Southeastern Oregon adventure 05/25-28 2012
For an extended Memorial Day weekend I joined a 1000 mile trek with ZukiWorld, Next One Over adventure. It was a wagon train style trip driving through southeast Oregon’s backcountry with the object of visiting the extreme southeast corner on the state where OR / NV / ID meet.
This was the Dinoot #1′s first major outing. I’m happy to report it did great being towed on pavement and off-road. Off-pavement, the Dinoot’s compact size and light weight made it easy for my Sidekick to tow through rough country. I had only one minor issue with the trailer; the ground wire connection on the tongue was snagged and pulled loose by sage brush somewhere along the way. It was a quick, easy fix.
On Friday we drove from Salem to Christmas Valley on dirt, rock, & mud bogged trails around Sheep rock and out to Hwy 395. Running up Hwy 395 for a few miles, then headed east across the desert for many miles of mud boggy dirt trails to BLM’s Sunstone Collection Site and camped for the night.
On Saturday the rain tapered off enough that the mud bogged trail became dirt once more. We headed generally east through the north tip of the Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge, seeing a lone antelope.
We continued through the desert to Hwy 205. Running low on fuel we gassed up in Frenchglen. We then ran down the highway on the west side of the Steens to Fields for milkshakes and to top off the tanks. A short distance outside of Field, we head cross-country again into the desert generally east. We found a nice spot down by a creek to camp for the night.
On Sunday we continued southeast crossing the Trout Creek Mountains and down to the abandoned Cordero Mercury mine outside of McDermitt. We then visited McDermitt for fuel and headed south into Nevada for a few miles on Hwy 95 before turning off and heading east across the Fort Dermitt Indian reservation. The first 15 miles or so climbing through desert canyons with creek crossing was the most scenic part of the trip. We were treated to a herd of wild horses in this section. Once through the Humbolt-Toiyabe National Forest, we continued east across the desert and camped about 10 miles from the trip goal.
On Monday we continued toward our goal, the last few miles were very slow rocky going. At high noon (mst) we arrived at the three-corners. After pictures and celebrating reaching our goal; we pushed on. We headed northeast for a bit into Idaho before turning west to northwest into Oregon. The trail was very rocky and slow for hours across the desert. The rocks sank into 6” deep silt for an hour or so until we reached Andersons Crossing at the Little Owyhee. The road was a decent gravel base from there heading generally west over Jackson Creek Summit and out to hwy 95 again. It was about 5:30pm; Salem is a 7 hour+ haul from here. I made it home around 1:00 in the morning, it was a long drive.
Camping, 
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