Jeep runs a fun program called the Jeep Badge of Honor Trail program that identifies a number of off-road trails around the country as “official” BoH trails for Jeeps, and uses a phone app that allows users to “check-in” to these trails and get credit for driving them. Jeep will also send you a nice-looking badge with the trail’s name, that you can stick onto the side of your Jeep, if you are into that sort of thing. As a Jeep owner I had heard of the BoH thing but never paid much attention to it, until my trip across Utah with Dan, Mike and Adam. They wanted to spend a few days in Moab which is Jeep BoH Mecca, and get credit for a number of trails, there. We knocked-out four of the BoH trails while we were there, and several months later I received the little badges from Jeep, and I was hooked! Yes, I am easily amused.
Fast-forward six months and in true Portland, Oregon fashion it has been raining for several weeks. Non-stop. Today, March 22nd however, I awoke to dry weather which gave me the itch to get my Jeep out and flex its new suspension and tires. Moab had convinced me that my Jeep needed to just a little bit taller, and the tires needed to be just a little bit bigger. That was my winter project. With a dry day in front of me, I decided that it would be a great opportunity to go run one of Oregon’s Jeep BoH trails, so I headed west towards the cheese town of Tillamook.
At some point on Highway 6 in the Oregon Coast Range Mountains there is a rather nondescript turnoff called Roger’s Camp Road. Fortunately, there is also a large state DOT gravel storage area at this point, making the road easier to spot. From here, you will need a good offline mapping application, as there is no mobile service in this area of the coast range, in order to find the trailhead, which in my case was called Cedar Tree. The road forks right becoming University Falls Road, and left becoming Beaver Dam Road.
Either road will work, although I took Beaver Dam Road and then turned south onto the University Firepower trail which connects to Cedar Tree. University Firepower also connects to University Falls Road, so that right-fork would have also worked. The University Firepower trail has a tougher rating than Cedar Tree, and I can attest that even the short segment that I did, was a lot of fun. Particularly since it had been raining for several weeks. The trail was very steep and tight, with several very sharp turns, but even without engaging the lockers (because of the sharp turns), the new mud tires performed great.
After a mile of the University Firepower trail, it crosses a regular graveled logging road and the Cedar Tree trail begins. This trail is still tight with numerous trees, stumps, and roots crowding the trail, but there are no three-point turns like University Firepower. It is a fun and relaxing drive through coastal cedars and firs, and nothing that any capable four-wheel drive would have trouble, with.
Towards the end of the trail, it pops-out onto a clear-cut landing where the infamous fallen cedar tree stump is located. Evidently one used to be able to drive under this tree, but the wet coastal mountains reclaim all the things, and the cedar tree is no exception. The trail ends near another Jeep BoH trail called Firebreak 5 and I will be back to run that one, someday.
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