"Hardcore Off-roading with The Sketchy Oregon Boys in 4x4 Buggies at Never Ending Canyon"
When our friends from Oregon made a trip to Lake Tahoe recently, they asked for some recommendations on trails to wheel. They had been to the Rubicon and Fordyce, but were looking for more challenging options. These guys all have tube buggies and wear helmets when they go rockcrawling, to give you an idea of what they consider fun. We have wheeled with the Sketchy Oregon Boys before, and every trip we seem to end up with broken parts.
"Wheeling In Oregon Territory"
On local maps, Swartz Canyon shows up as a simple dirt road crossing the Ochoco Nation Forest near Prineville, Oregon. In fact, you could drive down the road and not even realize that there is some world-class rockcrawling hiding right under your nose. Fortunately we had the crew from G-Fab Motorsports and 4Locked Films of Bend, Oregon, to show us around the rocks of Swartz Canyon.
"We Do Hoodoo & End Up in Deep Doo-Doo"
Bend, Oregon, is a hotbed for microbreweries, Subarus, and rockcrawling. Rockcrawling?! It’s true. Areas like Cline Butte, Hoodoo, and Rim Butte offer a bevy of scenery and challenges for anything from a stock Jeep to a full rock buggy. On a recent trip to the area we met up with friends to explore the Santiam Pass OHV Area (commonly known as Hoodoo) in the Willamette National Forest.
"Rim Butte: Oregon’s Newest Hardcore Hot Spot
Bend, Oregon, is enjoying a resurgence as a tourist destination, and it’s easy to see why. Seemingly endless sunshine (eat your heart out, Portland), snow-covered mountains, and rivers that offer floating and fly fishing are abundant. Things were not always flourishing around central Oregon though. The area enjoyed a boom a century ago as timber from its forest was used to build cities up and down the west coast (and beyond). As interest rates climbed in the 1980s and the economy cooled, the sawmills closed and the boom turned into a bust as the area’s chief source of income was gone.