2023 Annual Overland Trip - Oregon BDR #5 South

[Tyler Mattson]

When rolling through nevada feel free to reach out if anything happens iv got tools parts and heaven forbid a trailer if needed. 

[Mr.BlueSky]

Made it to Mt. Vernon and found Mike and Leigh Anne. Now on to camp!

[Mr.BlueSky]

On 6/24/2023 at 8:39 AM, Tyler Mattson said:

When rolling through nevada feel free to reach out if anything happens iv got tools parts and heaven forbid a trailer if needed. 

Thanks Tyler we made it through without issue!

[Mr.BlueSky]

Trip update:

We made it to The Lost Forest outside Christmas tree valley tonight; well, most of us made it.

So far the trip has been an absolute blast with good weather, perfect mix of overcast and sunshine, comfortable temps, and little to no wind. The scenery is gorgeous and we’ve gotten to work our way down from deep pine forest through volcano lands and into the Oregon Outback. 

Will and Nathan had to exit at Highway 20 after damage was taken to a shock and transfer case subframe bracket/guard respectively.

Jeff, Robert, and Oliver are back about 5 miles tending to Jeff’s L405 suspension fault - they’ll make camp there and meet us in the morning where we will have a hot breakfast ready for them.

On the final run down into camp Paul and Johann suffered sidewall punctures from the volcanic rock. I’d have to check Gaia, but the last 5 miles took almost 2 hours.

We’ve had a number of other issues…  but those I’ll cover later in the writeups.

Tomorrow we will work our way down to Paisley.

 

 

[Elherbinator]

Sounds like an adventure!

[Gotrovr]

On day 4 south of North Sheep Lake I drove over an unexpected rock large enough to push my center exhaust system into the heat shield that was rubbing against my rear driveline.   A quick field patch by Robert I was on my way only to break my left rear shock.....   I had no choice but end my trip and exit along highway 20 to Bend.  Made it without issues only the occasional banging of the shock and grinding of front right rotor due to foreign debri.  Friday I drove to Mom's north of Medford.  I plan on heading home Monday.  Overall the trip was EPIC.  Weather and scenery was spectacular.   

[Motobrewer]

@PaulD finally got to playing your song at the campfire. Little Henry was getting his groove on. Video coming soon. 

[Motobrewer]

Made it home at 5:40pm. 
 

great trip. Thanks everyone. More later, I am exhausted. 

[Mr.BlueSky]

We got home around 7:30PM. 

So many shenanigans have ensued. I'll start working on a full writeup - for now I'll let the folks settle with a google photos album.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GRv1Hmg3wnbJ2qC67

[Tyler Mattson]

Mile's needs a day in his honor for planning such an epic journey. I can't wait for the write up and hopefully pod cast.

[Mr.BlueSky]

14 hours ago, Mr.BlueSky said:

We got home around 7:30PM. 

So many shenanigans have ensued. I'll start working on a full writeup - for now I'll let the folks settle with a google photos album.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GRv1Hmg3wnbJ2qC67

Try the link again if you couldn't upload before - I had it set up incorrectly.

[Motobrewer]

4 hours ago, Tyler Mattson said:

Mile's needs a day in his honor for planning such an epic journey. I can't wait for the write up and hopefully pod cast.

I am looking forward to the podcast recording (volunteering to do it). Just need to write down some notes before work BS starts to push out details of last week. 

[Elherbinator]

5 hours ago, Motobrewer said:

I am looking forward to the podcast recording (volunteering to do it). Just need to write down some notes before work BS starts to push out details of last week. 

Let’s do it! Unfortunately I am out of town this weekend, then I am leading the Bald Mountain MORG the following weekend so it’ll have to be a weekday or after that. I am up for either. Let me know your preference and also if there’s any other attendees that would like to join the podcast recap of the trip.

[Gotrovr]

Finally made it home today a little after 3pm.....   Drove 5mph under the limit, could have driven 10 over...  My truck's spirit was shaken not broken...   I have scheduled an appointment for my Defender with Land Rover Monterey next week, to get a spa treatment, MRI, Pig Pen tattoo, and assorted armor added...

Next task for me is to sort out and refine my camera pics....

 

[Motobrewer]

50 minutes ago, Elherbinator said:

Let’s do it! Unfortunately I am out of town this weekend, then I am leading the Bald Mountain MORG the following weekend so it’ll have to be a weekday or after that. I am up for either. Let me know your preference and also if there’s any other attendees that would like to join the podcast recap of the trip.

I might be able to make the MORG. Need a replacement spare, don’t think I can patch the current one. I have some weekday availability. We’ll connect soon about it. 

[Mffoster]

Was a great trip, thanks to Miles for setting it up.  Already adding to my collection of tools for the next adventure!

[Mr.BlueSky]

Saturday, June 24^th – Transit Day 1

The day started bright and early at our oft used 76 fuel station in Milpitas. It was not long before we had met up with Jeff, Johann, Cris and Sebastien, Robert, and Jason, and Will. While we were gathering up Johann discovered his wallet had been left at home. Lucky for him, us members are more than happy to bankroll a fellow traveler.

We later met up with Mark, Oliver, and Amelia as well as Paul at Auburn.

Nathan and his family would aim to meet us at the trailhead in Dale, OR to help break-up their travel as they are based much farther than the larger group in the Paso Robles area. Mike and Leigh Anne would also be joining us Sunday night.

After a good number of fuel stops, the crew finally arrived at our last fuel station of the day in Rye Patch, NV. With fuel in the trucks and jerky in hand, we rolled out into the desert only to run directly into a manned State Parks gate at the Rye Patch Reservoir. A quick discussion with the ranger allowed us to pass through the park and exit out the back into the BLM lands. We were on our way!

After barreling along the nicest graded gravel tires have ever rolled on, we arrived at our intersection to camp… at least, that is what the maps said, however, there were no roads that matched in either location nor direction.

After a few turnarounds, we eventually found a couple of roads that connected to the very faint Box Canyon Spring Road that would lead us through the Antelope Range to our first campsite.

Nestled at the base of the Kamma Range, we unpacked our tents, explored the placer mine ruins, and gazed over at the very established Hyperion Mine. The Hyperion Mine is focused mainly on gold extraction with an estimated lode of 10.6 million ounces of gold in their surveyed 4000 acres. (Hyperion has access to 64,000 total acres of BLM land to assess and extract) The average tonne containing 0.250 grams of gold.

[Mr.BlueSky]

Sunday June 25^th, Transit Day 2

The next morning, we awoke bright and early to watch a charter bus bring in the workers to Hyperion. A quick breakfast later, we were barreling along on gravel “highways” to nearly the Oregon Border. As we traveled, the surroundings gave way from desert shrub to high desert bushes, and finally to cottonwoods and alfalfa bearing soils.

We rolled into Fields, OR and overwhelmed the staff quickly with fuel and food orders. Shortly after arriving, a Toyota group, another mixed offroad crew, and a few BMW bikes rolled in – we had placed food orders just in time.

A bit behind schedule due to the lunch run, we got back onto the highway headed North into overcast Oregon we continued to watch the high desert give way to Ponderosa pines and volcanic formations. Near Silvies we began running along a storm cell, occasionally getting hit with rain and one very good spat of hail – all incredibly refreshing.

Just before the hail, Sebastien needed a bio-break, so we all pulled off onto a two-track road. As backing out would be problematic, Robert found the road went ahead 1 mile then looped back to the Highway. While Cris and Seb took care of business, a few of us went on a 15-minute offroad adventure along what turned out to be the old Oregon and Northwestern Railroad berm.

Rejoining the group, we proceeded through the massive townsite of Silvies-now-turned-mega-ranch and into Mt. Vernon where we met up with Mike and Leigh Anne. Once refueled, we headed up past Dale, OR and found Nathan and family already established in the Driftwood Campground.

The evening was then spent playing in the river, catching up with friends, and eating great food.

[Mr.BlueSky]

Monday June 26^th, Trail Day 1

In the morning, we all aired down and departed down the trail towards our destination of Phillips Reservoir. The trails were well groomed, and we came across several tree crews mowing the trails and cleaning up downed trees. Overall, these trails and forest were incredibly well kept.

Shortly before noon we made it to the Desolation Butte Lookout tower for a quick stop. The Desolation Butte tower is a 67’ tall timber structure situated at 7028’ feet in elevation. In 1996, the lookout survived the Bull fire.

We then traveled down to the shores of Olive Lake where we had a nice lunch stop and discussed the history of the lake. As it turns out, the lake was named by the pioneers of Granite that would often picnic in the area and toss olive pits into it – thus Olive Lake it was. The lake was also dammed in the early 1900s to raise the water level another 25ft in preparation for hydropower.

A quick drive later we found ourselves the Fremont Powerhouse – a hydroelectric plant completed in 1906 to supply power to the nearby Red Boy mines using water carried down from Olive Lake in a 32” diameter redwood stave pipe. Later the plant ran 27kV to the Sumpter Dredges. It wasn’t until the 40s that the powerhouse supplied power to the even closer town of Granite for residential use. Lucky for us, the caretaker was onsite, and he gave us a tour and a walk-through of the site. Most interesting were the 4 massive blue Florentine marble pieces brought in from Italy to be used as an electrically isolated control panel.

As the group headed down from the powerhouse to Granite for fuel, Miles’ rover Snowflake started to develop a harsh constant vibration. Once we hit the pavement, Robert helped to identify it as a rear driveshaft U-joint. It was decided we would continue as we were only a few hours from camp.

Granite was a bust, the gas station unfortunately had been sold and was under a management transition – no gas for us! This really wasn’t a problem for any rover but Snowflake. Cris had an external tank in the D90, so while fuel consumption was similar, with the flick of a switch, he had an extra 13 gallons.

The group neared Sumpter and began climbing up the trail behind Phillips Lake – increasingly, the track narrowed until we reached a hill climb. Snowflake scrambled right up and Paul in his L322 was right behind. Some time was then spent getting everyone up the trail – the two major obstacles being a large V-notch that collapses after the D2 and a couple LR3s went through and a nice boulder that required the modern trucks to climb up the bank and then quickly steer back down into the trail before contacting a tree. Everyone had fun and aside from rim scrapes, no damage. After that, the trail became a narrow, puddle filled pinstripe track until we reached our camp at Phillips Lake. Snowflake rolled in with the fuel light on and a very annoying transfer case out of position sensor blaring nonstop.

Once into camp, Miles, Robert, and Mike got to work removing the rear driveshaft and replacing the U-joint. Unfortunately, Snowflake still had the original driveshaft with 1300 size U-joints. Mike had on hand 1310 size U-joints which were too long to be able to circlip them into place. Without options as the local stores needed 3 days to get 1300s in stock, we opted to red Loctite them into place and ping over the edge gripping the cups.

Whilst doing this, Nathan helped open the dash up and disconnect the wayward buzzer. This may have been the most important job as it saved Miles from being murdered by Theresa as he had always promised to fix this intermittent (now permanent) issue.

The group then relaxed with Tacos by Jeff^TM,some birdwatching, and a great campfire.

 

[Mr.BlueSky]

Tuesday June 27^th, Trail Day 2

Tuesday was a more relaxed day beginning in the McEwen Railyard where we met up with a local LeAnne Wolf. She gave us a rather colorful and eccentric tour of the railyard including stories of her as a child throwing switches for the steam trains in the yard. Then we headed into the trainshed to check out a Kiesler steam locomotive #3 (unique in that they have driveshafts) as well as the number 19 engine, that after serving on the Sumpter railroad was shipped to the Alaskan Yukon territory to haul lumber. At the end of its life, rather than being scrapped, it was shipped by barge to Washington and then rode the rails with Union Pacific, was loaded onto a truck, and delivered to the Sumpter Valley Railroad.

At the end of the tour, we gave LeAnne a T-shirt and NCLR patches as thanks.

After the tour of the yard, we headed into town and toured the restored Sumpter Dredge that churned up the entire valley for gold, an outdoor mining exhibit, the local museum, and finally ending at the local café for lunch.

As we headed out, we chatted with a few locals who were more than excited to see the Rovers out and about. As the Toyota guy said, “I’m just happy to not see more Jeeps.” The other gentleman swung his Polaris RZR over and got a picture of it in front of our lineup.

Back on the trails, we made our way back up into the mountains, climbing up through the destruction and rebirth caused by the 2018 Rail Fire. At the Table Rock Lookout, we received spectacular views of the land from 7,815ft in elevation. Margaret, the lookout keeper, explained to us that she would be there all summer and that she had to truck all her supplies up the mountain. She brings up water in 5-gallon boxes and uses about 1.5 boxes per week. The kids also got to play with Dusty the dog and watch Mittens the cat through the windows of the lookout. There was also mention that she was very thankful for the firearms training in her previous life as she has some less enjoyable visitors on occasion.

We also left a patch with Margaret for sharing her time with us.

Climbing down from Table Mountain we ran into many a mud hole, allowing the adventurous (and those less so) to try on a new temporary paint job. Turns out most rovers look great in brown. Eventually we made our way to the Crane Creek campground for a refreshing evening. While most folks elected to bathe or shower in the creek, Mike went ahead and bathed his 110. In the end, it was spotless.

[Mr.BlueSky]

 

Wednesday June 28^th, 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.

[Mr.BlueSky]

Thursday June 29^th, 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.

[PaulD]

Mike Foster washing his truck in the creek.. that is so... me...!

--Paul

[CRYA]

Looks like another epic run! Hate to have missed it. Given the time commitment of these trips along with many of us that want to join have younger families, hopefully for the ‘24 Roverland, the dates can be locked in sooner? Just a hint for the Overland Subcommittee. Longer range planning could help us all out as the miles and remoteness is a whole different experience than rock crawling for a day or two. 

[Elherbinator]

9 minutes ago, CRYA said:

Looks like another epic run! Hate to have missed it. Given the time commitment of these trips along with many of us that want to join have younger families, hopefully for the ‘24 Roverland, the dates can be locked in sooner? Just a hint for the Overland Subcommittee. Longer range planning could help us all out as the miles and remoteness is a whole different experience than rock crawling for a day or two. 

That’s a good point. I’m sure Miles and the subcommittee appreciate the criticisms at this point of the trip. Thanks Bud!