10" ruts. I know that doesn't sound like much, but they are in a heavily traveled gravel road bordering my farm. I've already pulled one car out. I called the county road maintenance yard and told them to get some signs up and to get it fixed. They did some work a couple of days ago, but it didn't hold. I'm not surprised as we still have a layer of ice under the surface and everything is mush above the ice layer. When I pulled my neighbor out I told her it was worse further on. I was debating if I should go around with the tractor. She was going to try a different route to her home. In my experience this road has never been this bad. Before it has always held together in the spring. Maybe it was the amount of precipitation over the winter, but I think we sometimes have had more in the past.

Global warming <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Until they get it fixed, you should hang out a sign at the end of the road which reads "Get stuck? It'll cost you $40- Go ahead". That should cover your fuel and time. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/oink.gif" alt="" />

>>>*Over in Eastern Oregon there are some ruts like that except they are dry. They were left over from the wagons that came through, part of the Oregon Trail.

Of course our government had to "preserve" them because they were "pristine" ruts. I listened to a politician actually say that.

*Since we live closer to the coast it's kinda..damp?

I remember pulling down a trail by Scappose Creek, I saw some ruts with water standing in them. Bunch of guys standing around, I didn't want to go out around so I wound up the old 390 horse Chevy and hit her wide open.

*PLOOOOP! Made it maybe 6 feet.

Mud running across my floorboards, they were all laughing at me. I got out and sank to my white cottons. Then I was pulled out by some guy with tires big enough for a road grader.

The troops go up there all the time, call it the "Yippee" hole. Neat run, but if I was to go up there now I would park up top and sit on the bank to watch....*LOL**.. Some of those rigs go right across the top of it, but then I think if they kept the revs up they could cross the Columbia....*EB

Good story EB. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Well, as for the Oregon Trail ruts...you know..being a history buff, I'd hate to lose 'em. Funny enough, I've yet to see them in the first place. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I do have a book that tells where they are...maybe I should go look one of these days.

I ventured out on an old Eastern Oregon Road one time. About 15 miles in, the road got worse and worse. Was suppose to go all the way through according to the map. Woulda saved me some time from taking the highway all the way around.

Soon I was hitting ruts bigger than my truck. I kept thinking, if keep going maybe it will get better. Maybe its just the middle part that is bad. I really didn't want to turn around. Something like 20 miles in, I hit a rancher's gate and a no trespassing sign.

I swore a lot.

The only thing worse than that is driving 20 miles down a really bad road only find yourself on the wrong side of a gate where you can throw a stone to the highway, but you can't get your truck to it. Ya, I've done that too.

Seems like some of the Ranchers over there don't really care much about through or public access. Once you hit a property line, you're screwed.

Your telling me there are ruts from wagons in Oregon? How could they possibly survive a 100 years without being washed away or filled in?

Reminds me of the biologist who got the whole forest closed by planting Lynx hair <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rodent.gif" alt="" />

My Mom's side of the family went west on the Trail; I've got my great-great aunt's account. She was 9 y/o when they made the crossing and settled in the LaGrande area.

In Wyoming:



Southern Idaho (near Soda Springs I believe). This is where the emigrants parted ways for either OR or CA.



Soda Springs golf course; preserved:

>>>*Well...yea. Still there, and still "pristine" according to a lady State rep from the area. I forget the name of the town over there but they couldn't build some buildings because of them, part of the Oregon Trail going right through the town. There are areas that look just like the pics Margie posted, untouched and still there from the streams of wagons that went through..Not much rain in the high desert regions..*EB