March trip was a reminder for me, and maybe a lesson for you, that just because plan A and plan B, and plan C don't work out... Plan D may make it all worth it.
Plan A
For those that saw my original plan, it was a 4 day, 3 night trip through my old hunting grounds and up to Overlook Hells Canyon...
Unfortunately just outside of Hepner, OR... the road maintenance ended, and the local snowmobile club took advantage and closed a main paved road through,
@PapaDave was with me on the scouting trip, and we tried a bipass thinking it was just a small section, but learned 3 things,
1. It was at least a stretch of 20 miles that was blocked
2. that though the snow wasn't super deep, the weird weather created a thaw/freeze cycle that meant that about 6-8" under the crust was ICE... and so once you broke through, you were done.
3... oh that when you get turned around and have to back track... you may find some folks using the isolation for... recreational activities, that you'd rather not see...
Because of this I grew wary about day 3 as well and Buckhorn overlook as it was similar elevation and I was sure past the maintenance line meaning we could end up with the same experience. Since we only had 2 days to scout, I eliminated day 3 immediately.
Plan A
Plan B
On the scouting trip since we encountered the above we jumped on local highways well below the snow line and hauled for Starkey unit (another hunting area I know well) as we approached snow started to fall as the light was fading. not wanting to deal with struggling in snow after dark, we found a campsite that was open and empty. the next morning we looped around and kind of entered the hunting grounds from the south. we definitely had similar snow, but with less traffic meant no ice and we made easy work of it. the only struggles were two down trees that we cleared by winching out of the way. So the plan was to leave Friday and head to Starkey and loop around and then head home.
As the trip grew closer and watching the forcast, things weren't looking good, they were warming up to mid 40's in the day and down to teens at night... meaning more Thaw/freeze... and since Dave and I just made tracks, I was sure they were just going to be solid ice. the final straw came when they got 5" of new snow on Thursday.
Plan B
Plan C
After discussing at the Sunday meetup about our March Trip,
@Buzzbee17,
@Bodge Garage and I called an audible and decided to chase warmer weather and use this as a scouting trip for a possible location for March. We were shooting for an area south south east of Lewiston, ID on the Salmon river. we also decided we would change the trip to leaving Saturday AM, and coming back Sunday. Unfortunately Kris wasn't able to make it due to tweaking his back, so Erin and I set off from my place around 9. Drive was nice and easy up to Waha Lake, and the road was miraculously plowed clear past the summit! Unfortunately, as we started the drop down to the salmon river on Eagle Creek Rd, the plowing stopped. There were some tracks leading down, so I had Erin stay up top and I eased down. about 100 yards down there was a wide section where I thought it would be good to test if I could turn around (just incase we reached something impassable) STUCK almost immediately. I dropped my pressure to 10 psi, but it was too late for that, so out came the winch. I spun myself around and headed back up to Erin. we made the call to pass on this as though I'm sure we would have made it down... we would have had to come back up the same route... and with only one winch... it wasn't the adventure we were looking for... So...
Plan C
Plan D
@Codeman was camping with his family in Joseph (originally planned on meeting up with us for plan A) so we backtracked to Lewiston and then hauled down to Joseph. Long drive, but gorgeous! We camped at the Wallowa State Park campsite, it was nearly empty. only 2 other rigs in the entire place. it was absolutely gorgeous and always nice to meet up with friends.
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the next day Erin and I chose to go to Dug Bar on the way home. 1. the scenery is EPIC 2. it was slower going than normal as I was leading and had never been there, and we were headed into weather. 3 the scenery is EPIC.
this is already longer than I meant so I'll get to the pictures but just want to say, this is a Definite option for March.
now more pics, in completely random order
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