Go, Go, Gladiator!

[Andy29847]

Next up? Moab!

We camped at Archview RV Resort north of Moab.

You can see the arches form the RV park, but they are out there.

Sunrises were worth getting up for.

Enough of that, we are here to Wheel.

Gladiator leads the way!

Rough Road ahead.

This slope at Fins N" Things was scary.

We ate more than once at the Moab Grill. I love it there.

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[20Gladiator22]

I'm just amazed at how many jeeps you see pushing big RV's. You would think they would put bigger engines in those things!

Nice pics though. That's enjoying life. Nice work!

 

[Andy29847]

I'm just amazed at how many jeeps you see pushing big RV's. You would think they would put bigger engines in those things!

Nice pics though. That's enjoying life. Nice work!

Jeeps are popular with RV'ers because they are so easy to rig for 4 down towing. Four down towing is great because the toad (read Jeep) follows directly in the campers tracks on turns. Throw in the versatility and resale value, and taking a Jeep camping becomes an attractive proposition.

 

[Andy29847]

It's beach week! The Oregon coast is magical.

Battle rock

On June 10, 1851, Battle Rock—a basalt promontory at Port Orford on the southern Oregon coast—was the site of a deadly confrontation between a landing party from Portland and the Quatomah, an Athapaskan people who lived in the area. Heavily propagandized by early writers, the story of Battle Rock was often framed as a heroic foundational tale of Anglo-American “civilization” in the region, with the rock itself becoming a symbol of this supremacist ideology. At least two Indigenous resisters were executed on the rock’s summit during the so-called Rogue River Wars, signifying its altarlike status. For much of the twentieth century, costumed reenactments of the battle were staged on the rock as the grand finale of Port Orford’s annual Fourth of July Jubilee.

Although Battle Rock is often written about as established history, what actually transpired is far from certain. A month following the incident, an account written by J. M. Kirkpatrick, a member of the landing party, was mailed to the editor of the Oregon Statesman. Kirkpatrick wrote that he had been working as a carpenter in Portland when he and eight others were recruited by steamship captain William Tichenor to help establish a coastal supply town. The nine men were reportedly deposited on the beach with orders to survey the area and erect a few preliminary structures. Tichenor then continued south to San Francisco, promising to return in exactly fourteen days.

The Quatomah were friendly at first, Kirkpatrick wrote, but they became upset when they realized the men were there to stay and ordered them to leave. Refusing, Kirkpatrick and his companions lugged their gear to the top of what would later be called Battle Rock, where they fortified an encampment with a cannon from Tichenor’s ship. The following morning, according to Kirkpatrick, “about forty” Quatomah attempted to force their way into the camp. In the ensuing chaos, the cannon was fired directly into their ranks, “killing some six or eight dead.” Many of the Quatomah were then either gunned down or beaten to death, resulting in a purported “twenty killed and fifteen wounded.” Kirkpatrick claimed that four members of the landing party sustained injuries, none of them life threatening.

Later in the day, the men “made signs” with the Quatomah, indicating they would leave the area after fourteen days, and from that point on they were left alone. When Tichenor did not return when he had promised, however, the Quatomah came back in greater numbers, likely augmented by at least one other Athapaskan band in the region. Kirkpatrick wrote that the leader of the Quatomah, despite his best efforts, could not persuade his followers to rush the rock a second time. Eventually, they moved off down the coast, where they lit several bonfires. Seeing an opportunity, Kirkpatrick and the others decided to “take to the woods,” and after several harrowing days made it safely to the town of Gardiner on the Umpqua River—and into local lore.

Forty-seven years later, in 1898, the seventy-year-old Kirkpatrick told a lengthier version of the story, which depicted the landing party, “with the air full of arrows,” courageously fending off “at least one hundred” Quatomah. When compared with his largely forgotten 1851 letter, it is clear that he fabricated much of this second story. The Quatomah leader who was unable to persuade his group to rush the rock a second time in the 1851 version, for example, was successful in the later telling; and Kirkpatrick, at the last moment, heroically shot him from one hundred yards, thereby halting the charging war party. Despite its questionable authenticity, the highly sensationalized retelling of the story became the primary source for what occurred and has since been cited in everything from 1960s pulp magazines to present-day academic journals.

While it is impossible to know exactly what happened on that June day in 1851, there is compelling evidence that it may have been quite different than what the “battle” narrative would have us believe. In 1886, a former member of the landing party, J. H. Egan, recalled that the Quatomah had climbed up the rock to enter the men’s camp but were stopped halfway, where he and a few others “parlayed with them.” He went on to say that “the pressure from behind was too strong, so we fell further back.” Eventually, according to Egan, the Quatomah began “snatching at our clothes, provisions and other property.” As the situation became more hectic, a member of the landing party came forward with an “armful of shirts” and threw them to the Quatomah, which caused a rush toward the camp. It was in that moment, Egan wrote, that “we met them with a discharge of our cannon.” When the event is viewed this way, it is understandable why ethnologist J. P. Harrington, after interviewing an informant on the Siletz Reservation, wrote in his notebook that the “battle” of Battle Rock “is mostly lies.”

Tichenor returned, saw that Kirkpatrick and the others had fled, and sailed to San Francisco for more men. He used his reinforcements to build a fort at Cape Orford, which was eventually taken over by the U.S. Army for use during the Rogue River Wars. Tichenor was able to build his American settlement, permanently displacing the Quatomahs from their homelands.

Driftwood - it's protected.

101 bridge over the Rogue River.

La Beach

I found one spot where I could drive on the beach.

Hiking down one of the cliffs near Gold Beach.

You should have been there.

We drove to the CA/OE line to see the Redwood Narional Forest.

And we took a Jet boat ride on the Rogue River. It was fun!

We saw some wildlife.

And some not so wild life.

A fine time was had by all. More to come.

 

[Dust]

Epic! Safe travels. Seven years left, and my wife and I will be doing the same.

 

[Andy29847]

We left the Oregon coast headed for Idaho but planned an overnight stop near Crater Lake. It was smoky at Crater Lake and you can see that in the photos. This little guy was a serious begger.

David and Val are still on the road with us.

The smoke cleared the next moring which really helped the photography.

David's dog, D'Artagnan loves me.

Sorry, there were no gladiator photos taken at Crater Lake. More to come.

 

[Andy29847]

In 2015, I did a motorcycle trip around the Frank church wilderness with some of my riding friend. I wrote a ride report and shared it on ADVrider.

https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/...of-idaho-and-all-i-got-was-a-t-shirt.1084303/

We left Crater Lake headed towards Idaho to re-live some of the 2015 trip in Jeeps. First stop was on the west side of the state near Riggins, ID. The Salmon River comes through Riggins near where it intersects with the Snake River. There are hundreds of miles of forest roads to explore in the area.

Headed east from Riggins along the Salmon River.

Maps? Who needs maps?

We took the turn towards Burgdorff. The road begins to climb.

Looking back.

This bus used to be one of the most photographed spots in Idaho, at least for motorcycle riders.

The bus gets tagged almost as much as it gets shot.

We were being watched.

I love the Idaho Wilderness.

The next day we went towards heaven.

We found the gate.

If you wanted to go further, you had to walk.

Gladiators lead the way!

More to come.

 

[Andy29847]

Let's go to Yellowpiner, the most remote town in Idaho.

Yellowpine is ~ 50 miles of dirt road from McCall, ID. The road is good. the scenery is gooder.

Gladiator leads the way!

We made it (wife was driving ).

Beautiful downtown Yellowpine.

Snake!

 

[Andy29847]

It was smoky from forest fires in Idaho, and that affected my big landscape photos. I still went out the last day with my fancy camera to try for some special shots. The photos turned out OK, but you should have been there!

It's me!

Way down at the bottom is the Salmon river.

The most common thing in Idaho seems to be fire.

Gladiator leads the way!

These elk were in a pen.

The pups were worn out.

More to come.

 

[TheOpa]

Some great pictures! Sounds like an epic road trip Andy. Looks like you are living the retirement life I hope to have!

 

[Andy29847]

My gladiator is lightly modified. I added a full width Rockhard Patroit soon after I bought the truck. I chose the Rockhard bumper because it provides a way to tow the Gladiator. Rockhard products are often the high-priced option, but in this case I was getting a winch plate, tow points, and a skid plate in the deal. Also, the factory fog light bolt in to the new bumper. It made the cost worthwhile.

I went with the Badlands Apex winch from Harbor Freight. I had a Warn M8000 on the TJ I sold and it was seldom used. The Apex was just too attractively priced to walk away from. It was a very tight fit on the Gladiator. I re-routed the cables to come out of the side of the control housing and I added 1 1/2" of spacers between the bumper and the frame to make the winch and easy fit. I learned about the winch mod on this forum. It is a more better way.

before

After

The front dropped ~1/2 inch with the weight of the bumper and winch. To compensate I added a 1" puck to the front springs. I also put in a "Decked" drawer system in the back. I carry my recovery gear and tools in the drawers. I love the drawers. My wife gets mad because I can't haul much furniture.

The Falken Wildpeak MT tires got too noisy after I missed a couple of tire rotations. I replaced them with 35x11.5R16 Toyo AT3 tires. The Toyos have been excellent. The give a good ride, they are wearing evenly, and they fit inside the fenders. I expect they will be my "go to" tire for the life of the vehicle.

Since I was going to be towing my truck with the camper, I felt like I need to know how much it weighed. A trip to the local truck stop showed 5360 pound (about what I expected).

We are loving our Jeep truck!

 

[Andy29847]

We moved from Riggins, ID to Challis, ID. The main reason for staying in Challis was to ride the Custer toll Rd, visit Custer, and see the mining dredge. This map shows the route.

Yankee Fork Gold Dredge

The girls were trying out for office jobs.

Oil prices were better back then.

After touring the dredge, we visited the Custer ghost town, a restored mining village.

Somebody always ruins the photo. :0

5 star sleeping

Then on to the Custer Toll Rd.

It's a good road with good scenery.

We had to share the road with others.

Fireweed - the first colonizer of the soil after a forest fire.

.

 

[Andy29847]

Valerie and David are friends from our motorcycle days. They live in Floridia. David went jeep crazy about the same time I did, and then he retired and bought an RV too. Our trip (reported here) was the first thing we have done together that was more than just a one-day activity. As it turned out, we all meshed well together, and we had a great time. We had some planned things to do at each stop, and we also left some days open to explore the area we were in. One of the best days was in Challis. We wanted to Wheel, and we wanted it to be more than just driving on good forest roads. I found a road that goes out to the Twin Peaks Fire Lookout, and we decided to go there. I picked it because it showed a mountain climb at the end. We were NOT disappointed.

The road out to Twin Peaks was a fun ride.

There she blows!

I made a movie going up the switchbacks. It did not turn out to be what I wanted. My camera, when pointed at the sky, would focus on the windshield, ruining the picture. Anyway, here it is - 15 minutes of movie, some good, some not so good.


The view from the top was worth the climb!

You can tell that there is smoke in the air.

I took some photos going down. You can see that the road is very good considering it's location and purpose.

\

A fine time was had by all. More to come.

 

[Andy29847]

I like to make movies on my trips. Movies are easy to film, but hard to share. Besides, who can sit still for more than a minute to watch somebody else's movie? Here are some of the other movies from my Colorado-Oregon - Idaho trip.

We took a Jet boat ride on the rogue river in Oregon.




Under the rock on Pucker Pass (Moab)


30° down on Fins N' Things


White Rim Trail along the Green River


Climbing timber Hill on Stony Pass (Colorado)


Mudhole going out to the Wheeler Geological Area (Colorado


Robber Jays at the Wheeler Geological Area.


Hillclimb on Engineer Pass (Colorado)


Forrest Gump at the gate.

 

[Andy29847]

From Challis Idaho, David and Val went home. We drove to Kalispel, Montana where our daughter was flying in to spend the week with us. We visited Glacier National Park, the national Bison Range, and Kootenai Falls. Here are a few photos to document to week.

Go, go gladiator!

The water is blue because of the minerals scrubbed out of the rocks by glaciers.

Glacier National Park still has glaciers

Things started slow at the bison Preserve. These were the first ones we saw.

It was feeling like we were not going to see much at the Bison Preserve until we spotted this one laying in the bush.

Then we spotted a bear. The bear walked right by the truck.

I'm guessing that is a Black Bear because he dowsn't have a hump on his shoulder. Also, he didn't try to eat us.

Where the deer and the Antelope play♪♫

What I thought was the Lochness Monster turned out to be Otters playing in the pond.

We are family♪♫

Lake Mcdonald

Afre spending 5 weeks with David and Val, we were missing them. I photoshopped them into this photo form Kooteani Falls for a laugh.

More to come.

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