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Old Not Bold Hiker



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Old Not Bold Hiker
PostThu Aug 17, 2017 7:14 am 
bk wrote:
Leaving might be a little bit better than arriving, because leaving, people will be dispersing (somewhat), rather than converging on a focused area.
That might be true if there were more options available for leaving. Speaking for Central Oregon, you have 2 two-lane highways feeding the area. Period. Leaving might be worse because people are straggling in, but the event ends at the same time for everyone and many plan on going home right after. Think about a concert or sports event letting out.... then multiply it by an order of magnitude or so.

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Brockton
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 8:11 am 
I'll be driving back to Seattle on Monday from the John Day area. Planning on going via Tri Cities area and up to I90. I'm hoping that swinging wide to the east and north will mitigate some of the congestion by avoiding the West side and Madras, but who knows. I might be driving straight to work Tuesday morning.

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grannyhiker
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 10:59 am 
I'm monitoring the smoke forecasts for Sisters (closest town to the Metolius) with some trepidation, since i'm supposedly in one of the "sensitive" groups. Oregon smoke blog boot up's photos from Bend don't look pretty. If conditions get worse than "moderate," I'll have to bail out and go home, if I can, even if it means missing the eclipse. I will be leaving Tuesday noon because my eldest son and his wife, who will be with me, have a flight out of PDX Wednesday morning, too early to pack up camp, drive home in morning rush hour traffic, and for them to get a shower before leaving. I am very familiar with all the "short cuts" north of Salem (SHHH!), so it's getting over Santiam Pass and down the west side that will be interesting. OR 22 may be worse than US 20, because it goes through the middle of the totality zone. Plus it was really smoky when I was over there August 3 (the day after the Whitewater Fire blew up) and Detroit has been listed as "Unhealthy" most of the time since. I pity the folks who have campground reservations at Detroit Lake! If I didn't have lots of family coming, I'd cancel now and watch the eclipse on my computer.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.--E.Abbey
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AlpineRose
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 12:11 pm 
grannyhiker, maybe you can wear an N95 rated mask to help with the smoke?

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MtnGoat
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 1:19 pm 
Spent most of the summer canvassing the path, nailed our site down three weeks ago. I'm glad I did all the driving to get a sense of travel times, plus one prime prospect (Dixie Butte) had a big sign on the road 'access closing for one week' Aug 15-23. Lookout lady said there will be a big chain plus 24/7 FS presence at the roadblock. There's no substitute for ground work. Tomorrow I'm gone at dawn and hoping to be on site in 5 hours, we'll see. Tuesday, we'll be hanging around and seeing how bad the return chaos is, might just stay over another day.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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MtnGoat
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 1:22 pm 
Brockton wrote:
I'll be driving back to Seattle on Monday from the John Day area. Planning on going via Tri Cities area and up to I90. I'm hoping that swinging wide to the east and north will mitigate some of the congestion by avoiding the West side and Madras, but who knows. I might be driving straight to work Tuesday morning.
Tri cities 82 may be a real mess as well. I'd consider shooting down 14 then over horse heaven hills, then down off the ridge into mabton on the county road. This puts you back on 82 having bypassed a fair chunk of 82 plus tri cities. Yeah, it's a little out of the way but I bet there's a lot less traffic since this route is not well known. You can also bail to Eburg from Yakima via pretty good dirt Wenas to Umtanum to Eburg, and if you're really on your game, you could hit 90 at Thorp that way too.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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kite
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 3:15 pm 
MtnGoat wrote:
plus one prime prospect (Dixie Butte) had a big sign on the road 'access closing for one week' Aug 15-23. Lookout lady said there will be a big chain plus 24/7 FS presence at the roadblock.
This is good to know, when i talked t the forest service they said the road was open. back to plan B smile.gif

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MtnGoat
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 3:21 pm 
kite wrote:
This is good to know, when i talked t the forest service they said the road was open. back to plan B smile.gif
I'm glad I said something! Lucky! I was shocked when I checked when I got home, I couldn't find the closure on their website, so checking the site is not good enough. They may have posted since, still...annoying.. Really annoying if you drove from Pugetopolis instead of E Wa! I did see some nice sites off of 395 and some of the spurs, and the M Fk John Day road from the route 7 end. Good luck! Here's a real time traffic link from ODOT, entire state

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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MtnGoat
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 3:26 pm 
prineville already a mess Remember, 'day of' dashers will most likely lose. I don't know why so many people I talk to think they're the only one's who think they're the only ones thinking they'll just 'sneak down' really early AM. Move now or ASAP. Me, I'm gone at dawn tomorrow, and headed nowhere near the biblical fustercluck Salem or Madras will see.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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MtnGoat
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 3:35 pm 
US26, Prineville MP 20 Closure The highway is closed to eastbound traffic from the intersection of Paulina Hwy 380. Use alternate route. Lanes Affected: (Eastbound) 1 Lane Issued: 08/17/2017 1:23 pm

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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Brockton
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 3:42 pm 
MtnGoat wrote:
Tri cities 82 may be a real mess as well. I'd consider shooting down 14 then over horse heaven hills, then down off the ridge into mabton on the county road. This puts you back on 82 having bypassed a fair chunk of 82 plus tri cities. Yeah, it's a little out of the way but I bet there's a lot less traffic since this route is not well known. You can also bail to Eburg from Yakima via pretty good dirt Wenas to Umtanum to Eburg, and if you're really on your game, you could hit 90 at Thorp that way too.
MtnGoat: Thanks for the suggestion. Although, other than the Mabton portion, Google gives the same suggested route through Horse Heaven and 14. I wonder if a lot of people will be on that route also because of that.

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MtnGoat
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 3:46 pm 
prineville road...
apparently people are running out of gas in the backup. man, that's gotta suck. some stations dry already as well.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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MtnGoat
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 5:03 pm 
Been doing some reading, this is in part because there is some kind of symbiofest or something at Big Summit Prairie, 30k attendees. Hint since I'm not using it...Round mtn to the W has a couple good sites for eclipse. gate usually open or pulled apart with a winch, either way works out the same.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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grannyhiker
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PostThu Aug 17, 2017 5:21 pm 
I made several phone calls about 4:15 due to concerns with the new Milli Fire just SW of Sisters, which blew up last night and has forced level 2 evacuations SW of Sisters (south of OR242). The area between OR242 and US20, east of Cold Springs Campground, is on level 1. The Deschutes NF doesn't think it will impact the Metolius region even though it's fairly close. Winds would have to shift to almost straight south or a bit east of south. Also, while Bend is really smoky, Sisters and the Metolius both have good air quality today.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.--E.Abbey
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Old Not Bold Hiker



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Old Not Bold Hiker
PostThu Aug 17, 2017 6:50 pm 
A lot depends on the wind direction of the moment. Bend was covered in smoke from the Milli fire today, even worse just to the west. But looking north l can see blue sky, although the Wychus fire looks bad to the north on the map. I think they might be getting the Wychus fire under control. Milli fire is 0% contained according to today's report. Today' smoke pic from my front porch in Bend.
more smoke 8/17/17 Bend OR
more smoke 8/17/17 Bend OR
Worst traffic by far is Prineville, so far, where they seem to taking all the traffic backup photos. of course that could change any time. Some huge parties going on in Prineville and Ochocos. I am happy they are drawing people to there.

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