Overlanding the Olympic Peninsula - The WORST Road We've Ever Driven
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2022
- We're back on an overlanding trip through the Olympic National Forest in Washington State, and there is just somethin about the Olympic Peninsula that is SO MUCH FUN to explore!
Join us for this adventure as we find an epic ridgetop campsite, and take on a road that ends up being surprisingly challenging!
#overlanding #olympicpeninsula #dispersedcamping
We scattered my dad's ashes off that bridge you featured early in the video about thirty years ago, as he requested prior to his passing. Lovely country. Same area we used to hunt when I was a kid in the late 60s.
That truck looks like a theft, kids.
Now you're in my backyard. That whole area got nailed with windstorms last season. Even the main roads looked like that in the spring. Thanks again. I'm loving the vids.
Yeah! We were there last year and the roads were generally pretty clear. This trip, even the "main" roads weren't in great shape. The lesser traveled roads were just gnarly. Haha
@@WheretoNextOverland Dispersed is kinda few and far between out here. It always seems like camping heaven when we go check out other national forests.
@@pala4833 yeah, we definitely noticed that dispersed campsites are not nearly as plentiful as they tend to be throughout the Cascades
@@pala4833 100% For almost 30 years I've considered the Olympics to have the worst and least accessible dispersed camping. To be honest, Washington is like that in comparison to Oregon, California, Colorado, etc. I think it is partially the effect of the North-South glacier scraping. Our mountains are steep and heavily wooded without the typical upstream creek/riverside camps you find spuring off the main road in those other states.
Oh those pinstripes...I feel everyone I get on my rig deep in my soul! I've been on trail like than and chainsawed and hedge trimmed for miles....but never ran into an abandoned truck like that!
Yeah, that abandoned RAM was....unexpected.
That trip has me reconsidering carrying only a small electric chainsaw. Might be time to consider a proper saw....space in the truck be damned
@@WheretoNextOverland Well you guys pushed that trail to its limits so it was fun to watch!
Great episode guys and cool to see you in my neighborhood, I live here on the Olympic Peninsula.
We love it out there, definitely one of our favorite placed to explore. We feel like we've barely even scratched the surface of what the Peninsula has to offer!
Olympic Peninsula Racing Stripes - that’s what those are to locals. Slide Alder are monsters.
Times like those, thankful we're not driving a brand new $60k truck. Also, it's crazy how quickly those Alder can take over a trail
Thanks for taking us along! We live in WA state and are unable to go on those adventures anymore. Fun times! Be safe. 😅
Glad you enjoy coming along on our misadventures. Cheers!
We were just up at Wynoochee over the holiday weekend. We took a day trip up to dusk point. Would've been beautiful except for the clouds and rain on the only bad day! Some of the roads you were on looked similar to the ones we took. Your wife does very well considering. I exceeded the limits of my wife's medicine!
Nice! Wynoochee is a great area. There's a lot to explore over that way for sure. It's too bad so many of the lesser traveled roads seem to have so much blow down ... but I suppose that just makes exploring that area more of an adventure.
@@WheretoNextOverland this was our first time in Olympics. Usually we go south between Adam's and st. Helen's.
We’ve done a couple of drives through the Olympics off the Hood Canal and on our drive last weekend, had a full sized mountain lion cross the forest road in front of our rigs. Be careful with your dog out there.
Wow! I know they are out there, but have to imagine that's a pretty rare sight. I must say, coming across a mountain lion is probably my worst fear out that way. At least you all were in your vehicles!
@@WheretoNextOverland It looked to be a large cat, probably an adult male. Estimated weight was 150lbs. We were saying the exact same thing about being in our vehicles. However, we had been stopped a half mile away for 45 min not long before that time. And we had a couple of dogs in our group which could have been dangerous as dogs will typically attract predators. Be safe out there!
Wow, I have yet to see either a mountain goat or cougar. Cougars are definitely the one wild animal that scares me. Bobcats will run off and really bears usually do too - but a big cat likes to stalk you.
Man, the sound of branches scraping the sides! But those views from your camp though so gorgeous! I love the food too! Seeing that Ram looks sketch. Your cinematography keeps getting better and better! You guys got Patreon yet? ✋
Tell me about it! 3 hours of that sound was....cringeworthy to say the least. Haha.
Thanks for the support and kind words about the cinematography, we're definitely still learning a lot.
We don't have a Patreon setup quite yet, but will definitely have to look into it!
@@WheretoNextOverland Just as a warning. Once your YT channel starts making an income or you have a Patreon, the FAA considers that making money off of drone use and requires a PART 107 License. There are people who have been turned in to the FAA on their YTs alone so keep it in mind.
Each place has its own scratch and ages with you
Well, the Lexus could definitely tell stories with its scratches.
Yep, definitely going out that way this summer. I've never actually camped in the Olympics, only on the coast.
Oh man, it's so worth it. There are some amazing roads to explore / campsites to discover. Just be ready for pinstripes....maybe not as bad as we got in this video.... but the FS roads out there tend to get tight and overgrown pretty fast (unless you're on a main FS road)
@@WheretoNextOverland oh my Tacoma is battered and brused lol. But I'm getting ready to plasti dip it because of how scratched it is 😅
The south side of the OF has many trails that have been overgrown like that, but a few lead to some great campsites.
Totally! It's interesting to me how the south side tends to be so overgrown versus the E, N and W sections we've been on
@@WheretoNextOverland agree. Most people do not travel around the south side that much and the ones that do mostly stay on the main road. I do like that you can cut through all the way from 101 Shelton to the coast 101 road it takes longer than taking the highway but it is a great drive.
Good stuff guys. Looks like a epic spot I’d love to camp there sometime. Many roads here can leads to amazing views or dead end from trees.
Thanks! I'd go back to that spot, even with the narrow road .... but I probably wouldn't continue west from the site like we did again. Haha.
@@WheretoNextOverland good to know. Was this area by Lake Cushman?
@@BackcountryRenegade not far. A little bit southwest
Wow that is a rough road. I don’t think my ladder full-size rig with a ladder rack would have made it without waaaay toooo muuuuch road clearing. The Ram looks like an unfortunate find, probably stolen and dumped. You picked a really epic spot to kick off that trip.
Yeah, a full size rig and / or a truck with a rack or rooftop tent would have been no Bueno on that road.
Although, really it would have just meant turning around earlier, which would have saved a lot of time and frustration in this case, haha.
Indy cameo always worth a like
Christine always says "people are gonna think all Indiana does is sleep" ... to which I sat "yes, they will know the truth".
A lot of thé downed trees can be pulled out of the way.
19:25
Sure, they could've been. But cutting and moving a dozen large trees with a small electric chainsaw and no winch doesn't sound like a particularly great time to me. But I suppose for some that's their idea of fun ..... in which case we say go for it!
Well, that road is an all too common occurrence in the Pacific NW. It's so painful as I watch my buddie's 5th Gen T4R push through that stuff, I can imagine it was worse for you. You can definitely see why full size trucks just don't work great here. I can think of countless times the road has narrowed to the point I can't push even my narrow truck through - at some point it's just too thick and dense - you'd need a powered hedge trimmer as it can go on for 100s of feet.
And downed trees - even on a well cleared road, I often find I drive under several. On just a short drive in the Oregon Coastal Mtns yesterday I drove under over a dozen. Many with thick trunks and bases too high to make it practical to consider cutting, even with a chain saw. I can't see how alot of full size trucks or those with RTTs can get through. When I'm packed for family camping, I've had to turn around a few times when I came to a long, low, tree tunnel that my Plano boxes on the roof wouldn't fit under.
It wasn’t as bad last year through there but things grow very fast in the Olympics.
No doubt! I was quite surprised by the overgrown and downed tree status of many of the FS roads we were on that weekend. It was very different than our experience the prior year.
It almost seemed as though a big wind storm had recently gone through, as downed trees were EVERYWHERE ... but to my knowledge no such storm had occurred in some time.
Perhaps the Forest Service isn't clearing the roads out there like they normally do?
@@WheretoNextOverland FS only really clear the main roads. Unless things get reported, they don’t really go into spur roads.
Yeah. I kind of expect it on spur roads but even some of the main roads were barely passable.
@@WheretoNextOverland I think treefall is usually related to amount of ground saturation and wind combined. Overall it's inevitable but some years are worse than others
I live in the PNW to, and stumbled upon your channel. I too have small channel, and really enjoyed your videos. Nice Job!
Right on! Thanks for the kind words. We have a lot of fun putting these together. I'll have to check out your channel!
@@WheretoNextOverland I'm just starting out, but having fun learning how to tell our adventure story.
@@seandawnvantures2001 I'm right there with ya ... we gotta start somewhere!
This is where a chainsaw would be handy. Last spring we were trying to work our way from High Steel Bridge to Lake Cushman, but there was so much tree fall that even with a chainsaw it would have taken a week to cut through it all.
Yeah, similar situation here. We've got an electric chainsaw, and its good for a few trees .... but with AT LEAST a dozen downed trees blocking the road, it was too much
@@WheretoNextOverland An...electric...chainsaw...lol don't come back to the Olympics without a real chainsaw unless you intend to stay on the main roads (those with 4 digit numbers). Also a good idea to check road conditions with the rangers office before going in.
Did you go up that outcropping above your camp site? There was a solar panel up there in your drone shots - probably weather reporting equipment (it's usually marked). You can see it in the shots 3:49-4:01 & 4:09-25. Super interesting ridge and a great example of how steep our mountains are - that campsite likely wouldn't have been there if they didn't level the road for clearcutting. I'm always curious to see if they left the spar & I can find it down on the ground or one of the nearby slopes.
Funny enough I didn't notice the solar panel until reviewing the footage. I suspected weather equipment as well
@@WheretoNextOverland Probably why the road was better maintained up until there.
Awesome camping site. If you don’t mind me asking. Do you remember where that was. My wife and kids would love that site. Great video.
It was such a good campsite! That spot was in the southeast corner of the Olympic National Forest (that's as much of a hint as I can give)
I think that you'll need to invest in a chainsaw before you go back there!
😂
Definitely would've needed a bigger one than the little 10 inch bar electric that we had with us on that trip!
People pay lots of money for custom pinstriping, you get yours for free. Just think of it that way, and all is good. 😉
Haha, yeah when you put it that way....Sort of like pre-ripped designer jeans? 🤣
nice video, I have been trying to find that place for a long time, can you share what FR it is or any reference point, thanks.
Most of this video was along FS 2352
At 1:12 is that High Steel Bridge?
It is indeed!
Did ya’ll report the vehicle?
Yeah, reported it and it sounded like they were aware of it. At least from what I was told, it was crashed there last winter and the insurance company never recovered it.
@@WheretoNextOverland Did you grab the VIN? I'm assuming the license plate was gone. Undoubtedly reported as stolen. Even if it wasn't, it's an all too unfortunate practice for people to report their truck as stolen if they crash it offroad. I suspect the actual percentage of trucks stolen and then crashed is way lower than reported to insurance agencies. I would have thought that recovery was the responsibility of the owner &/or their insurance agency.
The handsaw is cute, but get yourself a Stihl or a Husky if you plan to truly overland.
I cant hear you speak over the music playing in the background