Went camping this weekend.

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E

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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We decided to screw the pre-made campsites and venture out into the wilderness. ;)

So we bought a Mt. Hood National Forest map, and studied it for a few days. Ended up picking an area on the North side of Mt Hood, down Forest Road 650. We were hopeful that it would work out, having never driven there before. Ended up finding the perfect campsite. ;)

As we were finishing up packing the car, I had the sprinklers on.. and a dragonfly came to visit. I took the opportunity to take some pics, since my camera was handy.

Dragonfly

We left at about 11:30, drove for a long time.. averaging probably 5MPH, since most of the forest roads are gravel, sometimes getting pretty rough. Once we were off the main roads, we just kinda meandered around.. scouting for campsites. Had a few picked out, incase we didn't find any up the road.

We stopped to take some pics as we were driving.

View

It was cloudy here on Saturday, but still very hot, even in the mountains. Driving so slow, it was about 102º in the car the whole day.. no airflow. :frown:

Here's another pic, slowly wandering down Forest Road 1650.

Text

Here's the view from the campsite we finally decided on. I didn't get any pictures of our actual campsite, but there wasn't much to see anyway.

View of Mt. Hood at sunset

Enjoy. :)
 
buck

buck

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
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Wow, did you hike to a camping site? How about pics of the site?
Thanks for the pics....
 
E

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: buck
Wow, did you hike to a camping site? How about pics of the site?
Thanks for the pics....
Click to expand...

I didn't get pics of the site.. It was sunset/getting dark, and we wanted to get camp setup.. didn't think about it.

Didn't hike in, it was just right off the little road.. It was an old logging turnaround or something, just a small cleared area off the Forest Service road.. but the view was awesome.

It was right on the edge of the Mt. Hood Wilderness area, where no roads are allowed.. We were near the end of Forest Road 650.
 
NuclearNed

NuclearNed

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May 18, 2001
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Nice pictures. We stayed at the Timberline Lodge a few years back. That whole area is really beautiful.
 
buck

buck

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
12,273
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Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: buck
Wow, did you hike to a camping site? How about pics of the site?
Thanks for the pics....
Click to expand...

I didn't get pics of the site.. It was sunset/getting dark, and we wanted to get camp setup.. didn't think about it.

Didn't hike in, it was just right off the little road.. It was an old logging turnaround or something, just a small cleared area off the Forest Service road.. but the view was awesome.

It was right on the edge of the Mt. Hood Wilderness area, where no roads are allowed.. We were near the end of Forest Road 650.
Click to expand...

So its legal to pull off of a forest service road and camp? When i lived in FL this was ok in certain areas, but now in WA, the camping isnt as good (or so i have found thus far).
 
E

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
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We took the Tercel, in hindsight it would have been better to take the truck.. we would have been able to find a potentially even better place to camp, even though it would have been insanely expensive for gas.. there were some places that the little car just wouldn't go.
Originally posted by: buck
Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: buck
Wow, did you hike to a camping site? How about pics of the site?
Thanks for the pics....
Click to expand...

I didn't get pics of the site.. It was sunset/getting dark, and we wanted to get camp setup.. didn't think about it.

Didn't hike in, it was just right off the little road.. It was an old logging turnaround or something, just a small cleared area off the Forest Service road.. but the view was awesome.

It was right on the edge of the Mt. Hood Wilderness area, where no roads are allowed.. We were near the end of Forest Road 650.
Click to expand...

So its legal to pull off of a forest service road and camp? When i lived in FL this was ok in certain areas, but now in WA, the camping isnt as good (or so i have found thus far).
Click to expand...
Yes.

I'm not sure of the legality of having a fire now that the Fire Danger is High, but we built the firepit nice and deep and watched it closely.. ;)

There are hiking trails criscrossing the wilderness, some of them are long and/or hard enough that you have to plan on camping if you want to complete the trail. I think that would be an awesome next step. Camping out of the car is fun, but backpack camping would be the sh!t.
 
I

imported_Stewy

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Apr 7, 2006
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I'm not sure if it's legal or not in Oregon, but as a fellow Oregon resident, I have done it plenty of times. I think if the land is owned by the federal goverment (BLM) or is designated as a wilderness area, it's legal to camp anywhere that is like 500 feet from a trail/road. I'm not sure about that though.

However, what Eli did is the exact same thing my friends and I do.. Nothing beats just pulling off of a road in the middle of nowhere, digging a fire pit, finding a clearing for your tent, and settleing down. I have never once been harrassed by any type of law enforcement officers, although I'm sure I could have been, mainly for having a fire in fire season.

With the fire danger high, it's illegal to have a fire anywhere but in designated fire pits. Digging one yourself does not make it designated! ;)

I think when you're backpacking, you can only have a camp stove, no open fires. But, you didn't get caught, so who really cares? If you're careful enough, you don't have to worry about setting the forest on fire. Usually when I go camping towards the end of summer I bring a large fire extinguisher with me, along with enough water so that if something did get out of hand, I could take care of it quickly.
 
E

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Yeah, it's like 200 feet from lakes/streams and trailheads.

I couldn't really find anything on the fire danger and whether it's illegal to build a fire or not, it just says to "avoid wood fires and use a gas campstove when possible".. which it says under the Hiking section.

But yeah, it was badass.
 
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