Mission: Oregon Get Away

[Bigfeets]

Hi All!

The lady, the dog and me are headed out to Oregon in 2 weeks and would like to share our route with everyone to see if we are headed in the right direction. We have our Bigfoot Truck Camper and a 4x4 Chevy Truck that isn't scared of a scratch or two. Forest Roads and the such are a pleasure for us.

Our plan is to stay out of campgrounds and boondock near rivers or streams. We want to be 99-100% alone most of the time on the river swimming or throwing a line out for a trout once in a while. We mainly want some peace and quiet with room for our dog to swim without worry. We don't like loud OHV's or kids that drink beer all night by the fire hootin' and hollerin'!

The plan is to come up on I-5 around June 15th and take Hwy 62 and follow the Rouge towards Lost Lake. Hopefully, we can find a nice camp spot between Lost Lake and Diamond Lake on the water. If there are any good spots we may spend a few days and nights there and then head up Hwy 230 towards 138 over to Toketee Falls.

After checking out the Falls we could head up towards Sacandaga Campground. This might be a good resting point and a place to fill up our H20 tank. It looks like there is a road heading north that follows the Middle Fork of the Willamette that might offer some good river/swimming sites.

After the Sacandaga area we could head back south towards the Steamboat area for a night or two along that river. Then we will probably need to hit I-5 and head back home.

Does anyone have any experience boondocking in these areas? Are they accessible with a 4x4 Tc? We have 9 full days to spend in Oregon and want to make the most of it by relaxing.

What else should we not miss if we are passing through this area?

Thank you!!

[Lowsuv]

a visit to this site will help :
http://freecampsites.net/attribute/states/or/
good pay camping is along the umpqua river from Glide OR to diamond lake .
right along the noisy beautiful river .
diamond lake is cold, folks .
the best dispersed camping in oregon is around big summit prairie.
hwy 26 east from prineville , road 123 east , then 42 near deep creek .
another area is the metolius metolius river just north and east of camp sherman . fs cgs and dispersed camping .

another : excellent cheap camping on the aufderheide scenic from westfir to rainbow .
klahanie , frissel crossing cg (fs) are good .
cougar reservoir is warmer than mountain lakes .
slide creek cg is noisy but french pete is good .

[goducks10]

Bigfeets wrote:
Yuck! Am I going to run in to mosquitoes everywhere in Oregon? I have plenty of Deet but really wasn't expecting to have to use it. This is dis-heartening and I might need to look elsewhere.

On the western side of the Cascades generally south of Grants Pass will be skeeterless. North of there it can be bad. East of the Cascades and not much, maybe about 20 miles east virtually none. It's all in the snow melt off and the hatch. After the snow melts there's standing water. Skeeters love standing water. The coast has water but not the snow. Central and eastern Oregon tend to be dryer so no standing water. I have not been up high on the east side except for Paulina and East Lake, so I can't say for those areas. Sometimes it hit or miss. We were up at East lake two yrs ago and no skeeters. Two weeks latter and some people my wife talked to said they were bad. But I can vouch for the North Cascade high lakes. Most are bad. We were down in The Lake of the Woods area last year and no skeeters. It's early in the year so if they are there they will be hungry. Late Aug they tend to be mostly gone. Diamond lake is one of the prettiest areas, we love it. But we have to wait a few year to go each time because of the skeeters.

[Bigfeets]

Yuck! Am I going to run in to mosquitoes everywhere in Oregon? I have plenty of Deet but really wasn't expecting to have to use it. This is dis-heartening and I might need to look elsewhere.

[goducks10]

I highly doubt you'll be able to swim unless you have a wet suit. Every river that high up is flowing with snow melt off, which in turn is filling the lakes and reservoirs. Can't help with the camping but make sure you have plenty of mosquito repellent if your around the diamond lake area.

[old_guy]

take lots of OFF