FS 37 rd, Camp Creek - Seneca - Bear Valley 1/14/16

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Location: HWY 395 6 mi south of Seneca, 2 miles west to 3790 jct.




Road & Trail Conditions: hwys clear.  37 plowed for 1.5 mi, packed snow; then 12", groomed with 1+" powder



Snow Conditions: absolutely lovely

Skis on & temperature: 11:15am 18° , mostly sunny (JD 31° cloudy)

Skis off & temperature: 2:15pm 31°, mostly cloudy, flurries starting with next snowstorm (JD 38°)

Distance: 9 miles

Rating (1-10; 10 awesome): 9.9

37 rd following camp creek

Comments: this felt like my own personal groomed trail.  no snowmobile tracks. powder over groomed.  gradual slope for first 1.5 mi., then basically flat following camp creek west.

this is the slope on the first 1.5 mi.  leave enough gas in the tank to get back up - not too bad.

explored 3790 rd north to 310& 702 jct. where plowing stopped & grooming continued.  when logging & plowing ceases (there are several large piles of cut trees waiting to haul out), this would be a lovely climb to the ridge & find a loop down to the 37 rd. & back.

3790 rd going north from 37 rd.

Road Updates Starr Ridge, 16 & 15 rds. -1/14/16

FS 4920 rd from Starr Ridge Campground  west is plowed for logging operations on the spurs going north:

The FS 333 rd. from Starr Ridge Sno Park has a nice set of cat tracks with powder on top, great access into a network of groomed trails in windfall creek area:

FS 16 Rd is plowed from Seneca to Prairie Summit.  Saw a set of ski tracks starting at the 1620 rd going north.

The FS 15 rd is plowed from the 16 jct thru Co. 65 to 395.

Groomed Trails - Starr Ridge 1/13/16

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from Glen Johnston:

Garret Carniglia took Cat #2 out from the Starr Snowpark and groomed the Windfall Creek Loop and in the Geary Creek area to Laycock Creek Road.

Groomed Trail - Seneca 1/12/16

01/12/2016 grooming report:  I cut off 310 at 472 it is a nice road not plowed. West to the end of 3790 . north on the237 to 235 and back east on 3790 to plowed road at the 710 and returned. Held it short today so I could fill the fuel all the way up,,, blue line.  DV

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Groomed Trails - Seneca 1/11/16

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from Glen Johnston:

> Cat #1 groomed from Seneca today, orange line on map.  The 310 road south from Seneca is plowed for logging (pink line on map) and logging activity is ongoing in the area.  The green line on the 24 road has also been plowed.  Snow is great, grooming went well.  This is the first day of grooming in this area.  Several more trails will be opened in this vicinity.

Groomed Trails - Starr Ridge 1/11/16

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from Glen Johnston:


>       Cat #2 groomed from the Starr Snowpark today, see the orange line.  Thanks Garret.
>

Dixie Butte FS 2610 rd - 1/7/16

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Location: Hwy. 26 east of Prairie City to Dixie Summit Sno Park

this is what it looks like on a clear day....

this is what it looked like from the top today

Road & Trail Conditions: Hwy 26 clear; followed county sno cat tracks up the FS 2610 rd, several hrs. old. they were repairing a radio on the com towers. ideal groomed conditions. newest snomobile tracks had 4-8" of sno fill.

start of the fs 2610 rd; starr ridge snowsports park, tow rope to left

Snow Conditions: 2-5' with increasing elevation.  lt. to moderate sno flurries increasing with elevation to quite strong with 20mph wind on the butte -  visibility 10'. 1/2-1" accumulation at butte, very little accumulation lower.

Skis on & temperature:  9:30am 29° (JD33° );

Skis off & temperature: 3:45pm 33°  (JD 37° )

Distance: 5 miles, maybe; elevation 2700+' definitely

elevation profile
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Rating (1-10; 10 awesome): 9.9 - clear day = 10

Comments: this is one of those ski season high points, literally. haven't done this much elevation before. sno & temp easy. great climb to the treeline then it gets very steep to the top.  from the top down to the treeline ended up being much more difficult, very fast & narrow.  thought the deep snow would help, didn't. also, thick clouds, wind & blowing snow at top decreased visibility to the point of obscuring tracks & hazards. dixie seems to have it's own weather patterns, often quite different from the rest of the john day river valley.

touring skis worked fine to the treeline; backcountry skis would have been more appropriate for the last segment

with the current conditions (deep at the top) unless you are very skilled at downhill, i'd either walk/snow shoe this section or turn around at the treeline. less deep snow might be more manageable.

4.5hrs up; 1.5 hrs. down

alternatives to this route are a network of trails that start from the east end of the sno park (096? - the rd. markers don't always match with the maps &, as you can see, are not always visible):

on the south side of 26 (maybe not a part of the sno park, no permit needed?) another road going south, popular with snomobiles, fs 132: