Oregon Back Country Discovery Route (OBCDR)

Planning our first trek on the OBCDR. We'll have 3 rigs, 4 adults, 3 kids and a few dogs. Looking for advice on which route to take in order to make a good first impression on the wives. Who has been on some of the routes and can suggest the most scenic one or best places to check out. We'll be traveling from Aug. 5th-9th so I've got 5 days to make a first impression. Thanks for your help.

 

Lived here my whole never heard of it. So I looked it up and I think the Sisters to Seneca section would be my choice. My family is from Seneca area actually. Sisters is a good start point in my eyes because it's touristy. It'll put the ladies in a good mood before the trip; browsing through the shops. Remember fire season is upon us.

 

I have heard of some of these routes but have never seen the maps. Just looked it up as well and I would agree with @_RJP_ . That would be a good start! I'm definitely interested in doing a few of these sooner than later. Good luck @1patriot4life ! I look forward to a trip report and some sweet photos!

 

Yeah me too. I know my wife would like that stretch.

 

I wanted to do this route a couple years ago, going through WA into Oregon but there were a lot of forest fires that year, would still love to do it one day but couldn't find any info that wasn't dirt bike related

 

I took my wife on her first overland trip on Route 5. We started in Riley (between Bend and Burns) and made it to LaGrande. It is an amazing trip. If you need, I have GPX files and recommendations for camp sites.

 

If I were you I'd try to run the Sisters to Diamond lake section. There is a group who does it in every Memorial weekend, but Diamond Lake to Sisters.

 

I've explored some of that area a few times, it's a lot of wide open space and a lot more driving than I really expected but it was awesome. Steens Mountain and the Alvord Desert is pretty cool, so is Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge, Abert Rim, Fort Rock. It's gonna be hot out there but it should be a lot of fun. What are you going to use for GPS? I used Gaia Pro on my iPad, it worked great.

 

I did route three a few years ago in two rigs with a couple friends over the first week of July and had a great time. One recommendation is to not procrastinate as we did and get your coordinates into the GPS before the trip starts so you're not stopping at each turn after the first day checking the maps! It's not an overly technical route. I think there was one optional side trail along a powerline road that we decided to skip because I was pulling a trailer with my jeep at the time. Let me know if you have any specific questions about the route. In the meantime, here's some pics!

 

I've created tracks and downloaded some others into Garmin's Base Camp and planned on loading them onto my Garmin Nuvi but apparently the damn thing doesn't let you upload anything to it. So not sure what I'm going to do at this point.

 

Thanks for the info! Do you happen to have a file for the route you took?

 

My buddy was running the GPS setup for the trip, so I didn't get a route logged, but I'll try to get the file from him for you. We ended up purchasing the mapbook from OOHVA.org and found it pretty useful to have with us. It was pretty thorough, having coordinates for each turn. I'll send you a PM if I can get a copy of the track!

 

So we had an awesome trip! Ended up doing the Sisters to Seneca route. Thanks for all the tips and pointers. I was able to figure out my Garmin issue and loaded our route with no issues. The only thing I changed along the route was the last bit that runs the hwy into Seneca. We found our own route to connect down to Route 5 which added another day on the dirt and scenery which is what it's all about.

 

Looks like a great time! How long did the trip take you guys?

 

Awesome. Looks like everyone enjoyed themselves.

 

We took 5 days. We would have been done in 4 but finding our way down to Route 5 and following 5 in to Seneca added the 5th day. We were never in any kind of hurry. Never started driving before 10am each day and constantly stopped for pictures, clearing trails and lunch/break stops.

 

Thanks for sharing! This is something on my list to do one day.