Alvord Lake Run

Alvord Lake Run

by | Apr 16, 2025 | Upcoming Event

Join us while we explore the Alvord Desert, we’ll make our way to this beautiful 12×6 mile dried up lake bed to camp for a couple days this Memorial Day Weekend. Then we venture onward to explore Stonehouse Rd and Burnt Rd plateau before dropping back down for our final night at Ten Cent Lake, before rolling home. I may have mispoke in regards to extra fuel at the April meeting, I now recommend everyone plan to pack extra fuel, as I’ve charted over 130 miles from the lakebed to Burns, not to mention half of those miles will most likely be in 4 Lo (using more fuel).

Itinerary;

Fri May 23rd

Initial group leaving at 7 am from Trios Hospital Parking Lot @ 7:00 am (secondary group leaving Fri PM/Sat AM?)
Traveling to Pendleton via I-82/84, fueling and proceeding South on Hwy 395 to John Day (fuel) Continuing S on Hwy 395 to Burns (fuel/Lunch).

Leaving Burns we now continue South on Hwy 205 to Fields (fuel/snacks, before heading out on the lakebed to set-up camp.

Camp Coordinates (approximation)
42.56823, -118.40781

Sat May 24th

Lazy Day – Explore the lakebed and surrounding area, return to camp to meet up with those who couldn’t leave earlier. Camp fire and story telling.

Sun May 25th

Long Day Adventuring, Roll-out by 0800. Now we venture North, but first we must go east then north off the lakebed. Connecting up to Hwy 201 (gravel) to explore Stonehouse Road up into Virginia Valley, that connects to Burnt Flat Road up on the plateau, before descending back down to Ten Cent Lake for camp. Should be an easy/moderate day of only 63 miles, half gravel, half mountain goat. The mountain goat part (31 miles) will take up most of our day.

Stonehouse Road: 3 Miles/1 hr – Trail Rating 4

This trail leads from the valley below and provides access to the Steens Mountains. It’s a beautiful drive through a valley as it ascends the mountain. There is a spring that bubbles its way along as a creek. There are several water crossings and moss walls where the water seeps out. It’s fascinating to stop and watch. The trail is pretty rocky, with some off-camber sections and long steep loose hill climbs. There is one bar of LTE that fades in and out.

Stonehouse Road to Virginia Valley: 17 Miles/ 4 hrs – Trail Rating 3

This remote section of two tracks through the Northern Steens takes you past several old settlement cabins and along a section of the lesser traveled optional Oregon BDR route loop. The trail is beautiful and the two track is overgrown at points. The only difficult sections are possible through the low points of the trail. The trail goes through several sections of private ranching land, but crossing the property is allowed. At the end of the trail, you travel over a pass that could be snowed over in Spring and ends at a county-maintained gravel road. Expect to see motorcycle groups completing the BDR on weekends.

Burnt Flat Road: 11 Miles/ 2.5 hrs – Trail Rating 3

This trail ascends from the valley below into a network of trails in the Steens Mountains. The trail begins down in the lakebed area and the lower valley. Then it ascends a steep rocky shelf road with expansive views of the valley and a few epic dispersed camping spots. There are a few Verizon LTE cellular service bars in this section, but it’s gone once you get to the top. Once in the upper area, the trail opens to a massive valley that appears to have been an ancient lakebed. There is an abundance of wildlife to see as one traverses across the valley. Offshoot trails offer more exploration of the area. The lakebed gives way to an excellent dense forest section at the farther end of the route. It’s a beautiful trail with lots to see along the way.

Mon May 26th

Fairly early start for home, Leave by 0900, first stop Burns (fuel 72 mi), and basically reverse of the trip down, John Day, Pendleton, Kennewick.

Hope to be home around 4 pm!

Need more info, check out the videos below!

 

 

 

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Members Only*?

Members Only*?

by | Apr 16, 2025 | Club News

Some folks may have noticed a new area on the website, but are surprised to find it requires a password to enter.

What gives?

Well truth be told, with the club growing it’s getting more difficult to remember who is who, or what rig belongs to whom. Not to mention we’ve long need a place to share our meeting minutes and such. While social media sites can be useful there’s little consistency, and things are easily lost in the shuffle.

Facebook Private Group

Even our FB PG gets requests from non members to join regularly, being an actual club (w/dues, Bylaws, and a 501 C3 status) we have a responsibility to our paying members to keep them updated, without putting it all out in the open.

That being said for those lurking, we do not allow non paying members access to our FB PG, so if you want access to that you need to register with the club and of course become a paying member.

Next, having a need for member info to be accessible by members, we created a protected are for Members to share a profile (both member and Spouse/Partner if they each have a vehicle), as well as posting our Meeting and Board Meeting Minutes.

If you are a paid member you will get the password that opens this area for you to explore. Non-members well, until you become one of us, you’ll have to guess what lies behind our Members Only area.

We encourage thiose wishing to join, to come and check us out, join us for a monthly Membership Meeting, read our bylaws and consider joining RattleSnake 4x4s. 

While we may become members, or follow FB Groups, we are a real club with a responsibilty to our members, to continue our sport/hobby, as well as our sponsors.

We hope everyone can understand that a  Social Media Group does not make a club, but clubs can create social media groups.

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More Apparel Additions!

More Apparel Additions!

by | Apr 16, 2025 | Club News

A few years ago we created the opportunity to purchase apparel with the older Logos from TeePublic.com (https://www.teepublic.com/user/livin-4-today) and you still can, today however, we’ve updated the main menu to go to the new store Ringolde’s in West Richland.

The club makes no money on the items listed at either site, but the quality is much higher with Ringolde’s.

We recently spent  some time (hours) adding more selections to our store including woven buttoned short and long sleeve shirts for both the guys and gals, and we added to our tall section as well. We encourage folks to go check out the new apparel options. Who knows, maybe you’ll find something you just can’t live without, and we appreciate the representation…

The new store can be reached above from the menu (RS 4x4s Gear) or by the following link (or clicking the store image);

 

Orders take between 1 and 2 weeks to complete and can be picked up at:

Ringolde’s
641 S 37th Ave,
West Richland, WA 99353
509.940.5567

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Awesome Duck Hunt

Awesome Duck Hunt

by | Apr 7, 2025 | Recent Event

Duckin’ Fun!

Thank you from the bottoms of our Duck Hearts for participating in our goofy Duck Hunt. We were able to raise a total of $3160.00 for Friends of Disabled Veterans (Helping Disabled Veterans and Families at their Prosser Ranch).  An extra special thanks to our event sponsors, also noted in the image above.

 

Autobahn Auto Care Center
Castle MegaStore
EFC
High Five Motorsports
Juice G’s Barbershop
Lithia CJDR
O’Reilly Auto Parts
Ranch & Home
Swigg Coffee Bar
Traffic Jams
Tri-City Gaming
Perfection Tire
Discount Tire
9 to 9 Auto Parts
Bombing Range Brewing Company
Northwest Outdoors
United Rentals
Isla Bonita Mexican Dining
The Old Jarhead

Thanks again for your participation!

RattleSnake 4x4s

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Spring Shotgun Duck Hunt 2025

Spring Shotgun Duck Hunt 2025

by | Mar 13, 2025 | Upcoming Event

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The Basics:

We are out to help Friends of Disabled Veterans (Helping Disabled Veterans and Families at their Prosser Ranch).  We came up with a fun way to get people together around a vehicle event with a positive focus of sharing our love of vehicles/driving, while helping folks less fortunate. Our hope is to encourage folks to join in on our 4th of such events, and to raise some funds for our disabled heroes, who’ve given so much for our freedom and safety. If you can’t join us in person please donate to the cause at our RS 4x4s Member Store so we can make a larger impact for them.

We’ll meet up on April 5th, 2025 @ 10am 1331 N Center Pkwy, Kennewick, WA 99336 (Theatre Parking Lot between the Mall and Costco), for sign-in, tech check, etc. from here we will have a Le Mans Start at precisely 12 pm

You’ll get a set of clues that will hopefully get you to all of the hidden locations. At each secret location there will be a set number of ducks available (and likely not as many as people hunting them!).  Once you arrive, look for the ‘Duck Hunt’ sign to be sure you got it right then you can enter the business (navigator or driver) and request a duck – and hopefully they aren’t all gone!

At 4PM we will be meeting for dinner at Salud Bar and Kitchen (50 Comstock St, Richland, WA) to go over the results (who ducking won?) and have some laughs and good food! (You will be responsible for your own dinner and drinks – thank you!)

We can manage up to 40 vehicles for the event. It should be a fun day out and will end at Salud Bar and Kitchen @ 50 Comstock St, Richland, WA. They’ll will have food and drinks available to purchase (not included in the entry fee), and do the closing ceremonies, and maybe enjoy a meal or beverage together.

We hope to see you there! Be easy on us, this is supposed to be a fun time to meet others, see some cool vehicles, and maybe make some new friends!

Thanks in advance for your participation!

RattleSnake 4x4s

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Registration:

You can register on the day, or pre register online, however, in order for your pre-registration (below Online Form) to be accepted, you must include participant payment/ticket puchase on our store. 

Ticket price to enter is $25, although we will gladly accept more donations  as all proceeds go to benefit the local Friends of Disabled Veterans (Prosser). To make a payment go to our STORE and use the $25 donation to purchase a ticket (there are only 40 available).

We encourage additional donations in any amount, and add a message Donation for RS 4x4s Spring Shotgun Duck Hunt 2025.

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Online/Pre-Registration Form

Spring Shotgun Duck Hunt Registration

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