Hojo8

UAE 911...thanks for the guidance. Unfortunately, Tucson is a must. I know the Sedona area well from a year of living in Phoenix.
All these great comments are going on post-a-notes placed on the relevant pages of the planning atlas. I plan to keep a journal on the trip and report back on all the great roads found. Your contribution is most appreciated.

chuck911

I got your PM and if you decide to go for it the roads are so good, so little traveled and so hard to find I'd like to post them here so maybe others can enjoy them. Although honestly, the two hard-core guys who told me about these practically made me swear a blood oath not to spread this around. Thanks to the lack of traffic and patrols they consider these their private race tracks! But its been several years, so I've done my part.

You said Brandon but there's no Brandon, OR so you must mean Bandon, its just south of the Dunes. If you're going that far north you'll probably want to start heading NE at Florence, OR taking OR126 to OR36. I don't know those specifically. If you can find better take those instead. Around that area they all range from okay to great. The out of this world amazing roads I'm talking about don't really begin until heading NE from Detroit, OR. Yes, there is a Detroit in Oregon! Find it on a map, it will help you determine how to go about getting there from the coast.

That's the other reason for posting this instead of PM. Maybe someone knows and can help you through that area of OR. No matter how you do it you just have to somehow get across the I5 corridor. Everything in OR is built up along I5, its all crap driving, I honestly doubt if there are ANY really good ways across. But you never know, its RL, the brain trust may come through after all.

HOWEVER, whatever it takes, bite the bullet, get through there, because once you do the next 500 miles or so will be totally worth it! It's kind of like northern CA, after driving through the paradise of the Redwoods Hwy you get dumped into the trash can of Crescent City, then a hundred boring miles later you pop out on the Oregon coast, beautiful again.

So let me know when you find Detroit.

chuck911

ER, I just noticed, if you get your car end of November it sounds like you'll be hitting the NW December/Jan time frame. All the best roads go through high mountain forests and are closed for winter! The very best one, I just checked, a big part of it is closed Nov-June.

Oh well, there's still really good roads, you just will want to stay away from the high mountains. There's an excellent Porsche shop in Tillamook, a town otherwise known for its cheese and ice cream. North of Tillamook I would leave the coast turning NE onto OR53 at Nehalem. OR53 is a beautiful little drive that starts mellow and meandering then gets progressively fun and twisty as it climbs into the hills.

OR 53 ends at OR26, which you take east a few miles to SR103. Look out for this, its easy to miss the tiny right turn onto a little road that takes you down under a bridge that crosses you back under 26 and gets you headed NE again on SR103. Continue NE on SR202 to Mist. At Mist turn N onto SR47 for 13 fantastic miles of twisties to Clatskanie. If you are hungry stop at Fultano's Pizza in Clatskanie.

Let me know if this sounds good, I can get you more good roads from there to the Seattle area.

Hojo8

Chuck911...thanks again for the guidance. I likely will not start my trip until April or May, so it will be June or later before I get to Detroit OR (yes I found it). The high roads should be fine by then so I will follow the suggestions in your first reply.
Hopefully some other RL will have some ideas on getting from Bandon OR to Detroit OR.
Cheers....

chuck911

That's great! Better roads, better weather, better views. Another thing to try is contact the Oregon Region PCA http://www.oregonpca.org they may have established Tour routes for you. Except for the part around Detroit all the roads I'm talking about have been Tour roads at one time or another. The section NE of Detroit, Brietenbush Rd, etc, is all decided is too remote and narrow for a Tour. I took a group of 6 cars through there once, we had a blast. But every one of us had lots of autocross and track experience, yet going 60 even on the straighter sections, due to the narrow road and visibility felt crazy fast, and there were other sections with turns so tight and frequent we were doing well to average 45. The way I drive I can usually plan 350-500 miles per day and have plenty of time for breaks. The day we did this section (Mt Hood to Cannon Beach) was I think 275 miles and it took all day!

These roads are much different than California Hwy 1. In CA it can be crazy twisty but its all very open you drive with confidence being able to see far and wide. In OR and WA there's trees everywhere. The remote sections around Brietenbush the road is narrow, the "shoulder" is about 2", there's overhanging forest and shrubs growing right to the edge of the road! Feels more like a trail than a road! Yet the pavement is as smooth and even as you'll find anywhere. Plan to allow plenty of time.

Hojo8

Great idea for each PCA zone/region I will be traversing.

chuck911

Oh yeah, there are a lot of small regions that would love the attention, probably get a few to drive out and meet, maybe coordinate a Tour, who knows? You may also find out about some event you might want to try, concours or autocross, anything. I've wanted to do something like this myself, it just hasn't worked out yet that I've gone far enough to make it work. Pretty cool project you got going now!

VIC_50th

Turn inland a little further south, just before you reach Garibaldi on your way N. from Tillamook - the Miami Foley Road takes you to OR53 a mile inland from US101 at Nehalem Bay. We drove it last w/e, a great little road with fresh pavement - reminded us lots of driving through the Harz Mtn's in central Germany, and you get to miss the slog through Rockaway City (unless, of course, you can't miss the steam train there!).
We also love US101 through western WA, along Willapa Bay, but by going that way you have to make your way through Olympia or near Centralia to the great roads east of I5 (or you could continue around the Olympic Peninsula to Port Angeles where you can take the ferry to Victoria and come enjoy some of our great roads on Vancouver Island!).

Cheers,
Martin

Hojo8

Martin...thanks for the help. We have made a few trips to the island and love it. Just there this summer, starting at Sooke Harbour House then on to my brother's summer home at Qualicum Beach, then on to Port Henry for whale watching.
Everyone we meet were terrific.
Cheers....
Howard

VIC_50th

Did you go the "back way" from Sooke, via Port Renfrew/Lake Cowichan, or the "normal" way back towards Victoria then north? If not, you owe it to yourself next time!

Hojo8

We took the "back way" on our trip to the Island several years ago. This summer we had less time to wander and took the "normal" route. The back way would certainly be more fun in the new Targa.
Cheers