Since I was a kid, I've been to Dug Bar in Northeastern Oregon dozens of times but it had always been via a jet boat navigating the rapids while going up the Snake River. This is a beautiful way to get to Dug Bar and probably faster in the long run.
Last Fall I got a wild hair and decided to start fixing up my '91 Toyota Pickup. I’ve had the pickup, aptly named “Old Blue”, for around 17 years (my second vehicle during high school). I had a canopy for the pickup in my shop but hadn’t installed it in years. After a friend referred me to ExpeditionPortal.com I started thinking more about putting the canopy back on and setting up the pickup for some camping trips with my kids. My wife loves camping, but her style of camping involves our 27’ fifth wheel camper and I’ve been craving a more backwoods camping with a lot of exploring new roads involved.
I cleaned out the back of the pickup really good and then put the canopy on. I decided to build V1.0 of my sleeping platform in the back with the intention of testing, finding the faults and then modifying it with further revisions. V1.0 is nothing spectacular. It consists of a 2x2 sub frame with carpeted OSB top. Instead of building compartments I just purchased Rubbermaid Totes and ammo cans and put them under the sleeping platform.
Another addition to the pickup was the addition of a hitch platform for hauling gear and a cooler. This was completed with the help of Alfie that has a tubing bender and is building a ’72 Land Cruiser from the ground up and wants to use it in a similar fashion for camping with his daughter.
The maiden voyage was early November 2013. We loaded all the gear up and headed to a location on my family’s ranch. The boys (ages 6 and 4) and I spent the afternoon fishing for steelhead and shooting our .22 rifles. All in all everything worked great and with some minor tweaking. We camped 2 additional weekends at this location throughout the winter while we were testing the setup and adding additional equipment (i.e. LED lights, Dual Battery setup, Rear awning, HF ham radio with portable antenna).
During this time I was reading many of the trip reports that people have published over the years of taking the drive to Lord Flat and Dug Bar. I decided that I’d like to go to Dug Bar to begin with but I just needed to decide when I wanted to go. My wife asked (told) me about an out of town trip that she was going to be going on with “The Gals” towards the end of March and that I would be home with all three kids for the weekend. She was thinking I’d sit at home and the kids would run around destroying the house while I was pulling my hair out, I on the other hand was thinking about throwing all three kids in the truck and heading for Dug Bar. My wife wasn’t super excited to say the least about me taking our three kids, especially her 23 month old daughter so far off the beaten path by myself. She had figured that I would be going to the same location the boys and I had been going to throughout the winter.
The night before the trip arrived, I got the kids ready for bed and began getting everything packed up. The weather was calling for low temperatures in the upper 20º’s so I knew I would need to bring lots of blankets and warm clothing, hot chocolate, food, and propane.
The morning of the trip the kids were very excited. They woke up early about 6:00am and helped me get everything ready to go, as much as kids under 6 can help. We headed out from Anatone, Washington about 8:30. The weather was beautiful but cool. We stopped at the Joseph Creek Overlook and let the kids run around for a little bit while I checked out all the gear to make sure that everything was riding ok. We arrived in Joseph, Oregon about 10:30 and stopped by KB7DZR’s house (Scott) to discuss some radio logistics to try and stay in communication with the outside world in case I run into any issues. The plans were made and I had all my radio gear strapped to my truck. I was running a 2m\70cm cross band capable radio, a handheld attached to a mag mount antenna to run APRS as well as my HF mobile radio.
We stopped in Joseph and had lunch with KF7VMK (Mike) and his family at R n’ R for burgers and milk shakes and then over to their house while my kids played with their kids for an hour or so. We setup HF frequencies and a time to contact each other on the radio in the evening to make sure we arrived intact. The time had come to hit the road, we topped off the fuel tank and tested the radios as we left town. The time was 1:30 as we headed eastward out of Joseph.
The kids slowly faded and eventually tipped over one at a time as the milkshakes and playing took their toll. I enjoyed a peaceful drive down the highway to the town of Imnaha and turned left to head down river. Once we reached the end of the asphalt the road drastically changed. I was surprised how narrow and windy the road was. We took our time as we climbed higher and higher away from the river to a beautiful bench on the west side of the Imnaha River. Several miles of winding in and out of little canyons we began the decent back down to the Imnaha River. We also started seeing more traffic in this area. The spring steelhead fishing must be good this time of year because there were lots of Wall Tents and fishing camps setup on almost any flat spot along the river.
After several more miles we reached the bridge to cross the Imnaha river. There was a large party going on at the bridge with vehicles blocking the road. They appeared to be enjoying the spring weather and didn’t seem too eager to move the vehicles and actually directed me to drive off the road to go around.
Once we crossed the bridge and started climbing up away from the Imnaha River we only met one vehicle on the way into Dug Bar which was a very nice Oregon State Patrol officer that was out patrolling. We talked with him for a while and he let us know that there was no one else in front of us and that we would have the entire bar to ourselves. This was welcome news.
As the road climbs there are several switchbacks and steep areas with washes in the road. I’m sure these disappear as the summer progresses but it was nothing difficult.
The sun was getting low in the sky when we reached the top of the ridge between the Imnaha River and the Snake River. I jumped on the radio and made contact with KB7DZR and verified that APRS was working correctly. Radio communications quickly dropped as we turned the corner into Hells Canyon. My daughter finally woke up from her nap and was very animate that she was done riding in the pickup for the day. Unfortunately we were still about 45 minutes from camp. Her short lived screaming session helped to speed up the decent down the final leg of the journey.
Camp, Finally. We reached the “Lone Tree” about 5:00. I let the kids out of the truck and cracked a cold one for me to relax while I setup camp. After getting everything setup we had some dinner of hot dogs. Nobody was really starving after the big lunch in Joseph so it ended up being more of a snack.
At 7:00 I fired up the HF radio to contact KF7VMK there was lots of static on the band but no Mike. I shut the radio down and relaxed with the kids in the cool evening air. About 8:30 I started the pickup and got the cab and canopy warmed up so the kids could get ready for bed in warmth and they were off to bed and asleep just as quick. I went back to the radio and made a few contacts on 40 meters. I was able to make a contact with KE7RTV (Steve) in Nevada. He helped me out by sending an email to KF7VMK letting him know that everything was good, the kids were in bed and asking him to contact my wife to let her know so she wouldn’t worry. I relaxed by myself under the stars for quite a while and headed to bed myself.
The next morning the kids woke up early. I got out of bed and started the pickup to warm up the kids. There was a good layer of frost on the ground. We had sausage and eggs for breakfast along with a warm cup of hot chocolate.
Shortly after breakfast we could hear a noise coming from down canyon. The kids got really excited when a small plane rounded the bend and landed at the airstrip right by our camp. The people stopped by and visited for several minutes before jumping in the plane and taking off. We began packing up camp for the long drive home and more planes came in to land.
We left camp at 10:30 and the trip out was rather uneventful except for the several large herds of elk that we saw. The trip from camp back to the asphalt was about 24 miles long and took 2 hours and 40 minutes. The kids got out and played again in Joseph for an hour or so and then we headed north towards our house. The kids were getting tired of being in the pickup so I promised them that if they were good they would get a milkshake at Boggann’s Oasis on our way home. The last 18 miles home from Boggann’s was enjoyed with a delicious vanilla milkshake. We were glad to be home and my wife arrived home shortly after us and the kids had lots of stories to tell her.
This is the first trip report that I have written and I hope that I haven’t rambled for too long. Thanks for taking the time to read it and I look forward to reading other people’s trip reports.
Justin
KF7VSL
Last Fall I got a wild hair and decided to start fixing up my '91 Toyota Pickup. I’ve had the pickup, aptly named “Old Blue”, for around 17 years (my second vehicle during high school). I had a canopy for the pickup in my shop but hadn’t installed it in years. After a friend referred me to ExpeditionPortal.com I started thinking more about putting the canopy back on and setting up the pickup for some camping trips with my kids. My wife loves camping, but her style of camping involves our 27’ fifth wheel camper and I’ve been craving a more backwoods camping with a lot of exploring new roads involved.
I cleaned out the back of the pickup really good and then put the canopy on. I decided to build V1.0 of my sleeping platform in the back with the intention of testing, finding the faults and then modifying it with further revisions. V1.0 is nothing spectacular. It consists of a 2x2 sub frame with carpeted OSB top. Instead of building compartments I just purchased Rubbermaid Totes and ammo cans and put them under the sleeping platform.
Another addition to the pickup was the addition of a hitch platform for hauling gear and a cooler. This was completed with the help of Alfie that has a tubing bender and is building a ’72 Land Cruiser from the ground up and wants to use it in a similar fashion for camping with his daughter.
The maiden voyage was early November 2013. We loaded all the gear up and headed to a location on my family’s ranch. The boys (ages 6 and 4) and I spent the afternoon fishing for steelhead and shooting our .22 rifles. All in all everything worked great and with some minor tweaking. We camped 2 additional weekends at this location throughout the winter while we were testing the setup and adding additional equipment (i.e. LED lights, Dual Battery setup, Rear awning, HF ham radio with portable antenna).
During this time I was reading many of the trip reports that people have published over the years of taking the drive to Lord Flat and Dug Bar. I decided that I’d like to go to Dug Bar to begin with but I just needed to decide when I wanted to go. My wife asked (told) me about an out of town trip that she was going to be going on with “The Gals” towards the end of March and that I would be home with all three kids for the weekend. She was thinking I’d sit at home and the kids would run around destroying the house while I was pulling my hair out, I on the other hand was thinking about throwing all three kids in the truck and heading for Dug Bar. My wife wasn’t super excited to say the least about me taking our three kids, especially her 23 month old daughter so far off the beaten path by myself. She had figured that I would be going to the same location the boys and I had been going to throughout the winter.
The night before the trip arrived, I got the kids ready for bed and began getting everything packed up. The weather was calling for low temperatures in the upper 20º’s so I knew I would need to bring lots of blankets and warm clothing, hot chocolate, food, and propane.
The morning of the trip the kids were very excited. They woke up early about 6:00am and helped me get everything ready to go, as much as kids under 6 can help. We headed out from Anatone, Washington about 8:30. The weather was beautiful but cool. We stopped at the Joseph Creek Overlook and let the kids run around for a little bit while I checked out all the gear to make sure that everything was riding ok. We arrived in Joseph, Oregon about 10:30 and stopped by KB7DZR’s house (Scott) to discuss some radio logistics to try and stay in communication with the outside world in case I run into any issues. The plans were made and I had all my radio gear strapped to my truck. I was running a 2m\70cm cross band capable radio, a handheld attached to a mag mount antenna to run APRS as well as my HF mobile radio.
We stopped in Joseph and had lunch with KF7VMK (Mike) and his family at R n’ R for burgers and milk shakes and then over to their house while my kids played with their kids for an hour or so. We setup HF frequencies and a time to contact each other on the radio in the evening to make sure we arrived intact. The time had come to hit the road, we topped off the fuel tank and tested the radios as we left town. The time was 1:30 as we headed eastward out of Joseph.
The kids slowly faded and eventually tipped over one at a time as the milkshakes and playing took their toll. I enjoyed a peaceful drive down the highway to the town of Imnaha and turned left to head down river. Once we reached the end of the asphalt the road drastically changed. I was surprised how narrow and windy the road was. We took our time as we climbed higher and higher away from the river to a beautiful bench on the west side of the Imnaha River. Several miles of winding in and out of little canyons we began the decent back down to the Imnaha River. We also started seeing more traffic in this area. The spring steelhead fishing must be good this time of year because there were lots of Wall Tents and fishing camps setup on almost any flat spot along the river.
After several more miles we reached the bridge to cross the Imnaha river. There was a large party going on at the bridge with vehicles blocking the road. They appeared to be enjoying the spring weather and didn’t seem too eager to move the vehicles and actually directed me to drive off the road to go around.
Once we crossed the bridge and started climbing up away from the Imnaha River we only met one vehicle on the way into Dug Bar which was a very nice Oregon State Patrol officer that was out patrolling. We talked with him for a while and he let us know that there was no one else in front of us and that we would have the entire bar to ourselves. This was welcome news.
As the road climbs there are several switchbacks and steep areas with washes in the road. I’m sure these disappear as the summer progresses but it was nothing difficult.
The sun was getting low in the sky when we reached the top of the ridge between the Imnaha River and the Snake River. I jumped on the radio and made contact with KB7DZR and verified that APRS was working correctly. Radio communications quickly dropped as we turned the corner into Hells Canyon. My daughter finally woke up from her nap and was very animate that she was done riding in the pickup for the day. Unfortunately we were still about 45 minutes from camp. Her short lived screaming session helped to speed up the decent down the final leg of the journey.
Camp, Finally. We reached the “Lone Tree” about 5:00. I let the kids out of the truck and cracked a cold one for me to relax while I setup camp. After getting everything setup we had some dinner of hot dogs. Nobody was really starving after the big lunch in Joseph so it ended up being more of a snack.
At 7:00 I fired up the HF radio to contact KF7VMK there was lots of static on the band but no Mike. I shut the radio down and relaxed with the kids in the cool evening air. About 8:30 I started the pickup and got the cab and canopy warmed up so the kids could get ready for bed in warmth and they were off to bed and asleep just as quick. I went back to the radio and made a few contacts on 40 meters. I was able to make a contact with KE7RTV (Steve) in Nevada. He helped me out by sending an email to KF7VMK letting him know that everything was good, the kids were in bed and asking him to contact my wife to let her know so she wouldn’t worry. I relaxed by myself under the stars for quite a while and headed to bed myself.
The next morning the kids woke up early. I got out of bed and started the pickup to warm up the kids. There was a good layer of frost on the ground. We had sausage and eggs for breakfast along with a warm cup of hot chocolate.
Shortly after breakfast we could hear a noise coming from down canyon. The kids got really excited when a small plane rounded the bend and landed at the airstrip right by our camp. The people stopped by and visited for several minutes before jumping in the plane and taking off. We began packing up camp for the long drive home and more planes came in to land.
We left camp at 10:30 and the trip out was rather uneventful except for the several large herds of elk that we saw. The trip from camp back to the asphalt was about 24 miles long and took 2 hours and 40 minutes. The kids got out and played again in Joseph for an hour or so and then we headed north towards our house. The kids were getting tired of being in the pickup so I promised them that if they were good they would get a milkshake at Boggann’s Oasis on our way home. The last 18 miles home from Boggann’s was enjoyed with a delicious vanilla milkshake. We were glad to be home and my wife arrived home shortly after us and the kids had lots of stories to tell her.
This is the first trip report that I have written and I hope that I haven’t rambled for too long. Thanks for taking the time to read it and I look forward to reading other people’s trip reports.
Justin
KF7VSL
Been a few years since I ran the river.
