Adopt-A-Trail
Buck Meadows

Our club’s aim is to have fun fourwheeling and do some work at keeping the trails we enjoy open. So when it came up that the Cle Elum ranger district was looking for some clubs to adopt the trails in the Buck Meadows area we decided we had to get involved with this program. The trail we adopted is called the String Trail and runs from the head of Shoestring lake to the top of Manastash ridge. It runs through a rock field at the bottom and climbs up to the ridge along some cliffs which many fourwheelers use as a good lunch look out.

We have done a couple of reroutes with the supervision of the ranger, Tom Smart. The pictures on this page are from the run where we put up our signs to show we were the adopting club. It was decided that we would go over and put up the signs on a one day run even though the trailhead is three hours from our homes. We figured it would be a long day but not too bad as all of the rigs going were well set up and we had been there many times so we would be able to make some good time on the trail.

It took about two hours to get the signs put up at each end of the trail. On the way out we decided to wheel a proposed bypass for a large muddy area of the trail, when one of our members broke his steering brackets that hold the steering box to the frame. It had been a long day and now it was about get much longer, being it was 3:00 in the afternoon and we were a good 2-3 hours from the nearest parts house, we started using the cell phones. We were able to get ahold of a member, Chuck, who had not gone on the run and he went to Olympic 4x4 in Snohomish WA. They stayed open a little past their closing so he could get there and get the parts we needed.

Now Chuck was three hours from the trail head and in his street wheeler, we decided that we had to get the broken rig down to the trailhead. Using the rig's own winch we cabled the box to the frame with the winch and got the jeep to the trailhead where we met Chuck with parts and got the jeep put back together. It was around 2:00 am when we got home, a very long day after all.

The sign installation crew

Rick and Kevin put up the first sign

We get the sign way up there with the help of Steve’s jeep

Is this straight?

Done! One more to go

Club members closing off a bypass

The bypass is closed!

Letting some other users know that it is not cool to cut their own trail

The lower signs put up