Chevy & GMC Vans

Last week I got an PM from TLow: "Grab the Bronco and meet us at Fortune Creek trail off Cle Elum Valley Rd at 9:45am this Saturday (sept 14) for a little day trip up to the lake."

While tempting, I wasn't sure it would fly with my wife... I had bugged out the previous weekend to the cabin and left the girls at home. I figured I'd be pushing my luck asking for another day to go play. Surprise surprise, my wife had no problem with it at all! With not much coaxing, Ryan was game to go too, and we also took our loaner dog.

We were running late, but met up with Tom around 10am. He was just pulling up away from the creek he'd camped on the night before.



It was at this point I found out there would be a pretty big group, members from the Northwest Overland message board. They were running later than I was so we actually didn't hit the trail until after 11am. While waiting for them, Ryan, 'Skeeter', and I wandered around the rocks and creek.





Our group ended up being 12 or 13 rigs, with an assortment of makes and models. Some bone stock on street tires, and others more capable. The trail to the lake is about seven miles and is rated 'easy' on the Forest Service map. That being said, I thought it had some challenging sections.

These picture were taken during a long pause in the trip when a CJ-7 was having carb problems. (It was eventually abandoned and the occupants rode the rest of the way to the lake with Tom.)









Even though I own an AWD Safari, and have been VERY impressed with the places it would go, Tom's van AMAZED me. Every time I threaded the Bronco through a tight spot, or dropped into or climbed out of a hole, I said, "I wonder if the van will make it through that?" Only for the last portion of the trip in was Tom right behind me, and his van never faultered!

Here's our group at the lake.







This Pinzgauer was near the front of our group so I never saw it in action, but it is a cool and capable rig.



Here's the lake and surrounding area.











A few in the group planned to spend the night... a real tempting idea if I'd had a sleeping bag and been solo! The rest of us headed back down around 4pm. Tom hauled the Jeep guys back to the CJ and was prepared to tow them out if necessary. I'm sure he will chime in and let us know.







It was a great trip, and I hope to get a chance to meet up with Tom again soon.

Matt, it was so great that you and Ryan were able to make it. You two have such an excellent relationship, you guys really are partners in crime. Ryan is a pleasure to be around.

That Bronco is a cool old rig. It was fun following you up the mountain.

But lets make it two Astro/Safaris next time!

The trail is steep enough that the only vehicle not in low range, ('02 Foreunner) overheated about 2/3 the way up.

I mostly followed my buddy in a nicely set-up 2nd Gen Nissan Extera Off Road. Not to condescend toward his rig, but rather for comparison sake, even though his tires are the next size up from mine, I saw him scrape 3 or 4 times at departure angle (trailer hitch) and one real good one on his breakover angle (rocksliders protecting his rocker panels) . My van actually didnt have any touches the entire route.

I took my buddies back down to his cj7 ('78 w/ factory v8 since massaged, and sporting 33's) and low and behold it fired right up. We detoured at a section to do a short loop that included some little hills and a creek crossing loop. The cj blasted through this creek and blew his power steering unit. I crawled across and the Astro was unscathed.





I camped out on the river again Saturday nite then explored all over the area. I hit the beach on Cle Elum Lk. They drain it a lot this time of year so its ready to take the winter/spring runoff.

I've been trying to make the beach part of my route home, like entering at a point A then running the beach a ways and exiting at a point B somewhere further on down, but so far I've only found about half a dozen out and backs.

I've got some good shots of the river from my camp spots on my other camera that I'll post soon.

Saturday nite's camp spot, after making sure the Jeep cj got down the trail ok.

Less than a stone's throw from the Cle Elum River.



A quick scramble down inside the canyon. It's moments like this when I wish I had PhtoVan's photography expertise.

Awesome report and pics guys, glad to see you got a chance to hook up and play...

Excellent trip pics! Wish I was there!

LiftedAWDAstro wrote:Excellent trip pics! Wish I was there!

X2 !!

Photos look great to me Tom and it's always nice to see pics from the old stompin' grounds! Also great to see mdmead's daughter flying allegiance to the home state on her t-shirt!!!

photo_van wrote: Also great to see mdmead's daughter flying allegiance to the home state on her t-shirt!!!

What can I say, her mother is a bad influence....

Thanks a lot, guys.

Matty, a lot of your pics made the homepage rotation. Good work.
http://nwoverland.org/

This trip came at a great time fo me.

This summer I've been wanting just a little more room in the van for the new family of four.

I've been thinking about selling and getting a Gen 2 Econoline 4x4 w/ pop top. I'm pretty sure they never made the "shorty" with pop top, but that would not be too much longer than my Astro, but wideto make east/west sleeping easier.





I could put some money into it to freshen up the drive train, etc...but after taking the van on this particular trip where I get into some tighter off road situations, I absolutely love the way it handles and cant imagine a bigger van handling nearly as well.

I'm definitely keeping the AstroLander.

Yeah, but the extended cab longbed Cummins Dodge that was along made it all look pretty easy too! (I think I was more surprised by his performance than your Astro van!)

But truly, the Astro/Safari is a great size.

Well, actually, thats the thing: Too a point, I'll get used to driving whatever it is I have. I've owned enough vehicles to realize that.

However, I'd also like to do the easier sections of the Naches trail. Can't imagine a wider van on what I've seen of that trail.

The Astro is so sporty on those fs roads and trails.

You mentioned it on Saturday, talking about the ride compared to your friends Sportsmobile. It is the ride of my F-250... well one of the big reasons... that I don't do more exploring with it. On a rough road, I have to slow to a crawl or get beat up. These vans are much more civilized in that regard.

Those old ford shorties are pretty cool, but I imagine rough ride and loud. It's hard to beat the Astro's size for of highway, smaller then many midsize SUVs!

That said, I have been checking out the AWD Express/Savannas. They're intriguing in that all we learned about suspension and drivetrain mods here, is similarly applicable on those. If only they made a short one like the old Chevy shorty. A friend was just here with his w/poptop. Getting 20+ MPG from Anchorage to here. Pretty nice rig and I might have him talked into a lift and tcase swap!!

Sure looks like a fun place to visit. Thanks for posting all the pics.