where to visit in WA and OR this summer?

[4wdchico]

The Ape caves are in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, it a huge area and lots of it is pretty unused. Just plain awesome, a huge forest. Lots of fire roads and a good driver in a t4wd should be able to deal with most of it. Vast slopes of wild blueberry's with huckleberry a thimble-berry's also. IIRC your timing might be about right on the berry's. I have done really well by calling a ranger an getting the inside scoop on stuff like this.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsint ... st-%20Home

The town of Cougar is a good jumping off spot. Make sure to visit the Chainsaw/liquor store there & pick up a really big chainsaw and a half gallon of firewater. Use them both aggressively and simultaneously at your own risk...

[dlb]

Lots of fire roads and a good driver in a t4wd should be able to deal with most of it.

i'm afraid we'll be making the trek in the westfalia. i'm just about finished fixing up the fridge, sink, and various other details. it'll be slow going and there will be absolutely no off-roading going on in that thing but being able to set up camp in under 2 mins is pretty rad.

can anyone recommend any nice camping spots near the ape caves? i had originally been planning on camping at goose lake which is about 2.5 hrs south east of ape caves so something closer would be rad. and if it's on or near a lake that's even better--constant swimming is a must!

[arbskynxnex]

If you head up to the Ape Caves from Woodland, there are several campgrounds along the way that are on Lake Merwin and Yale lake. We've camped at one there when we've gone up for Kokanee (fish not the beer). They weren't crowded, though they are owned by the power company (?) or some other private entity so they cost a little more, but they were pretty nice. There is also a campground at Merrill lake, but I've never been there.

Here's a link to their campgrounds and hours. You might want to call them since it sounds like they may fill up if its nice.
http://www.pacificorp.com/about/newsroo ... l/rsc.html

[dlb]

chad, is mcbee park/falls near alsea? neither mcbee destination came up in my google mapping.

i had been planing on heading SW from anacortes to long beach, then east to cougar and the ape caves, and then more or less south through the mt. hood/willamette/deschutes/fremont national forests but the mountainous terrain has changed that--i don't want to tax the VW any more than i have to so i'm using google earth to help me figure out the elevations for each leg of the journey in the hopes of avoiding as many mountain passes as possible. sucks to change plans but it sucks more to have an overheated westfalia while on vacation.

[Neu]

McBee Park and Alsea falls are my favorite place in the world. You'll fall in love with the road, fyi. I get goosebumps just thinking about going back up there, and I am this saturday

McBee falls is owned by Hull Oakes Lumber Company and is a private park, but they're pretty cool and let just about anyone stay there as long as it's not reserved (They put notices up if it's reserved). Before McBee is Alsea Falls Recreational Area, then before that is the Alsea Falls Campground.

There is free camping on a very special road, it's a logging road that's maintained by BLM. You'll notice it because it's a Y that comes off the road for what seems like no reason. Two roads within 30 feet of eachother that intersect maybe 50 feet off the road. Drive down that and you'll see plenty of spots to camp for free All my directions are from the perspective of going TO alsea FROM monroe/belfountain/alpine.

Literally not a leg of the trip you'd want to miss, the area is incredible. Almost wanna say magical.

[Neu]

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Alsea+Fal ... 6&t=h&z=15

There's the recreation site, they recently added all the roads to Google maps, which is pretty nice. The road that Y's that i'm talking about is referred to as Miller Road on the map.

[dlb]

far out, thanks man. also, anyone (arb, i'm looking at you) know of any online maps that show both roads and elevation simultaneously? using google maps and then cross referencing on the less user friendly google earth is proving to be a headache and time waster, yet i can't find any road maps that show elevation.

[Neu]

Alsea is a mildly steep trip. It's really worth it. If you're into mountain biking there's tons of trails, there's a river you can MOST definitely have a great time swimming in. I'm really pushing you to go up there. It's one of Oregon's hidden treasures.

This may help http://www.daftlogic.com/sandbox-google ... titude.htm - Protip - Click the MAP dropdown and click Terrain. It's a topo map that helps a lot. To use the altitude part just click on the map at the point you want to know the elevation.

http://www.planetoregon.com/alsea_falls_photos.html

Here's a link to a random photo gallery I have on Facebook where we hiked from Alsea Falls to Mcbee falls (about 1.5 miles I think)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 20d&type=1

The falls in that gallery are Mcbee, I didn't snap any pics of alsea.

[dlb]

i like your passion for your area. i feel the same way about the place i live too. used to drive me nuts when people in high school would complain about how they couldn't wait to get out our town, they figured they had to fly to the other side of the planet to see anything worthwhile. philistines!

[Neu]

Don't get me wrong, I love all of this state and the PNW, but Alsea falls will -always- have a place in my heart. A lot of incredible memories up in those hills, let alone that place is magical. haha.

[arbskynxnex]

far out, thanks man. also, anyone (arb, i'm looking at you) know of any online maps that show both roads and elevation simultaneously? using google maps and then cross referencing on the less user friendly google earth is proving to be a headache and time waster, yet i can't find any road maps that show elevation.

Huh? What? I'm awake!

What area are you looking for? IF you know anything about arcGIS they have a free viewer program where you can add your layer files (forests usually have lots of GIS data online) and make your own custom map. If you don't know anything about GIS let me know what area you want and I'll see if I can whip you up a map.

[dlb]

arb, disregard the PM i sent you. i finally got this ironed out over the weekend.

so we've decided on a totally different route than what we had originally imagined but it is just as dope. we're going to take the ferry from sidney to anacortes, stop by petros's place and drop off some wheels, and then book it to cougar, WA and check out the ape caves and some other cool sights that are quite close. then we're heading SE to the deschutes river and will camp there for a few days. then south to the cove palisades state park/suttle lake (we haven't decided which we'll stay at yet), then south again to dead horse lake which has a great name and is beautiful. then a final stop in the modoc forest in NE california, and then a quick drive east to BM.

i'm really pumped. so many cool things to see and do! it's a bummer that we had to modify our trip based on terrain but i know we'll make a point of checking out a lot of there places mentioned here in the future. thanks to everyone for their input on here, i really appreciate it.

[arbskynxnex]

Okay. Though you did challenge me in that that PM so I'll have to see if I can do something like that in GIS. I do know if you have Topo! which isn't an online map tool, that you can print a map with a route and elevation profile map.

It sounds like your trip is going to be a blast.

[dlb]

well, we got back from the trip a week ago and i finally got the pics on the 'web so here's a little recount of where we went and what we did.

first day, we travelled for 18 hrs. from home on vancouver island down to woodland, WA. stopped by petros' place to drop off some stock T4 wheels and what he says about the hill to his house is for real: i wouldn't want to deal with it every winter! beautiful area, though.

when we got to woodland, it was about 10 pm. we gassed up the van and stood back for a minute, and then we noticed...severe leaking from the gas tank. big bummer. we drove across the street and parked in an industrial shop's parking lot--thank god it was saturday night and they weren't coming in the next morning. the leaking stopped after 10 minutes or so but that wasn't much comfort. next morning it seemed fine but something was obviously amiss so we tried filling up again to see if the problem was still there. it was, so we called the # for a 24-hr emergency mechanic that was conveniently located right next to us. he said he'd be 30-40 minutes but after 1.5 hrs i called again. his wife answered and said he had had an "accident" and would be there in just a few minutes. at 2 hrs, i called again and his wife fumbled with the phone for a minute before hanging up on me. at almost 2.5 hrs i called back, this time getting the voicemail, and politely said "thanks but no thanks." the experience thus far did not instill faith in this mechanic. we went to plan B and went to wal-mart (much to my chagrin--beat that word, tom!) where i picked up a big rubber maid tub, cutters, rags, an oil change catch tub, and some hose clamps. jacked up the van, drained the gas into the oil catch tub 5 liters at a time and then dumped it into the rubber maid bin. i realize now that i could have syphoned the gas but i've never done that before so it didn't occur to me. anyway, got all 60 liters gas into the rubber maid bin, dropped the tank, and found the rubber hoses for the expansion and overflow tanks were damaged. trimmed the ugly parts and put it back together with the new clamps, filled at the pump again and this time was good. went for a swim at the local beach and felt damn good that it only cost us a partial day and $35.

our first night of "camping":


the remnants of the initial leak:


jenn playing grease monkey:


drove off and got to beaver bay in cougar, WA in an hour or so. nice camp site. packed up the next day and checked out mt. st. helens and it was sick, as in awesome. saw lava tubes left by trees that were encased by lava and then rotted away, the ape cave (AWESOME, especially the end when you have to crawl to get through), lava canyons, and a hike up to june lake where we showered out dirty little selves in the glacier-fed waterfall.

lava tubes!


showering at june lake:


a tree at june lake that either fell or was blown by a volcanic blast head-first into the ground:


the signs around mt. st. helens are pretty funny. they're all like this:


dispersed camping near mt. st. helens:


next up was horsethief lake in southern WA, near the dalles, OR. HOT, DRY COUNTRY. lovely but too darned hot for me...and the van. the campsite wasn't private at all but it had a great beach, nice bathrooms, showers, great views, and native heiroglyphics (i think that's the word for it). continued south and drove over an incredible canyon! can't remember what it's called but it was a great sight.

horsethief lake:


the amazing canyon:


camped at suttle lake in central OR next. suttle lake was actually quite similar to lake of the woods in that it was a very popular family vacation destination and very nice all round. the real gem out there, though, was DARK LAKE. it's a tiny, isolated lake with an abandoned kid's camp on it, surrounded by dead trees killed by a forest fire 5 or 6 years ago. there are dead trees lying in the water but no algae so you can walk on the trees and see their clean, pale branches reaching down into the darkness of the lake. and we saw a snake swimming in the water too! it was CREEPY and straight out of friday the 13th or something; we were pumped. if you take the driveway to the kids camp, there is a spur road just to the left where you can park and camp. we wanted to relocate but it was late in the day when we learned of this so we'll do it the next time we're down that way.

the sign for the hiking trail to dark lake:


the lake:


the freaky kid's camp!


next up was thompson reservoir in southern OR. it was a real paradise in a desert hell! so beautiful and secluded and quiet (only 3 camping groups on a friday night!) and so full of life--there were frogs and birds of all kinds everywhere. we did some more dispersed camping here.

here's our view from our camp site:


drove through alturas, CA the next day on the way to burning man (or BM). it's a sad little town but seems to be doing a little bit better than the last time we went through two years ago. we swam at the reservoir there and did some shopping and then moved on.

parked by the alturas reservoir:


met up with board member simon84 and his gf and we caravaned the rest of the way to BM. we had to stop for a cattle drive!

simon had no problems pulling his camper with his T4:


more cattle:


BM was indescribable. it's something that you have to experience because no description of it will do it justice. here are a bunch of my fave pics that jenn took though.

the giant trojan horse that was pulled through gates and then burned. note the size of the bikes in the bottom corners of the pic for size reference:


here's a pic of my camp pals on a giant lawn chair! i think the chair looks normal while my friends look small.


my buddy's electromechanical 50 ft. snake! petros, you would have flipped over this thing:


the thunderdome, as seen in the mad max movie. very violent, very entertaining. i fought in it two years ago--and slayed. not this year though, my injured back said no way.


the temple structure. it was huge:


a giant praying mantis vs. a giant scorpion!


the movie theater in the middle of nowhere. it was real and played films at night, very eerie:


yours truly!


after a week, i had had enough dust and heat. here's the sunrise as we left BM:


the drive home was nice. we went straight to the OR coast and wound up following the umpqua river. it was a real highlight and a place that we will definitely make a stop on one of our next trips. the river is gorgeous and has many great swimming spots, the forest is lush and green, there are some neat almost-ghost towns along the way, and we saw lots of elk closer to the coast. there were a few males vying for dominant position of a herd and the squeaks they made were ridiculous considering their size! the fog, damp, and cold rolled in when we got close to the coast as well, and it was a welcome reprieve from the heat of the last week and a half. we blew a tire near seaside, OR but just put the spare on so that wasn't a big deal. stopped for lunch near there and met the cutest squirrel!

blown tire:


the squirrel!
















and that was it! oh, we drove through aberdeen in WA and it was a really sad city. looks like an industry town that has fallen by the wayside. any board members live there?

i think one of the best kept secrets about camping in the US is that one can camp in any national forest as long as there are no signs saying not to--and it's free! it's not like that here in canada so we really dig it. next time we'll do even more dispersed camping and save on the overall bill for the trip. definitely looking forward to the next trip!

[Petros]

great pictures, but you need more pictures of the TErcel4wd! looks like a great adventure. Funny the way you describe the repairs you made along the way, matter of fact. I do the same thing, I just expect to have to fix things along the way when I drive an old car cross country. As long as I can get parts, I bring enough tools to fix just about anything in the car when on the road.