OBCDR - Route 5 section 2

[Toy Man]

Well this is a little embarrasing. I cannot find a report for section 1. Section 2 follows. This was in 2001

Just returned from driving our second leg of the Oregon Back Country Discovery Route. Drove 264 miles of rough roads in 3 days. Started in Christmas Valley and ended up about 30 miles east of Seneca.

We drove a 4x4 dodge ? ton pickup. The 3 other vehicles were a ? ton Dodge pickup, a Toyota 4x4 T100 pickup and a lifted Jeep Cherokee running 31? tires.
All vehicles had off road tires.

Leaving Christmas Valley, we drove thru the Lost Forest and then what seemed like endless miles of sagebrush desert with occasional juniper trees. (Did I mention DUST!) We were WAY out in the middle of nowhere. After 90 miles and 8 hours we ended up at highway 20 about 14 miles west of Riley. Quit for the day, drove to Burns and tent camped.

Next day (Friday), we drove 42 miles back west on highway 20 and picked up the route heading north. It was VERY rough for the first 11 miles. I managed to 'polish' several rocks with the passenger side running board. (Ouch!) Took us 2 1/2 hours to go the 11 miles but then got better as we neared the Ococho National Forest. After entering the forest, the route took us up to 6000 feet where it was gorgeous - tall green grass in an open pine forest with an occasional meadow of lush grass and blooming wild flowers looking like a jewel placed among the trees. The group saw a couple of antelope (strange at this elevation), some deer and a few elk. The route would take us on gravel/dirt logging roads and then off onto some 4x4 track. Took us all day to drive 77 miles. Beautiful country. Saw some great old growth pine. Camped at Yellow Jacket Lake.

Got up the next morning and continued on the same type of roads to Seneca. Got to Seneca about noon, gassed up and headed east. Saw a couple of Sandhill(?) cranes with a chick. We ended up at Murray campground southeast of the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness area. 97 miles this day.

We saw only one other vehicle (a wood cutter) on the route during the entire trip.

Had great weather. It is DRY east of the mountains. The wood cutter mentioned that the Ococho NF had just raised the fire warning and was very close to closing the forest..

This was a GREAT trip. I highly recommend this route if you have a 4x4.