Southern Oregon desert expedition

[TeamCF]

I'm part of the PNWBA. They do long backroad excursions and such with various levels of wheeling thrown in.

 

This past weekend was a trip out to the Christmas Valley area.

 

I myself covered about 250 or so miles of dirty goodness.

Took off Friday morning. I got down close to the area and was greeted with a sign stating I was now entering the "Oregon Outback". Well seeing that right there got the school girl giggle out of me. My Subaru was home.

So I pressed on to the meeting spot at the dunes.

Got there and set up camp, then went out an played a bit on the sand.

Came back to camp had some Dinty Moore beef stew heated up right in the can. Ran into town (all of an airport, gas station, church, and auto parts store), filled up the tank, waited for dark and did some more dune fun.

got up Saturday for the big run. 100+ miles of desert trail goodness. We left camp at about 9:30am via a route through the Lost Forest. The trees there are genetically different than any other trees in the world. They can survive on half the water that they normally require.

So it's protected but there is one trail you are allowed to go through on.

and we got back to camp about 11:30pm or so. Awesome.

Then Sunday some of us that didn't have to leave right away went for a small tour around the area. After getting to the northern most point on the tour, and I was the last one except for the organizer that lives in the area, I split off and headed north on back roads and trails. I figured I had close to a full tank, spare gas in the back, still had food, still had 2.5 gallons of water plus all the other beverages I took.... I was gonna just backcountry it halfway home. Who needs stupid pavement?!?!?! hehe (my only glitch was my air compressor gave up when I did reach pavement around Bend, so I had to venture on my aired down tires to find air, Squishy! Time for a new compressor)

Marked some caves to go check out with more daylight on the GPS.

They don't put them on maps anymore and they took most of the signs leading you to them down. But you can still check out a couple of them, and a couple are permit only type deals.

but with a bit of inside info, an old map, and some luck I found them.

 

And the rest is boring highway travel. hehe. Got home about 1 am last night.

 

Group shot before leaving for the long outing saturday.

 

Dirty Soobs on a dry lake bed. The inside and I were just as filthy.

 

Crack in the ground. Two miles long and has snow almost all year long in the bottom.

 

Lunch with a view on my way home. There is a mile wide crater behind me.

 

 

There were planty of wild horses I didn't get any good pics of.

 

And on the last day one of the veterans with one of the Jeeps said he comented to the other guys when I pulled up on friday to camp "I hope he dosent think he's gonna get that on the dunes!" After awhile and seeing me blast up a few of the bigger hills he said he had his mouth wide open with his foot in it. And he's buying his wife one.

Another was convinced I had about 20 years of wheeling under my belt. I told him only a few years of going out 2-3 times a week to become one with the Soob.

 

It was good times. Can't wait for the next event. But all the obsidian thrashed my tires time for new ones.

Edited May 11, 2009 by TeamCF

[Spiffy]

wow, that's some dry ground...

 

love the rock chasm...

 

not too sure about taking my subie on the dunes... it doesn't need a sand-blasting...

 

but the southern part of the state is on my list... need to see crater lake some day...

[TeamCF]

Soobs on the dunes are a blast. Air down and keep moving and they tend to go most places you point them.

 

While we were out there the burgandy Jeep went romping up a big dune that had a step in it. I decided to follow but turn left at the step as the top half was steep and not quite a vehicle width wide (we were going up the corner of a multi sided dune). So I had to hit it precise and there was no backing down if I didn't make it. Well I still had some speed after the first half so I kept going. Almost made the top and buried it.

Had to get winched up as it was sliding back down and off the side. Would have been a barrel roll off the top of a 200 foot dune. Not good.

 

They were still impressed by how far I made it though.

[GLCraig]

you know, one of these days, a group of use need to take our subs on the back country discovery route, that runs from Goose Lake CA to Walla Walla.

[TeamCF]

you know, one of these days, a group of use need to take our subs on the back country discovery route, that runs from Goose Lake CA to Walla Walla.

 

Sounds like a plan that needs to be made at some point.

[chazmataz]

hey Jason, that area and more east of it is my favorite place to go in oregon. was over there around lost forest about 2 years ago haven't made it back. i had pictures up in my gallery before the website crashed a while ago. would love to do a trip in the sooby to explore again, we couldn't make it to the Alvord desert side though or on much of the steens do to brush fires through out that area then.

but i have been over around the Steens mountain area though but not to explore off road, at least in a vehicle, went backpacking last year with my son. did alittle exploring but the car wasn't running to good, wanted to overheat during low speed driving.

 

 

So what is this PNWBA and do they have lots of trips in that area?

 

EDIT:

well i remade an album for my 06 trip to the dunes and the lost forest area.

Edited May 31, 2009 by chazmataz

[chazmataz]

you know, one of these days, a group of use need to take our subs on the back country discovery route, that runs from Goose Lake CA to Walla Walla.

 

 

i have that complete route map (route 3) for that and been wanting to do that for years, i think i got around 3 years ago. But don't want to do it alone and i would have to plan it in advance to get some time off work to run it.

 

i also have the route 4 map that goes from Sisters to Seneca.

[GLCraig]

yeah it's definitely something that I would not want to do alone either. At this point I don't have a vehicle ready for such a trip. I would probably want to take something that's lifted but looking at the pics on the Internet; a stock ride height EA81/EA82 could make the drip at the right time of year. At this point I do not have a lifted Subaru, I may finally build a lift for my 84, just to do this. Last week I took a trip through eastern Oregon in my new subaru, it did see some gravel roads but it's not going on any major off highway exertions. Here's the link to the post about the trip http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=99603

[TeamCF]

hey Jason, that area and more east of it is my favorite place to go in oregon. was over there around lost forest about 2 years ago haven't made it back. i had pictures up in my gallery before the website crashed a while ago. would love to do a trip in the sooby to explore again, we couldn't make it to the Alvord desert side though or on much of the steens do to brush fires through out that area then.

but i have been over around the Steens mountain area though but not to explore off road, at least in a vehicle, went backpacking last year with my son. did alittle exploring but the car wasn't running to good, wanted to overheat during low speed driving.

 

 

So what is this PNWBA and do they have lots of trips in that area?

 

EDIT:

well i remade an album for my 06 trip to the dunes and the lost forest area.

 

 

They do tons of trips. One coming up is a Steens trip.

http://www.pnwadventures.com/forum/

 

I'm in need of tires and funds are low right now or I'd be hitting up more of thier runs. They want me to go on the Sttens one but I just don't think I can pull it off right now.

 

Just got a $145 speeding ticket yesterday.

Close to the same spot Gregg and I got pulled over in our Soobs out near the coast.

This time I was in the Focus and the Trooper decided he'd had enough of me. (That's what I get for blowing off that punk in the M3.)

Edited May 31, 2009 by TeamCF