Lessons learned from the Oregon tragedy

Bear with me, John... I am going from memory. I no longer have the map I
used. I do know there was no labeling about the road on the map I used.

John Ousterhout wrote:

I am looking at an Official Oregon State Highway Map (ODOT, 2003)

That road is labeled "This route closed in Winter".

There is no highway marker or number of any kind on that road. The map
legend clearly shows Interstate Highway, US Highway and State Highway
markers.

The map legend does indicate that it is a "paved road", following in
order "Interstate Highway", "Divided Highway", "Other Highway", and
above only "gravel road".

I also Have a Rand McNally Road Atlas, 2002. It has similar information.

- John Ousterhout -



john smith wrote:

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?