Lingenstein
New member
Looks like the begining of a great adventure! Subscribed.
30, HOME FREE AND UNEMPLOYED
- Thread starter 4whtundra
- Start date
What's up bobdog? I'm actually in Eugene as we speak, I tried to stay at the primitive sites in Cottage Grove by the reservoir but they closed the gates on both the campgrounds so I'm staying at a park in Eugene, Armitage Park. It's kinda pricey and fancy but they have WiFi 
The day after Point Reyes I headed North again on route 1, at junction 116 I headed east to the 101. The 116 was amazing, headed through a really cool town called Sebastopol. I picked up the 101 just south of Santa Rosa and made my way up to Ukiah. I geared up in Ukiah for heading to the backcountry, batteries, groceries, IPA all the good fixins. I headed out to Mayacmus campground which is near "Cow Mountain OHV". The drive out was real nice, 1/4 of it was paved to a real nice fishing pond and the rest was soft sandy switchbacks. I had to use 4WD in one spot that was really soft. The campground was about 10 miles off the beaten path but the signs were pretty well marked. The place looked like it had burned the year before. I had a late lunch so a quick snack for dinner and went on a mini hike. The next day was oatmeal and bananas.
The plan for the morning was to pack up and take the Avenue of the Giants North to Eureka area. I was hoping to stay the night near the Lost Coast state beach but I ended up passing it up, for some reason I thought it was north of Eureka, a mistake I learned from to at least plan your trip in the morning by looking at a map. I have spent a little bit of time in the Redwoods but never took the time to stop and check things out. The trees are awe inspiring, I went to the Chandelier-drive-through tree it was $5 to drive through. The lady says "uhh your not gonna fit, please drive around".
The plan for the morning was to pack up and take the Avenue of the Giants North to Eureka area. I was hoping to stay the night near the Lost Coast state beach but I ended up passing it up, for some reason I thought it was north of Eureka, a mistake I learned from to at least plan your trip in the morning by looking at a map. I have spent a little bit of time in the Redwoods but never took the time to stop and check things out. The trees are awe inspiring, I went to the Chandelier-drive-through tree it was $5 to drive through. The lady says "uhh your not gonna fit, please drive around".
Last edited:
I quickly learned there are a bunch of these drive-through trees, I didn't want to miss it so I went to this one. Further down the road there were more, damn tourist trap! Like any other place there are more sights and things to spend your money on but for the most part the drive is amazing. Since I am somewhat out of season in my travels there was little to no traffic, plus everywhere I went there was no lines or bickering tourists. When I got to Eureka I stopped at AAA and picked up a couple maps, Oregon, Portland and Washington. Triple A gives free maps away to its customers, the maps have camping locations on them and are pretty good (if you don't have AAA you can still get the maps from them, they're $4.95 a piece). I stopped at a Big 5 and got some slippers and some rain gear, I also stopped at an outfitters store and drooled over all the goods. I only bought a toothbrush case and soap case. It was early in the day so I decided to keep driving. I had plans to meet a buddy from California in Oregon the following day. I picked up the 299 east just north of Arcata and traveled that to the 96 North. I picked out a campground from my Moon California Camping guide book (highly recommended), the place was called Tish-Tang campground, it is right inside the Hoopa-Hoopa indian res. The campground was in need of some maintenance, there was no place to put a fee but a nice native was at the entrance and told me they would be around to collect. I had a salad for dinner and zonked out early, the next day was my last leg to Oregon to meet my buddy. The morning was foggy and drizzling, I stopped in to the "vault" after I woke up, there was no way I was going in there, spiders and dead flies everywhere so to nature I go. I have a cassette for emergencies. I waited around until after breakfast, coffee and organizing for the host but she never came, I felt bad about not paying but I couldn't wait forever. The night before I was trying to wash my dishes in the middle of the campground and the water spigot didn't work, I whipped out my leather man and fixed the faucet. Hopefully the deed was enough to cover my stay. The indian reservation was pretty interesting, it was obvious when I had driven into the territory. The only gas station in town was $4.29, a far cry from $4.84 I had paid in Willow Creek (bigfoot lives here). There were people selling dogs out of their truck and kids hanging around the street. Some people were yelling back and forth at each other, I'm not saying I was nervous but I'm not saying I wasn't. I said hello to a local and he said hello back, he had a **************' mohawk and was walking and eating candy with his daughter, that made me feel better.
After I survived the res I continued on the 96 North, most of which was gorgeous countryside. The destination for the day was Ashland, Oregon. After the 96 I took the 5 North into Oregon, Ashland is a small town just over the boarder. The town was a meeting place for my friend and I but I'm glad he picked it. It is a very well groomed town with tons of cool vintage architecture (home speaking), I enjoy seeing old parts of town with Craftsman, Victorian and other early to mid century housing styles. The town had nothing short of this type of character, the downtown was filled with little shops, a couple breweries and interesting places to get a bite to eat. I have been looking for a music shop to pick up some banjo picks and found the perfect store "Cripple Creek Music Company". They had all sorts of cool bluegrass instruments and I even got a free 20 second banjo show. After cruising the town and picking up some local IPA at Standing Stone Brewery I headed out to Emigrant reservoir to setup camp. It was there that I met up with my good friend from California, he arrived with his dog Stryker, Jeep Cherokee and his "Little Guy" tear drop trailer. He goes by the handle of "brown rice".
In the am BR had some mean scrabble eggs ready, after breakfast, a shower, some gearing up with groceries and the laundromat we pointed our steeds towards the Wild Rogue/Siskiyou Wilderness. Heading towards Merlin off of the 5 then to Galice, then to bear camp road (23) from Galice we charged the unpaved road for nearly 19 miles. The destination was SRU Lake (pronounced Shrew lake), 3347 was the forest road. When we finally got there the campsite was titled "rock creek", hell good enough for us, we had been at the road all day. We setup camp, I made a Salmon dinner and a couple PBRs later we passed out.
In the am BR had some mean scrabble eggs ready, after breakfast, a shower, some gearing up with groceries and the laundromat we pointed our steeds towards the Wild Rogue/Siskiyou Wilderness. Heading towards Merlin off of the 5 then to Galice, then to bear camp road (23) from Galice we charged the unpaved road for nearly 19 miles. The destination was SRU Lake (pronounced Shrew lake), 3347 was the forest road. When we finally got there the campsite was titled "rock creek", hell good enough for us, we had been at the road all day. We setup camp, I made a Salmon dinner and a couple PBRs later we passed out.
After breakfast was wood splitting and exploring. We gathered a nice log to show off our skills, I went first showing BR the ropes then he showed me up. We took our mountain bikes up the road, when it started to rain we headed back and made lunch. The nice thing about towing a teardrop is you can leave your "camp" behind and take your vehicle out mobbing. Tackling the road earlier tried on our mountain bikes led us deep into the Siskiyou backcountry. While trying not to get lost or stranded we headed back to camp, the rain had become more of a down pore and the rest of the day/night was dinner then stories then sleep. I had a "sweet" leak in my roof, my peculator acted as a nice reservoir for the drip after drip of rain from my interior roof. You can tell from the first two pictures the amount that the rain has came up, the left one of me and my coffee was the first day and the right was the second day.
Last edited:
jim65wagon
Well-known member
This is an awesome thread! It's got so many things I love. Tundras, teardrops, homeless wanderings, interesting towns and fun in the wilds! Thank you for showing us your travels, can't wait to see more!
Thanks Jim, I have followed your Tundra posts in the past, you've helped me to not worry as much about my high mileage truck. I am getting a bit of a tick now and I am not sure if it is an exhaust thing or inner motor, it seems as if it has always been there but I notice it now more when the truck is under stress from hauling the camper.
jim65wagon
Well-known member
It's most likely the infamous Tundra exhaust manifold crack. Mine ticks too, and is progressively getting worse (but still passed inspection this year) as time goes by. The easy fix is to buy a set of shorty headers. They hook up to your stock exhaust, and the pair cost less than one new manifold from Toyota. I'll be doing that eventually!
We ended up staying at the rock creek campground for two nights, after the down poor and flooding of the second night we were ready to head out. Forest road 33 was the road out North to Powers, then we caught the 42 West towards the coast. The destination of the day was Mapleton, BR's aunt had a fishing camp there where we could spend a couple nights, do some fishing and check out the dunes. We stopped in Myrtle Point and got a hot dog at A&W, got gas and groceries. Near Coos Bay we got on the 101, took that to the 126 West and got to the camp in Mapleton. The camp was filled with 4 or 5 retired guys poking fun at each other, drinking whiskey out of plastic jugs and fishing. The first night we got settled in and made turkey tacos, we crashed out early, Perry will be up at 6 with the coffee getting ready to fish.
The morning was chilly and foggy, Coffee and apple fritters were served as "the boys" seemed happier in the morning. We geared up with fishing poles and put gas it the boat. A couple of the guys stayed behind as they had stuff to pick up in town. Brown Rice and I jumped in the boat with The Bobs. The river was foggy but filled with boats at 8am, Salmon was on their minds. We trolled the river for 4 1/2 hours until around noon, Bob talked our ears off about politics, family, women, fishing, pretty much anything to break the silence. His motto was "I hate dogs and kids, besides that I'm a good guy", he was a good guy, we shared laughter and the scenery for the morning. We got a couple "bites" or more like snags but no fish was caught, it was ok BR and I had plans of heading out to the dunes after lunch.
The morning was chilly and foggy, Coffee and apple fritters were served as "the boys" seemed happier in the morning. We geared up with fishing poles and put gas it the boat. A couple of the guys stayed behind as they had stuff to pick up in town. Brown Rice and I jumped in the boat with The Bobs. The river was foggy but filled with boats at 8am, Salmon was on their minds. We trolled the river for 4 1/2 hours until around noon, Bob talked our ears off about politics, family, women, fishing, pretty much anything to break the silence. His motto was "I hate dogs and kids, besides that I'm a good guy", he was a good guy, we shared laughter and the scenery for the morning. We got a couple "bites" or more like snags but no fish was caught, it was ok BR and I had plans of heading out to the dunes after lunch.
