road conditions

Trip recommendations, current conditions, and other trail related Q&A
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Water
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Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: road conditions

Post by Water » August 12th, 2019, 7:12 pm

Driven a 2003 Corolla up there in 2014.. Slow but I made it no problem. Brushy. Drove Subaru outback up there in 2018. They had brushed it out nicely after the 2017 fire.

I saw sedans up there in 2018. Unless you drive like an idiot (nothing personal) if you go slow, know how to negotiate rocks, with AWD you'll be fine. Clearly you don't need AWD but the concomitant clearance that comes with most helps. Aside from rental company GPS bs there's not much reason not to. Go slow, budget an ~hour for that road.

So what if you drive 'off pavement'? They charge extra? Play stupid say your GPS said it was a shortcut and paved and you thought it would go through then you turned around?

It's the most epic way into Jeff Park. It's subtly uphill with suddenly world class views.

Imo from out of state throw all the marbles in.. I say that as someone who drove that same Corolla on some crazy Canadian back roads to take a back way to Assiniboine, that had mining trucks going full speed around blind corners cause they radio ahead to other trucks.. and I tried driving over a cobblestone river washout a good 35km from pavement... Lol ok that was the end for my "rig". Hiked from the parking before the washout.
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romann
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Location: Vancouver, WA

Re: road conditions

Post by romann » August 13th, 2019, 7:29 am

Haven't done this road, but one time we rented an SUV for a vacation so we could drive some crappy roads. Discovered all rental SUV's and trucks come with a plastic "skirt" under front bumper, to lower ground clearance (probably to discourage this kind of driving). If you plan to drive off paved roads, bring tools to remove that piece of plastic, very easy to break it on the rocks.

Webfoot
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Re: road conditions

Post by Webfoot » August 13th, 2019, 9:41 am

Are you really advocating modifying a rental vehicle in clear violation of the intent and contract, rather than just renting a Wrangler? :?

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Chip Down
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Joined: November 8th, 2014, 8:41 pm

Re: road conditions

Post by Chip Down » August 13th, 2019, 6:22 pm

I once drove the crap out of a rental Escort on roads that aren't even open now. At the end of the week, washed it so at least there wasn't any obvious exterior evidence I'd been naughty. Didn't really feel guilty about it; that car was nasty, should have been retired from the rental fleet long before I got to it.

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Water
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Re: road conditions

Post by Water » August 14th, 2019, 9:46 pm

Webfoot wrote:
August 13th, 2019, 9:41 am
Are you really advocating modifying a rental vehicle in clear violation of the intent and contract, rather than just renting a Wrangler? :?
lol this is like asking an airline if they feel bad about selling someone's seat out from under them instead of honoring the contract. IMO with national/transnational businesses, unless there's a special exception, if it helped their bottom line they would cut you and everyone in your family's throat in the night if there were no repercussions for them. hyperbole yes, but this sounds like asking if someone would REALLY tear the little label off of a mattress or a pillow that says not to remove..

why do they rent a 4wd vehicle capable of those roads but then disable it? And require you to pay top dollar to rent a wrangler? bit of a racket if you ask me.
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surreality87
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Joined: August 9th, 2019, 12:20 pm

Re: road conditions

Post by surreality87 » August 19th, 2019, 7:37 am

thanks everyone for the responses. I honestly didn't know anyone replied, I've gotten no notifications, I had to search my own post on here. kind of odd but whatever. anyways in reference to the posts I think I am going to give it a try, I will be getting an SUV and making sure it has AWD and good clearance. from all the videos and photos I've seen it looks doable if you take it slow. I took a rental SUV up a degraded fire road in Washington last year and ended up almost stuck because of the size of the rocks, didn't hear anything from the rental company about being "off-road" so I'm not worried about that. I guess I am just mostly concerned about washouts or large rocks or stuff that would be impassible unless you have a serious off-road vehicle, which that doesn't sound like the case. I do have a fair bit off off-road driving experience so as long as I can take it slow I think it'll be good. thanks for all the feedback and any additional feedback anyone has. we will be in Oregon in the beginning of Sept. and looking at this hike on the 4th and 5th. Very excited to see your beautiful state in person!

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teachpdx
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Location: Hillsboro, OR

Re: road conditions

Post by teachpdx » August 19th, 2019, 7:48 am

Best of luck!
With an AWD SUV and careful driving (and patience for the hour drive off pavement) you should be fine. There are a couple locations that could get really muddy after some rain, so just keep that in mind if rain is in the forecast.
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adamschneider
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Re: road conditions

Post by adamschneider » August 19th, 2019, 8:27 am

surreality87 wrote:
August 19th, 2019, 7:37 am
thanks everyone for the responses. I honestly didn't know anyone replied, I've gotten no notifications, I had to search my own post on here. kind of odd but whatever.
You have to manually "subscribe" to your thread (using the little wrench icon) if you want notifications. I guess some forums do it automatically, but this one doesn't.

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