Road Trip 7-24-16

[StG58]

Thought that I'd share some pictures from yesterday's road trip. Went in on the back side to check out the roads and traffic. Ran into a cowboy on a horse, two motorcycles and a new 'yota pickup in six hours of driving. Nothing once I truly got into the puckerbrush. It was pavement to gravel to dirt to ???

My backyard -

More backyard-

Pretty normal road for up there in the hills-

Gotta love the old skid roads. There's thousands of miles of this stuff!

Two track. It pays to watch what you're doing on these things. It's a LOT tighter than it looks, and there are seeps and washouts all over.

Mcguirre Reservoir, from the back side. Can't fish there, but it looks like good water. It's all fenced off.

Lousy photo...the cell phone goes stupid when the lighting gets complicated.

It's the end of July and there are still seeps that flow across the road in places. Nice to see this much water this late in the year.

Only pulled the happy lever three times all day. Once on a very steep down hill, where a tree was across the road and I had to back out and turn around. That hard scrabble on a hill acts just like ball bearings. Twice for muddy patches where I needed to turn around. Sometimes the seeps and rivlets just soak the soil and creat huge mud patches. It's usually only a few yards across, but way deep. You DON'T want to get buried in that stuff, unless you like winching out.

 

[Chris]

Beautiful! Where abouts is this? Are those USFS roads?

 

[StG58]

Beautiful! Where abouts is this? Are those USFS roads?

SW of Carlton, up in the Coast Range. I spent the day on the valley side of the mountains, mostly. It's BLM land, but the roads aren't really BLM roads. They are just old logging roads put in for timber harvest, and not maintained by anyone. It's easy to get to and there are miles of them. Once you get off the maintained gravel, you don't see anyone, sometimes for days.

 

[Chris]

Do you ever worry about running out of fuel? I suppose if you have GPS and the route planned accordingly, that's never really much of a concern, huh?

Either way, looks like a really nice trip.

 

[StG58]

Do you ever worry about running out of fuel? I suppose if you have GPS and the route planned accordingly, that's never really much of a concern, huh?

Either way, looks like a really nice trip.

Who plans a route up there? "All who wander are not lost." You do have to keep an eye on fuel load, but it's easily manageable. An extra five gallons would be nice for a long weekend though. In six hours I only burned through a third of a tank. At 15 - 20 mph the little SE doesn't burn much gas. The really nice thing is nothing is to terribly technical. Except in the winter and early spring. Big tires and lots of lift and weight are a detriment to getting around up there. Many places are just a few inches wider than a stock TJ. Lots of stuff you have to go under as well.

Once you get off the gravel, there's a whole world to explore that almost no one can get to. The worst thing is having to wait for the cow Elk to decide to move out of your way occasionally. For some reason, they like to bed down next to those roads in the ferns for an afternoon nap. And they don't like moving.

 

[Chris]

Makes sense. In my mind the only concern would be fuel, but like you said, when you're going 15-20mph tops, you don't have to worry that much. Plus, I suppose at the furthest point you're what, 50 miles away from a fuel station?

 

[StG58]

Makes sense. In my mind the only concern would be fuel, but like you said, when you're going 15-20mph tops, you don't have to worry that much. Plus, I suppose at the furthest point you're what, 50 miles away from a fuel station?

As the crow flys. It's about 80 miles from the valley to the coast, and those are the boundaries for the area. Worst case it's probably 25 - 30 miles to the nearest gas. Really all you have to do is head up hill to catch a mainline and head east or west. Then drop out into civilization to resupply. Five gallons of spare gas gives you about two gallons of emergency reserve. The only time you would ever get into that would be in the snow, then you might need it if you get a little crazy.

 

[Chris]

Got it, so I'm worrying about nothing in that case!

 

[StG58]

The area up in the Coast Range is about 80 miles wide by about 300 miles long. Most of it is public land or accessible private timberland. Probably less than 10% of it is accessible by paved or maintained gravel roads. That's about 21,000 square MILES of countryside that you can only get to in a Jeep or other, smaller, 4x4 rig. That shiny new Ford Superduty you just paid all that money for? Nope, not gonna get there. Especially not in winter or early spring. But mostly you just can't get there from here in anything bigger than a Jeep or one of the older small 'yota pickup trucks. Pretty cool, huh?

 

[StG58]

Got it, so I'm worrying about nothing in that case!

Pretty much...just don't wander in circles trying to get out to much. Head east or west on a mainline. When you can see the ocean or the valley, drop off the mainline and follow a river down hill. You'll hit civilization and supplies soon enough. Just a heads up though. Liquor stores are hard to come by! Plan accordingly.

Remember that I've been doing this since the CJ5 was king, and there wasn't anything like GPS. Take a good compass with you, just in case. None of these roads are on a map, but take one for giggles anyway. Set yourself up for 48 hours in the woods and you're golden.

 

[Chris]

Haha... I'm one of the very few who doesn't drink, so I won't have a problem with that!

I'm building myself up to adventures like this. I'm just sort of waiting until the kids are just a little older. Then they'll be able to enjoy it more, and I won't have to deal with not being able to reason with them.

 

[StG58]

Your daughters will love it! Mine did, and still do. One has a Toyota and the other has a JKU. Both still get out as much as they can. You just stop and play a lot more with kids along, is all. Expect to find lots of wilted flowers and pine cones and pretty rocks when you clean the Jeep out after a trip.

Let me know if you want to spend an afternoon wandering about up there. We can take a trip down the Kilches or over to South Lake or something.

 

[Chris]

Will do for sure!

Right now one of the daughters is almost 4, and the other is 4 months. So basically we're right at that age where doing anything is almost impossible. We go out and the 4 year old is freaking out about something senseless, while the 4 month old is screaming because she needs someone to put her to sleep... Anyways, going out isn't fun these days!

 

[StG58]

Well, if you and your wife need a break, round up a babysitter and give me a holler' then. Maybe next year. (I won't mention that the women folk are planning on taking a three month old to Elk camp this year, that would be just evil on my part.)

 

[Chris]

I'll remember that. One of these days we'll get a break. Our 4 month old is just so fragile with the kidney issue and the recent 9 month hospital stay, that it's hard for us to let anyone watch her... At least until she's over the hurdle!