If you want to give up 15 minutes of your life, you can watch the video of our 2015 Oregon Road Trip.

Video is new to me. Shooting, composing, storytelling, B-rolls, editing… I’m a total noob, and it shows! So my apologies for the bad edits, screw-ups, missed shots and everything else. Hopefully the content itself will make it worthwhile.

Still, I’m enjoying the learning experience.

But without further delay, here it is. I hope you enjoy it.

We’re back from another 9-day road trip up to Oregon. Usually we go for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but this time we went in mid-February. Who knew we’d have the warmest and driest weather of any visit for many years?

It was a good trip, and good to get together with family again. One of the personal highlights for me was our successful completion of what I’m calling the Valsetz route, a 77-mile drive on dirt and backroads from I-5 to the Oregon coast. I wasn’t sure the route was even possible, but we did it. Look for a detailed new Drive post on that route Real Soon Now. We also managed some other exploration in addition to more traditional vacation/tourist activities.

Before getting around to that Drive post, and at least one other trip post, I wanted to put down some thoughts on several of the electronic gizmos I brought. These are observations and “lessons learned”, which are constants when on the road. So without further ado, here they are, in no particular order:
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Mauna Kea summit marker

Length: 8.4 miles (one way)

My Drive Time: 20 minutes

Start: Mauna Kea Visitors Center, N19º 45.558′ W155º 27.384′

End: N19º 49.330′ W155º 28.050′

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

Source(s): This drive and the general area are described in Hawaii The Big Island Revealed, The Ultimate Guidebook. I have the 5th edition of this book, but an updated 7th edition is available.

Summary: Hawaiian snow and spectacular views await the adventurous at the top of Mauna Kea’s nearly 14,000′ summit.

Description: This drive starts at the Mauna Kea Visitor Information Center, located at roughly 9.300′ in elevation. Our day had started at sea level near the beaches on the western side of the island, so this had been quite a climb for us, and we still had almost 5,000′ to go.

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Drive #26: Skyline and Radford Truck Roads

Date Driven: 9/19/14

Length: 15.7 miles

My Drive Time: 1 hour 21 minutes

Start: N34º 13.541′ W116º 56.034′

End: N34º 11.572′ W116º 54.627′

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

Source(s): Skyline Road is shown on Trail #41, and Radford Truck Road as part of Trail #40 (Clark’s Grade) in Guide to Southern California Backroads & 4-Wheel Drive Trails. Both are also covered by the Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Guide, San Bernardino National Forest map.

Summary: This drive took us from Big Bear to Mountain Rendezvous 2014 via dirt trails. From Big Bear we ascended and drove along the ridge to the south before descending into the valley that Highway 38 runs through.

Description: After completing our adventures along Snowslide Road, we eased into Big Bear with about a quarter tank of remaining fuel. After checking prices with the Gas Buddy app on my iPhone, I filled up the main tank, we took a quick restroom break, and we grabbed some food for lunch from the same small market I’d visited the previous year.

Then it was time to find the trailhead for what was to be our last offroading of the trip. Looking over my maps, it wasn’t clear where we could best access the trail system from town, so I decided we’d start with the nearest possible route and work our way east until we hit one that worked. » Continue Reading