Oregon and Washington BS thread

Opinions wanted!! Best time of year for section 3 of BDR?? And how much time would you dedicate to the route to truly enjoy it - not feel rushed

 

If I remember right that's the section between Ellensburg and Wenatchee. It really depends on how much snow we get, but I would guess that by late June you should be able to get through there. You top out somewhere around 6,000' (ish), but your pretty far east and it should melt out fairly quickly unless springtime has some heavy snow.

 

I'm new to off roading. Can anyone recommend somewhere to do some light off roading in a 100% stock truck?

I'm in the Vancouver/Portland area. I was thinking some forest roads or something, but I haven't lived here very long so I don't know that much about anything.

Thanks.

 

Tillamook forest was my playground. Mt hood area has some great trails too but most are probably pretty inundated with snow right now.

 

I don't really know the area all that well, but I would head for some FS roads. You're going to be limited on where you can go due to snow right now. I would take @ryfox0276 advice and head for the Tillamook Forest. It's been a long time since I was down there, but if I remember it doesn't get all that high so it should be mostly snow free right now.

You can try getting into the Gifford Pinchot NF from the Columbia River side of it, but I'm not sure you'll make it very far before you hit a good amount of snow. I've spent a little bit of time down there and it has some cool areas to explore, but most if not all of them are under snow right now. If you do get up there in the summertime though, the big lava bed is one of the areas worth exploring (look on google earth, you can't miss it).

Not sure how far you want to drive and I've never been there, but I've heard some good things about the Siuslaw NF. It's out on the coast also and I'm guessing not very high either. It might be worth checking out.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Just remember to bring some comms gear, lots of the oregon backwoods have little/no cell service.

 

This makes great sense...what would you redo for light use?

 

inReach. Not sure why most would need long range radio on land anymore.

 

Because there are tons of people on the nets, reliable repeaters, text/locations functionality, and best of all no monthly fee

 

Most of the Tillamook forest has cell service in my experience. If not get to higher elevation.

Love that place and miss it. Montana is pretty rad tho.

 

Larch or Stevenson has plenty of novice/fun trails...

 

Zero at Brown's Camp which is the usual destination for lots of folks.

 

Inreach with the rescue plan.

 

Got her a little dirty for the first time. Haha. Yes, I did more than park on the side of the road.

Tillamook was a great place to hit some forest roads for a noob like me. Not difficult, but still fun in 4 low!

 

Was it easy enough to know which trails were easier and which to stay away from?

 

Trails are all marked.

Main forest roads are pretty easily distinguished from the ones that branch off.

Tip: use your in dash maps and turn on route tracing. It will leave a trace on the map where you've been even if there is no road on the map (so you can find your way back out).

 

I should clarify, I stayed on the forest roads and not any trails. The trails were clearly marked for which type of OHV are allowed and marked with a diffculty.

 

Thanks. I find that once I get out on the trails I want to keep exploring and looking for a challenge. I tell myself I’m just going to stay on the main roads, but then I get bored. With a long bed double cab, that puts me in tight spots some times. I just need to get out to Tillamook and explorer and stop wondering what it’s like.

 

Yeah, this was my first time out there and one of my first times "offroad." You just gotta go. While we were headed out there I had no clue where I actually intended to go other than into Tillamook. So that's what we did. And that was a great plan. I use the word plan loosely.