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Barber Springs

Maverick26

Maverick26

As iron sharpens iron...
Joined
Aug 22, 2008
Messages
1,596
Location
Silvana
Have any of you Ellensburg guys been out Manastash Rd and turned up Barber Springs rd lately? How far up before you get into snow? Planing on a trip over this weekend to maybe camp up at Riders camp and do some dirt bike riding.
 
I'm headed up that way tomorrow. Usually there's a drift that hangs around for awhile just before you get to the flat near the springs. You won't get to riders camp this time of year, if anything the snow parks are still in effect. None of the trails are open to bikes yet, and would be impassable on a bike anyways. If you want to ride bikes, head out into the Quilomene. There's still a lot of snow here once you get out of the valley.
 
whatthe? said:
I'm headed up that way tomorrow. Usually there's a drift that hangs around for awhile just before you get to the flat near the springs. You won't get to riders camp this time of year, if anything the snow parks are still in effect. None of the trails are open to bikes yet, and would be impassable on a bike anyways. If you want to ride bikes, head out into the Quilomene. There's still a lot of snow here once you get out of the valley.
Click to expand...

We have street plated dual sport bikes so the roads are not a worry. We were thinking of camping at the base of barber springs rd at the concrete bridge area. Do you think Shell Rock Rd is still snowed in? Im not familiar with the Quilomene area at all. Ill look tho. Let me know what you find tomorrow.

Is this the area you are kind talking about? Out Cook Canyon area and to the north?

http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/amp_rec_naneum_gdot_map08.pdf
 
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Maverick26 said:
We have street plated dual sport bikes so the roads are not a worry. We were thinking of camping at the base of barber springs rd at the concrete bridge area. Do you think Shell Rock Rd is still snowed in? Im not familiar with the Quilomene area at all. Ill look tho. Let me know what you find tomorrow.

Is this the area you are kind talking about? Out Cook Canyon area and to the north?

http://www.dnr.wa.gov/Publications/amp_rec_naneum_gdot_map08.pdf
Click to expand...

You won't be able to get to shell rock. The lower entrance by Lazy F is closed and posted by the owner. Quilomene is east of cook. You'd get there by going up park creek rd. There are some camp spots up the canyon. Another spot would be Durr Rd and out into the Umptanum. Pretty much have to stay in the sage brush to avoid snow. If you do go quilomene be aware of the seasonal closure area. Being a weekend I'd think about a Disco pass.

The upper right hand corner of your map is the quilomene that's open. Quilomene Ridge rd is the southern boarder of whats open. Every thing south of that to the vantage hwy is closed. The windfarm is private ground. You'd camp in park creek, ride up till you hit beacon rd and then go north or along quilomene ridge rd which goes to the river.
 
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Thanks for the info but I may bug you for more as I have a few more questions. Both our bikes are street legal and ORV tabed so we will have no issues with paved roads or disco pass areas. We got a hotel in Eburg for Sat night just so we didnt have to try and find a place to camp. We really just want to go exploring on mountain roads, no single track or anything like that.

Anyway, our plan was to park at the end of Coleman Creek Rd and head north but you are saying thats closed. We could shift plans to park the truck and unload bikes somewhere on Parke Creek Rd and ride up to Beacon Rd and go from there. Thinking of headed out Brewton Rd maybe and pop out on the river accross from CB. Might be fun and good to stay low in elevation.
 
You'd get into snow quick in Coleman. You might be able to do the coleman, dawson, schnebly loop. I haven't been north on beacon yet, so no info on the amount of snow but it has to be getting close to passable to ride out to west bar. Once you get out of the trees on beacon, the snow's gone. That's my ride for next week. Let me know what the snows like. I need some more seat time before the desert 100.
 
Cool man, wish you could make it out with us this weekend. We may try Beacon or we may try Little Brushy. I will report back with what roads we took and how much snow we hit. We are going to try and get to west bar. Thanks for the help.

Is there an ok spot to park the truck on Parke Creek Rd? No trailer, just a full size truck with a double bike carrier on the hitch.
 
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To clarify, you have to get up to beacon and then your choices are little brushy or quilomene ridge rd. To get to west bar you have to head north on beacon and turn onto little brushy. There are a few good spots to park. The first is right where the pavement ends (a bus turnaround) no pass required. The second is up the road after the dirt starts and park at the Disco requirement sign. I work this weekend or I'd be up there riding. What day are you riding?
 
whatthe? said:
To clarify, you have to get up to beacon and then your choices are little brushy or quilomene ridge rd. To get to west bar you have to head north on beacon and turn onto little brushy. There are a few good spots to park. The first is right where the pavement ends (a bus turnaround) no pass required. The second is up the road after the dirt starts and park at the Disco requirement sign. I work this weekend or I'd be up there riding. What day are you riding?
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Yep, I think Little brushy is going to be our rout. Thanks so much for your help on this. I got a good map and a gps on the bike so I feel good about it. I have done some hunting up in this area but never any riding. I cant wait. We plan to leave my house over here on the wet side around 5 and hope to hit the trail around 8 Saturday morning.
 
Sorry to be off topic but can someone confirm taht you can drive to Riders Camp up Manastash RD then up Barber Springs RD all teh way to the camp groud? (i know not right now but when the snow is gone)

Ive been out of the loop a bit and last i heard they still had not fixed the roads from the washouts a couple years ago.

Thank you! :beer:
 
The road at buck meadows is still washed out but the road has been repaired at the bottom. So yes, you can drive to riders camp or to barber springs.
 
Ya the road is all fixed, somewhat rerouted up a little higher. I took Barber Springs all the way up to our elk camp on Bald Mt last year. Barber is rough when dry.
 
Paul, thanks again for the help. We had a great weekend in Ellensburg. We ended up getting into town around 9am on Saturday and headed straight out to Parke rd. We parked at the disco pass sign and DNR was up there with their chopper spraying weeds I think. Kinda cool watching him land on top of the refill truck right next to us. We loaded up with full intention to make it to west bar. It was still quite wet in places along Parke before you make the turn to head up the hill to Beacon. Once on Beacon and heading north into the trees we encountered a little more snow then we wanted to deal with. We almost made it to Little brushy before we turned back and headed out towards Army rd. We ended up going down the wrong road (one road north or Army where they Y). So we turned around and headed back to the truck to end the first day riding for my wife. We stayed at the Motel 6 and ate dinner at the Pasta Factory. We both felt a little bummed cause we did not get to make it to the river like we wanted so we looked at the map and found that we could get there by taking Army all the way down. So Sunday morning we got up early and headed up to Army and made it all the way to the end. Awesome weekend of riding and really a great area to practice and learn new skills. We will be back for sure.

We also seen tons and tons of deer and elk, I screwed up and forgot my little pocket cheap set of binoculars so I have no idea if any where bucks or bulls but it was still really cool seeing so many out there.
 
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Glad you had a good time. I was wondering about the snow north on beacon. That road you took just north of quilomene ridge road (or army) used to go all the way to the river where you ended up at on Sunday, it just followed the canyon down. It was a neat road with a lot of man made ponds along the way. It used to also have a cut off that would head back up to brushy and let you bypass all the trees and snow on beacon. The animals have all but dropped their horns by now but there are tons of animals out there. A friend got a video of a bear a few weeks ago along quilomene ridge rd. It's a neat area in the spring. Dry with snakes and ticks in the summer.
 
Yes we had a great time! We want to come back soon, we love the area and the style of riding. I am not the biggest fan of high tech single track, to me working that hard bashing my bike through 300 yards of trail to pop out on the same road I was just on is not fun. I love picking a spot on a map 20-30 miles away and then try to get there.

We met 3 guys on 4x4 quads that tried to run up to Colockum pass and said the snow was really deep and getting soft with the sun out so they turned around. I think in 2-3 more weeks of this nice weather and its going to be open season.

We are headed to Lake Wenatchee area of Memorial but we might hit this area up before then.
 
I would, the earlier the better. A few weeks out there makes a lot of difference. It gets dry and hot in a hurry. Get to west bar next time, it's a really neat area with a few little side road to explore. I like the desert riding but I do enjoy single track, mostly for the exploration and finding remote hunting areas. I like riding up above lake wenatchee between the chiwawa and the entiat in late summer.
 

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