The steep HILL, you have to read

[darrel]

A few days ago my wife and I decided to explore a new road to us. The "Lone mountain" road out of O'Brian, Oregon to Patricks creek, ca area. It was a cloudy day with rain clouds. We had not plotted the road and were not sure where it would lead us to except to hwy 199 in California. We spent the first nite along a beautiful stream and ventured off the next morning. Yes we got lost or turned around, didn't read the road signs correctly or whatever. Anyway we got on the wrong road and were making our way up and I do mean UP this road which turned out to be THE WRONG WAY. We got stuck. We ran out of power and the old Dolphin would not move forward. Tried to back down, 2.9 miles, but the front end would not respond to any commands. The front wheels would only lock-up under braking and skid, it would not steer. We were headed toward a drop off off off off damn that was scary. Called 911. Only way to get cell phone response and put on extended service. Anyway a tow truck was dispatched from Grants Pass,or. This was at 2:30PM. They searched until 10:00PM and could not locate us. Yes it is dark now very dark. Yes we did spend the nite up on the mountain. It's very difficult to sleep when your bed is at a 22 or so degree angle. My wife slid out of bed and toppled onto her head, boy I heard of that. Not much sleep that nite. It was bad. Anyway A guy on a motorcycle road up the mountain and drew a map of our location which we passed on to Search and Rescue. This guy is a life saver. He is a member of this forum. What a coincidence, two weeks or so ago we were in Brookings,oregon and met a woman in the Bi-mart parking lot. She said she had a toyota sunrader motor home. Yes these two people are a couple, Lee and Joan. "THANK YOU". Search and Rescue got us out of our fix by winching us up to an area that we could turn around and drive down the mountain. Hit US199 at 5:30PM 28 hours later. Darrel and his understanding wife

[Totem]

wow that's scarey... I hit a few mountain passes in my Sunrader in Yellowstone that dropped me to 24 Mph... but always climbed em.

A couple questions.. did they charge you for the rescue? did GoodSam or AAA etc cover it?

Also was it a V6?

Finally, did you try shifting luggage and weight from one end of the cab to another?

[darrel]

No Search and Rescue did not charge for their help, but I gave them 200 dollars for their fund. Dont have GoodSam or AAA coverage. The tow truck was 150 dollars per hour but they settled for 350. Thats a totol of 550. Could have had a very nice B&B. We have the 22r carburated 4cyl engine 4 speed. Darrel

[Lee & Joan]

I decided to take a little motorcycle ride last Sunday, just on the spur of the moment.

I usually ride this area from Smith River town toward O'Brian then back to Gasket and home to Brookings.

But today for some reason I decided to do it backwards

And run it from the old Gasket Toll Road, which is absolutely beautiful this time of year.

I was out about 50 miles from home and had not seen a soul all day, in fact I only saw a tire track

from one other bike, since it had rained the night before. I got to "Three Ponds" an old mining camp

and noticed the sign pointing toward Gasket was aimed the wrong way, up the very steep "Holiday Road"

to the old Holiday Mine rather than the more tame Toll Road. This Holiday Road is quite steep, the

pictures do not do it justice. I was up this road almost 3 miles when I rounded a corner and low and behold there was a Dolphin teetering on the edge at the bottom of the steepest grade in the entire road.

You don't really expect to see anybody out there, maybe a jeep, but never a Dolphin. I went past it and there were people inside so I stopped because it did not look like they were having a lunch stop

and I could see all the skid marks on the 1/8 mile hill above them. Darrel came out and we introduced eachother then Gwen came out. They said seach and rescue and the towing service had been unable to find them and they had spent the night out there in the rain, just a few feet from the roads edge is a long

steep dropoff, but Darrel had managed to stop short of the edge and apply some "Parking brake" boulders behind the duals. The Grade they had attempted to climb had been somewhat of a "river" of rocks and loose mud from the 10 inch rains we had gotten the week before. In fact that was one of the reasons I was out riding, to see which roads were still there and which had washed away. Since Darrel & Gwen had followed one of the only signs out in that part of the world, which unfortunately was pointed the wrong way, pretty much to the middle of nowhere, I knew search and rescue would never look up that road for

a motorhome. I asked them where they had come from and figured out they had made a number of turns where there were no signs. So I drew them a map on a piece of cardboard & showed them that the nearest pavement with a Patrick Creek Lodge,level beds, food & booze was 7 miles away, all downhill. As we were yaking it turned out that we were both members of this messageboard & he had wanted to meet us since we live pretty close. We yaked about our Toyota projects & exchanged contact info but the day was getting late and I was a long way from home. I continued up the road and there were a lot of downed trees so I chicken out of my long loop plans and continued "around the block", back toward O'Brian, down Shelley Creek, and back up Patrick creek, until I hit the offending sign pointing the wrong way. Only then did I realize that this was also called "Holiday Road", the sign I had ignored while looking at the wrong way sign. So I buzzed back up to Darrel & Gwens abode and told them "You are on Holiday Road". Gwen relayed that to the search team and they were there in about 20 minutes. It was getting dark and I had a good 60 miles to get home, so I left them with the search guys.

[Derek up North]

You don't carry a tow strap on the bike?

[Lee & Joan]

PART TWO

I get home about dark thirty and I tell Joan "Your never going to believe what happened on my bike ride",

so I tell her the story and she starts asking me questions

"Was it a good looking 84 Dolphin?" Well yes it was...

"Has the couple gone to Alaska in it?" Well yes they had...

"Had they put about 50,000 miles on it?" Well yes they had...

At this point I am thinking that Joan had developed clairavoyant powers while I was off riding...

"Did the man have a beard?" well yes he did

"Well I think I just met them last week when they were parked next to me a Bi Mart"

Sing along "IT'S a SmaLL World aFterAll"

So we called them up and left a message And they called back later when they got home

To Grants Pass, and we ended up talking fairly late into the night

And we all got to sleep in level beds that night...

[Lee & Joan]

You don't carry a tow strap on the bike?

Actually I do have a tow strap, about 30 feet of plastic baleing twine.

And I have used it, I once winched myself back up a rock scree I had fallen off

Just across the canyon from where Darrel & Gwen were stuck on a trail called "High Dome"

I will never forget that... I shudder when I go by that trailhead, to this day...

But with my 250 cc's of Honda power might have been put to better use holding down the toyotas hood

trying to get some weight on the front wheels ???

[5Toyota]

WOW AND WOW WHAT AN AMAZING STORY THANKS FOR SHAREING BEEN LOST ONCE MYSELF ON FOOT FULL PACK MANY DECADES AGO GOT MY SELF UNLOST BUT NOT A FUN THING AT ALL IF ALL ENDS WHELL THEN YOU SET AT THE CAMPFIRE AND TELL ABOUT 40 years LATER. AND THER ARE SOME GREAT PEOPLE LEFT ON EARTH STILL

[darrel]

Lee, Thanks for expounding on our adventure. You are a better story teller than I. When Gwen and I talk things over, we figure the grade must have been much steeper than 22 degrees because I know we pulled a 28 degree hill in SE oregon with no problem.

[Totem]

this is fascinating to me; I will try to avoid 22 degree or sharper grades forevermore.. I remember a hill near Pittsburgh "mountaintop RV resort" that was so steep that the rig probably would have come to a stop had it not finally crested. It was nearly 20-22 degrees i think...

[Lee & Joan]

This grade was not well graded, it was off camber sidehill, as well as steep,

and was littered with good sized rocks that were loosened by recent flooding rain

so you had to push over the top of round rolley rocks in addition to pushing the grade.

You can see in one of the pictures where all the road rain water drains off the road

just behind (3-4 feet) the passenger rear of the rig. I wonder if an auto transmission would

have kept crawling vs the manual? Darrel was really close to making it up to some firmer

slightly less steep terrain before he ran out of steam. I ran my bike up the rest of the road,

another 15 miles? and there were no UP grades steeper than this but there were several

very long slippery mud downgrades that just kept going, and visibility up there was really bad

because you are literally up in the clouds. Plus the downed trees for added adventure.

I remember that I had started to say to Darrel "You guys are really brave and adventuresome

to be way out here in that Dolphin" but then I realized that I was out there alone with only a motorcycle,

no cell phone, and not even a 22 degree roof to sleep under, so I just shut up...

[PixieChick]

This is an amazing story!...There are NO coincidences - the gods just have to get really creative sometimes.

[HUntsman]

theres nuthin scarier than going up a steep rough road at night w a motorhome

only to realize its gettin too steep for the rig and no turnaround.

and you attempt reverse in pitch black with tires skidding and a drop off looming.

never again

now I scout on foot, every steep rough backroad first --- for a turnaround

its a workout, but well worth it versus a destroyed rig

[Ron 'n Sue]

This is just one more good reason I keep telling Ron, no stay on well travelled roads. No backroad adventures for us old folks!

[85Diesel]

That's a crazy story. I live just down the road from where you got stuck, in Cave Junction. Never been on that road, though.

[Lee & Joan]

AH, 85 Diesel San.

See you have a 4X4 Sunraider, one of the few on the planet.

If you want to try your luck on this hill, go west on 199

to Patricks Creek, turn just before the lodge, before the bridge.

Right on Patricks Creek road, keep on the main road, don't go right on Shelley Creek.

About 7 miles you cross Patrick Creeek on old cement bridge, right after bridge go right on

Holiday road. Up Up & Away. About 3 miles up is where this happened.

Let me know And I will come take photos

[wind.driven]

A bit of advice if I may add my 2 cents. I've backed my Dolphin down some really crappy, steep dirt roads to park on beaches. Your vehicle will always give more power to the front brakes automatically, which is why they lock up and become useless when backing down the hill. If you preload the e-brake a little it makes the rear brakes kick in sooner.

I'd always pull the e-brake 60-70% percent while backing down a steep hill and get way more steering response and way less front wheel lock up since the rear brakes kick in earlier. There's all kinds of weird things you have to do when driving these old Toyota Motorhomes.

[sailfritz]

Wow, what a story to tell the grandkids!

[darrel]

85 Diesel if you decide to give this road a try let Lee or me know in advance. Would like to be there or we can direct "Search & Rescue " to your location.

[paulnptld]

I'd been regularly driving my Dolphin on the beach in Gearhart, OR. It did great every time, so I assumed this thing must have some serious traction. A month later I was with my wife and newborn daughter in Pacific City. We decided we'd drive on the beach. About 100 yards in we were starting to lose traction. Then a woman with four dogs slowly meandered into my path. We were stuck. Hopelessly. As the tide was quickly rolling in.

I gave the call to 'abandon ship.' My wife was terrified as the waves got closer. For that matter, I was shaking like a 10 year old.

Someone tried to tow us out in their Nissan XTerra. They got stuck. We called a tow truck driver. He showed up with an F150. It didn't work.

Finally, he said we'd have to do something crazy. Drive toward the ocean. He gunned his truck and we started zipping into the water. We had to do a very rapid 180. I thought the Dolphin was going to roll over into the waves.

NEVER EVER AGAIN WILL I DO SOMETHING SO RECKLESS.

Also on my list now? Locking rear differential for the Dolphin.

[paulnptld]

...and btw, very glad to hear that it ultimately worked out for you. Very frightening. This could have gone far worse, especially if the snow level had dropped. I think back to the couple that got stuck in a similar area a few years ago after following GPS directions. It was not a happy outcome.

[85Diesel]

I don't know if it would have helped in your situation, but deflating the tires so they balloon out is the way to drive in soft sand. It allows the tires to float on top of the sand instead of dig in.

[Damon]

I know this is an older thread but I have to respond. I took that road from I think Smith River Ca. to O'Brien OR a few months ago in my 2012 ram 4x4.

This is one of the worst roads I have ever taken anywhere. I didn't get lost but just about had to rock crawl in many places, it was hell. There where very steep drop offs everywhere. I had to stop and push small boulders and rocks off the road and they rolled and crashed down the bank a very long way!

I live in Selma about 18 miles north of O'Brien. I can't even imagine a Dolphin trying to make it. Thank goodness you guys made it.