Welcome to the first installment of my new Drives category. These will offer basic information, photos, and GPS tracks which I hope readers will find useful.

Klamathon Road

Date Driven: 11/17/12

Length: 5 miles

My drive time: 17 minutes

Start: N41º 51.327′ W122º 34.239′.

End: N41º 53.901′ W122º 30.550′.

GPS Track: GPX or KMZ format. (right click -> Save As)

Summary: A quick and easy scenic dirt road right off I-5 and the Klamath River. Suitable for most any vehicle that can handle a bumpy dirt road. There are some narrow stretches.

Description: I’ve driven on I-5 past here many times and had always looked across the Klamath River and seen this little dirt road. It always looked so enticing, being something of a shelf road as it closely followed the river, past a ramshackle old house with a few dilapidated outbuildings. I’d wondered if it was a private road, and occasionally spotted vehicles on it, or parked along the river.

The exit off I-5 can be taken in either direction. There is a rest area off of the same exit, also adjacent to the river, and it’s arguably the nicest rest area location on I-5. Klamathon Road actually runs under I-5 here and is paved. It’s unpaved – and much more interesting, where my track begins on the east side of the highway.

When we drove it, the dirt road was well-maintained with few potholes or rocks. Early on, the road is narrow and generally one lane. Before long it gets wider as it gets a bit further from the river banks. Soon we were passing the odd house, and parked pickups belonging to fishermen. At one house, several dogs went into a barking frenzy and ran into the roadway, but we just drove past them.

At the northeast end of the drive is the monument and plaque to the old town of Klamathon. After that, you’re back at pavement at the intersection with Ager Road. We took that road a short distance north, over the river, and then returned to I-5 via a short drive on Cr-A28 (Copco Road).

All in all, this is a quick and pleasant dirt road drive. The southern section which is closest to the river, with several apparent places you could park a 4×4 for a picnic, is the more interesting part of the drive. This absolutely isn’t a drive you’d want to go out of your way for, but it’s there as a welcome (and brief) diversion from a long haul on I-5. It pays to keep your eyes open for opportunities like this one, since you never know when you’ll find something interesting or downright wonderful.

Disclaimer – This information is provided from the best of my recollection and is necessarily subjective. GPS data is from a personal device inside my vehicle, so coordinates will not be exact. Use of any of this information is at your own risk and responsibility – period. Conditions change (especially in winter), vehicles and driver skills vary, etc. and I have no control over these things. Don’t let anything written here override your own personal common sense or safety.

November 2012 brought us back to Oregon for our annual visit during Thanksgiving week. The trip was in many ways like previous years: visiting family, long drives on I-5, and plenty of genuine Oregon rain. We made stops at are usual places, including the Cornerstone Bakery & Cafe in Dunsmuir; Mad River Brewing, the Redwood Motel and The Train Depot in Grants Pass; Rogue headquarters in Newport; the Pelican Pub; and of course Aunt Lisa’s cabin for Thanksgiving dinner.

This year I made note of several potential offroad and backroad drives as well as some other potential sights – if time permitted. We ended up doing several of these and really just had one long drive/exploration in Oregon that we didn’t get to, mainly due to the weather and being lazy! I always have more things listed on the “to do” list than we have time for.

On the drive up we had a couple of possible side trips in California as well, but again the weather wasn’t cooperating, and the family wasn’t going to tolerate a lot of walking around in the cold rain. I opted to save those for another day. Instead, I took a target of opportunity and drove the dirt Klamathon Road, something I wanted to do for several years now. Check that box as done!

As we passed the border into Oregon the weather changed from rainy & overcast to proper Oregon heavy rain and fog. It would stay that way for much of our trip, as our first 24hrs in Lincoln City coincided with the first big storm of the season. Winds gusted to 60mph down at sea level where we were staying, and up to 100mph on Mt. Hebo which we visited a couple of days later. Thanksgiving, appropriately enough, turned out to be our only non-rain day in Oregon this year.

On the drive from Grants Pass to Lincoln City, we drove the “Coos Bay Wagon Road”, which is Drive #15 in the excellent Oregon Byways book. On our return drive home, we also managed to fit in Drive #14 from that book, “North Siuslaw River”, although we drove it in the reverse direction. I’ll be detailing these drives, along with Klamathon Road, in greater detail in separate posts.

All in all it was a great trip, and it went by far too fast! Hopefully it won’t be another year before we visit again.

Oregon 2012 Trip Statistics:

• 1,732 miles
• 31 miles on dirt
• 9 days
• 3 brewpubs
• 1 major winter storm
• 1 tree winching
• 4 dirt/backroad drives

Oregon 2012 Trip Gallery

I first heard about the 2012 Maya End of the World Rally on the Expedition Portal site. It was billed as a fun adventure rally that would take place in Mexico this December, conveniently just before the predicted end of the world. While at Overland Expo this year, Maya Rally creator Christian Pelletier had a small but tantalizing display set up to lure in participants. It looked very tempting, so when Anthony of Overland Nomads told me he planned to go and invited me to join him, I was more than ready to go.

Unfortunately, since I’m currently job hunting (love that tech industry!), I just couldn’t justify the time away. Not that I didn’t try… But very reluctantly, I had to decline the offer and Do The Right Thing, and stay home while Anthony – and Bryon of Exploring Elements – went off and had a blast at the rally without me. Bastards.

They would be leaving at o-dark-thirty on the Tuesday morning after I got back from my Oregon trip, so on Monday I drove over to Santa Cruz to have a last chat with them and see them off. I brought my camera and took a few photos, and quizzed them on their trip prep and details.

While I was in Oregon, they’d scored some sponsorship from Triple Aught Design, Warn Industries, and LED Lenser USA. In addition to the sponsor decals, Anthony’s Land Cruiser – “Hank the Tank” – was also adorned with Maya Rally and rally-style driver/co-driver stickers. There were also large pink decals for their team name, Team Astrid (Twitter hashtag #teamastrid), dedicated to the other half of Overland Nomads duo. Unfortunately, Astrid is still going through a lot while she recovers from her bone marrow transplant and wouldn’t be able to join the guys either, but they were sure to be bringing her along in spirit.

Besides the flashy new stickers, Hank the Tank looked mostly the same, with the notable exception of some stout new home-made limb risers. I’d never had much need for risers myself (add your own adult humor here) but there have been a couple of times they really would have come in handy. See this photo from a Slate Mountain shelf road as an example! I think if I were heading to the jungles of Central America, I’d certainly consider a set of limb risers. One thing is for certain: they look pretty cool.

Besides the obvious additions, I quizzed Anthony and Bryon about the vehicle prep that had been don in anticipation of the long drives and the rally. They’d replaced the brake pads (which hopefully fixed an intermittent brake fade issue), rotated the tires, changed & topped up the fluids, and put in a fresh air filter. They’d also had the AC fixed at Mudrak’s. As an already well-modified Land Cruiser series 80, there wasn’t really anything else that Hank needed.

While on their rally trip, the guys plan to make regular updates via social media. A lot of that will probably take the form of Instagram photos which will also be cross-posted to Twitter and Facebook. They were a little skeptical about making blog posts to their sites, but Anthony’s actually got his first border-crossing post up on the Overland Nomads site already. As I write this, they’re driving south through Mexico.

While in Mexico, my friends will be doing some good volunteer work for several days prior to the start of the rally, which I think begins on December 11th, and ends on the 21st. After the rally, the guys plan to join some of the other participants enjoying Christmas on a beach in Belize (IIRC) before making their way back to the U.S. I suggest that you follow their adventures online… I certainly will be!

Anthony: Overland Nomads website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

Bryon: Exploring Elements website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

We’re back from our annual Oregon road trip! This one was nine days and over 1,700 miles. Photos and a trip report are coming soon. My plan is also to start adding specific posts that cover some of the trails and backroads we drove along the way.

The day after we returned I drove over to see Anthony & Bryon before their early-morning departure for Mexico and the 2012 Maya Rally. Epic and exciting stuff! I really wish I was going with them, but as it is I’ll be watching their social media updates, and subsequent blog posts. Look for a post on this as well.