Liberty WA, trail report 7/21/2023

[Big_Mark]

On June 21st I went to Liberty, WA ORV park for a weekend of wheeling and standing around the “fire” telling lies with my friends of over 35 years. It was a great time.

 

The trails at Liberty are mostly made up of old mining roads built around the late 1800s, they wind around the draws and over the ridge lines of the mountains, this is where you get the views and where you get a feeling for how high and steep the mountains are. In the winter the red and grey clay dust turns to thick, poopy mud requiring vehicles with horsepower, tire speed, proper mud tires and a working winch to make it up the trails. In the Summertime the roads are mostly bone dry, with great traction so for my rig this was the right time to go. I was able to make it around fine in low range 1st and 2nd gear running around 500-800 rpms, lugging over rocks to keep the bouncing down and the traction on the ground. This tripped my friends out since my last wheeler and driving style was described above in the “winter requirements” section for Liberty, the funny thing is I never made it to Liberty with the CJ8 so it was all new to me! These roads are steep, with no turn arounds, once you are in it you gotta get it to get though!

 

Here's my effort to provide a reference photo of the steepness of these roads.

 

My buddies TJ on the mild side of the road

 

Both my buddies lined up to go up the steep side (spoiler, they made it lol)

 

 

 

On The first day we went up to the Crystal Mountain Lookout to see where Tom and Nick drove off the cliff. Because of that event, there is a sign stating, “CLIFF AHEAD DANGER” and logs have been placed across the road near the ridge of the cliff as well as this sign to hopefully keep it from happening again.

 

 

 

Here’s where the fellers drove off the cliff.

 

 

 

This is where we initially parked at the lookout, I think it's a good reference photo of how steep it is out there.

 

 

 

Naturally we had to get a line up photo, hers the MJ forward pic.

 

 

 

Here’s the sunset.

 

 

We drove down in the dark, I ended up going down something this rig would not be able to go up, thank god for 6” lifts and gravity, lol (no pics we were moving)

 

The next day we went to the West side of HWY 97 to try out the trails over there.

This path takes you through the old town of Liberty, which is basically a one block living museum, we passed through and didn’t stop. The town would be fun for a family but we were just a bunch of hillbillies trying to get to the trail so we kept on. Once past the town we drove through a herd of sheep, I guess they are free range sheep or something, the herders didn’t seem concerned when we drove (slowly) through, and a couple of well timed, short
“Beep-Beeps” got them to move out of the way.

 

 

 

 

 

After that we went up forest service road 324, came down FS326

 

324 was really steep with 2-3 extra steep spots with either/and horizontal root undercut on one side or another of the "road", rocks with "CJ spinout" spaced holes that took some finagling to get past. The worst part for me was having to back off 2 of these spots, the start in 1st or 2nd on grade covered in clay powder. Somehow, I managed to get moving with my worn out BGF AT/KO tires (era 2005), the lugging worked well here once I was able to bump the front over the obstacle. In the rain without a winch, and or lockers and or mud tires forget it. Again, no pics I was moving, and this was not a place or time for photos. At the top of this trail my buddy got some go pro video of all of us but I’m not holding my breath to see them. If he gets them off the go pro and onto a PC I’ll share them here. I’m told my front end behaves like it has a soft locker or something. I know it doesn’t I think it’s just my mad wheeling skills lol.

 

Here are some shots from the top of 324

 

 

 

Here's a shot where you can see my gauges.

 

 

This is on the way back down (up, in this photo) 326.

 

 

326 is mostly doable with open diffs, no lockers or winch, even in the winter. There is just one mudhole thing where speed, assistance or any and all of the listed items would make it easier when wet/full 

I took this just after the mudhole, that was mostly dry. It shows the mudline where my headlight dipped into the water hole. Aside from that 326 is mostly just fun, not fraught.

 

 

Even when it’s dry it’s possible to get stuck. Here’s my buddy Rob stuck on his t-case cause he didn’t have enough “go” in his “MO-mentum” ha ha look at the TJ stuck on dry dirt!

 

 

Finally, back at camp there is a note to all the campers and meth heads too!

 

 

If you want to check for yourself, you just have to unlock the door.

 

 

 

We were lucky this weekend, weather was great (high 70s low 80s, sunny) we pretty much had the whole park to ourselves, nobody came through the campground to see if the spot was open, the trails were dry, we didn’t run into anyone on the trails, all and all it was a great time!

 

Check it out if you've never been, if your rig is mild go in the Summer, bring a friend (or 3) if your rig is "extreme" go whenever you'll find a challenge. 

 

 

[MiNi Beast]

Cool.  thanks for sharing. I HAVE always thought when I go its to be me going over a cliff in my jeep at 60 years old. 😆

[Pete M]

awesome!  love a good trail ride.