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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Posted: May 19th, 2019, 3:03 pm
by jvangeld
I think that WDFW might have to start stocking some new lakes up there pretty soon.

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Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Posted: May 27th, 2019, 3:48 pm
by jvangeld
Thanks, JP. The OpenStreetCam app makes it pretty easy. It automatically takes a picture every 50 feet or so. And it keeps track of where the picture was taken. Once you get back to WiFi it uploads all the pictures and the website processes them onto the map. So that part is really easy. Hiking up the road under a time limit imposed by an old Android phone's battery, that was hard.

But, yeah, the OpenStreetCam app is free on the Android and iOS stores. It would be really cool if more people used it on the forest roads and even some hikes. Emily at USFS thought that the pictures would be useful to her team.

Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Posted: June 3rd, 2019, 7:47 am
by miah66
Rode my bike up 4109 this past saturday and had to laugh at all the cars attempting to get up the road. Some folks indeed did make it, but I wouldn't attempt it with a vehicle that I cared about at all. It's past time for them to gate this road. There is no real reason to leave it open since they do not intend to fix it, ever. A LEO officer I met in GP has said they have no plans to fix it and can't actually fix it since management continues to change. This is actually an impediment to them gating it, even. So as it is, it will continue to be open, and continue to claim cars, as there was a rollover accident last year. Grouse Vista trail is way easier to access, and might even be a more enjoyable hike in. The gated road will revert to a trail as the other approaches have.

Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Posted: June 3rd, 2019, 8:27 am
by RichardDavies
miah66 wrote:
June 3rd, 2019, 7:47 am
Rode my bike up 4109 this past saturday and had to laugh at all the cars attempting to get up the road. Some folks indeed did make it, but I wouldn't attempt it with a vehicle that I cared about at all.
It's been a few years since I last drove up that road. It was in rough shape back then with some pretty big ruts, mud holes, and water bars... but it seemed fairly passable by anyone with a high clearance vehicle and a driver who knows how to drive off-road. But recent descriptions make it sound much worse. Has the road deteriorated that much in the last couple of years?

Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Posted: June 3rd, 2019, 6:29 pm
by Don Nelsen
I drove the 4109 road today and had no problem at all. I'm not trying to boast but the 4109 road isn't all that bad.
Proof: Image
(My suv, BTW, has ½" less road clearance than a Subaru Outback, is 20 years old and has nearly a quarter million miles on it.)

A couple who had parked their Subaru about a quarter mile in hitched a ride with me. Perhaps the extra weight helped, but still, an easy drive, though slow, of course. You simply have to know how to drive roads like this and I dare say this road is no worse than it was a couple of years ago.

The problem, IMHO, is people over estimating their car's clearance and/or taking the wrong line through a bad spot. You also have to find a balance between finding that line and keeping the speed up enough to not get bogged down and have the wheels slip into a hole. It's a little bit art and a little bit experience.

I would hate to see the road gated since that would more than double the RT distance to the summit and add a disagreeable and viewless road slog to the hike. It would make a less-than-5 mile hike almost 10 miles.

As for today: Lots of flowers and many more to come:
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Hike #75, 4.8 miles, 1,367' EG

Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Posted: June 3rd, 2019, 6:49 pm
by Aimless
You also have to find a balance between finding that line and keeping the speed up enough to not get bogged down and have the wheels slip into a hole. It's a little bit art and a little bit experience.

Uh, to be fair, maybe make that "a lot of experience". ;)

Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Posted: June 4th, 2019, 6:10 am
by justpeachy
Nice photos, Don!
miah66 wrote:
June 3rd, 2019, 7:47 am
Grouse Vista trail is way easier to access, and might even be a more enjoyable hike in.
For me the hike from Grouse Vista is not as rewarding. From the north trailhead you get views and tons of wildflowers just minutes from the car:

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Whereas there are fewer views from Grouse Vista (the entire first mile is in the trees), and it's steeper and so rocky:

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But I definitely agree that Grouse Vista is easier to access! We took our two-week-old Outback on Road 4109 in 2017 and white-knuckled it the whole way. Never again.

Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Posted: June 4th, 2019, 8:10 pm
by Chip Down
Don Nelsen wrote:
June 3rd, 2019, 6:29 pm
I drove the 4109 road today and had no problem at all. I'm not trying to boast but the 4109 road isn't all that bad.
Yeah, I don't see what the big deal is. I've had my Outback up there countless times. Oh, wait, that was 20 years ago. :lol:

But seriously, don't believe Don, he's a gifted driver. I've seen pics of his sedan on roads where I gave up in my Element and started walking.

As an analogy, it would be like me posting "oh, don't worry about that washed-out trail, it's perfectly safe, I hiked it with a six pack in my belly". ;)

Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Posted: June 6th, 2019, 3:36 pm
by Webfoot
Don, Chip, that is pure gold. :D

I'll get out on the 4109 this month and see for myself. It seems to me that even the "bad" roads around here are not hard in dry weather, about a two out of ten—three at the worst—by Moab standards, as anything harder gets gated. The only exception I can think of is the washout on 4610 that is legally open but looks like a 5/10; I'll leave that one to the Wranglers.

Re: Gifford Pinchot Road 4109 to Silver Star Trailhead

Posted: June 7th, 2019, 5:37 pm
by Charley
We're up here whining and moaning about how crowded our trails are becoming. Meanwhile, the Forest Service is practically making it impossible to visit so many of the best trails, by letting access roads decay. Just think if everyone could drive to the all of the best trailheads without worrying about destroying their car!

I know Multnomah will always be popular, but wouldn't some of the most popular ones be less crowded if spectacular trails, like Ed's Trail, weren't becoming practically impossible to reach???

It's so frustrating to see these national treasures either get swallowed up by neglect, or swallowed up by neglect and crowds. It does not have to be this way.