Mr.BlueSky

We are leaving now based on fuel stops I expect to hit Truckee around 330 to 4

Yeah, let’s plan on this. With the Friday start folks are a bit scattered. Once we hit the road I’ll give an update on when we expect to hit Truckee.

We've got extra patches : )

Alrighty! We are packing and getting ready to go! Managed to get the rear driveshaft changed out last night and the refurbished radiator in (original radiator began leaking again on the way back from Oregon). Not sure yet if we will manage to get the grill packed yet... : (. Hopefully we will be hitting the road around 12 noon tomorrow. Later than I had hoped, but c'est la vie

I figured the same - I short circuited the shirt directly to the garage... what a joy! I've been running out of rag shirts. : -0

Good news everyone! White Rock Lake is Open. I spoke to a very nice Maggie at the Truckee Ranger Station. She said that it technically isn't closed. They use the website status as a deterrent for less prepared folks that don't have the resources to get there. Right now, we should expect deep mudholes, rutted out roads, and possibly some snow. So nothing we haven't tackled before ; ).

Thanks for the understanding folks! : )

And by "contingent" I mean we will be joined by a couple guys I hope we can use the MoRG to convert to Rover-hood. Right now, one guy has an older 80s? tacoma and the other a tundra. But... if I can get the blackstone setup we should do group tacos!

Hey Folks! Sorry, just getting off the plane and headed home - I do plan on having a trip this weekend. I will confirm with the Forest Service office tomorrow if white rock is accessible - if not, I'll post a back-up plan no later than Wednesday evening. Keep your bags packed! ; )

Another update on the T-shirts - make sure you wash in machine cold water before wearing if you haven’t already. the talks with the T-shirt supplier has gone down a rabbit hole of ever changing goal posts and nonsensical steps to get the shirts replaced. In short, there is a risk if we ship them back, they will claim we wore them or damaged them and they won’t return them to us without additional shipping paid. Sasha and myself after multiple communications have given up on them doing the right thing. Mike and Leigh Anne, since you shipped the shirts back from Reno, I think I have enough shirts that haven’t seen the sun I can ship back to you. for the rest of us, hopefully the yellow can wash out over time, and if desired maybe we can do another run if there is enough interest - some expense may be needed. In the future, we won’t be using Custom 1 Tshirts… For those that did manage to get shirts to us, we will get them returned to you.

Update on the Shirts Sasha and myself have been pestering the shirt supplier for a reprint after our shirts began bleaching yellow in the sun. They offered to replace them, but only if we mail the defective shirts back... 😵‍💫 If everyone can help arrange getting shirts to myself, Johann, or Sasha in this next week (ideally before Wednesday the 9th of August) I can ship them back. Apparently we were supposed to wash cold, by hand, and inside out, all shirts before wearing... No instructions came with the order... I myself will be in Minnesota between Thursday-Monday. Just a heads up.

A heads up, since this a MORG, the invite has been extended to a contingent of... tacos. ; )

BUSINESS FIRST: Calling all attendees: 1. Please check your emails and confirm via email your images can be used in a Rovers North article. I've gotten responses from most folks. If I don't see an email soon, I'll assume you are lonely and need a call ; ). 2. Can everyone please privately (so as not to spam this thread) message me the year of the rover taken on the Oregon BDR? 3. Make sure your addresses are correct in your account - this is where your copy of Rovers North magazine will be shipped. The Fun Bit: The huge amount of "grasshoppers" we witnessed in Nevada has made my breakfast reading rag... The dates are about right! We were in the Northwest corner, but seems we had a similar effect.

Oh man... and do I have a backlog of rover wishes. Sad to miss you on this one! Next time ; ).

The club has purchased out the tenting area at the back of the campground. No need to reserve a spot if you are tenting, rooftop tenting, etc. However, if you want a cabin or AirBNB you will need to book this on your own as per the first post. We should have a detailed Annual Thread coming in a few days.

Theresa and I are debating about driving up part way Thursday night or alternatively leaving early Friday morning. Let's see who is interested and we can get a plan put together.

Alrighty folks! August is right around the corner - and there isn't a better time to head back to a club favorite - White Rock Lake. What: Overnight Monthly Offroad Gathering - Interested in joining the club but want to meet the folks and check it out first? This is the trip for you! Head on out and say hello and hang with us for a weekend (and of course, great lakeside camping) Where: White Rock Lake (North West of Truckee) - Download and follow the GPS Track Attached below outlining the route from Truckee to the Lake for Google will lead you astray. When: Friday, August 11th - Sunday, August 13th Who: Hopefully You! Trip Overview: Easy trails, all stock trucks are welcome, the roads can get rough, just watch your speed and you will be fine. Activities - hiking, biking, kayaking, fishing (license needed), lakeside relaxing and forest road trails. Sunday, I may plan to exit to I-80 through the pass to Bowman Lake and then down from there. Itinerary to be posted soon! truckee-to-white-rock-lake.gpx white-rock-lake-exit-through-bowman-lake.gpx bop-over-to-meadow-lake.gpx

Spotted a Captain Jack Sparrow on the Wednesday commute home.

Fired up the Wayback Machine and here's what popped out!

I'd love to get out - but I am self-grounding this weekend to get caught up on the carport buildout : (. I've been playing to hard lately!

Sunday July 2nd, Return to Home Some folks awoke early and made it over to the ridge to gaze down one last time on Summer Lake. Eggs and fajitas were cooked up for the crew; one last big breakfast before heading for home. All packed up, we said goodbyes to Mike and Leigh Anne, they would drop down Government Harvey Pass and take 395 back to Reno. The rest of us would cut west towards Klamath Falls to make our way to I-5, shaving an hour off our return. Just before reaching Klamath Falls, Oliver had a check engine light reporting a misfire on cylinder 1. They pulled off with Sasha to diagnose while the rest of us made it into town for fuel. While Sasha and Oliver troubleshooted replacing the sparkplug and swapping a coil pack, Miles called around to see if there were any injectors in town. The soonest we could get one was July 6th… bust. Robert, meanwhile, found himself introducing the Travel Buddy Oven to very amazed gas station attendants before meandering, with Paul and Cris, to a coin wash. Eventually, Sasha and Oliver made it to town, the group split, Cris, Miles, Johann, would head out as a group keeping a steady 60mph. Paul would rocket back to the Bay to catch up with family, and Robert, Sasha, and Oliver would head back together after some additional troubleshooting. By the time we reached Lake Shasta, Robert, Oliver, and Sasha had caught up to us. Oliver was able to get the LR3 going after adding some Seafoam. Our fuel stop was in Red Bluff where it was found that Snowflake’s radiator pin-hole leak had returned after two trips. The leak had been patched with stop-leak on the Lost Coast Trip. About this time we got the call that Mike and Leigh Anne had made it back safely. After leaving Red Bluff, Oliver fought the LR3 again as the misfire code returned. Just outside of Maxwell, the light began flashing, forcing Oliver to pull over and call for a AAA tow. Sasha stayed with them and ferried Oliver and Amelia back to the Bay Area while Mark awaited the AAA truck. We decided to continue since the temperatures were a sweltering 110 degrees F. Snowflake and Cris’ D90 air conditioning could only make cabin temps bearable. So the group split again, and there were no further issues – most everyone made it home before 9PM.

Saturday July 1st, Trail Day 6 The next morning, we gave Jeff’s truck a good look over. There was a new oil leak – 1 drip per 1.5 seconds, some scuffed bumpers, a peeled front skid plate, and the leaking air strut. The RTV patch was attempted again, but this time, we had Jeff hold off on starting the truck for an hour to let the RTV setup. The crew waved goodbye to Jeff, and we departed Christmas Valley to the South headed towards Winter Ridge. We had decided prior to leaving that we would run the 2nd to last leg of the trail. The final leg needed to be bypassed if we were to arrive home on time. The new plan was to camp at Mud Flat for this final night and then head for home. It should be an easy day as we had already knocked about 30 miles off the 100mile total for this leg by staying in Christmas Valley the night before. Crane Mountain will have to wait for next time. The going was easy, if not a little rocky as we climbed out of the Valley. A quick lunch stopover at Picture Rock Pass was had. Paul hunted down the petroglyphs in the area, and we took some time rock scrambling to ensure we hadn’t missed any. Back on the trail, we began the climb up the south side of Winter Ridge. Snowflake threw an engine Code 68, that required a brief check. Only the speedometer sensor faulting out – moving along. The track winded through the forest and meadows with wildflowers in full bloom, the deep red soils, and beautiful trees. It was a spectacular break from the day before. Soon, we reached Fremont Point, an overlook on Winter Ridge looking down onto Summer Lake. The names were given by expeditioner John C. Fremont as he stood atop the ridge, surrounded by snow, looking down at the dry lakebed below. It felt much the same, as we had cool temps (and even some snow on the cliff sides) but below, we could see the heat shimmering off the lake. Another 15 minutes brought us past Mud Springs and into Mud Flats. Jason and Miles rebuilt the aging fire pit while the camper’s setup. Everyone was hungry, so we cooked up everything! Tri-tip, fajitas, burgers, dogs, you name it, we had it. Cobbler was made for desert with Cris supplying the ice cream! Even Henry got in on the food action eating ¾ of a can of fruit cocktail, half a hot dog, half a chicken burger, and lastly a bottle. Fed and happy, content that we had given the ORBDR our all, there was only one last task to complete. Funk #49. Paul D. had not been able to make the trip, libations were poured, and music played to honor our lost comrade. Jason and Henry got groovy, and a great musical discussion was had.

Friday June 30th, Trail Day 5 The dune campers awoke and began doing various small field repairs and cleanup while awaiting Robert, Oliver, and Jeff to arrive. Mike and Johann worked to test out a new sidewall repair kit on Johann’s punctured tire and Miles worked to replace the air line that blew out on Snowflake between the manifold and front locker solenoid. Around 8:20AM we got the call that Jeff’s group was moving, but that it was going to be slow going as the compressor was still overheating. The team was able to get the bags pumped up and pulled the fuse to keep the computers from deflating. However, another 15minutes later and we received a call that the front passenger side had dropped. By 9:45AM Jeff’s truck had progressed one mile – Robert, Mark, Oliver, and Amelia were tossing the rocks out of the path of the L405 to get it off the trail. Jason was shuffling vehicles as they progressed. Jeff received a sidewall puncture. This was not working well. Around noon, Mike, Paul, Sasha, and myself loaded up into Mike’s 110 and we drove back to find Jeff. We found a very tired and dehydrated crew. We quickly unloaded and started tossing rocks out of the way. Miles relieved Robert in spotting and morale improved. The patch on the sidewall failed. Miles started patching the sidewall while Mark and Oliver started hooking up a compressor. This second patch lasted for about 15 minutes down the trail. During the patching the second time, Sasha took the lead on patching. Mike began pulling all the gear out of the back of Jeff’s truck to access the spare. The spare was rolled into the back of Mike’s truck in case the patch failed again. While all of this was going on, eagle-eyed Paul struck again. He found that the passenger front airbag was leaking from the upper mount location through the O-ring. Robert, Mike, and Paul quickly scrambled together a patch using O-rings, RTV, and a flat washer off Mike’s tire carrier. We were moving! And fast! The L405 pumped up to offroad height and we were off. Flying down the trail at 5mph the support trucks couldn’t get out of the way fast enough, the rock crews couldn’t keep up. The wind was in our hair, the dust billowing behind us… for 20 minutes. Then the patch blew out and the truck sat back down begging us for more punishment. The rest was a blur, at some point, we hit the sandy track and crept into camp. We met up with the rest of the group at 4:00PM. After a very late breakfast, we finished breaking camp and began the trek into Christmas Valley. It was decided we would stay the night in town at an RV park site for showers and a well needed recharge. Jeff and Robert, who had taken the biggest beating, would stay in the two remaining motel rooms. On the way into town, Jeff’s spare blew out and Johann’s patch succeeded. While the patch kit failed eventually, it did the job of enabling the truck to drive the 15 remaining miles to asphalt. A good piece of kit to have! --- Hopefully folks will get photos uploaded to the drive and I can add some images into this one ; ).

Thursday June 29th, Trail Day 4 Thursday morning, we made great time getting out of camp, even though we were roughly an hour further along than the itinerary required. It was a good thing too, as the ORBDR was about to raise the difficulty level. An attempt was made to swing by Allison Guard Station – an original 1911 administrative building and forest management site now used as a summer firefighter backwoods station and rental cabins, however, yet again thwarted by a gate closure. Climbing down out of the Oregon pine forests and the environment began to show signs of past volcanic activity. We climbed out onto a ridge to a great view of Mackey, Willow, and Anne Butte’s. After some sightseeing, we dropped down to a site marked on the map as “grave.” At the time of trip planning, no location on the site was found. It is a bit unsettling to come across a white picket fence in the woods surrounded with children’s toys. On the picket fence was a cross labeled Baby’s grave. If one squinted, you could maybe make out “BABY” inscribed on the rock surrounded by a picket fence. A promise was made to investigate this upon arrival at home for more backstory. Stuck at Sawmill No. 2 Reservoir… a detour around a closed road a fallen tree resulted in Jeff falling into a nice mudhole. Snowflake and Paul’s L322 made it easily through, only to leave ruts that quickly sank deeper when the L405 passed over. A quick yank backwards from Will and a bubba rope got him out. Jeff swung wide on the next attempt and made it through. Sasha and Oliver filled in the ruts with some clay clods and tree chunks with hopes that should someone slip into the hole there would be enough material to allow them to pass over. It almost worked. Oliver’s LR3 decided to go for a mud bath and plunged headfirst into the hole. Cris’ winch was acting up, so pulling rearward was a no go. Mike’s 110 equipped with a bubba rope was also no match for the LR3’s determination to wallow. Winching with a snatch block got him out. The rest managed to avoid the now LR3 sized hole. Good progress was made until we turned up Jack’s creek – here the forest was doing its best to reclaim the land from the eruptions of long ago. However, just below the surface soils were nasty hard igneous rocks we would come to know as “potatoes.” After a relatively easy climb into the Buck Mountains, we descended to Upper Ryegrass flat. The descent was incredible slow as the road became more loose boulder than dirt. Progress was very slow. As we descended into the marsh of North Sheep Lake, Will smacked a rock pushing his exhaust into his rear driveshaft. Robert applied a quick trail fix, and progress resumed. As it turns out, the marsh at the South end of North Sheep Lake was more lake than marsh and we had to detour around a very flooded section of trail. Then over the next ridge, Nordell Lake was more marsh than lake… 2:00PM was when the rovers reached the CCC Gap Ranch site. Trucks and people were well rattled. During a quick lunch, Will discovered a snapped rear shock on his 110. As lunch ended, Nathan and Will both chose to depart the trail to prevent further damage to the trucks. This proved to be a wise decision. The NCLR crew of 9 pressed on, relieved to find that the next 30 miles were through sandy range lands surrounded by buttes and cattle. The fast progress ground to a halt as we neared Black Ridge (foreshadow). Potatoes – more like melons this time appeared alongside the trail, until they were the only thing on the trail. Soon a call came over the radio that Jeff’s truck had overheated the compressor and was resting on the bump stops. Jeff limped along slowly until we reached a cow pond. Initially, the assumption was that the compressor was quickly cycling through offroad height and highway height causing the pump to overheat. Robert and Oliver decided to wait with Jeff for the truck to cool while the rest of the team pressed on the few (assumed) 7 short miles to camp. It took the first group 2 hours to reach camp in the dunes. Both Johann and Paul ripped open sidewalls on the way down from Black Ridge – Mark ended up finding multiple pieces of incredibly sharp obsidian in the trail. To make matters worse, the setting sun blinded drivers on the hill climbs and fatigue was setting in. Camp was reached at 7:30PM. Sasha and Miles were able to convince Robert and Jeff to remain put for the night due to visibility and fatigue concerns. They had managed to push forward another quarter mile to the top of Black Ridge, the hardest bit being a somewhat technical rock ledge at the top. A plan was made for them to wake up early and limp into camp around 9 or 10AM the next day. The lead group would have breakfast ready. ORBDR 5 had other plans.

Wednesday June 28th, Trail Day 3 We left Crane Creek campground and made the muddy climb up Rattlesnake Ridge much to Paul’s chagrin. We made reassurances that the ridge was named this ironically because there of course were NO rattlesnakes here! After some hours on trail, we made our way to the Frazier Point lookout tower for lunch. Unfortunately, right as we arrived a small storm cloud passed and briefly rained on us. The tower itself is now registered as historic but is condemned and blocked off to prevent people climbing the 100’ tower to the 5’x 5’ lookout cab. The lookout living quarters had also been thoroughly trashed, so it is unlikely that the cabin will be added into the Oregon lookout rental program. Dropping down from Frazier point, we arrived in Seneca where we refueled at the Bear Valley Market. The owner and his wife were incredibly grateful for the business, and he shared some history of the Hines lumber company. Many of the homes (not on main street) that the workers lived in are constructed of old rail cars butted together and built out from there. He also mentioned that in the 1930s Edward Hines plumbed steam from the lumber plant furnaces under the public pool to provide year-round heating. Mark also had one of the homemade brownies – from initial reports, this is worth a stop in Seneca alone! The homemade lemonade wasn’t bad either. Leaving Seneca, little did we know that we were about to enter the challenging territory of the BDR. We made good time down to our marked campsite – Cheatum Holler Camp, a location on the Forest Service map named after an incident involving Mr. Cheatum and his wife. Apparently, while out scouting with mapper Loe Gunther, Mr. Cheatum had a bit too much whiskey to drink. Leading to a very angry and loud Mrs. Cheatum. Leo Gunther then immortalized this incident into forest service map much to Mr. Cheatum’s dismay. However, to our dismay, the mosquitos (also known as Mozies according to Nathan) were very thick and after some scouting, we decided we would proceed down our track to check out sites on Sugarloaf Mountain and further if needed. Thwarted again we were; this time by a locked gate. Sugarloaf being a bust, Will found a reference for Alder Creek Camp several miles away, a short drive later we found the intended route did not exist and we then detoured by nice gravel roads to regain our track. About halfway to this new campsite, we stopped for Mark and Oliver to check out something on their LR3. Whilst stopped, eagle-eyed Paul spotted a large fire pit in the meadow. A radio call went out, and the people rejoiced! Alas, the meadow was not as kind as we had hoped. Hidden in the tall grass were many a boulder as Nathan quickly found out. His transfer case subframe had a hard meet and greet with one rock leaving the subframe crushed and pressed into the front driveshaft on the L322. Some expletives and Robert’s Milwaukee grinder extricated the subframe from the driveshaft leaving a protection compromised, but drivable L322. Meanwhile, Oliver had set to work building a fantastic fire for us while Sebastien and Henry played in the playpen.