Memaloose Road NF-45 Helion Pit

Mikej · Nov 23, 2020

Spaz said:
They are going to have to fix every single road that sees major traffic and close down a few up there. Its going to be a long expensive progress that they may not have the budget for, at least for the next 4 years. We will see. I've been told by people familiar with the situation that it could be closed for a decade.

So much for "Public Land" huh?

Spaz · Nov 23, 2020

Mikej said:
So much for "Public Land" huh?

It should be accessible by foot much sooner than that, but as stewards of the land they have to factor in what's best for the land itself, whats best for public safety, and how to meld those two together for the best method moving forward. It sucks, I know, I spent most of my teenage years and ever opportunity of my adulthood up in those woods. My grandfather and great grandfather helped log it many years ago. I've spent many a day hunting and fishing up there with my dad and camping out with my friends. Hell I flew from Fort Bliss Texas out to there for a 4 day weekend just to go camping. I also know that this fire was bound to destroy that area because of poor forest management practices forced upon the FS at a state and federal level. Shortly before the fires I was camped out near Memaloose lake and ran into a former forester from the district who predicted "a fire that occurs near here is going to be catastrophic", and he was right.

All we can do now is stay up to date and keep up with what they are doing. I know ill be backpacking up there as soon as they open it for foot traffic again.

Mikej · Nov 23, 2020

Spaz said:
It should be accessible by foot much sooner than that, but as stewards of the land they have to factor in what's best for the land itself, whats best for public safety, and how to meld those two together for the best method moving forward. It sucks, I know, I spent most of my teenage years and ever opportunity of my adulthood up in those woods. My grandfather and great grandfather helped log it many years ago. I've spent many a day hunting and fishing up there with my dad and camping out with my friends. Hell I flew from Fort Bliss Texas out to there for a 4 day weekend just to go camping. I also know that this fire was bound to destroy that area because of poor forest management practices forced upon the FS at a state and federal level. Shortly before the fires I was camped out near Memaloose lake and ran into a former forester from the district who predicted "a fire that occurs near here is going to be catastrophic", and he was right.

All we can do now is stay up to date and keep up with what they are doing. I know ill be backpacking up there as soon as they open it for foot traffic again.

"By Foot" There's my problem. I'm not a By Foot person anymore. Never really was I guess. But I am the public. I've seen many beautiful off road places in my life, that was public land. Yeah, a lot of those places required a person to use caution in accessing it. Places where a person could get in dangerous situations. Thank god, now we have the government to protect us from our selves, huh? "Spit"

Spaz · Nov 23, 2020

Mikej said:
"By Foot" There's my problem. I'm not a By Foot person anymore. Never really was I guess. But I am the public. I've seen many beautiful off road places in my life, that was public land. Yeah, a lot of those places required a person to use caution in accessing it. Places where a person could get in dangerous situations. Thank god, now we have the government to protect us from our selves, huh? "Spit"

Like I said, it sucks. I don't disagree. But the situation is FAR more dangerous than what was there before the fires, and they have to balance danger with the risks inherent to rescues in those sort of areas. I don't expect everyone to agree with that, but its the reality of the situation.

Mikej · Nov 23, 2020

Spaz said:
Like I said, it sucks. I don't disagree. But the situation is FAR more dangerous than what was there before the fires, and they have to balance danger with the risks inherent to rescues in those sort of areas. I don't expect everyone to agree with that, but its the reality of the situation.

I've got no bone to pick with you Spaz.

I'll just say. Boy yeah, we need a lot more control over people these days because it's a much, much more dangerous world today that it was when I was young(er).

Spaz · Nov 23, 2020

Mikej said:
I've got no bone to pick with you Spaz. I'll just say. Boy yeah, we need a lot more control over people these days because it's a much, much more dangerous world today that it was when I was young(er).

I'll say this. The number of times I have had to pull out vehicles, find lost hikers and hunters, and treated medical issues up off the 45 road is astounding. People have allowed society to nerf their entire existence till they get into something wild and untamed. Now when they go up into the woods, they are less prepared mentally and physically. I've heard people say the world is much more dangerous, I think it's more that people are oblivious and ignorant now. We have lost the skillsets and knowledge that enabled us to engaged with dangerous situations and understand what we are doing. It's crazy.

Side note, you ever fish up there?

Mikej · Nov 23, 2020

Spaz said:
I think it's more that people are oblivious and ignorant now. We have lost the skillsets and knowledge that enabled us to engaged with dangerous situations and understand what we are doing. It's crazy.

Side note, you ever fish up there?

Truer words.... and all that.

I was never enamored buy the high lake thing in Oregon. Coming from Utah and hiking around the Uinta mountains, and traveling all over fishing country in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, where the smallest water trickling through a farmers field had fish, I found Oregon to be quite sterile as far as rivers and high lakes go. Maybe i just never tried the right places? I did however spend many summer days fishing the Upper Clack for summer steelhead. Until the greenies decided that they could no longer plant steelhead, or trout (there went outings with kids). Back in the '80s I enjoyed decent fishing at Timothy and Clear lakes when there were some decent Brookies available. As I understand "they" don't want brookies in Oregon their numbers are close to zilch now. East and Paulina were a good fishery. What's the point? Pellet heads are pretty gross to me, unless I was camping, and hungry.

Spaz · Nov 23, 2020

Mikej said:
Truer words.... and all that.

I was never enamored buy the high lake thing in Oregon. Coming from Utah and hiking around the Uinta mountains, and traveling all over fishing country in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, where the smallest water trickling through a farmers field had fish, I found Oregon to be quite sterile as far as rivers and high lakes go. Maybe i just never tried the right places? I did however spend many summer days fishing the Upper Clack for summer steelhead. Until the greenies decided that they could no longer plant steelhead, or trout (there went outings with kids). Back in the '80s I enjoyed decent fishing at Timothy and Clear lakes when there were some decent Brookies available. As I understand "they" don't want brookies in Oregon their numbers are close to zilch now. East and Paulina were a good fishery. What's the point? Pellet heads are pretty gross to me, unless I was camping, and hungry.

I feel that. There is a wealth of brookies up there. I prefer them, honestly. Granted they aren't as widespread as say Colorado or Montana, but hot damn there were some good holes up there. There is a lake south of that area that my grandfather used to fish at back when it was a 18 mile hike in, when they first planted fish via 55 gallon drums using a helicopter. They used brooks back then and they still plant them every other year. They love flies, too easy to fish all day.

There's even a spot with channel cat, 3500 feet up.

Flymph · Nov 23, 2020

Mikej said:
So much for "Public Land" huh?

There's also "public safety" and I'd feel bad for any rescue crews that would have to walk or airlift back to a landslide somebody got caught up in because they "had" to go into an area of a recent wildfire.
I will admit that it is upsetting that NF45 has been closed off from HWY224 my entire life and has always been a bit of mystery to me. I was expecting to be able to drive up there in the next few years, but I suppose it will be a bit longer now.
Still find it odd how the Northwest part of the state never caught fire, with all those baad timber lands...

wewaits · Nov 25, 2020

You can still access it on a dirt bike, as stated above it is public land and it has been logged and managed by both the forest service and commercial logging, both the first fire five years ago or so and the most recent were caused by human activity not forest management. The first fire was caused by a bozo shooting tracers in high summer (not very smart), second is suspected camp fire. They have been working to restore the area since the last fire and now this years fires undid a lot of the restoration work.

Spaz · Mar 16, 2021

From looking at overheads, this whole area burned pretty well in September. Lately I have been hearing that it's possible the 45 road may open in July, so long as there is no major landslides, maybe 5 way will be open or the pit off the 4560 road. Certain areas are burned crispy, others are more or less devoid of underbrush but retained their canopy. Biggest issue regarding opening will probably landslides, considering heavy damage was done to the hillside below the 45 road.

Cogs · Mar 16, 2021

Spaz said:
From looking at overheads, this whole area burned pretty well in September. Lately I have been hearing that it's possible the 45 road may open in July, so long as there is no major landslides, maybe 5 way will be open or the pit off the 4560 road. Certain areas are burned crispy, others are more or less devoid of underbrush but retained their canopy. Biggest issue regarding opening will probably landslides, considering heavy damage was done to the hillside below the 45 road.

Thank you for the report!

Diesel Nate · Mar 16, 2021

The road might actually get fixed now.
I've heard that having the road closed greatly reduce their capability to fight the fire in that area, and that they realize they should have fixed it a long time ago.

Ginocide · Mar 16, 2021

Diesel Nate said:
The road might actually get fixed now.
I've heard that having the road closed greatly reduce their capability to fight the fire in that area, and that they realize they should have fixed it a long time ago.

Damn, that'd be a dream.

Mikej · Mar 17, 2021

Diesel Nate said:
The road might actually get fixed now.
I've heard that having the road closed greatly reduce their capability to fight the fire in that area, and that they realize they should have fixed it a long time ago.

Are you talking about the road up from the Clackamas River? I'll wager they'll never reopen that to the public. Convenient for them making it more difficult for people to get up there. After all, people on the public lands has become to much work for the public servants to keep up with.

ar69 · Jan 19, 2022

Anybody been up the back way that some older posts describe via hillockburn recently? I don't know if I want to try to make it all the way to helion but is there anything else up on that side of the 45 road worth checking out?

Cogs · Jan 19, 2022

ar69 said:
Anybody been up the back way that some older posts describe via hillockburn recently? I don't know if I want to try to make it all the way to helion but is there anything else up on that side of the 45 road worth checking out?

N/A. Not Applicable. The NF4500 Rd, at the end of Hillock Burn, is closed to the public because of the past fires. I haven't heard of a reopening yet. Check with the Sandy office on USFS Mt Hood Nat Forest before heading out.

Here's the link to the map of closed areas: https://usfs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/w...24992.5059,-13254461.5425,5790687.6163,102100

Now, the Wildcat area is open, however, the snow pack may still be too deep for access.

Cogs · Jan 19, 2022

ar69 said:
Anybody been up the back way that some older posts describe via hillockburn recently? I don't know if I want to try to make it all the way to helion but is there anything else up on that side of the 45 road worth checking out?

BTW, welcome to the forum! Glad to have you join the rest of us in helping to save our places to shoot on public lands! "Stewardship Keeps It Open!"

Have fun, Be safe and Trash No Land!

Bill