Ryan Mishler's Regional eXploration

it's a test

2011-11-15T20:49:00.000-08:00

I'm trying something new here so this is really just a test post with a few pictures I took today.

After I got off work I noticed a northbound train just south of Hubbard. As I got further north, it was clear that the train was stopping at the next siding for a meet so I pulled off toward the south end and took several pictures there, before going back south of the siding to see the passing southbound.

I then headed for the grocery store on my way home. While the air was clear further south, in the Beaverton area there was lots of fog which made for some interesting effects with area traffic and a passing fire truck.

Driving through a storm March 25th, 2010

2011-11-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

On March 25th, 2010, while driving north on Hwy 395 between Ukiah and Pilot Rock, I drove into a powerful storm. In a matter of minutes I witnessed heavy rain, hail, thunder & lightning and very strong winds. The only safe thing to do was pull over and wait out the storm. Fortunately, the system was small and only lasted five to ten minutes.
These are just a few pictures I took of the storm after it had passed to the northeast.

LaDee Flats & NF-4610, September 11th, 2011

2011-09-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

This was a trip originally put together by my friend Nick, whom I know from NAXJA. Somehow I basically ended up leading, go figure...

As was planned, we met at 9am in the Estacada Ranger Station parking lot and headed east. Oh wait, the two guys (Nick and Scott) who planned the trip rolled into Estacada 20 minutes late and still needed to stop at Subway to get lunch.

Around 9:40 we (Nick & Scott, Aaron, Jonathon & Mary, myself and 2 Jeeps from Grand Krawlers, Mike and Chaz) finally rolled out of Estacada, heading east on hwy 224 to the 4610 road, getting our first look at the smokey mountains in front of us.

Our goal was to run the La Dee Flats OHV trails, before following 4610 east to Timothy Lake. The first trail section we got to would be part of the 800 trail. After Nick drove past it, I turned down the trail and lead the way. The trail was somewhat interesting though basically just an underused forest road that dropped down about 600 feet in less than a mile to the North Fork of the Clackamas River. The "trail" turned upstream for a few hundred yards and promptly ended in 2 guys' campsite, so we all go to find the side spot to turn around to head back up...

Once we got back to the top, we started looking for another section of trail. After noticing a lack of trails where the map showed there to be trails, we turned down a logging road that the map showed as a trail. It of course ended at a couple of small campsites. Then we tried another one and it went quite a ways then lo and behold, what appeared to be a new trail cut through the brush. We started following that back toward the 4610 road when it ended VERY abruptly. There were orange markers along the trail and they continued into the woods. We followed them on foot for a ways but it was obvious this was not an open trail yet.

After getting everybody turned around and bashing up my pass side rear shock on a chinese fingertrap of a rock, we once again returned to the 4610 road, where we determined we'd exhausted all the possible trails. There weren't any... Even though the map says there are established trails, there clearly aren't. A little frustrating as that was at least 40% of the reason we were up there. The map also showed a quarry/play area further up the road so we headed for that.

After quickly tiring of driving around on a pile of gravel, we regrouped and started toward Squaw Mountain, a short 2 mile spur off the 4610 to the top of Squaw Mountain. I stopped at the turn-off to wait for everybody to catch up. Nick, Aaron and Jonathon all showed up and we waited, and waited. AND waited... After waiting at least 20 minutes for Mike and Chaz to join us, I drove the 5 miles back down to the quarry where we had last been a group. They weren't there. I tried again raising them on the CB but nothing. I regretfully drove back up to the group waiting and we decided to move on, skipping the drive up to Squaw Mountain (turns out we wouldn't have seen anything anyway due to smoke)

BTW, Chaz was apparently having overheating problems so they turned around. One of the biggest no-no's in 4wheeling/exploring is you stick with the group. If you're going to leave, you have to tell the rest. We had no idea what had happened to them, they just disappeared. NOT ACCEPTABLE. If it were up to me, they would never be allowed on a run ever again. I certainly won't be responsible for them again.

Anyway, we continued on the 4610 road east until we came to the famous washout. approx 200 feet of hillside slid down at least 20 feet, forcing a hard dropping right turn in the road, with a crevasse on the left side that you have to drop into. After standing around and looking at the road for 20+ minutes then the slowest airing down of a set of tires EVER, we determined the best action would be for Nick to hook his winch to the back rear of whoever was going down, to keep their rear-end from passing over the front.

Aaron went first and unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that, just video, which will come later. he made it look nice and easy to Jonathon went next. How was he feeling?

He made it look even easier than Aaron did!

After that, it was my turn, after lifting a tire before even turning down toward the drop, it was an easy trip down the hill for me (thanks Aaron for taking my camera)

The original plan was for Nick to turn around and lower himself down backwards, using the winch. However, once it was go time, he decided to just go for it. Turned out to be fine...

I think most of it was Scott's golden touch

From there on, the road was basically level as it continued east, mostly running through woods, though occasionally popping out for a bit of a view.

Finally, we popped out onto pavement, quite a victory for me as the road has been on my checklist for 3 or 4 years

For the record, there are no road closed signs when you come from the west. Also, the USFS lists the road as open.

We then drove up to High Rock, though first dropping Aaron's Jeep off at the bottom.

We had earlier discussed driving down to Detroit via Olallie Lake. First, we now had to make a trip out to CJ's Chevron on highway 26 so we could put gas in a certain black 2-door XJ. I won't name names... Once we all got a little gas (though I think only Aaron *needed* it. Oops) We started talking about timing. Nick & Scott, Aaron and Jonathon & Mary decided they were ready to go home, while I wanted to go down to Detroit to check out the fires around there.

I grabbed some snacks and bid farewell to the group and headed east on hwy 26 to the Skyline road. My plan was to drive down that then turn off and pass Olallie Lake and go over the hill to Breitenbush Lake before following the Breitenbush River out to Detroit, then over through the Opal Creek area and out along the North Fork Santiam then back to I-5. However, as I was heading down, radio traffic indicated there was a new fire by Bagby Hot Springs and that law enforcement was gathering to evacuate campers. I made the decision to go straight down to the 46 road, which follows the Clackamas River from the end of highway 224, then head up to Bagby Hot Springs to try and get some press-worthy pictures of evacuations.

Light was going to crap by the time I got in the area so I just grabbed a few other pictures and headed for home.

I came back into Estacada a little after 7. 10 hours and 157 miles after leaving Estacada.

Thanks to Nick, Scott, Aaron, Jonathon and Mary for helping me finally accomplish a trip that has been on my list for a long time. Now, it is time to pick the next trip to take and when...

Christmas Valley - Labor Day 2010

2010-09-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

So for Labor Day weekend, my girlfriend, Nicole, and I decided to head to down to the Christmas Valley area, south of Bend.

Christmas Valley is a fairly remote part of the state, often referred to as Oregon's Outback. Since neither one of us had ever visited the area before, I relied heavily on the Internet and maps to plan out trip.

Nicole and I headed out Friday afternoon after she got off work, meaning we'd have to make our way out of town through traffic. Fortunately, I know enough backroads that I was able to avoid most of it. We made a few quick stops for air in Wilsonville then gas and food later but other than that, it was just a lot of driving.

Since we didn't leave until 5pm on Friday, it was almost midnight by the time we finally got into camp at Green Mountain. Green Mountain is my new favorite place to camp, It is very small, four sites, with no water and just a pit toilet there. A few people were concerned that we wouldn't be able to get a site showing up super late on Friday of Labor Day. That was definitely no worry for us though, when we arrived, there was only one site occupied. We got camp set up and a little fire going then headed for bed.

Saturday morning we awoke with the neighbors diesel pickup and the howling of coyotes about 7am and slowly got our day going. I cooked up some pop tarts and hot drinks for us while we let the day get caught up to us.

Our first stop for the day was Derrick Cave, an old lava tube an hour or so North of Green Mountain. On our way, we passed through an intersection with a yield sign, though I'm not sure who was supposed to be yielding to what, or if two cars had ever met at the intersection before.

Derrick Cave is one of the coolest lava tubes I've ever been to. Access is made through one of several places where the roof has fallen through. There was a short section that went off to our right but Nicole wasn't too fond of the loose rocks all over or the smaller spaces in that area so we headed in the other direction.

One of the collapsed spots created a beam of light that shown through, lighting up the dust in the air. We followed the tube for a short distance but as it started to go deeper and deeper, we decided to turn around and head back to the surface.

On our way back to the main road, we stopped at a couple of small cinder cones we'd noticed on our way in. I later found these were called The Blowouts but there was very little information I could find about how they were created other than they are volcanic cones.

After a brief hike up inside, we continued on down the road to Fort Rock. Fort Rock is essentially an old volcano which was eroded by and ancient lake that is thought to have once covered nearly 900 square miles of Central Oregon.

You can actually hike all the way through the rock area but we still had lots of places to visit for the day so we continued on.

Our next stop was Hole in the Ground, a large maar, or explosion crater. I've seen a number of pictures of it before, like the one below from Flickr user Justin Stranzl so I knew that there was a road to the bottom. My goal, find that road...

So off we headed and thanks to my GPS, I was able to pick the right road almost immediately. Down at the bottom, the view was pretty incredible as the ridge circled us as high as 700 feet above the center of the hole.

After a couple pictures and a refill of our water bottles, we turned around and headed back up. Nicole wasn't terribly fond of the road coming down as it had several off-camber sections that tilted the Jeep down hill with very little room for error. I offered to let her walk those sections and take some pictures, which she accepted as a good alternative. I slowly wove my way around the rocks and made it up the hill, no problem. I probably won't be taking that road in the future however...

Next up, we headed for Big Hole in the Ground, which is even bigger but is filled with trees, making it not so easy to recognize the size. We tried finding a geocache over there but had no luck. The GC location was near a set of cliffs, giving us our only real clue that we weren't just on a hillside.

Now our plans for later in the day included dinner in Silver Lake at 7pm so we still had several hours to kill. I had another Geocache saved in my gps atop a volcanic plateau called Table Rock so off we headed. My gps lead me in the wrong way but I was able to figure it out by coming all the way around the rock. The road up was pretty rough and I was glad to have 4-low to get up top. It was kinda breezy up top but not too bad. We decided that the view up there was great so I set the camera up on the tripod to take our picture.

I decided to shoot another and that is when disaster happened. As I stepped away from the camera, a gust of wind came up and before I could reach the camera, it felt face forward onto its lens, destroying the polarizing filter and my 18-55mm ef-s lens. Oops. The time ran out just as I was discovering the broken parts :(

Even with the disaster, I was still able to shoot some more pictures with my 55-250 lens and my old Fuji.

On the way up I was concentrating on keeping my Jeep moving forward on the steep road so headed back down I was able to stop breifly and take a picture.

We still had time to kill so we headed south-east on OR-31 toward Summer Lake, noticing several things along the way including a nice view of Table Rock, a little sign modification and a Peregrine Falcon.

After refueling in Summer Lake, we headed for Silver Lake, more specifically The Cowboy Dinner Tree, a restaurant south of "town" that is famous for their large, delicious portions and good prices. Your options are either a 26-30oz top sirloin or a whole roasted chicken, which they spend all day cooking. The food was amazing and there was enough for us to eat dinner for two whole days.

The next morning, we headed up to the lookout tower on the north summit of Green Mountain to check out the views and chat with the lookout for a while. He was a nice guy and he shared with us the plans (and what he thought of them) to replace the current cabin on the mountain with a new cabin atop a 50 foot tower with sepearate housing quarters for the lookout. I think the new tower will greatly improve the lookout's ability to view the surrounding area, specifically toward the south, which is currently blocked by the south summit.

Then Nicole and I headed for another amazing place, Crack-in-the-Ground, which is just a few miles south of Green Mountain. It is an incredible volcanic fissure over two miles long and, in places, over 100 feet deep. Truely an amazing place. We walked through a little less than half of it before heading back for the car and lunch and I cannot wait to get back and explore the rest.

On this trip I was trying out a new camping tool, a REI Camp Kitchen, which I picked up at REI's Labor Day sale, just days before out trip. I was very impressed with how quick and easy it was to set up. Maybe three minutes and I had a place for my stove, with the lantern overhead, storage for all our dishes and a few other table tops for random stuff that ends up around camp. I'm glad I picked it up though I was disappointed to discover that the windscreen for the stove was too small for my stove but at least my stove has a windscreen already built in. Overall I like it, though it is a bit much for a one night campsite if I'm leaving early in the morning.

Monday was our day for heading home. But of course I couldn't just go straight home, first we headed into Fort Rock then turned north on what becomes China Hat rd. We stopped breifly at South Ice Cave but it doesn't go very far so we kept moving pretty quickly. I scouted out a map on my Deschutes NF map and we zigzagged our way north, eventually coming in the back/east side of Newberry Crater. We stopped and had lunch at Paulina Lake campground before heading up Paulina peak. The views up there are absolutely incredible, one of the best views in Oregon as you can easily see ten Cascade peaks on a somewhat clear day. We also had a decent view of people out enjoying one of the last summer days on Paulina Lake.

Then we headed down the quick way and started north on US-97. That is when things quickly went sour. While shifting from 3rd to 4th, 4th gear blew up, fortunately I was able to get the transmission back into 3rd and we continued, amazingling, in 3rd all the way into and threw Bend, through and approximately ten miles west of Sisters before we got pulled over by an OSP Trooper who though I was going to slow, though I was not impeding traffic in any way. Since I was now stopped, I could not get my Jeep going again since I was stuck in 3rd so I called AAA for a tow and we rod the rest of the way home in the tow truck. Not fun...

What a fantastic trip and an amazing area. I cannot wait to get back out there next year to do more exploring.

Exploring the Santiam State Forest, Molalla to Elkhorn 10-10-09

2010-01-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

This was yet another trip I led with the PNWAdventures group. The plan for the morning was to visit a Geocache we'd attempted back in March but been snubbed on and attempt to find a way through, down to the North Fork Santiam River area.
The morning of the trip, I headed out for the meeting point at the Molalla Thriftway. On a whim, I decided to go across the Canby Ferry and it turned out to be a great idea because it was a very nice, if somewhat cold morning out on the river.

After standing around in the parking lot for a while, chatting about recent upgrades to our vehicles among other things, we headed out. After stopping just after we left pavement to air down for comfort, we continued out our way till we got to Rhody Lake, where we let the dogs get out to stretch their legs.

Our next stop was the lookout tower nearby, with the Geocache in the same area. We were surprised, and dare I say pleased, to find that the road up to the lookout tower was actually more like a somewhat difficult 4x4 trail. Fortunately, with the use of four wheel drive and low range, we were able to make our way up the tower.

The views were amazing that day and we were able to see at least nine major peaks from the top.

The top of the tower was not for those with an issue with heights as the floor was somewhat old and the railings on the tower weren't outrageously strong or secure.

After meeting up there with the final member of our party, who had spent the night atop the mountain, we continued down the road/trail until we came to a bit of an obstacle. Not too difficult but we did have to pick our line carefully to avoid hitting your rockers or axles. (I didn't pick terribly well but no visible damage)

After zigzaging our way around the hills, running into several blockages, locked gates and a MASSIVE landslide, we made our way through an unlocked gate and started making some down hill progress.

Unfortunately, at the bottom we found a locked gate, just yard from the road we were aiming for.

After talking with a passerby, on the other side of the gate, for a few minutes, we headed back up into the hills to try and find another way out. Another half hour off the clock and we found another locked gate. Luckily, as we were there discussing our options, a hunter came down the hill who happend to have a key. He let us out "cause they wouldn't be too happy you were in here" and we headed a few miles up the road to a trailhead, our goal being Henline Falls.

The hike, though advertised as about half a mile, turned out to be more like one mile but eventually we got to the falls.

You'll notice to the right of the base of the falls, is an old mine, which we explored to about 50 feet, where it was gated.

Eventually our group dwindled to two, so we decided to drive up to the lower side of the landslide that had blocked our progress earlier. We found a massive landslide, half a mile across according to my GPS with no evidence of the road that used to go through there.

We headed back down and said our goodbyes and started toward home, but not before enjoying the evening sun going down.

It was nice to get out amid all that was going on with my family and just be distracted for a day. I've done some other trips since then and will work to get them online in the coming weeks.

Ending the drought

2010-01-12T20:31:00.000-08:00

So, I'm sure it has been noticed that there hasn't been any new blog postings in nearly six months. I've been busy. My dad was diagnosed with cancer early in the summer so a lot of time was spent with him and when I wasn't with him, I was a tad too distracted to write.
Sadly, he passed away in late October, not living nearly enough life. Dealing with that has been tough but gradually, life moves on. I've taken a few day trips since then but mostly, I've stuck close to home.
Just to get the kinks out, I'll share a few pictures I took January 10th on a quick afternoon trip to the beach.

I headed out hwy 26 to hwy 53, which took me down toward Wheeler. Instead of that, I turned off toward Manzanita, passing through Nehalem. At Manzanita, I was treated to a beautiful afternoon on the beach. A bit windy and cool but it was the prettiest I've seen it there in a long time.

Looking North toward Neahkahnie Mountain and the city of Manzanita at the base. Even a rainbow thrown in for good measure.

Looking south toward the mouth of Nehalem Bay.

And one more of some wood, being buried and revealed by the moving sands.

So far, I'm liking my new Canon Digital Rebel T1i. I think it takes nice sharp pictures that I can work with easily.

A journey to the Alvord Desert July 9th-13th 2009 (part V)

2009-09-01T21:26:00.000-07:00

This is the fifth and final posting of a five part series on a trip I took with the Pacific Northwest Adventure Group

Monday morning. More like mourning. What a sad day. A return to civilization. Not something I was looking forward to. Though I still had several hundreds of miles of driving to do, I wasn't ready. First off, we headed up and over the hills to a old fire lookout tower, now being rented out by vacationers. Fortunately, when we got there, the current renters were just leaving and allowed us to go up and take a look. Somehow, I neglected to take a picture of the tower.

We didn't stay long since we had quite a bit of driving to do. Even skinny little Keegan could barely fit through the opening for the stairs

Near Long Creek, we stopped to check out an old ranch and a truck parked there that was nearly as old.

In the small town of Fox, we stopped to take pictures of the old church. While it looked good on the outside, a peek in the window made it clear that the church hadn't been used in a while

From there, we hopped back on the highway and made a beeline for Pendleton. After visiting at my Mom's for a bit, Keegan and I hit the road for home. Almost immediately, we noticed a smokey look in the sky. A few miles west of Pendleton, we found a 3500+ acre brush fire, which we watched for a while before heading home.

Brush Fire Slideshow

This was definitely one of the most amazing trips I've been on. It really got me thinking, I enjoy traveling in my jeep so much. Everything else I do is just to pass the time until I get to go exploring again. While chatting with some of the,,, more experienced folks on the trip, who were envious of my young age, I realized I need to take advantage of my lack of real commitments and travel.
My tentative plan is to take a year or so to equip myself and my Jeep to the proper level, then hit the road, traveling around the country taking in the sights and, hopefully, writing about it. Its a bit of a fantasy right now but I think there is no better time for me to do it than now.
I also want to apologize for taking so long to make a blog posting, I've been quite busy with life but hopefully I'll get more opportunities to do some blogging on some small day trips I've taken lately.
-Ryan

A journey to the Alvord Desert July 9th-13th 2009 (part IV)

2009-09-01T20:56:00.000-07:00

This is the fourth of a five part series on a trip I took with the Pacific Northwest Adventure Group

Sunday morning we awoke knowing we'd be heading toward home. Mom really wanted to check out Alvord Hot Spring, a few miles north of our campsite. So, after packing up camp, we headed up there. Through the morning, several thunderstorms had passed through the area, though fortunately for us, mostly on the east side of the desert, allowing us to watch on without getting much rain.

From the hot springs, we could actually see two separate cells coming north.

From there we headed almost directly across the road and up an old mining road. We found an old cabin up there which had clearly seen better days.

We were able to find the remnants of an old tram, used to get the gold from the mine down to the area of the cabin. You can't tell but I'm looking nearly straight up in this picture.

While checking out the base of the Tram area, we could see another storm coming up the valley.

And a view back toward the mountain behind us, somewhere above is the old mine.

We quickly hopped back in the truck as we got hit by a heavy downpour which actually made the road pretty treacherous, especially in that big truck. But just as quickly, the sun came back out, as can be seen as we crossed a creek headed back down to the main road.

On the way down to Fields, we slowed for a picture of the old school at Andrews, all of which appears to be privately owned now.

Finally, we were in Fields, prepared to eat a famous Fields Burger! Here, Sandy is taking an order as our burgers sizzle away on the grill behind her.

Man, what a delicious burger!

We crossed back over to Catlow Valley and headed north, prepared to hear further west, through the Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge. First we had to pull over and check out some massive thunderclouds towering over Steens Mountain. In less than five minutes, we saw at least 10 flashes of lightning.

After an uneventful drive through the refuge, we dropped down toward Plush, where we saw this old house, with Hart Mountain towering overhead

After passing through Plush, we headed southwest, into the Fremont National Forest where we turned west, coming out on hwy 395 north of Lakeview. We turned north, passing Lake Abert and the Abert Rim, several thousand feet higher than the valley.

We stopped at a small rest area a few miles north of there. A rest area that was totally desolate. The only sounds were the occasional passing semi and the wind rattling a sign. Though there was nothing there and not much of a view, I for some reason found comfort in the area and would happily return.

We then continued north, passing through several stretches of road without a single curve for ten or more miles

That night we returned to the same area we'd camped at the first night south of John Day, though we chose this time to camp in an established campground. We were the only ones there, though some time during the night, an RV showed up and set up camp.

A journey to the Alvord Desert July 9th-13th 2009 (part III)

2009-07-20T22:47:00.001-07:00

This is the third of a five part series on a trip I took with the Pacific Northwest Adventure Group

I woke early the next morning hoping to watch the sunrise. Clouds had moved in since the previous afternoon, blocking the sunrise for the most part. I instead spent my time wandering around the desert, enjoying my solitude.

Out on the desert floor, I had a descent view of Steens Mountain rising above our camp.

After the others from our group woke up, a few headed for the desert floor.
Rod

James and Ben

From camp, we headed down to the Fields store for fuel. After sitting around chatting for a while and enjoying a delicious milkshake, we decided to head out with Mick and his wife Joey, along with Richard and Jan and their granddaughter Tara. Our plan for the day was to drive to Propeller Meadow, the site of a bomber crash in the 1940's. The clouds that morning were pretty nice.

We chose to make a quick side trip to check out an old stone house. Somehow we missed to so we decided to follow the road up over Domingo Pass. Looking up hill, you can see Mick following the switchbacks up the hill.

From the top, we could see off into the distance. Down there somewhere is the stone house.

Once we crossed over the pass, we zigzaged back down the other side of the hill into Rincon Valley.

Down in the valley, we headed south, hoping to be able to circle around and come into Propeller Meadow. The road went through several low-lying areas that, in the wetter times of the year, obviously were quite moist. Those area's tended to be a bit dusty, as was this one, which also had sagebrush taller than our truck!

We noticed a number of beer cans along the road, most of which were picked up by Mick and Joey but these ones were picked up by Richard. There was actually more than he could even carry, so he kicked one along in front of him

Shortly after crossing into Nevada, we could see Blacks Mountain off in the distance

We stopped for lunch and Mick, Keegan and I walked over to an old ranch thinking there were some hot springs. We didn't find the hot springs but we did see some wildlife including these birds flying around near some small ponds.

This old fence surrounded the ranch, its been a while since anybody has been around here though.

From there, we headed on a road due north hoping to get up where we wanted. Unfortunately, after a mile or so, the road became increasingly washed out to the point where we decided to turn around. Big thanks to Joey for spotting us as we got turned around. Later, Matt was able to get up in his fully locked Land Cruiser/Lexus and reported back that there was NO WAY we would've been able to get up.

As we were headed back down the hill, we could see several of the group cruising along the valley we'd been in a short time earlier.

We met up with them at Bog Hot Springs, the springs Mick and I had been trying to find earlier. The water was pretty warm and would've been awful nice during a cooler time of year.

From there, Mick, Richard and I headed South to Denio Junction where we stopped to eat. After our meal, we turned back north, hoping to once again head in towards the crash sight. Unfortunately, the roads never panned out as we crossed back into Oregon.

We decided to try again at accessing the rock house. This time, I lead the way and chose the route less traveled which lead us into a pasture, where we parked and walked across to the house.

While we were stopped, we watched a pickup approach us. Turned out to be a local property over, from the Oregon End Table Ranch, across on the other side of Domingo Pass. His name was Jay Hughes and you could tell he was a very interesting guy. We talked to him for a bit before we headed on our way. Its always great to meet somebody like Mr. Hughes...

We headed back to Fields where we greeted some of our trip mates, who it appeared had not moved all day, just sat in front of the store and chatted... Mom, Keegan and I hopped back in the truck with the goal of visiting Mickey Hot Springs, northwest of the Alvord. On our way north, I spotted a draw opposite from the Alvord so we hiked up into to explore a bit.

The road to the hot springs cut straight across the valley north of the Alvord before turning and skirting the south side of a ridge that extended miles north.

Describing Mickey Hot Springs is somewhat difficult. It was nearly dead silent there. Just about the only sound there was the bubbling of water in a few of the pools as well as underground. For the most part, the pools were absolutely calm, no motion at all. In some areas, the ground was almost hot to the touch, definitely heat radiating from below. Such an amazing place, though the water was too hot to even touch in most pools.

We then headed back to camp but, of course, we couldn't take the same roads back. We dropped down to the very northern end of the desert and headed cross country back, allowing my GPS to guide us to camp.

4449 Headed to Michigan July 3rd 2009

2009-07-19T11:14:00.001-07:00

It was announced a few months ago that the City of Portland's big steam engine, Southern Pacific 4449, was going to travel to Michigan for Train Festival 2009. As luck would have it, her departure from Portland was scheduled for Friday, July 3rd, which I happened to have off from work due to the upcoming holiday. Plans were set and since my brother, Keegan, was staying in town with my dad for the summer, I headed out to Scappoose the night before to get him.
On our way back in my apartment, we stopped at Union Station, where the 4449 was waiting with her train for departure the next morning. For this trip, the train would be made up of privately owned passenger cars, with the seats available for purchase (though too much for my budget)

Fortunately, even though the train station was closed for the night, the platform was left open so rail fans could come out to get their night pictures, myself included.

The moon was almost full, though not for a few more days.

The next morning, the train was scheduled for an 8am departure. The night before, we'd scouted a spot in the NW industrial district where we'd be able to watch the train cross the bridge over the Willamette. Unfortunately, that spot didn't work out so well for pictures, though we were lucky enough to get a good roll-by at track level next to highway 30.

We then headed for Washington; my hope was to get a shot east of Washougal where the tracks cross under SR14. However, once we'd crossed the Columbia, we saw we were already ahead of the train. So, we made the decision to stop in a neighborhood in Vancouver. Parking near the crossing was filled up by rail fans so we turned around to get back on the highway when the gates came down. We were barely able to hop out of the car and grab a shot as it passed by. This BNSF officer was also stopped at the crossing.

Since my car was sitting there running, we were able to get back on the road right away and passed the train in time to stop at the overpass near Washougal. The special rolled to a stop just short of the bridge to meet a westbound Amtrak train.

Then, as the train started rolling again, EVERYBODY had to run across to the other side.

I tried my best to block out the Amtrak unit but it still snuck into the shot.

We caught it again one more time a bit east of there then were unable to catch it before we got to the Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Locks. I decided to cross the river and use the multiple lanes and higher speed limits on I84 to get ahead of the traffic and the train. We stopped at Mosier and took pictures from the train from across the river.

From there, we continued on to The Dalles, where we crossed the river on the highway 197 bridge. Just across the river, the tracks pop out of a cut and go under the bridge. There is a small parking area just past the end, so you can run back along the bridge (on a sidewalk) to where you can get a good shot. I got out to two other rail fans and said a brief hello when we looked up and were surprised to see the train already there! I was barely able to fire off a shot between the girders as it passed.

Just a short distance further, the train stopped at Wishram for servicing, which allowed us and everybody else to set up for their next shots. Keegan and I elected to drive up to the Stonehenge memorial overlooking the river. We appeared to be the only rail fans up there so we picked our shots and waited. The temps were in the upper 90's so spending any time in the sun was uncomfortable. Eventually, the train came along and Keegan and I were able to get our shots then get back in the car and on the move again.

We decided to make one more stop so we put the pedal to the metal and eventually got ahead of the train so we pulled over at a small crossing with a number of other folks stopped there. Several miles of track was visible so we had time to watch the train approach.

And one final picture of some of the crowd assembled there.

From there, the train continued to Spokane and Keegan and I headed back west, but that is another story.
-Ryan

A journey to the Alvord Desert July 9th-13th 2009 (part II)

2009-07-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

This is the second of a five part series on a trip I took with the Pacific Northwest Adventure Group.

Thursday night we made it as far as Soda Gulch, south of John Day. Camp was next to Vance Creek, which couldn't actually be seen, just a nice burbling sound. We woke up about 630am and quickly broke camp and got on the road.

Most of the group met at RJ's Restaurant in Burns before the official meetup. RJ's has EXCELLENT bacon, just sayin... We headed to get gas, diesel actually, then met up with the rest of the group at Hines Park in the center of Hines. Nice place.

From there we headed east and south, our first stop of the day being the Peter French Round Barn.

The Round Barn was built in the late 1870's or early 1880's the date isn't known for sure. It was used to train horses during the long and miserable winter. The roof was rebuilt in the 1920's using 55,000 wood shingles. Its got a few holes in it now.

The view off in the distance shows there is nothing around, just a barn.

From the center, you can see the all wood construction. Many of these trees had to come from a long way aways as there are no forests in the area.

Our next goal was the Diamond Craters, just a few miles to the south. Diamond Craters is a series of small craters created by a shield volcano.

My brother Keegan, along with Ben(?) stand near the edge of the crater.

Keegan peering over the edge, looking for rattle snakes.

We then headed for Frenchglen. Too many bugs, the gas pumps were out of service. We didn't stay for long.

The portion of the group not eating in Frenchglen decided to head up the hill a bit toward Steens Mountain to get away from the bugs. We found a wide spot in the road where we were able to hang out and wait for the paying for lunch crowd.

The sun was hot that day, it was our hottest day of the trip and while there were a few clouds in the sky, they never seemed to be in front of the sun.

One group decided to head up early while a couple of us waited for the stragglers from town.

Our leader for the trip told us about a grove of aspens where basque sheep hearders had carved notes into the trees. We stopped to find some but couldn't find any ourselves. At this point we'd climbed from from 4,200 feet to over 6,500 feet and the cooler air was allowing wildflowers to still bloom into July.

Just a few miles up the road, we stopped at Kiger Gorge, where you can walk out to a viewpoint at the edge of a 2,000 foot deep gorge, which was carved by glaciers. Pictures can't even do the location justice, you really have to see it for yourself.

One of our new friends Matt took our picture for my Mom so I thought I'd return the favor and get one of him along the edge.

We followed Mick up to the east rim of Steens Mountain. the road stretches out along the ridge and the cars running along it are the only way to get a good idea of the size of this area.

The east rim allows a good view of the valley stretching out below us. Our group leader takes a picture from the top.

The Alvord desert is below the summit of Steens Mountain. The Summit of the mountain is about 9,750 feet while the desert below is about 4400 feet, over a vertical mile below. The slope drops away that elevation in just three miles, one of the steepest drops in the state.

Not much life can survive on the wind swept ridge that is Steens Mountain but a few wildflowers are just starting their bloom in mid-July.

Matt standing near the east rim viewpoint

Bob headed out to the summit parking area ahead of us

Then we followed Mick out.

From the summit, you can look down into Wildhorse Gorge and to Wildhorse Lake, I believe the second highest lake in Oregon. Can you see the people camping down there?

Looking back along the ridge from the summit to the parking area.

We chose to complete the Steens Loop by following the road down the Rooster Comb. Spectacular views

My Mom had read about the Kiger Mustangs and other wild horses in the area and was anxious to see some. After watching carefully, Mick (or his wife Joey) spotted one about a half a mile off to the left side of the road.

A few miles further, we were greatly surprised. A herd of 28 wild horses were standing right next to the road! They were extremely calm and were comfortable with my Mom and Keegan getting within approx. 20 yards.

We noticed this small group of horses that were up the hill a bit and they decided to head down toward the main herd

We quickly discovered the alpha male of the herd as he came galloping over, letting the others know they weren't welcome with the herd. It was so cool witnessing the natural hierchy in the wild, definitely one of the most awesome experiences I've ever had.

We got down to the highway and continued on into Fields. Mick continued to lead the way through the Catlow Valley.

We went our separate ways, Mick and his wife were staying at the hotel in Fields while we planned to camp out at the Alvord Desert. There was a group who were planning on camping at the desert and we decided to join them. We didn't know there location but after scanning the desert with binoculars, I spotted them on the other side, headed up into an area called Big Sand Gap. Since Keegan had just gotten his instruction permit, we decided to let him drive across the desert.

On the east side, we discovered the desert didn't end abruptly but rather slowly faded into islands of bushes which we had to maneuver our way through.

My GPS showed there was a road that came out to the desert floor so we tried to track it down. Its out there somewhere

Oh, we found it!

We eventually caught up with the group, playing around on some sand dunes. Of course, it wasn't long before somebody got stuck in the sand. It was Rod...

Matt quickly winched him out and they continued playing. I was very envious that I wasn't out there with my Jeep.

James and Ben made there way back down to the sand and joined in the fun.

We headed back to camp where everybody got set up. Bob in his Land Rover with the rooftop tent were particularly cool.

The moonrise was particularly nice too.

Thus ended our first full day of the trip. We covered a lot of ground, our route for the day

A journey to the Alvord Desert July 9th-13th 2009 (part I)

2009-07-16T22:01:00.001-07:00

This is the first of a five part series on a trip I took with the Pacific Northwest Adventure Group.

Our goal was to meet Friday, July 10th at Hines Park in Hines, Oregon. For me, that meant getting off work early and heading east. For this trip, I elected to drive to Pendleton and load my gear into my Mom's Dodge Ram and we would ride together for the duration.

After leaving work, I stopped at my apartment to get my brother Keegan then headed east. Near Memaloose State Park, we spotted this military train headed downriver across from us on the Washington side. The engines are KCS run-through units.

After a bit of a delay, we got out of Pendleton. Our goal for the evening was to get within one hour of Burns so we would have less of a drive in the morning. Outside of Pilot Rock we had this great view of the setting sun.

And looking back along hwy 395

Our drive for the day

Coming up: Peter French round barn, Diamond Craters, Steens Mountain, Sand Gap.

Exploring the Santiam State Forest 6-28-09

2009-06-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I was driving around some mountain roads outside Scotts Mills in what turned out to be the Santiam State Forest and found this uber-sweet viewpoint along a ridgeline that looked all the way back to Portland and up to Mt Hood. After driving to se Portland to pick up a pool ladder yesterday, I decided I wanted to drive out there and check out the view again. Fortunately, just days earlier I'd plugged the coordinates into my GPS so all I had to do was go where the arrow told me. Mostly...
My route took me from Clackamas down through Oregon City and out hwy 213 through Mulino and into Molalla. After stopping to top off my fuel, I headed up Sawtell Road for about 12 miles before turning up an unnamed road that travels East along South Gawley Ridge. The road I ended up taking didn't actually show up on my GPS and the road it told me to take was blocked off at the top, good thing I kinda knew where I was going...
Though temperatures were hitting close to 80 in the Portland area, up here in the mountains they were barely touching 70 in the sun and it was in the mid-60's down in the dark canyons. It was a reminder that spring and summer start a bit later when you're at 3,000 feet. As such, there were plenty of flowers blooming up in the higher elevations including rhododendrons.

I made it up to the view point, which is actually about a quarter-mile from Dog Rock, which is inaccessible by vehicle. There were some people already there so I wasn't able to drive my Jeep out to the edge for a shot of it looking over the valley. The rock in the center of the picture is at the edge of an approx. 400 foot cliff. On a clearer day you can see Mt Hood and I suspect Adams as well.

Coming back down to the main road, I noticed one section where there were young firs growing right down next to the road, not something usually seen along a logging road.

From there I wanted to explore a small road that heads down toward Butte Creek that I'd briefly driven on during a PNWBA tour a few months earlier. While driving down it, I spotted some more flowers to photograph. There were a ton of butterflies flittering around them.

Including this guy who was on a flower right next to me.

I turned down another side road which I hoped would take me down toward Butte Creek Falls. It quickly became pretty overgrown and with the pool ladder on my roof, I was having trouble getting through in a few places. Eventually I found a wide enough spot to turn around and did so. Shortly after, I got this shot at one of the wider/more open spots along the road.

My next goal was Rhody Lake, which is accessed via a maze of logging roads at about the 3,500 foot level. Not sure if there are many fish in this lake though I'm told it has lots of rough skinned newts in it. There's a small unimproved campground on the far side of the lake, it even has a pit toilet and trash can...

From there I continued up toward Hellcat Rock. I'd driven almost to it once before but the road gets pretty rough and I only manage to get up there while driving by myself and it is not a high traffic area. This time I decided to walk the last half mile to the rock to check out the view. The water seen in the lower center/left is Butte Lakes and the water toward the right (near one of the tree branches) is Copper Lake, neither of which I've had the opportunity to visit. Yet.

There is also a nice view of Mt Hood from there, along with some other peaks, none of which I can identify...

At this point it was nearly six o'clock and I really wanted to get out of there before it got any darker. I decided to drop down into Gawley Creek and come out along the Molalla River and follow it out to civilization. The crossing of Gawley creek is rather unusual. For whatever reason, instead of building a bridge or putting in a culvert for the road to go over the creek, it was chosen to pave across the creek and just let the creek run over the road. The road is in remarkable condition, no sign of being worn down by the water running over it at all. It makes a nice water crossing too :)

Gotta love that sweet ladder on the roof :D

These were my last pictures of the day as my goal was to just get out of there and go home but there were several spurs off the road between there and the Molalla river that begged for exploration that I'm going to have to go back and explore.
-Ryan

Goat Mountain Christmas Tree Run December 13th 2008

2009-06-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

Good evening!
In a tradition started in 2007, I once again organized a Christmas tree run with NAXJA and the PNW Backroad Drivers to take place in the Goat Mountain area of the Mt Hood National Forest on a nice Saturday in December. For those of you with calendars and a good memory, this was the day before the snow started falling in Portland.
The plan was to meet in the parking lot of the Estacada Ranger Station at 9am. Slowly the numbers added up until we had 12 rigs, mostly Cherokees with a few other makes tossed in for good measure. The most notable thing from there was NAXJA member Torx's fancy new tires, brand new 35" BFGoodrich KM2's, which put my stock 28" tires to shame.

Shortly after nine, we hit the road, first going south on hwy 211 then east and up Hillock Burn road. We stopped about the 1800 foot level to air down our tire to make driving on the snow easier.

After airing down, we headed straight for the towers atop Goat Mountain, though we briefly stopped at a former gravel pit while we waited for some stragglers to catch up. A few members of our party took the opportunity to play around on the snow covered hillside.

From here on, I was breaking trail through the snow.

We stopped at another wide spot to let the group gather together again after a short slick section when another group of NAXJA members caught up with us including KarlVP in his nicely built XJ

The final push to the summit has a short steep section on it that proved to be too difficult for some. Only the right mix of throttle and control could successfully get you up the slope. Fortunately, I was one of the few with that correct mix on this particular day so I was able to make it up to the towers.

Karl was another of those lucky few.

From the summit you look down on Clear Lake a small alpine lake which is itself accessible via other roads in the area.

And another member of the alternate party playing around on the difficult back slope to access the towers.

Once we got back down to the main road (FS 45) most of the group headed for town but there were a few of us who had the goal of getting a Christmas Tree so after saying goodbye to the others we headed off in search of a stand of trees I'd seen on a scouting trip a few weeks earlier. As the afternoon progressed, the snow started falling heavier and heavier until visibility was down to less than a tenth of a mile. As we pulled into a quarry in the area of the small stand of Christmas trees, I was able to snap this picture of my friend JuniorXJ.

And another of JuniorXJ having fun in the fresh deep snow.

And PNWBDA member Pudding99

And 88manche taking his own turn

Once we'd gotten our trees we decided to head back the way we came. We'd originally planned to keep going but the snow was falling so fast we weren't confident of our ability to keep going. Heading back, our tracks were already mostly obliterated.

We stopped at a small wide area to talk for a few before heading down the hill and I was able to get this shot of our group stopped there.

L to R, Nick, his girlfriend and Terry

And one final shot of my Jeep shortly before we stopped to air our tires back up (and when I discovered my compressor no longer worked)

I know I had a lot of fun and though my tree was a bit small, I was glad to have it and it came with a story, unlike something bought in a lot. Next year I'm going to scout out a tree ahead of time so I know what to get when I'm there and I can spend more time having fun.
-Ryan

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. Hope your kids appreciate you, I know I appreciate mine.

A little fly fishing on the Wilson River a few weeks ago.

-Ryan

Niagara Falls Trail June 20th, 2009

2009-06-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

Greetings!
So while browsing the Northwest Waterfall Survey, I was reminded of a waterfall I'd visited in January '08, Niagara Falls. Now this Niagara Falls doesn't have nearly the oomph of the famous falls of the same name. Its actually not even the main attraction on the Niagara Falls trail. Actually, its not even on Niagara creek, which is in the same area but without any major waterfalls. Today, I made the trip with my Mom and little brother Keegan, who were in town for the weekend.
Anyway, the waterfall is located in the Nestucca River drainage near Blaine, OR. The trail starts off at a small parking area on an unmapped road, heading down several small stream drainages.

As you follow along the trail, it crosses up and over a few small ridges as it follows a couple small streams, most of which are dry this time of year, down towards Pheasant Creek. The trail switch-backs a few time as you go down before the trail starts heading up Pheasant creek, maybe 100 feet above the stream. Your first sight is actually of Pheasant Creek falls, which is where the trail ends up at.

First though, you go around a corner and the trail immediatly crosses DIRECTLY in front of Niagara Falls, which is actually on an unnamed stream.

Picture by Keegan Mishler, shared with permission.

Next the trail wraps around another corner and you arrive at a picnic table and the end of the official trail. There is also a small trail that continues down into and across the creek and to the base of Pheasant Creek Falls. The falls bends like that because of a slight occasional breeze in the canyon.

I headed for the base too and ended up clowning for the camera a bit.

Picture by Linner Mishler, shared with permission

Picture by Linner Mishler, shared with permission

Picture by Linner Mishler, shared with permission

Picture by Linner Mishler, shared with permission

One last view of the falls as we headed out..

As we were headed back out, we decided to take the long route and headed up I believe Elk Creek to Boundary road which slowly dropped back down to the Nestucca River road and then back into town. Along the way, we stopped and walked out a grassy ridge that appears to be an old landing site for a logging crew. I think the end would make a GREAT campsite too..

And for reference, this is what it looked like in last winter when I was here.

Niagara Falls

Pheasant Creek Falls

Macro Comparo

2009-06-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

While working on a photo assignment for my Jeep group, I decided to play with my roommates camera. Now she has a Canon 40D. A fantastic DSLR that is a ton of fun to use. The possibilities are endless. I, on the other hand, have a Fuji FinePix S700, a fine, easy to use P&S Plus (means its got more features than your standard point-and-shoot camera) I decided to try out both and see which I liked better. Surprisingly, my camera (now retails for about $100) was a lot easier to get what I wanted than her 40D, which goes for around $1200-$1400.
Just my thoughts...
Oh and the pictures:

40D

S700

Of course, the canon still shoots some great pictures but I prefer the Fuji. At least, this time around...
-Ryan

Trojan Nuclear Power Plant Cooling Tower Implosion May 2006

2009-06-10T22:30:00.000-07:00

In early 2006, it was announced that the cooling tower at the former Trojan Nuclear Power Plant, outside Rainer, Oregon, was being demolished by dynamite implosion. After some discussion with friends, we decided to go up and camp on the Washington side of the river, in the Kalama area, and watch as the tower came tumbling down.
The implosion was to happen on Sunday morning at exactly 7am. We elected to head up two days early (Friday evening) so we'd have all day Saturday to find out vantage point. We camped at a campground/RV resort along the banks of the Kalama river. It was a pleasant campground, the tent camping area was nice and grassy with trees spread around to keep out too much direct sunlight. We got up the next morning and screwed around a bit in the campground. Don't worry, we didn't go too fast.

We quickly found out that the price we'd paid the previous night was actually about 1/5th of what we should've paid. If we'd paid for the second night it would've cost us over $100 dollars. Totally not worth it. We decided to pack up our stuff and find someplace else to camp. Someplace free. While driving around the hills around Kalama, we were able to find one nice view of the tower.

Eventually we found a spot down a dead end road that was down next to the train tracks. We set up then headed into town to use the showers at a riverside park. While we were there, I was lucky enough to catch a passing train.

That night, we hung out around the fire and were serenaded by the sounds of passing trains. I think the Railroad was trying to get as many trains through before the shut-down of the line the next morning.

The next morning, we hit the road about 5am, even though we were only 20 minutes from our view point. We were fortunate enough to get a parking spot, there wasn't much room left along the road, and a spot along the guardrail where we could view the tower.

The property owners next to the road spent several hours that morning trying to keep people on the road side of the barrier but finally gave up as you can see.

The sun was in and out that morning and while we hoped for sun during the implosion, we weren't quite that lucky, though we did get some about fifteen minutes before.

Right on cue at 7am, the call came out over my scanner that they were ready and a countdown was initiated. And then, without hearing anything, the tower started to come down.

And just like that, it was gone. We headed back to camp to pack up before heading back to town. I also got some video that day.

For more info about the Trojan nuclear power plant, you can check out Wikipedia
-Ryan

Trip to Pendelton 4-18-09

2009-06-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

So this is one from the "archives" until I can get out and actually do something.

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

Salmonberry Canyon 5-25-09

2009-05-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings all!
Looking at the forecast for Memorial Day, I decided I NEEDED to do something. While browsing online, I found a geocache located deep in the Salmonberry Canyon along the Port of Tillamook Bay railway line. I called up dad and plans were made.
Monday morning, we met at Somerset West park in Aloha just off hwy 26. The decision was made to take my Jeep with the thought that if we came upon any problems, I was more prepared for pretty much anything.
The first leg of our trip took us out the Sunset highway into the coast range. We headed south near the Washington County/Tillamook County line. Almost immediatly we were running along ridgelines over massive valleys and canyons you have NO CLUE are just a few miles from the highway as you zip by.

(panorama created using AutoStitch)

We eventually came to Beaver Slide road, which I'd been advised was a fairly rough road. Turns out there's a good reason it's called Beaver Slide. The road was so steep that I put my Jeep into 4low (low range gearing) to use the engine to crawl down the hill instead of riding the brakes the whole way down. We did the math coming up and in two and a half miles (though the hilly part is probably only a mile and a half) the road drops down 1400 feet to the river.

(panorama created using AutoStitch)

When we reached the bottom, the road had dropped down over a ridge and suddenly we were between the tracks and the river. After gathering our gear (mostly water) we headed briefly downstream to check out a washout.

I've seen broken rails before, but never sheared like this...

After checking out the washout, we started upriver (kinda east northeast (though the RR calls it south, because its toward Sacramento, where all Southern Pacific lines went to)) Immediately we came to the first tunnel, Tunnel 806.2 (based on the milepost, also means 806.2 miles to Sacramento via rail)

And a shot from Dad of me walking in

Photo by Jack Mishler, published with permission

And one of dad approaching the other end, he walks so fast!

Once we came out of the tunnel, we were instantly in the middle of a large slide that covered the tracks. There was dirt, rocks and LOTS of trees covering the track up to 10 feet deep for at least 200 yards. When we got to the other end, we saw that instead of going over the tracks, the slide simply had pushed them out of the way, as can be seen by this sharp turn in the tracks that would've sent any train straight into the river.

The tracks continue through the canyon, crossing three trestles in rather quick succesion as the river zigs and zags back and forth. Here I was trying not to look between the ties to the river down below.

A ways further, we came to Kinney Creek. There was smaller trestle that went over Kinney Creek until December '07, when a number of large trees had come down the stream and piled against the bridge. With nowhere to go, the stream carved out the bank on the left side of the trestle, creating a large gap of dangling tracks.

(panorama created using AutoStitch)

To make things worse, the Salmonberry collides almost directly head on with the stream here so it contributed to the erosion further downstream, making this one of the larger washouts along the Salmonberry, as seen in this picture by Dad.

Photo by Jack Mishler, published with permission

Fortunately, some hikers, eager to explore the damaged line, had created a path down into the streambed and up the other side, though if there'd been much more water in the stream it wouldn't have been nearly as easy to cross it.

Just after that trestle is another tunnel, 805.7, the east/south end of the tunnel had been slightly blown out up top by water and what appeared to be a fallen tree above.

Up to Kinney Creek, the trail had been kept clear by dirt bikers who'd been eager to explore the damaged RR line. They weren't able to get past the washout though so once we got past there, there were lots of trees down over the tracks, which slowed our pace considerably as we had to weave our way through, over and under the down tree. Here is Dad hopping over one such blockage.

We passed another small washout in a location where we could see clearly up to the rim of the canyon, WAY up there

Yet another slide, this one had a small gully above it that flushed lots of water and mud down onto a small hillside which collapsed onto the tracks just past where a long line of large boulders had been placed, presumably to block slides from coming onto the tracks.

Two more smaller slides crossed the tracks between there and our destination, both of which had small streams now crossing the tracks instead of going under like they had. Both these streams created small waterfalls as the dropped over one rail or the other.

Finally we reached our destination and sat and just enjoyed the perfect day. The temp couldn't have been any better and there was just a light breeze.

After I found the geocache down by the river (hidden by one of the original Geocachers, one of those who started the sport and a real legend among nerds like myself) I climbed back up to the grade and noticed a small waterfall on the hillside above the tracks.

Appearantly the tracks had been open to motorcycle riders for some time before the closure and there were several spots along the tracks where small ramps had been built to allow riders to ride in and out from between the tracks. here dad passes one of them.

Just another picture illustrating how even the minor damage along the tracks was major when you add it all up.

Dad approaching Tunnel 805.7 from the east as we head back towards the car.

(panorama created using AutoStitch)

Dad climbing up out of the washout at Kinney Creek.

A shot from dad as I walk under a downed tree along the slide near the 806.2 tunnel

Photo by Jack Mishler, published with permission

As we pop out of the tunnel, my Jeep is back in sight, safe and sound at the end of a very lonely road next to even lonlier train tracks.

We went down next to the river for a few mintues before heading back and dad was able to get this nice shot of the river.

Photo by Jack Mishler, published with permission

As we headed back toward the highway, we came around the corner and got a fairly good look at Saddle Mountain, maybe that will be one of our next places to visit.

And the long stretch of traffic as we head back to the valley

We had of course seen a few pictures of the railroad line of some of the damage, like the famous washed out bridge at the mouth of the Salmonberry

But really seeing the extensive damage for yourself, seeing that it's not just a washout here and there but nearly constant. I read there are 159 major slides covering the tracks and something like forty washouts. But smaller slides, cutbanks, trees and other small issues surely must number in the thousands and as much as I hate to say it, because the POTB truely is one of the greatest rail lines around, it does actually make sense for them to embargo the line for the foreseable future.
On the brighter side, I had a fantastic time, we couldn't not have asked for a better day and I can't wait to get out and explore this area some more.

This will be the first of hopefully many posts. I don't have many trips coming up for at least a month so I'll probably dig up some trips I took over the winter and share them. Also watch for occasional posts about other random items.
-Ryan