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Saddle Up Routing Hike

NW99XJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Gresham, Or.
First let me say thanks to AwesomeXJ and Mopar440 for coming out, and working so hard. Both great guys, and obviously are as passionate as I am about this project. Special thanks to AwesomeXJ for coming out of pocket for the cost of the marking materials, we couldn't have acomplished what we did without them.
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Aaron and I met up at the McDonald's in North Plains, had some grub, and hit the road. No sooner did we get passed the on-ramp and we see this teal Cherokee up in the distance, we caught up and low and behold it was Keith. We caravaned up to the Shell station where they topped off the tanks, and got some grub and we all made our way up to Rogers...
SaddleUpHike-1001.jpg


There were some inmates cleaning out the latrines there, and of course an ODF worker, so we briefly asked if he could verify if the Beaver Dam Rd. closure was still in effect, he radio'd in and it appeared as if we were in the clear, so we made our way all the way up to Saddle Up.

We brain-stormed for a little while, decided we'd use the Orange flags Aaron brought to mark the center line, and the pink ribbon to mark the outer edges of the proposed new trail path.
We then got right to work.
We picked this location for the new gateway into Saddle Up. (see the little Orange flag on the stump? its right of center in the pic...)
That'll be the new entrance.
You can see the old trail entrance to the left.....In the video I took -see below- I started from that stump, (so keep that in mind.)
We'll incorporate some sort of width/capability filter into this spot when the construction actually begins.
SaddleUpHike-1006.jpg


This is looking into the area that will be the first stage of the new trail. This is taken from 2/3 of the way up the old trail, looking in towards the new first section.
SaddleUpHike-1007.jpg


Aaron all day was a consummate leader, giving and taking advice, criticism, ideas, and working just as hard as Keith and I, here you see him eye-balling sight lines and surveying the lay of the land, or maybe he was just hungrily looking at Keith's ass:
SaddleUpHike-1002.jpg


We made our way up and across the natural grade of the hill side, taking advantage of the stumps as boundary markers, zig-zagging our way to the central part of the area you saw in the third picture, thru and around stumps, over hillls and burms. There in the middle of all that, we have designed what we think will be the main obstacle we're building into the trail, making it a new destination spot in the TSF, you'll see it in the video, and I'm sorry I didnt take as many pics as I would have liked, but the video will explain it all.
In a nutshell it'll be a two-line face or hill climb. The face climb portion is a zig zag entrance to a sheer face between two large stumps, when its done it will rival Waterfall. The hill climb line will be to the right of that and will be less intimidating, but still quite hard, Both will join together in a flatter area where there will be enough room to turn around, or for two way traffic. (...we're also talking about making a loose rock bypass that will be in no way a walk in the park, closer to the road from all of this that will join into the next portion of the trail.....)
The trail narrows again, angles slightly down (to join in with the aforementioned bypass) then back up again thru more stumps, and over a slight hill before you come down and curve around to enter the wooded area.
This pic is looking down into that section - the wooded area is to the left:
SaddleUpHike-1004.jpg


The wooded area offers excellent shade, and is sure to be a destination spot for those who want a good place to break for a while and eat lunch or just get out of the sun. From there you'll continue on to what will be the most challenging length of sustained hill climb on the trail. The grade is at least as steep as the old trail, of not more so. There will be off camber spots, and a couple slight turns to prevent a balls out skinny pedal run to the top. We've planned to tie into the old trail up at the top - roughly at the 1/2 way point - of the ridge line, where we discussed the possibility of making the rest of the run a rock garden of sorts. Similar to what you will find on the top of Hogsback. 1'-2' diameter rocks tightly packed into a small field (100 yards long maybe...) from there you will exit the trail thru another filter.
This will conclude phase 1 of the build, the next phase will be to delete the exit road, move the quad/bike trail tie-in back another 50 yards or so, and cut more Saddle Up thru the woods to tie into Firebreak 5. That will be done at a later time however. The focus right now is getting this section done and open.
Here is an aerial photo with a VERY rough estimated sketch of how the new phase1 of Saddle Up will be routed. (dark blue bold line)
NewSaddleUpLine-Estimate.png


Once we were done flagging and marking, we walked back along the ridge line, dodging overly aggressive horse-flys, and stopped to survey the rock quarry. (trust me thats a looong way down)
SaddleUpHike-1003.jpg


We continued down the old hill climb where Aaron and Keith grabbed their rigs and headed into the woods for a well deserved late lunch break.
I however, in the spirit of wanting to share our work with all of you... decided to RE-HIKE the whole new trail, in its entirety, and film it, to give you at least somewhat of a visual reference of whats to come.
My camera isn't the best, and footage never does the real thing much justice, but here it is none the less.
http://youtu.be/vHZVyzUiAZM
 
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After I came back down the hill (again) I grabbed my rig, and joined Aaron and Keith for lunch.
SaddleUpHike-1009.jpg


We aired down there in the woods, at the base of Saddle Up, and made our way down the mountain, over to (and i may have the order wrong) Hoggsback, Archer's Firebreak, Rocky Uphill (down) and out to rogers via Powerline.
SaddleUpHike-1010.jpg


SaddleUpHike-1013.jpg


SaddleUpHike-1012.jpg


Keith was having fun with Rubi (Rubicon) who is an awesome dog. She kept up with us all day, tail wagging the whole time. She was one dusty pooch by the end of the day. Here I caught her as she jumped out of the XJ, not being happy with just hanging out in the passenger seat, she wanted come hang with the fellas.
SaddleUpHike-1014.jpg


After Powerline, Keith stopped to let Rubi go play in the water for a second and cool off, Aaron decided to make some art on my hood....
SaddleUpHike-1015.jpg


We aired up at Rogers, and made our way down the hill, all tired, thirsty, and more than a little dusty. But all proud of what we accomplished, and for making it out to get a much needed section of work done on this project. I personally am looking forward to going back and finishing up the marking duties, we'll need to spray paint the stumps we want to keep, the ones we want to grind/cut, and the ones we'll remove all together. We'll also mark out some more definitive trail details, such as intended direction, splits, etc... This will all need to be done before November or so, because that's when the reforestation crews will be coming in. We'll need to be fully, and clearly marked by then so they don't plant in the trail.
I hope this has gotten you guys excited about our adopted trail, I believe we have the opportunity to make this unlike any other trail on the mountain, and offer a new exciting, and challenging run for years to come. This has a lot of potential, but we need to come together more as a chapter to put in the man power to make it happen. I hope to see you guys out there sometime.
Thanks!
 
Thanks for the write up josh. It was a fun day for sure. Little bit of work with a little bit of play.
 
Wow that a great write up. Looked like great times. I will be up at Waterfall next Saturday doing work on that trail helpin out. If pictures or something needs to be done on Saddle Up & I can make time to do it, let me know.
 
Nice work fellas.

Looking at the pics the only question I have is the reasoning behind the "start". I remember Jahmaal said he'd like to see it moved to the road junction at the bottom of the hill since its flat (kinda where the small pile of logs are in one of the pics). If it makes more sense to start near the old exit, why not utilize the old exit?

Again thanks for taking the time to jump start this project.
 
Thanks Dustin,
I'm going to let Aaron answer that one, we had discussed it, and I think some of the reason was the amount of labor involved in moving that pile of logs. It's not out of the question, but the more we go up the old trail, the less we have of the new. He can elaborate on this further....
 
This is just the first route. Kind of a rough draft. We initially chose that location due to it being conveniently located near a colvert for water run off and the ability to make it a solid filter. But like I said its a rough draft. Our next trip out we can re-evaluate the entrance. Everything on the lower side is a lead in to that gnarly ledge climb.

We will continue to evolve the route.
 
Nice writeup, Josh... looking forward to doing more work on the trail, and being in on the planning/designing phase... Rubicon had a blast, and got a MUCH deserved bath as soon as we got home ;-) Jeep performed as expected, and gave me insight as to what to tackle next re: trimming, lift, armor and lockers (not necessarily in that order!!!)... Aaron is quite the artist! lol
 
I went digging for this and have resurrected it so that everyone can get up to speed as to why we're doing what we're doing and all that has gone into it so far.
Some of our members have joined in after all this went down and arent familiar with what happened and what we have planned.
I will of course be updating this thread after our work party this coming Saturday June-1.
 
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