The Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route

........according to the oohva.org website,
the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route
is approximately 700 miles.......---->

Political notice!!

Currently, there is a lawsuit filed against the OBDR by three selfish groups to stop the official designation of the BackCountry Discovery Route. The lawsuit forbids the Oregon Parks Department from creating public facilities or attractions for the off-roading public (for example; remove all the route signage). Why? Because they don't want us out there. The OBDR is all on public roads, open to public use and will continue to be available regardless of the lawsuit's outcome. Read it, get involved, protect and celebrate the backcountry; and retain your access! To download a copy (.pdf, 24K) of the lawsuit, click here.

May 2001 update. Well the lawsuit was upheld, and the Oregon Parks department is now using remaining OBDR funds to remove the signs. They cannot be replaced until the Oregon Parks Department conducts an "EIS" (environmental impact statement). This is impossible, as there was barely any money for the signs, certainly no $300,000 was laying around for an EIS to determine the "impact" of using public roadways that have been there for 40 years. Please someone try to clue in these environmental groups that they're making it difficult for a concerned guy to support valid environmental issues when they use OUR environmental laws to support their own little personal vendettas. Here's my soapbox message to these short-sighted oligarchs: "Get a life! You're actually putting the environment at risk because you give environmental stewardship a bad name. When it comes to public land, work towards sharing it instead of monopolizing it."

Get the maps ASAP while they're still available from the OOHVA.

To request a GPS route for the OBDR (in "MapSource" format).
Here is a company that organizes tours along sections of this route (High Desert Adventures).

The OBDR is a mostly-gravel route across the eastern part of Oregon, from Cave Lake, California to Walla Walla Washington. The route was created by the Oregon State Parks department. We learned of it from the OOHVA (Oregon Off-Highway Vehicle Association). The OBDR opened in September of 1999.

Tom was delivered to the trailhead by his wife Lisa on Tuesday evening. For Zander, the trip started earlier on Tuesday morning in Walla Walla. Zander parked his truck in Walla Walla and spread 400 miles of knobby dust along Hwy 395, crossing Oregon on his KTM Adventure to arrive at Cave Lake in 8 hours. Tom rode a Honda XR400, both carrying camping gear (no sag-wagon). Tom is a longtime off-roader. Zander is doubled his off-road experience (and off-road speed) during this one trip.

The first couple days, we checked out all the sights, the vistas, the greasy spoon cafes. Lollygagging, plus the realization that the route would exceed 700 miles **by a lot**, required that the next three days we needed to spend hauling ass.

We missed just a few sections, completing at least 95% of the OBD Route. GPS turned out to be essential in completing the route to the extent that we did, in the time allotted. The sections we missed caused great duress for Tom, but at the time, it appeared like we would not have time to finish anyway, an estimate that was mostly correct as we arrived in Walla Walla only three hours early. Also we didn't know where gasoline would be available.

Zander created the waypoints and routes by following the detailed maps available on the OOHVA website. He used Garmin's MapSource USATopo but found that pretty much all of the roads show on US Roads also. For the most part the GPS coordinates from the CD were excellent, maybe better than 95%. Almost always, the GPS would show an intersection approaching and you'd roll thru it with the GPS showing less than 50 feet error. Amazing - over and over and over again. GPS RULED!!!

Having two GPSs with identical routes allowed us to space out for dust, yet still make all the turns. If the GPS says turn right, and there's an OBDR arrow, then you have two solid positive cues. I could be very certain that Zander (behind) would not miss this turn. Thus I could press on, maintaining the spread for dust. If the GPS says turn but there's no OBDR arrow, then at least I know to leave visible tire tracks, and Zander knows to look for them. It was an excellent system that saved a lot of time and choking.

In some areas, the OBDR has several options. Some of these we programmed as possible routes, some smaller alternatives we neglected usually because of our schedule. Planning the route, we had no idea which options would be the better option. So there were some sections where we chose a different OBDR section than where the GPS told us to go. But we always could see ahead to the point where we expected to pick up the GPS route again.

We had no bona fide mechanical trouble, just two flats, a gas crisis, and a minor electrical problem. No crashes, but Zander's mountainous KTM thundered to the ground on its own a few times. We contemplated cleaning our air filters at around 600 miles, but no opportunity presented itself, so we ran them the whole 950 miles and the bikes still ran great. Next time on a trip of this length we will use No-toil filter oil so we can wash with water!