Pappy's September Adventure: Plan B

[pappy]

I'm tired, so this pic will be all you get for now. Consider it a tease. Twenty-eight nights, I think. Something like that.

Plan A: Canada, to the Arctic Ocean, with a detour to Alaska. Border closed, so I had to do something else.

Plan B: Washington BDR (590 miles), Idaho BDR (1253 exhausting miles), Nevada BDR (908 miles).

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Alvord Desert, southeast Oregon. Bonus points to somebody who can tell us recent relevance to this dry lake bed. NO GOOGLE!

 

[Dumpolina]

you are an animal!

 

[thegadgetguy]

Wow, looks like an epic trip!

Is that where that woman from Mythbusters died during the land speed record attempt awhile back? I seem to recall it being around there, and that lake bed looks awful flat...

 

[evanz80]

Ready for more pics and stories!

Go Pappy and go 4Runner!

 

[pappy]

Wow, looks like an epic trip!

Is that where that woman from Mythbusters died during the land speed record attempt awhile back? I seem to recall it being around there, and that lake bed looks awful flat...

Ding, ding, ding. RIP Jessi Combs.

Jessi Combs Crash - Search Videos

www.bing.com

 

[Poupon]

Welcome back Pappy. Looking forward to some stories once you get unpacked and get your bearings.

 

[pappy]

I covered a lot of ground. I took a bunch of pictures. I have no idea what most of them were trying to say. So, here we go.

I started off in Oregon because it was in the way. The objective was not to stick to dirt, though I did to a degree. First stop was the Alvord Desert. Not really a desert, but a huge dry lake bed that is open to camping. No cover for business. Most stayed close to the county road, but a few of us spread out. From there I went into the forest to the west, almost to Klamath Falls. I found that dispersed camping in Oregon was a challenge. Just not the choices we have in NM and AZ.

From Klamath Falls I went north and held up in the forest just before Crater Lake NP. The next morning I drove to the Park and drove like a tourist around the lake. Not too many people around when I got there, but the numbers picked up before I exited out the north.

 

[pappy]

From Crater Lake I went to Bend, OR. I think this was the only "carnage" I had on the trip. Before I left I had new tires put on the Bushrat. The morning in the Alvord Desert I woke up to a flat tire. It seems the valve stem wasn't sealing. I changed out to the spare and went to Discount Tires in Bend. They told me it was a rim issue and there was a problem with the hole the stem seats in. I call BS. Anyway I pulled out one of my Colby valves ... and it was a HUGE fail as advertised. They were able to make them work by holding onto the cone from the inside when they tightened up the wingnut. Anyway, when I get a chance I'm going to install metal valve stems since they also compress into the hole.

From Bend it was a quick trip to the start of the WABDR at the Bridge of the Gods across the Columbia River in Stevenson ($2 toll).

 

[pappy]

The WABDR was not very long or challenging. There were only three issues, really. First, it's hunting season. The hunters were fine, but they took up all the campsites. Second, like in NM there was a huge windstorm Labor Day weekend. That caused a bunch of tree fall. And I mean a bunch. I spent my morning clearing trees with a hatchet and handsaw. About the time I started in on my 6th tree Ken rolls up in a nice Tacoma. He asked me if I had cleared many trees. I told him yes. He said him too. It seems they were falling down behind me as I proceeded up the forest road. Anyway, the tree in our way was big, and green. First words out of my mouth when he rolled up were "I hope you have a chain saw." He had a really nice Milwaukee electric 16" saw. He didn't feel comfortable with this tree, so I put my arborist skills to use, and we dragged it out of the way.

After clearing the tree we decided to travel together. Ken, BTW was a cruiserhead with an FJ40 and FJ62 currently in his stable, and many other previous acquisitions. He was active on MUD, and Cascade Cruisers, but currently spends his time over at ExPo. We finished the day, camped, and then finished the last leg of the BDR the next day. I went to the border, but he headed south when we hit the highway.

Oh ya, the third issue. Fires. There was a fire in the Yakima/Ellensburg area. It's possible the BDR route might have traversed north of the fire, but the smoke would have been a deal breaker. I detoured to Yakima, where the smoke was choking, then to Ellensburg and picked up the BDR from there. Flames were along the freeway in Ellensburg. There was another fire at Chelan. As I was climbing out of the town I received an emergency alert on my phone about evacuations. There was a third fire in the Omak region we heard about from hunters, but it didn't effect us.

Fire at Yakima/Ellensburg.

Fire at Chelan.

My proof that I went to the border and finished the WABDR.

 

[pappy]

Unfortunately, the views were smoky.

 

[pappy]

From Nighthawk, WA I started east to pickup the IDBDR in Porthill, ID. Along the way, another fire at Curlew. I spent the night in the forest outside Metaline Falls, then went over to the Roosevelt Grove of Ancient Cedars. These were 800+ year old western red cedar trees. As a plant guy I was rather impressed, but the best was yet to come.

Fire at Curlew.

One of the younger trees in the Roosevelt Grove.

 

[pappy]

The start of the IDBDR was a bar/restaurant in Porthill, ID on the Canada border. They had gas, priced in dollars/gallon, and CN$/liter.

Right off the bat I had a closed road and had to detour about 30 miles.

But it was worth it. My camp at Roman Nose Campground was very nice and ringed with huckleberries. This was a primitive FS camp. I would not have considered it primitive with vault potty, picnic tables, and fire pits. The campground was above the lake, not on the water. There were trails from the campsites to the water, or you could drive around.

 

[pappy]

Random campsite along the IDBDR.

I had two choices north of Avery. I could have taken the canyon route, or driven though the tunnels. I regret I took the tunnels, I did duck down to the canyon at the end and wish I had gone that way.

Not a typical view. Most of the time I was on a shelf road, 10% grade, looking at tree roots on one side, and tree tops on the other. Surfaced, of course, with baby-heads. There was nothing fast about the northern segment of the IDBDR. The conifer tree lawns were typical, either green, or burned.

 

[pappy]

As I was strolling down one of the forest roads I came to a grove of old growth cedar. Turns out it's a protected grove set aside by the State of ID. It contained ID's Champion red cedar at 1000 years old. It was a monster! It's named the Jordan Tree and measures 17 feet in diameter.

Some of the other trees in the grove.

 

[pappy]

As I said, big wind Labor Day weekend. Tree falls were all over WA and ID. Scenes like this were repeated over and over. Thank goodness it was hunting season. The hunters were out in force with chain saws.

Of course, lots of logging.

And lots of previous fire areas.

 

[pappy]

I think the major intended highlights of the IDBDR are the Lolo Motorway, and the Magruder Corridor. These were both historic trails that ran west to east across the middle part of the state. I ran the Lolo west to east into Montana, then the Magruder east to west from Montana. The beginning of the Lolo was under "construction" and was getting improved. The east side of the Lolo was unmaintained baby-heads. The Magruder wasn't bad, and was known for it's wildlife. That, of course, brought the hunters with their very elaborate hunting camps. All those hunters made camping a challenge.

Another Forest Service primitive campground. It was exceptional. When I arrived I was the only person there. One group of hunters came in later. This campground was right on a lake.

That morning I heard a bunch of thrashing out on the lake. I had to use binoculars, but there were two moose feeding in the water.

 

[pappy]

More pics of the Lolo. These were Nez Perce rock cairns at the Indian Post Office.

Typical shelf roads. Tree roots on one side. Tree tops on the other. When the forest was dense it was deceptive how steep the drop-off was.

 

[marcfj60]

Retirement goals. Too bad I've still got a good 15 years.

Did you acquire maps of all the areas as you meandered around or did you have a good collection to start with?

 

[pappy]

On to the Magruder Corridor. Over 100 miles long. No bailouts. No services. Loved it.

Very smoky. On the Montana-Idaho border.

As I said, the hunters were out in force, but most of them avoided the developed campgrounds. Another primitive Forest Service campground that I thought was exceptional. It was 25 degrees that night.

More forest burn.

 

[pappy]

Retirement goals. Too bad I've still got a good 15 years.

Did you acquire maps of all the areas as you meandered around or did you have a good collection to start with?

I bought the BDR maps before I left. I also bought the Nat Geo Pacific Northwest map. To be honest, the BDR's can't be done from a paper map. Downloading the GPX file to a GPS is the only way to navigate the route. I made many wrong turns, especially in NV. I was not the only one.