Backcountry roads receive nearly $1 million in improvements

By JAYSON JACOBY
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

A trio of backcountry dirt roads in eastern Baker County is getting a facelift worth nearly $1 million.

The Bureau of Land Management has allocated $900,000 to spread gravel, install culverts and do other work on the Lookout Mountain, Morgan Creek and Morgan Mountain roads.

The project is about half finished, said Mark Wilkening, public affairs officer for BLM’s Vale District.

Some work might be delayed until next spring, depending on the weather, he said.

All three roads are north of Interstate 84 near Huntington.

Lookout Mountain is the longest, and most-used, of the three.

It starts at the freeway (Exit 338) and climbs north toward the 7,123-foot mountain that is its namesake. The BLM maintains a seasonal fire lookout on the peak.

Morgan Mountain and Morgan Creek roads both intersect with Lookout Mountain road about five miles north of the freeway.

From that intersection, Morgan Creek road heads downhill four miles east to the Snake River Road on the shore of Brownlee Reservoir.

Morgan Mountain road also goes east, but uphill to near the mountain’s summit, which is studded with cell phone, radio and other communication antennas.

Improving the access to that site is one of the main goals of the road improvements, Wilkening said.

Because all three roads are what’s known as “native surface” — the native surface in this case being dirt that turns into a tire-defying gumbo when wet — “any bit of moisture” can render them at worst impassable, and at best vulnerable to being deeply rutted by spinning tires.

To partially alleviate that problem, which is especially acute during the spring thaw but can plague the roads in any season, crews are spreading gravel on the Lookout Mountain Road from the freeway to near the intersection with the short spur road that climbs to the lookout building.

Sections of the Morgan Creek and Morgan Mountain road also will be graveled. Several culverts were installed along the Morgan Creek Road, which was damaged by flooding this spring.

Other plans include removing some roadside trees and reshaping sections of road. Those apply mainly to Lookout Mountain Road, as there are only scattered junipers along the Morgan Mountain Road, and junipers and willows and other deciduous trees beside Morgan Creek Road.

The Lookout Mountain Road, by contrast, passes through relatively dense stands of Douglas-fir and tamarack in its upper sections, north of the Morgan Creek/Morgan Mountain junction.

The Lookout Mountain Road connects to two other main roads: Daly Creek, which continues north to Richland; and Manning Creek, which runs west to Durkee.

Improving the access to that site is one of the main goals of the road improvements, Wilkening said.

Because all three roads are what’s known as “native surface” — the native surface in this case being dirt that turns into a tire-defying gumbo when wet — “any bit of moisture” can render them at worst impassable, and at best vulnerable to being deeply rutted by spinning tires.

To partially alleviate that problem, which is especially acute during the spring thaw but can plague the roads in any season, crews are spreading gravel on the Lookout Mountain Road from the freeway to near the intersection with the short spur road that climbs to the lookout building.

Sections of the Morgan Creek and Morgan Mountain road also will be graveled. Several culverts were installed along the Morgan Creek Road, which was damaged by flooding this spring.

Other plans include removing some roadside trees and reshaping sections of road. Those apply mainly to Lookout Mountain Road, as there are only scattered junipers along the Morgan Mountain Road, and junipers and willows and other deciduous trees beside Morgan Creek Road.

The Lookout Mountain Road, by contrast, passes through relatively dense stands of Douglas-fir and tamarack in its upper sections, north of the Morgan Creek/Morgan Mountain junction.

The Lookout Mountain Road connects to two other main roads: Daly Creek, which continues north to Richland; and Manning Creek, which runs west to Durkee.