Our goal this weekend was to run a road that led from hwy66, down topsy grade road, past the fern ranch, past copco lake, and finally out copco road back to hwy66. I unfortunately didn't remember to reset my mileage to see how far we traveled, but it took about 5 or so hours to make the loop. The trail follows klamath lake quite closely and there are some great views down on the river as you decend topsy grade. Here we are, My wife and I in our XJ and our three friends from the valley. My buddy "Hoss" drives the toy.
There is a little park at the beginning of the road for those that wish to partake in the fun that the reservoir has to offer.
This picture basically shows where the drop down to the lake begins. It was a beautiful day and not even that cold. This stretch of the road consists of an old loging road cut into the hillside that has been washed out to the point of having just the right ammount of roughness to be really annoying and not nearly enough to make it a challenge.
This road used to be the only way in for all the ranchers that lived down in this area. This old house is just one of many that we found falling apart and long since abandoned. Supposedly there is an old cemetery not too far off the road that dates back to the 1800s. We didn't take the time to look for it, but I probably will on the next trip.
We found a spring near the bottom of the grade that came out into the road and made this nice ice slick for over 100 yards down the hill. It was pretty sketchy unless you drove with a tire in the snow.
Another old place down by the river. The weird thing about this one is that it had no door openings anywhere.
I drove up on this rock to flex out my new long arm that I built. It works great and allows for a lot more flex than the short arms. I did end up having a little contact between my upper driver arm and my driveline yoke, but it should be an easy fix. I need to make some quick disco's for the swaybar.
Most of this road was quite mild, but there were some good little side roads. We had a GPS along on the trip so we didn't get too off track driving around. I think next time down we will do some exploring to find some good wheeling.
The taco coming up a slight grade. Not very deep snow either, but it was still fun for our pavement pounders.
We were able to find a few places to mess around a little without getting too off track.
We came across a couple of these frozen puddles. The hard part was not knowing if it was solid ice or just a layer on top of a deep puddle. I really didn't want to break through and have sharp ice pieces biting at my sidewalls.
Hoss driving on the edge just like me.
Here is another icy spot. If you look close you will notice that this is normally a pretty decent mud hole if it weren't frozen over. It hard to see in the picture, but it is actually pretty deep looking.
Here we are stopped by the side of copco lake. There is a small town on this lake and a fair ammount of houses around the edges. You would have to enjoy seclusion to live in here. The roads are bad and its a long ways to town. We actually saw a minivan driving far too fast for its own good as we made our way back to the highway.
This was our view for about 15-20 miles as we made our way from copco lake up copco road to hwy 66. It was pretty much a boring drive and just rough dirt roads. If I were to go down again I would go play around by the river and then come out topsy road just like we came in. It would be faster and more to the point if you get my drift.
It was a great day trip and we had a lot of fun. There are endless exploring oportunities in this area and it is going to take quite a few trips to get boring down there. I'm looking forward to the next time into the canyon. Oh, and the long arm was a great success. I am very pleased with how it all worked out.
There is a little park at the beginning of the road for those that wish to partake in the fun that the reservoir has to offer.
This picture basically shows where the drop down to the lake begins. It was a beautiful day and not even that cold. This stretch of the road consists of an old loging road cut into the hillside that has been washed out to the point of having just the right ammount of roughness to be really annoying and not nearly enough to make it a challenge.
This road used to be the only way in for all the ranchers that lived down in this area. This old house is just one of many that we found falling apart and long since abandoned. Supposedly there is an old cemetery not too far off the road that dates back to the 1800s. We didn't take the time to look for it, but I probably will on the next trip.
We found a spring near the bottom of the grade that came out into the road and made this nice ice slick for over 100 yards down the hill. It was pretty sketchy unless you drove with a tire in the snow.
Another old place down by the river. The weird thing about this one is that it had no door openings anywhere.
I drove up on this rock to flex out my new long arm that I built. It works great and allows for a lot more flex than the short arms. I did end up having a little contact between my upper driver arm and my driveline yoke, but it should be an easy fix. I need to make some quick disco's for the swaybar.
Most of this road was quite mild, but there were some good little side roads. We had a GPS along on the trip so we didn't get too off track driving around. I think next time down we will do some exploring to find some good wheeling.
The taco coming up a slight grade. Not very deep snow either, but it was still fun for our pavement pounders.
We were able to find a few places to mess around a little without getting too off track.
We came across a couple of these frozen puddles. The hard part was not knowing if it was solid ice or just a layer on top of a deep puddle. I really didn't want to break through and have sharp ice pieces biting at my sidewalls.
Hoss driving on the edge just like me.
Here is another icy spot. If you look close you will notice that this is normally a pretty decent mud hole if it weren't frozen over. It hard to see in the picture, but it is actually pretty deep looking.
Here we are stopped by the side of copco lake. There is a small town on this lake and a fair ammount of houses around the edges. You would have to enjoy seclusion to live in here. The roads are bad and its a long ways to town. We actually saw a minivan driving far too fast for its own good as we made our way back to the highway.
This was our view for about 15-20 miles as we made our way from copco lake up copco road to hwy 66. It was pretty much a boring drive and just rough dirt roads. If I were to go down again I would go play around by the river and then come out topsy road just like we came in. It would be faster and more to the point if you get my drift.
It was a great day trip and we had a lot of fun. There are endless exploring oportunities in this area and it is going to take quite a few trips to get boring down there. I'm looking forward to the next time into the canyon. Oh, and the long arm was a great success. I am very pleased with how it all worked out.
5 comments:
hey buddy, i am looking forward to another trip out there it was a lot of fun. you should put that picture from behind my truck in there also, its probably one of my favorite pictures. hope to see you soon, don't forget to call if you ever come back to to town. oh and i love how you referr to us as boys from the valley. just remember where you origionally came from. talk to you later buddy.
Hoss Man
I've been doing that trip during the summer for the past 20 yrs. We do a midnight run now to make the road a little tougher. The graveyard is pretty cool there's also a plataue that over looks part of the river.
Hei! I have a question about the location of that cemetery..is it off the Topsy grade road? Im a photographer and I cannot wait to get my hands on that cemetery! Haha By the way awesome pictures, nice work!
Laura
wow looks like a lot of irresponsible behavior
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