Great White Climbs Yellow Jacket Pass at Tahuya on 5 June 2010

It had not rained in 18 hours, the sun was shining, and the Newby Cruise was over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_tLiH4-rYs

Craig and I went over to Yellow Jacket Pass with two other drivers (the ones that crawled over the log with us.) They declined to drop down to the bottom of Yellow Jacket Pass leaving just the two of us to make the climb.

Craig had never climbed Yellow Jacket Pass and wanted to see my line up the hill. Because of this, I went first and Craig spotted for me. The bottom of the hill was easy. I stopped once to say goodby to the other two drivers that were heading back to town.

The photographer stayed on subject very well and his use of the zoom was excellent. It was difficult to keep the camera upright and he rolled the camera to the left several times causing the hill to look flatter than reality. If you look at the trees and the trail above and to the left of my top in the thumbnail, you can see that the left side of the frame is not parallel with the trees in the distance.

Since Craig had not spotted before, he had some footing issues on the wet rocks. He never fell, but he had trouble getting off my intended line. I had to stop for him twice.

I did not kill the engine nor roll back at any time during the climb so I think I did a good job getting up the hill.

Craig took his turn next. His video is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i66Ht0DYOgo

The map does not show the correct location of the cameraman. The location keeps snapping to the roadway near the north side of the hill. I believe the lat and lon are correct, but the marker won't indicate a location off the roadway. The cameraman was about 300 feet south of the location marker.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Great
• White
• Yellow
• Jacket
• Pass
• Tahuya
• Washington
• Rock
• Crawl
• Jeep
• Wheeling
• 4x4
• YJ
• offroad

[Adrian00702]

im coming down from BC next wednesday to check this place out for the first time. My XJ has a 6.5" LA kit and 33's with a posi rear end. Any good ideas on trails that would be do able, but still somewhat challenging?

[VMX540fan]

@Adrian00702

At the north end of the rock garden, there is a fire road running east- west. You want to go east about half a mile and take a left at the purple diamond on the tree. It will sneak up on you. If you find the blue gate, you went too far and will need to turn around and turn right on the trail. This is a nice fast trail that follows an old fire road. When the trail drops down the hill, the fast part is over. When you get to the logging road, go diagonally across it and up the hill.

[VMX540fan]

@Adrian00702

Go north on the trail to the "Y" and take the left. The right is just bumpy, the left is cool. When you enter the trees, take the left and go up the hill. Turn around at the top and come back down. That has been my favorite hill for over 25 years. When you get to the bottom of the hill, turn left and follow the valley. The trail turns right and goes up "three hills". This is another place you will find interesting and possibly challenging under certain weather conditions.

[VMX540fan]

@Adrian00702

Turn left at the top of "three hills" and continue north. The trail will drop off the ridge to the east taking you back to the staging area where you aired down.

Quadrapaws takes Newbies around this loop every first Saturday of the month for the last 20 years or so. You can download an old trail map from the quadrapaws web page. The clearcuts have moved the trails since the map was published.

Check out my channel. About a third of my video was shot at Tahuya.

[VMX540fan]

@Adrian00702

"Tahuya Deep Water JK" was shot at Mud Lake and shows a JK going through the middle of the north pond.

"Tahuya Water JK" was shot at Kiddie Pond where we pulled the stock ZJ out today.

"Bad Ass Buggy Tahuya ORV" was shot at mud lake in June when the water level was down about a foot below normal winter level.

"Jeep on 34s Stuck in Tahuya" is what I expect it to be like this week in the south pond.

[VMX540fan]

@Adrian00702

"It's Just Tahuya!" by CivSAR is edited in the same order as I described the loop to you. It was shot at a) the entry sign, b) twin rocks, c) Mud Lake, d) south rock garden, and then e) three hills.

[Adrian00702]

Wow! Thank you very much VMX540fan! It seems like you know the area like the back of your hand. Id like to try yellow jacket pass, and maybe some of the rock gardens. If your up there when Im passing through Im sure my dad and I would love to chat.

[VMX540fan]

@Adrian00702

The puddle at the edge of the clearcut has been a problem for stock vehicles in the past, but it seemed OK today. It's you call if you want to "go deep" or "bypass" it. It is not deep enough to kill the engine, but it can be slick enough to make it hard to exit.

As the trail meanders up the clearcut, you will notice the rocks scattered in the road. They are there to play on. I get high centered on them with 38s, so you need to use good lines to not get hung up. Continue northbound.

[VMX540fan]

@Adrian00702

After the third horseshoe, you will be back on the "straight down the ridge" trail. It goes left off the ridge and right at the bottom of the hill. The puddle on the left is deep enough to get your carpet wet in a stock rig, but you will be fine as long as you don't stop and open the door. The puddle has a nice grippy and smooth bottom. The loop continues north along the base of the hill and over some roots and between some tight trees and then out into a clearcut.

[VMX540fan]

@Adrian00702

The trail climbs back up a ridge and there is a large turn around area there. It is a good place to park and let others go by.

The trail turns north at this point. 200 yards into the woods, you will want to go right at the "Y" and do the first of three horseshoe trails. The left goes straight through and the right goes down the hill and back to the top of the ridge. Take all three horseshoe trails. They are currently in good shape and pose no problems to stock rigs.

[VMX540fan]

@Adrian00702

Long wheelbase trucks get caught in the "squeeze tree" about 1/4 mile into the loop. Stay to the left and you will be fine. The trail meanders back to the wide trail near the last "T" I mentioned. When you meet the wide road again. you want to turn right at the "T" so you are going east. You will cross a stream about 300 yards down the trail. This is controversial because DNR keeps changing the stream designation and we need to keep changing the bridge, culvert, etc.