ghost. Here is a very blurry shot of Dread setting up for the maneuver. Here it was used to get over a nasty off camber dip that is at the top of a steep hill. I notice that I should have pulled up a bit tighter, but when the rear slipped out, I was in great shape to go down the hill.

 

Ahhhh, my memory is coming back to me now. The Washington maneuver.
I remember doing that several times with the help of spotter Mike with the red Jeep from our trip.
You had to suck up real close and drive up on the roots and twist around.

I'm tellin' ya, I was pretty worried doing that with the running boards on still and street pressure in the tires.
I'm still amazed I came out without hitting a thing or getting a scratch on the rig.

Looks like the vid may have been made in 2001. It was listed though on their site as a new entry. Perhaps it takes awhile to edit and put them together.

There are other parts to the Naches that I have not been on. Not sure if I can find them again, but they start out at not to far from the steep hill where I entered it.
I think they cross section each other.

I may have to look for them later this year.
I'd kind of like to get a run with several in early October before the snow flies.
I bet your rig did good in there though with the ARB locker.

Won't be up that way tomorrow morning though. We'll be up over on # 72.

 

I like that Washington manuver. Try it going around a huge rock with a 700 foot sheer drop off on the other side like this:



Note the air under the outside half of the right front tire and the lack of space between the rock and the door. Noo room for error. That's the Colorado version of the Washington manuver. This guy could have chosen a slightly better line on the approach but he's trying to illustrate the fact that a full size can make it down the west side of Schofield. Its easier in a Toy but you really have to know your vehicle and drive it perfectly to do a lot of trails here in Colorado.

Thanks for the vids Corey. I wanna come out and see the trails in person.