Hey all,

I'm trying to plan an overnight trip to some places in WA ( I have a few in mind, which will be told when I actually make the event, or you can PM me for details ). This will be mid-August. Just wanting to see who might be interested, and if the weekend will work well enough for more people.

Once the event is made, we can coordinate rides and agendas for people who need rides and/or directions.

Not sure what else to say but if anyone has questions or concerns let me know!

P.S. There is Portland meet-up and you should think about attending if you want to go to this! It's where I'm hoping to talk in person about this trip to people.

I'm interested in the meet and a Washington explore. I'm free after 8/4.

Thread added to watchlist (not NSA, don't worry , so I'm interested!

Posted by Crypton Thread added to watchlist (not NSA, don't worry , so I'm interested!

Its a trap!

Anyone who says theyre not NSA totally is lying

Consider me very interested!

you've got my attention! would love to get out and connect

Alright so I figured out the dates. August 15th we will meet somewhere at some time, and August 16th we will depart somewhere at some time. Basically Aug 15-16 haha but I will have the times/locations figured out by the end of the weekend. If anyone has any SUGGESTIONS for locations to explore let me know!

This will be a weird question but does anyone have a satellite GPS that can use lat/long to locate places? I've found some interesting mines but obviously you can't just DRIVE UP to them. However I do have the lat/long which is precise pinpoint if you have a sat-GPS or something of the like.

Google Maps web version takes latitude and longitude as search criteria. Not sure about the mobile version.

If you have an Android telephone, try using "OsmAnd~". It's a free/open-source app that uses OpenStreetMap(s) as its datasource. Additionally, you can download map files for local storage so that internet connection is not required. And finally I've found that OSM maps contain more roads and features than google maps does. For example, in my off-road adventures on a dual sport bike, it lists all past or present dirt trails, gates, and former landmarks like ghost towns and such.

Thanks Ganesha and Crypton, I ended up downloading the OSMand app because I want to be prepared for not having service.

So I have a tentative plan that I want to see what everyone thinks about it...

Basically, there are 4 ghost towns in King County (east of Seattle) that have some cool buildings to explore and walk around and check the place out. They go in a nice loop through the county.

I anticipate camping probably (assuming people are okay with this) in Skykomish. They have lots of camp grounds, pretty much all first-come-first-serve. Some are free, some are not. I have camping gear, and extra sleeping bags.

After Skyhomish, the mines are west, back towards Seattle. There are 6, mostly relatively close each other.. I'm not sure about roads leading up to them. There will be lots of walking and hiking I'm sure. They don't go down or up, so rope/harnesses shouldn't be necessary. Hard hats maybe, flashlights, headlamps, boots (some of the mines have water that goes knee high or higher), etc.

I have the links to all the locations I planned out, including the mines. Was not sure if I should post them or not, but I found their locations easily enough on the internet if you know what to look for. And they seem REALLY out of the way for vandals and such. If it's cool, I will share the links.

There might be too many locations for 2 days, I have a bad habit of over compensating (hah) my plans and planning too much. This could easily be a morning-night, morning-night trip. Leave early, get back late. Or something. Really it's all up to us, the people that decide to go.

Opinions?

Create a private board and post links there. UER has no rules about revealing locations but some people have strong opinions about it.

Not sure about camping and mines. I'm a hedonist and fond of my comforts. Ghost towns sound good tho.

Most of the mines (if not all at this point) are flooded and/or collapsed. At least the ones I've ridden out to around Index.

Thread made!

We could also do ghost towns one day, and then go back to Seattle (skipping the mines, I can do those at a later date to see if they are open still or not). Spend the night in Seattle and go to some places that Ganesha suggested to me that are -ish in the area.

I'm going to make the event tonight (like at 3am probably, like usual) and leave the locations undecided for now. I just want to get the dates on people's calendars so they can make plans accordingly. I hope to have this officially planned out by the end of this next week. Thanks for being so helpful everyone!

Thanks Ganesha for showing the difference between a private board and a private thread! Haha. Everyone who has posted in this thread has been added to the board. To view your private boards, go to Forums and scroll all the way to the bottom and you will see "Your Private Boards".

I will still be posting a lot here but the locations are specifically in that board only.

-L

Edit: Crypton you bring up a good point about the mines being flooded.
That being said, I think I am going to skip the idea about the mines but stick to the ghost towns. I will explore the mines myself at a later date to see how they are doing - that way if they are all flooded/collapsed, it's not a huge waste of time for everyone. So next idea, do the ghost towns and swing around back to Seattle, stay the night in a hotel, then do some exploring around the city and it's suburbs?