Lessons learned from the Oregon tragedy

I drove my family across Bear Camp Road in August of 2000. There was
still snow in the shadows on the north faces of some of the slopes.
I was driving from Medford to Gold Beach (east to west). I had only an
Oregon State Highway map for navigation. The map indicated it was a
state highway. In Ohio, a state highway means a two-lane paved road.
Leaving I-5 and driving west, the road is two-lane paved asphalt, the
ascent is shallow and the curves are wide. The farther east you drive
from I-5, the more steep the ascent and sharper the curves become. At
some point it becomes a one-lane gravel road with turnouts every couple
of miles to allow vehicles to pass. The farther west you drive from I-5,
the slower your speed becomes. Within an hour of I-5, my speed was down
to 15 mph, max. The road is not straight. It twists and curves. My wife
was making comments like, "Oh look at that!" And couldn't for fear of
going off the road.
The area between the east and west gates gets washed out/slides away and
has to be rebuilt each Spring.
You look at the map and say, "Bear Camp Road is only 50 miles across the
mountains. If I stay on Highway 199, I have to drive south to Cresent
City California, then north on Highway 101. That is longer and will take
more time."
It took me 4-and-a-half hours to drive from Medford to Gold Beach. The
locals all drive the Cresent City route.

Ron Lee wrote:

I just started trying to ID the road he was one and the one thing I
noted was that I-5 was nearby. Why would he leave I-5 except in a
city/town setting?