Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route (OBDR), Route 3 - September 2011

[CACHE KRAWLER]

First off I want to mention that I am a procrastinator which is why it has taken me almost a year to post this trip report on here. I wrote it up and posted it to my FB page months ago, but am just now getting around to posting it here since I am currently on leave from the military for the next two weeks and still find myself getting up at way too early in the morning.

As much as I aspire to be a professional photographer, I am not as my pictures will show you nor am I a professional writer, as my words will show you. I am however an aspiring backcountry adventurer with big dreams and shallow pockets...for the time being.

This trip was the Rutherford men ~800 mile roundtrip from Hoodoo Ski Resort exit off of OR 126 to the California border all on backroads. The pics start from leaving my house in Yelm, WA the day before the trip start date. On day three of the trip my father and brother had to leave due to prior engagements. My son and I continued and finished the trip on our own 2 1/2 days later in Dorris, CA. The entire trip took ~6 days to complete.

I purchased the Route 3 map from Leonard at OOHVA.org, and quickly went to work on verifying that the coords were correct. I had read several trip reports from users of the maps saying that the coords were off at several waypoints and I wasn't about to spend several hours staring at maps in the dust and heat guessing whether we were or were not in the right place. As much fun as I have getting lost, I did not want that to happen on this trip as time was essential since I was on leave from the military and my Father and Brother had prior engagements that they needed to get to on time. The hours of checking the coords and correcting the incorrect ones paid off and the trip went off with zero navigational incidents.

Now on to the trip...


Winlock, WA, site of the World's Largest Egg. Our first stop of the trip was to grab a geocache, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=5c1286bd-6e9b-4483-a2e6-2de69674cee5. I was surprised at how small the egg was for being the World's Largest. I may have found my world record to break, hmmm.....


My son Colby riding the rooster. This link here explains the origins of the egg and the town that claims it's fame.
http://youtu.be/LFM2CoM9uD4


Our second stop of the trip was in Castle Rock, WA to grab my 2,000th cache find, Aloha TB Hotel, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=cf73621a-bfe2-467a-ad6c-00b8d11e2c2a. The timing was perfect and the fact that my son was with me made the milestone cache find that much better


Our second stop of the trip was in Castle Rock, WA to grab my 2,000th cache find, Aloha TB Hotel, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=cf73621a-bfe2-467a-ad6c-00b8d11e2c2a. The timing was perfect and the fact that my son was with me made the milestone cache find that much better


A close-up shot of the exterior of the Aloha TB Hotel. A bit of urban camouflauge.


The interior of the TB Hotel. The cache owner has put alot of time into this one which is one of the reasons that it has almost a thousand finds.


This here is the first jail built in Castle Rock, WA. Built in 1907 it is a one cell jail. We were grabbing a geocache here as well, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=3ddeeadf-36aa-4f27-95a2-2abfc5056a73.


This jail was a neat piece of local history and I was glad that I made the trip to see it.


The Jeep and the Jail. My Jeep is a 2011 and at the time of this pic and the trip my Jeep is roughly 3 weeks old. Like a cheap date, it had a very quick break in period.


My Jeep next to a small dredging bucket. I probably could have driven my Jeep into it if I had removed my fender flares and mirrors. This bucket was located right next to the old jail.

This is the last of the picture for day one. My son and I ended up at my home where I grew up in Mohawk, OR for the night and were off first thing in the morning. More to come......

 

[CACHE KRAWLER]

OBDR Route 3 - Day 1


Officially on the trip now we came to realize just how dusty and dry the roads were at the end of the summer. Luckily I was navigator for the trip and therefore in the lead most of the trip. The very first road we were suppossed to turn on to was blocked off due to extreme fire danger so we had to find a new path to our next checkpoint. We found a quad trail and followed it for a few miles untill we were able to hook back up with our original route.


Who doesn't enjoy a good dust bath every now and then? My brother was in second place most of the trip and took this pic. I'm sure it was hard to really enjoy the views when this is what you were looking at for a good bit of the trip.


Our first major checkpoint of the trip and a geocache as well. Richards Cache Creek Cache,
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=07aba257-6535-4e0b-82f1-fe469d47d238. This location is at the old Cache Creek Toll Station located on the old Santiam wagon road. The toll station dates back to roughly 1865. My son is pictured here.


A close-up of the sign. This kind of history is all over our state just aching to be found.


OBDR Route 3 - Day 2


Day two, heading southwest and getting ready to come into view of the Three Sisters on our right.


North and Middle Sister. This pic was taken on the morning of the second day. Beautiful views.


A great shot of the Three Sisters.


South Sister


I'll try to keep this short and sweet. Three week old Jeep JK Unlimited, 10 nonstop miles of free pinstriping courtesy of Mother Nature, sounds that put fingernails screaching on a chalkboard to shame, and a map that shows this section of the trail to be clear passage....... it wasn't.


Tumalo Falls. This was probably the best photo I took the entire trip. Thank you POS iPhone 3G! I know, I need to upgrade one of these days. At this point my father had broken off from the pack already to take an ailing dog to Crescent Lake to catch a ride back home to Junction City. My brother and I were on our own with our kids for most of the remainder of the day until we were to meet back up with our father at Wickiup Reservoir later that night. BTW, there is a geocache here that is a multi and the final is behind the water fall. I had planned on attempting it but after seeing what the terrain looked like I backed out as I didn't really want to take a chance of my son seeing me fall to my death and then float away like an old log. Next time...

 

[CACHE KRAWLER]

OBDR Route 3 - Day 2 (cont.) & Day 3


It's always alot more scarier in person you know? This is the view looking down from above, way above. It's further than three feet...which is my comfort zone. I'm a puss.


My son Colby and I at the viewpoint from atop the falls. Safety is just above waist heighth, imminent death is above that point. Like I said, I'm a puss, but the views were awesome.


My brother and his son Lane enjoying some good bonding time. Notice the death grip on the collar of the shirt, oh and my GPS just hanging out there waiting for a chipmunk to come by and push it into the abyss. It's not like I needed it for the remainder of the trip or anything.


Now that's better. A good shot of the two of them.



OBDR Route 3 - Day 3


It wouldn't be a real excursion if there wasn't at least one mechanical breakdown. Well this breakdown was a doozy. My father was trying to play catch-up with his two sons and failed to see the drainage ditch that was carved out and crossing the road and hit it doing mach-something. It was fast enough to break the stub shaft on the trailer axle with all the weight in it. He managed to drag the trailer about 15 feet or so after the break.


I was a few miles ahead waiting at the next major intersection for about 20 minutes wondering where the hell the other two were at. I wasn't getting any replies on our two-way radio so I turned around and back tracked. This is what I saw when I rounded the corner. F.


Being that we were on Bear Creek Rd. just south of Old Man Camp, which if you didn't know is basically in the middle of nowhere, we decided to unload the trailer of it's contents, cram them into the back of dad's YJ, and stash the trailer for further rescue. We found a good spot just off the side of the road to hide the trailer. We also found a good spot for it's now detached wheel about 30 feet away from the trailer. After slaughtering two innocent young sapplings for camo we were on our way and rather impressed with our on-the-fly camo job. The trailer was recovered a couple of days later with a crane hoist and his F350 dually.


A close-up shot of the now detached wheel and tire.


Ahhh, camp, night three. My dad found the perfect spot for some Jeeps and tents that night that was just off the route. This little chunk of outdoor camping beauty is called Hamaker Meadows. The "official" campground is just across the river via the bridge, but since we are all alike and don't play well with others, we called this place home for the night and set in setting up tents and cooking up some grub.


My brother's sweet company vehicle getting in some trail time. Though it is overly built for this kind of off-roading it sure came in handy when we had a huge deadfall in our path that was level with the top of my hood. He was able to get his front two tires on top of it and do some serious front wheel digs with his cutting brakes. The 40" Iroks chewed through that deadfall like a stump grinder and quickly made mulch out of it and a path for us to drive through.

The day was almost wrapped up at this point, but that doesn't mean that the shenanigans has to be. More to come...

 

[CACHE KRAWLER]

OBDR Route 3 - Day 3 (cont.)


Ahhh, the 'Ol Man, Dad. It was great that he was able to make it on the trip and I honestly wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I hope to do many more trips with him in the future and possibly do route 2 or 4 this summer.


Little man with the cane was vicious. Chased me around camp all night smacking me with that thing, screaming something along the lines of "whose your daddy?!" The kids these days....


What an awesome shot right? Little Mr. Big Man of the trip and my brother's son/co-pilot for the trip. By the end of the trip he was pretty good at readingTOPO maps and swearing at me through the two-way radios.


The back end of the TJ is a multi-purpose tool. At that point he was cookin' up some grub, but I've seen diapers changed on that thing as well. I'm sure he rubbed it down with hand sanitizer though....j/k.


I really enjoyed this part of the trip. There just isn't much out there that can top a father and his sons and grandsons setting up tents, cooking dinner and sharing stories and drinking beers around a fire 'till way too late in the night. Hamaker meadows was the perfect spot for our last night together as a full group.


A herd of free roaming cattle stopped by to say hi. They didn't stick around long as my brother decided to try and corral them in his Jeep. It was a good laugh while it lasted.


A shot of the herd just before they were physically and mentally harrased by one, Troy Rutherford in his Jeep TJ. It was probably the most exercise these bovine had seen in years.


A wide angle shot of the tent layout of the camp. As you can see the two younger Rutherfords and their kids stayed a good distance away from their father when it came to tent placement. Dad has a way of keeping good people awake when they're suppossed to be sleeping. Years of experience has taught us to stay as far away as possible.

This wrapped up day three's activities. The trip has been a blast so far and I have learned a lot up to this point.
Day four would start with a hike to a secluded waterfall, saying goodbye to my Father and Brother and having a trip meeting with my son about what direction to take the trip in. Let the adventure continue...

 

[CACHE KRAWLER]

OBDR Route 3 - Day 4


We started off the morning of day four with a little hike down the hill side to check out the falls.


Bottom of the falls. If you can't tell by the hunched up shoulders of Lane, it's a wee bit chilly down there plus the spray of the falls adds an almost Irish Spring moment to your day.


It really was a beautiful waterfall.


Grandpa Rob and Grandson Lane who is holdin on to his junk for one reason or another. It obviously runs in the family.




Where the water flows. It meandered through the woods to the left where it met with a smaller tributary. Almost Bambi like ay?


My son Colby enjoying a bit of spray on the back of the neck.


The last shot of the falls.


At this point, we had left the waterfall a couple hours earlier and Dad and Troy had left to head home to their other engagements. It was just Colby and I now and we were having a blast. It was really too bad that Dad and Troy had to leave when they did as it seems like the views and the trail really got a whole lot better starting on day four. Maybe it was the fact that it was just my boy and me on our own in an area that we had never been and not knowing exactly what lay ahead. Either way, we were having a blast! In this picture we were crossing the snowmobile bridge at Bybee Creek.


At first I was a bit concerned about the bridge and just drove straight across it, but not hearing any ominous noises coming from under my tires at the first crossing, I backed up to get a couple of pictures.

 

[CACHE KRAWLER]

OBDR Rout 3 - Day 4 (cont.)


An inflatable helipool I came across out in the middle of nowhere.


Huckleberry Mountain, one of the places I was really looking forward to coming to. What you are looking at are the old footings for the Huckleberry Lookout Tower. There just so happened to be a geocache here as well, Huckleberry Mtn Lookout, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=b4c29a1a-1bc9-41bd-b467-d2e1f715cf08, that my son Colby found.


Colby looking intently at a grasshopper he was trying to catch...and probably dismember by the look of the tools in his hands.


I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoy driving my Jeep...so I won't. But here is a bit of history on the Lookout Tower(s) that used to occupy this place.
HISTORY----->The original Huckleberry Mtn. Lookout, constructed in 1929, was a crows nest built up in a large tree. Then in 1934 a 50' pole L-6 tower with a cabin was built in an open area on the top of the mountain. This tower was destroyed in 1960. Now all that is left are the four footings marking where the tower stood at an elevation of 6281'.


This is a picture of the original 50' high crows nest lookout on Huckleberry Mt. in the Rogue River Wilderness.


This is what the original Huckleberry Mt. Lookout Tower looked like. Itw as standing for several years before it was destoryed in 1960


A Jeep, a copy of Overland Journal an 18 pack of Tecate and a remote campsite shared with your son. What more could a man want? Oh yah, a raging fire!


Late, late afternoon, day four. Colby and I had a really good day. We covered alot of ground that day. We had to make our own road around a huge deadfall through wild Huckleberries that blocked our path descending...you name it, Huckleberry Mtn. We grabbed eight caches that day and drove through an odd little town by the name of Prospect that could have been the setting for a backwoods Oregon mystery thriller. After dropping a small fortune on petrol at the one pump gas station in town we proceeded on not really knowing where we were going to call it a night. We eventually settled on this place, Big Ben Campground. It was cozy and just a pull off on the side of the road. Our nearest neighbor was a quarter mile down the road which I rather enjoyed. What Colby enjoyed was the campside creek.


Colby made Big Ben Creek his home for the night wading around it, only coming out to eat or stoke the fire occasionally.


Nothing makes you feel better than to see your kid happy. He tromped around in this creek to the point that at night he was out there with a lantern trying to find Crawdads with his stick.

This wrapped up day four for us and what a great wrap-up it was. A creekside fire, good food and great company. Day five would bring the big push....and the day that we were supposed to be back home.

 

[CACHE KRAWLER]

OBDR Route 3 - Day 5


Day Five!!! We started the morning before sunrise. Believe it or not I set my alarm to wake up at 0500 so that we could get the most bang for our buck that day. The day started off with miles and miles of logging roads going up and down and over the nearby foothills. We were heading south through the Rogue River Wilderness where the vegetation is heavy in Oak Trees, rolling meadows of straw and lots of round rock formations. Still early in the morning, we stopped at this sign to grab a geocache named Cat Hill that was nearby it, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=e246b1fd-1344-4737-b5de-66ae25236efd. We also grabbed one called Cool Tube, that was in a small lava tube just down the hill from this one that was in the middle of the heavily wooded forest, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=c8a873f9-a417-46c5-bbb4-79571db3a467.


I tried to stop at as many Lookout Towers as possible on this trip. One reason I do that is that I enjoy the design and engineering of the towers and the fact that they all have history and tell a story. The other reason is that thay all have incredible views! This particular LOT is called Table Mountain LOT which is just west of Hyatt Reservoir in southern Oregon. Luckily the day that I stopped by, the gate was open, so I started driving up. About half way up the hill I noticed that they were doing some construction on the road and the tower. I had to stop to allow a guy to run a hose across the road and when I did he asked me if he could hook up his cement mixer trailer to my Jeep. When I informed him that I didn't have a hitch he asked me who was supposed to be helping him out for the day. After an awkward silence I had to inform him that I was not a coworker and that I was just visiting the LOT. The guy was still confused after a few more seconds so I just put her in first and continued on up the hill. This is the view that I came up to.


As is typical of me, I tend to find geocaches where ever I go and sure enough I found one here as well that was hidden excellently, Table Mountain Lookout, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=9ff7b127-1123-48bc-a301-32ce168908ff. This particular tower was in pretty rough shape and as I mentioned before, they were in the process of repairing and restoring when I visited.


Hyatt Reservoir in the background of this blurry pic, oh, and my sweet ride in the front. It was a beautiful day for coming up here, but we had to get going after killing a half hour so as to try to get to the California border by days end.


Little Hyatt Reservoir - We were heading down in elevation at a rapid pace and came upon this gem in the middle of the open. A cool old school dam was retaining the water here and doing an.....okay job I guess, that is if you could look past all the water spouts coming through the old concrete. It reminded me of an old cartoon with the cat trying to plug the holes with every finger, toe or tail it had.


There was a lot of water behind this old dam and honestly it seemed like it could go at any second, so I decided to walk out on some concrete that went out just ahead of the dam. Colby did his duties by explaining to me that it "didn't look like such a good idea". I told him that I agreed with him but that sometimes people do things that aren't very good ideas.


On the left there under the two big tips is an old canal that use to carry water away to the left I'm guessing to use for irrigation. The tips (not sure of there official term) raised and lowered the spillway gates. The canal is now dry and had evidence of people driving there 4x4s up the old canal to the dam.


They built the dam at a point on the hill where Basalt Columns protruded from the hill side. These were spectacular examples as it seemd that the columns all the way up to the dam were perfectly laid on the ground and made a clean walkway.


This here is just a little tiny slice of the Pacific Crest Trail and it just so happens to pass right by Little Hyatt Reservoir. I will hike the PCT before I kick the bucket.

 

[CACHE KRAWLER]

OBDR Route 3 - Day 5 (cont.) & Day 6


A picture of this came across my screen a while back while scrolling through the geocaching website. It just so happened to be on my route for this trip so I made sure to stop and check it out and grab the cache, Open Range, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=ce72e36b-ac9a-4b08-8ebd-0e8e2ebdd3a9, while we were at it.


Colby with a finders smile on his face. There was a geocache inside of the range and inside the geocache was a note informing the finders that they had won a free soda from the Pinehurst Inn just down on the right there. It was an absolutely beautiful Inn and the owner actually (at the time) had a paintball gun setup on the back porch that you could control and shoot at deer with from your laptop at home through their website. I don't believe that it is in operation right now but keep checking back and it might be up one of these days. If you'd like to check out the website for the inn, here you go, http://www.thepinehurstinn.com/index.html.


As Colby and I were driving east on HWY 66 towards Keno, OR we noticed this huge mountain of cinder rock to our north. It was so massive that I had to stop and check it out so we drove via dead reckoning across the landscape to get to this place as I didn't see any usable roads that would get us there. In this pic we were actually up pretty high on the side of this thing after driving a few switchbacks. It was a bit unnerving on the side so we didn't stay too long. Plus I was so low to the ground that I was dragging quite a bit here. No bueno.


Colby and I stopping for a cache titled, Cal-Ore, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=5a432ccd-d8ef-4521-b01a-74daa7016270, and a picture. We had crossed into The People's Republic of California about 10 miles west of here on Topsy Rd. Dorris, KA is just about 5 miles south of here. The trip was a blast and you'd think that at this point the trip was done except for the drive home, it wasn't. We had had to miss a small chunk of the route when we had to meet up with my dad at Wickiup Reservoir on day 2 when he was running his ailing dog to catch a ride back home. It also happened to be a part that contained the Edison Ice Caves and an old LOT. We headed north on 97 and picked up where we left off at the north end of Wickiup reservoir. That night we found an old road in the middle of nowhere and threw our tent out on it, made some sandwiches for dinner and racked out for the night.


OBDR Route 3 - Day 6

The next morning we rolled up our bags and tent, threw some grub down our necks and hit the road. We managed to find the Ice Caves without too much trouble and after those we were heading up to Wanoga Butte for the LOT and a cache named, Wanoga Butte Lookout, http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=dfa8026e-e77b-4332-9ec7-2f82839cac0e. The drive up was a blast as it was under thick forrest on a very narrow single lane road. When we got back down to the main road I put the pedal to the metal to get a little sideways for Colby and managed to puncture my tire. Oh well, gotta pay to play. After I got the tire switched out it was another 20 miles of backroads and then we were back on pavement for the rest of the trip to Redmond and then back home to Washington. We had a blast on this trip and with a lot of mapping and plotting with GPS programs ahead of time to verify waypoints we didn't once get "lost" or end up on the wrong road. There are other routes to complete still and sitting here right now I am looking at the maps for Routes 2 and 4 to the right of me. Time to get mapping..


I absolutely loved doing this trip. It was one of the best vacations I have had and made me really understand that a vacation doesn't need to be some place tropical or crammed in like sardines on a tin boat a.k.a. cruise ship.
I had a coleman plugin cooler with me on the trip and it absolutely saved my bacon. Having to not deal with ice was such a blessing and constantly having cold beer after camp was setup every night was the best.
I learned that there are a lot of things that I need to get for my Jeep, but that you can go out in a completely stock Jeep and have a blast. Over time I will add on widgets and gadgets and probably even more widgets, but in the end it was all about the journey and spending time with my family and most of all spending time with my son. I look forward to this summer and wrapping up Route 2 or 4 and possibly another trip somewhere else. I just hope that this time I remember to bring along a better camera.

Thank you for taking the time to read my write-up and if you have any questions about Route 3 please feel free to e-mail.

Travis

 

[addicted56]

It might be because I am an Oregonian as well, or because I can relate to a lot of your story but this is one of the best trip reports I have ever read. I just want to say you have done something truly amazing and I'm glad you had the opportunity to spend that quality time with your family and your son. Good luck with the rest of the trips you have planned and I look forward to reading about them.

 

[DRYVEM]

Great report Travis! Nice pictures, they truly show how beautiful it is off the easy path. Glad to see open trails. Barbara and I tried to navigate part of your route in the middle of winter. Only made it 20 miles before hitting too much snow to continue. Let us know when you are going on another trip, maybe we will see you on the trail. Martin and Barbara Heymann

 

[Clem]

CACHE KRAWLER,

Trip looked like a lot of fun.

Thanks for sharing,

Clem

 

[brianjwilson]

Thanks for posting the trip report! I've been wanting to explore these routes but none of my friends work a similar schedule to make it work. If you revisit and want some company....