To Hell and back

**Toy Man** · 09-11-2011, 12:04 PM

Cascades Explorer trip report – 9 Sep 2011

A great drive thru the Cascades to Wolf Rock, Hell Hole and Bohemia Ridge/Fairview Lookout.

Friday (9 Sep) we headed south on I5 at first light then turned right at Salem and drove to Mehama. I wanted to check out Shelburg Falls but I drove in from the west and that way was gated. Another time.

We then drove south along the foothills from Lyons to Sweet Home. I had not been thru Sweet Home for probably 40 years and was surprised to see how well it had weathered the loss of the logging and sawmills. Gassed up in Sweet Home and headed east on hwy 20. Near the top we turned right on NFD15 and headed south. We eventually came to Wolf Rock, Oregon's highest monolith.

Google maps - set to Terrain Home - SPOT Satellite Messenger

Continued south and came out just above Blue River on the McKenzie river.
Turned left and drove a mile or so to Rainbow where we had a nice lunch at Takoda’s.
We choose outdoor seating in the shade near a burbling water feature. The outside temperature was absolutely perfect. We gave our order and Sandy left to do some shopping at the store next door. I stretched out in the chair and was asleep in about 30 seconds. Woke up when the food arrived and we proceeded to leisurely devour a hamburger and fries. I would have been content to stay there for another hour or two but the road was calling.

Back on the highway and west a little ways before we turned off onto the Cougar Reservoir road. We would have followed the paved Canyon Road to near the Hell Hole but that would have been boring so I turned off onto the narrow, graveled Augusta
Creek road and we zig zagged our way to the top and then down before finally picking up pavement.

I had seen an article about the Hell Hole years ago but when I started back country exploring I could not find it on any maps. I concluded the government was hiding it like they do for Indian ruins. Then a friend sent me a detailed GPS map of its location; hence a reason for this back country drive.

I drove by the turn off and didn’t even notice it but my GPS mapping showed I had driven by it. Turned around and drove back up the hill. Yep, there a was a small unmarked road to the west. Carefully drove a mile or so down it looking for a parking pull out or something. Drove by the GPS parking spot again. Backed up about 50 yards and there was a slight widening of the road – just like several other wide spots. The GPS said this was it so we got out and started looking for a trail. Hmm – there is a small faint trail on the east end of the wide spot. Off we go and five minutes later; Whoa – there is no more ground, just empty space. We cautiously move closer to the edge and we are looking down a vertical dirt cliff about 200’ deep. Looking sideways we can see where the top is undercut. We ease back from the edge and follow the trail a little ways along the side of the drop off but cannot get a really good view.

But now I know why information and the location is hard to find. It is a VERY dangerous place. Sigh - no government conspiracy, just a good idea to keep crazies and children from falling into it.

The Hell Hole:
Home - SPOT Satellite Messenger

Back on the road and we come out at Westfir and take the back way to Oakridge. Getting pretty warm in Oakridge when we top off with gas. A short stop and then along the south side of the Hills Creek reservoir to try and find a way to Bohemia and the Fairview lookout.

I had plotted three different ways to go up the mountain and come in on the east side of Bohemia but Sandy suggest another way. So, up the NFD 2110 road. And up and around and up, up, up. Finally we come to a big intersection. The routes I have plotted from here will take too long and Sandy’s map does not show good detail in this area.
I take a really close look at the map on my computer and see a faint road connecting (we hope) to the Bohemia rim and to a road several miles south of us. Let’s try it.

We come to the intersection of the faint road and it is a major mainline road leading to the Bohemia rim. Woo hoo.

Just before we reach the intersection we meet a USFS pickup that tells us to watch out for law enforcement and medical vehicles near Fairview LO as someone had suicided at the park. And as we near the look out, a medical rescue rig is headed downhill towards us. A tight squeeze but he gets by.

Then we are at the road leading up to the lookout. When I have been here in the past it has been so cloudy it was not worth driving up but no clouds today so up we go. The road just before reaching the top is pretty damn narrow and a long way down on the passenger side.

Great views from the lookout base. We can see 4 small fires way off to the east. The person manning the lookout told us some of the fire crews had been pulled off the fires because of the low humidity and the extremely rugged terrain.

Fairview Lookout:
Home - SPOT Satellite Messenger

Back down the hill, take the Sharps Creek road down (rough) and finally meet up with the pavement at the intersection with Martin Creek. Zoom thru Culp Creek, Row River, Dorena Lake and finally - The Village Green motel in Cottage Grove at 5:30.

298 miles in about 10 hours.

It was a great day to be driving the back county and as usual there was no one else driving on the gravel roads. We did see two elk hunters walking alongside the road when we made the initial turn off towards Wolf Rock.

Dick and Sandy Hamilton

My usual method of embedding pictures is not working.
This is a link to the pictures.
https://picasaweb.google.com/mr.rich...eat=directlink

**Jerry** · 09-11-2011, 04:11 PM

Wow! You guys covered a lot of territory in one day. Great report, enjoyed it. Thanks for the SPOT locations, too. When I first read, "To hell and back", I was thinking of a trip to Costco or Wallmart.