Caribou Gear

Bad Roads

rtraverdavis

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 20, 2016
Messages
4,047
Location
OREGON
Yesterday morning I got to get out and do a little steelhead fishing on my favorite section of my favorite river. The Deschutes in Central Oregon was my second home for a number of years, back before my wife and I had kids, when I was a part-time fly fishing guide and full-time steelhead bum. Back then, I used to access the river—which is flanked on both sides by private land, with very, very limited access in most places—from my drift boat. But I sold my drift boat a couple of years ago after fatherhood and a new passion for hunting caused the boat to sit in the driveway and collect dust.

So the part about bad roads... I remembered from all of my float trips down through the lower canyon of the Deschutes that there was one road that the public could use to access the river, which descended north-to-south along the western canyon wall and dropped down to the river about seven river-miles up from where it empties into the Columbia. This gives access to some of the best steelhead runs on the whole lower river. But I also remembered hearing what a holy nightmare sphincter-clencher of a road it was. So yesterday, knowing I only had the morning to fish, and wanting to make the most of my time, I thought, how bad could it be? and decided to give it a shot.

Never again.

There’s a sign at the top of the canyon rim where the road begins its descent to the river that says “Caution, Narrow and Steep,” but crawling down it in the dark gave a distorted sense of just how narrow and steep it actually was. All I could really tell was that it had been washed out a bunch of times, as it was bony as hell with big jagged basalt rocks that caused my truck to pitch and lurch in all directions, sometimes out toward the deep black to my right which I knew to be the expanse of the canyon in the darkness. Within the first hundred yards of the descent I knew I made a mistake, but there was nowhere to turn around, and backing up was not an option, so I crawled the truck all the way to the bottom, toes curled and apologizing to my truck all the way down. Several times I could feel the rear end slipping and bouncing toward the edge, provoking guttural screams of obscenities to erupt from my throat. After as much time as it would have taken me to just hike the damn thing, I managed to make it to the bottom without major incident.

Throughout the morning of fishing, I would be hit with waves of dread for the drive out, mostly at the thought that someone would be coming down as I was going up, and one of us would have to back up to one of the two spots that are wide enough for two vehicles to pass. Driving this road in the daylight is far worse than in the dark, as you can see everything. Coming down I thought that the road’s boniness was its worst aspect, but there are sections that skirt sheer cliff faces which are so narrow that people have stuck rocks in the cracks along the edge to provide more footing for your tires. To go off the edge in one of those spots would result in a several-hundred-foot vertical tumble down the canyon. And though I made it out without injury or serious damage to my truck, I will never drive that road again. The whole time I was on that road I was thinking of @Europe ’s “Jesus Moments” thread, because I was having one. It’s one of the few times I can think of where it’s just physically easier to hike, given the stress that my both my heart and anal sphincter endured while driving it. I know there are folks that use that road all the time, but I guess I don’t have that sort of constitution.

A picture from the truck:

3680ECE1-B5A3-48B0-B086-0622C1873FF3.jpeg

Another looking upriver from one of the two wide spots in the road:

13231A9D-CF33-49E0-9E0F-C6B6EA82E61F.jpeg

So what are your bad/scary road stories? I’m sure mine is candy-ass compared to many of you guys. Post some pictures too, if you’ve got them.
 
I had a break issue with my big dodge years ago. Front end would lock up and the rear end would keep spinning, under light break pressure. I had a couple of pucker moments, in the mountain after a rain.
 
Just curious...not that I wanted to attempt death lol.
I was down here fishing the D near Bend and then the Crooked River below Bowman.
Some small red bands and a couple of whitefish.
 
That sounds like a pucker ride for sure.

One time in Wyoming we got hit with an early snow storm and decided to head to lower country. One section of the road is very steep going down with a hairpin turn at the bottom. If you were to go over that edge you'd end up in the river below. I stopped at the top trying to decide if it was safe or not. As I was pondering along came a guy from California pulling a travel trailer. Didn't even stop, just smiled and waved as he passed me. I watched in horror as half way down his trailer started sliding causing him to lose control. Sure enough both truck and trailer went right over the edge and ended up in the river below. I ran down expecting to find him dead. Miraculously he was alive and able to get out of the now upside down truck and wade to the shore. The trailer was obliterated as you can imagine but the guy was ok, just super pissed... I ended up leaving my rig for a couple days until the snow melted and came back when it was safe to get down off the mountain.
 
I spun my Tundra 180 degrees on an icy single lane road road two winters ago while trying to get to my buddy and the mt. goat he'd killed. While trying to go up a steep grade I lost all traction and started sliding backwards and accelerating on the ice. I managed to crank the back end into a berm on one side of the road to stop the slide, but I had so much momentum the front just continued to come around until I was facing forward and able to roll it out back to the bottom with two wheels in the drainage ditch. With all the adrenaline pumping I was able to double-time almost the whole way up the canyon on foot and help him pack out the goat.
 
A few years ago CPO, his dad and I had RFW tags near Craig the week of Thanksgiving. It was cold and snowy out there and snowing when we were about to leave the State campground so we stopped at the ranger station to get road conditions for Rabbit Ears Pass. They told us it was snowy but no restrictions and fine. We drove on to Steamboat and then headed up. Holy crap things went bad quickly. To the point of it being mid day and although you knew it was "daylight" you couldn't tell where the sun was. We crept up with me about 20 feet off of CPOs rear bumper and barely able to see his lights. To call it harrowing was an understatement. As we started down the back there was a CDOT plow truck off the road on it's side. We got to Walden and even the waitress could tell we had it rough. To this day I have no idea how that pass wasn't closed.
 
rwc101 I agree, it is surreal ! My husband ask me if I wanted to do it again and I said " I didn't want to do it the first time "

SFC B When you were in Italy did you drive the Steloio Pass ? It is interesting

A couple of unusual, not dangerous in my opinion, but different and difficult-yet beautiful roads that come to mind, that we enjoyed was James Dalton and Kapsodasos, completely different but both beautiful drives, although not necessarily "dangerous"

To me Bolivia wins that one !
 
A few years ago my son and I were elk hunting near Questa NM between Christmas & New Years. We were have below zero temperatures. One day during the middle of the day while out doing some scouting, I saw a two track that went up a hill about 50 - 75 foot high, but with a real steep angle with snow coverage. I decided to see what was on top, made it to the top fine but it then made a sharp 90 degree turn and ran along the top of the ridge. I made it about 100' before the snow got to deep and I couldn't continue. As I said it was the top of the ridge with steep slopes on both sides, no turning around, no going forward only left backing up and making that sharp turn in reverse and back down the hill. When it was over, Jake said he had been worried about the truck flipping while backing down the hill and I told him I had been worried about it sliding off the top of the ridge and rolling down the hill.
 
rwc101 I agree, it is surreal ! My husband ask me if I wanted to do it again and I said " I didn't want to do it the first time "

SFC B When you were in Italy did you drive the Steloio Pass ? It is interesting

A couple of unusual, not dangerous in my opinion, but different and difficult-yet beautiful roads that come to mind, that we enjoyed was James Dalton and Kapsodasos, completely different but both beautiful drives, although not necessarily "dangerous"

To me Bolivia wins that one !
I did not do Stelvio......I did do the road up to Asiago which made me wish I had a motorcycle there. Also, a LOT of great roads in southern Bavaria and Austria with folks in Audi's going a lot quicker than I would dare :)
 
I did not do Stelvio......I did do the road up to Asiago which made me wish I had a motorcycle there. Also, a LOT of great roads in southern Bavaria and Austria with folks in Audi's going a lot quicker than I would dare :)

would love to travel through those countries on a motorcycle.
 
Thank you ! I hope someday to travel to all the places you and April have traveled to. Love reading the posts from you guys. I still remember when you and her were discussing a motorcycle trip in Italy with a sidecar :)

Some day ! ( without the sidecar )
 
Yeti GOBOX Collection

Forum statistics

Threads
110,805
Messages
1,935,073
Members
34,883
Latest member
clamwc
Back
Top