The weekend of Aril 18th, I decided to make a trip to my Mom's house in Pendleton. Most times I go out there we try to do some sort of trip...
After getting off at 4pm, I departed directly from work and headed for I-205 and eventually I-84 east. I had my scanner going, as usual, and could hear there were several trains active in the gorge. I decided to aim for an eastbound UP trash train headed for Arlington. After pacing the train between Troutdale and the Corbet exit, I decided to get a real shot of it. I chose to stop at Benson Lake. I was able to get a quick grab of the train passing Mist Falls, the second tallest waterfall in Oregon behind nearby Multnomah Falls.
The rest of my trip was uneventful, though I saw a loaded BNSF coal train heading downriver lead by some beautifully clean units into the setting sun near Wishram that I wish I'd chased after...
The next morning, our goal was to explore the valley northwest of Battle Mountain. First off, we headed for Yellow Jacket road, which went pretty much due south out of Pilot Rock. While browsing maps the night before, I determined we'd probably be able to take Yellow Jacket south and pop out near the Battle Mountain summit.
Unfortunately, the roads I thought would go through were privately owned. Once we were up there however, we could tell from the maps that we could follow Yellow Jacket further south to come out near Albee. Too bad for us, once we hit 4700 feet, the road was covered with snow.
While the snow was passable, I was concerned it might get worse, and also nobody knew we'd be going down south. AFter nearly spending the night in the woods once before after getting stuck in the snow, I made the decision to turn around. We also spotted an old cabin near our turn-around point.
We headed all the way back down to 395 and headed south to Gurdane road. Right at the turn off we saw a promising sign.
The road climbed up and down, dropping into valleys before climbing back out of them and following different ridges. Eventually we came to an old homestead down in one of the valleys.
There was also this old grave near the homestead
We continued along the road, passing one crew of ranch hands mending some fence. Other than that, we were out there by ourselves. As we dropped into yet another valley, we spotted and old house just west of the road.
We found another old house a short distance later and decided to stop and stretch our legs. This picture for me exemplifies what backroading is about.
While stopped there, we noticed a ring around the sun. I've been told this is caused by ice crystals high in the atmosphere.
While passing a few old trees, something in the tree caught my eye. Sure enough, there was an owl there. With a little inspection we thought we could make out a few more as well.
We continued north of highway 74 and stayed on one persons land the whole time. A good twenty-five miles of driving. There were several old houses along this section including this one with some old cars in the background.
The next morning, my brother and I did some mending on my roof rack. He hasn't done much of any welding but he did alright on this particular day.
On the way back home, I stopped near Arlington to try an angle I had been considering involving a wind turbine. I like the result.
And finally, a map of our route on Saturday. This doesn't include the Yellow Jacket road portion.
I enjoyed the trip (of course) and it has me itching to go back to Yellow Jacket road and explore it and some of the roads that split off of it.
-Ryan
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