Last month during a rare break in the rain, I travelled over to the Tillamook State Forest and ran one of Jeep’s “Badge of Honor” trails, called Cedar Tree. With the rain mostly behind us, here in Oregon, I headed back over to the Tillamook State Forest on a Friday afternoon to run the second of the two Jeep BoH trails there, called “Firebreak 5.” Once our weather begins turning warmer and dryer, Tillamook State Forest becomes a bit crowded on the weekends, thus my Friday excursion and I was the only one on the trail. I imagine that Firebreak 5 might be a zoo on the weekends, as it can be run from both directions and there are very few spots to get off the trail in order to let others by. I had no idea which direction to run the trail, but picked south-to-north because Cedar Tree is “generally” a north-to-south trail, and that puts you right at the beginning of Firebreak 5.
Spoiler alert: South-to-north on Firebreak 5 is all downhill, making the trail much easier than north-to-south. Easier does not mean “Cedar Tree” easy. Jeep rates Firebreak 5 a 5-7 vs. a 4 for Cedar Tree. In my opinion, Cedar Tree is a 3 and Firebreak 5 is a 4, perhaps a 4-5 if run north-to-south. It is a great trail for practicing rock crawling, though. Like Caine finally taking the pebble from Master Kan’s hand, when one can run Firebreak 5 without smacking the rear differential on a rock (I did not pass the test on this trip), one has achieved rock crawling zen. It is not that the rocks are huge, and there are not any stair step ledges, but everything is loose and your tires are prone to “kick out” and drop your rear differential onto a nascent boulder.
By my calculations on Gaia GPS, Firebreak 5 is a little over 2.4 miles long so about a half-mile shorter than Cedar Tree. Like Cedar Tree where you can add University Firepower onto the frontend of the trail for some additional distance, there is also Saddle Up that comes into Firebreak 5 from the south. Gaia or a similar mapping system is a must in order to work your way through the myriad of logging roads in the Tillamook State Forest, though once you are on the trails, they are well marked and easy to follow. Note that there is no wireless coverage in the area.
Like Cedar Tree, Firebreak 5 made for a quick afternoon escape into the woods. Going during the week was definitely a plus, as there was no traffic on the trail. When I did Cedar Tree on a Saturday morning, there were half-a-dozen other Jeeps and motorcycles on the trail – and that was during the wet season in March. If you have ever wanted to test your metal on some real rocks, Firebreak 5 is a great trail to begin honing your rock crawling skills.
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