I'm new to the backcountry part of this, and while I have tried to convince my wife that it should be me or me and my oldest daughter, she has informed me that ANY plane camping will include her.

I regularly land and TO from a 2000' grass strip at my A&P's house, but never near gross.

I have a 150hp 172 with 6x6 front and 8x6 mains. It's a fairly fresh motor, but coming out of Boise, loaded, at 90 degrees it took awhile to climb into cooler air.

I am trying to find something reasonable to check out for camping within 150 NM of Hillsboro, KHIO.

Does anyone have any recommendations on something not terrifically challenging within the parameters?

Wakonda Beach (Waldport) might be doable at 2000 ft long/sea level.
Sandy River is pretty close in, but really nice grass.
There might be a few southern WA strips that would be good, but someone else will have to chime in for those... DonKnee?

Edit to add: If your wife has that attitude, it may be time for the 180/182 sales pitch.

A good way to go is to do multiple trips,Take people on one load, then go back and get all the gear you need.Camping with the whole fam dammly is tough to bring all the things you may want.......I have 2 kids and a wife,the wife and kids dont weigh much but they take up all the room in the 180.........2 trips =more flying, witch in my book is a good thing also you will have one flight to yourself with nobody yelling "I am going to puke!" and poking you in the back of the head during landing to ask you If you see the Hot air balloon.

4S6 - Tieton State Park, WA

It's been a while, but Nehalem Bay Airport (3S7), 2300', is pretty, and camping is permitted at the airport. It isn't a very long trip from HIO, but for a test camping flight, it might be a good one.
tom

What's the water level of Rimrock Lake at Tieton these days? I was only there once, several years ago, and the water was waaay down. Quite a hike to get to it, part of the way (where the water normally is) was through some real gummy mud. Not much fun. But the airstrip area was nice. I hear alot of horsey people go there however, might be something to look out for.
BTW, when we were there a couple of EA-6's roared through the canyon. Pretty awesome from the ground, but I'd have hated to be in the air when they went through there.
Oh yeah, I haven't been to either one but I hear Newhalen (north of Tillamook) is pretty cool, and the Powers airstrip (southeast of Coos Bay) looked pretty cool in the photo's Zane posted.

Eric

From what I understand, the Flying M Ranch at Yamhill Oregon closed up the lodge, bunkhouse, and cabins what, a year ago? But I was wondering if the airstrip is still open. I just checked Airnav, nothing about OR05 closing. Is it still shown on the current sectional?
I seem to recall that there was some sort of horses-for-hire operation there,beside the lodgings & eatery. That's pretty country around there, it might be worth checking into to see if you can land and camp & maybe do some hiking or horsebacking.

Eric

I wasn't gonna say nothin', but Daybreak Skyranch (east of Woodland WA) is too nice to keep secret. It's privately owned, so before planning anything I would check Airnav for info & contact the owner for permission. Don & his family have been real good in the past about letting people fly in, picnic, and camp-- damn nice people. And an awesome little place.

Eric

hotrod150 wrote:From what I understand, the Flying M Ranch at Yamhill Oregon closed up the lodge, bunkhouse, and cabins what, a year ago? But I was wondering if the airstrip is still open. I just checked Airnav, nothing about OR05 closing. Is it still shown on the current sectional?
I seem to recall that there was some sort of horses-for-hire operation there,beside the lodgings & eatery. That's pretty country around there, it might be worth checking into to see if you can land and camp & maybe do some hiking or horsebacking.

Eric

The Flying M strip is closed. The Mitchell's still own a fair amount of property around the lodge and camping and horse activities still take place but at this point in time the lodge itself and the airstrip are closed.

McKenzie Bridge (00S) is a nice place to camp (either on the strip or in the campground on the McKenzie river ~1/2m north of the strip).

There is a camp ground directly across from the Vernonia airport (05S) located on the river which is reasonably nice and seldom used.

As others have mentioned, Tieton (4S6) & Nehalem bay (3S7) are nice. I'm told Ranger Creek (21W) is nice but I've not been there.

hotrod150 wrote:What's the water level of Rimrock Lake at Tieton these days?

Eric

Today it's at 76% capacity and dropping fast. You can track the reservoir levels daily on this site. http://www.usbr.gov/pn/hydromet/yakima/yakstats.txt

Another vote for Nehalem Bay for a first family camping outing. Yeah, it's paved, but the camping is really nice. Plus, you have an easy walk to a beautiful beach, which will surely please the family.

We camped there last year and walked along the beach North to the nearby little town (Manzanita) which has a nice bakery/restaurant, etc.

WrenPilot wrote:The Flying M strip is closed............

I just checked Airnav, it sez "FAA information current as of 31 july 2008" but has no mention of the airstrip being kaput. It does say "private use. permission required prior to landing." Which shold be the case for any private airstrip unless it is designated by the owner as a "public use" airport.

Eric

hotrod150 wrote:

WrenPilot wrote:The Flying M strip is closed............

I just checked Airnav, it sez "FAA information current as of 31 july 2008" but has no mention of the airstrip being kaput. It does say "private use. permission required prior to landing." Which shold be the case for any private airstrip unless it is designated by the owner as a "public use" airport.

Eric

I can't speak for the FAA but the Mitchell's are my neighbors and they say their strip is closed. I wish it was open, I only live 2 miles from it

Sorry, Ken- I didn't mean to imply that I didn't believe you. But if they've offically closed the srip, they oughta let the FAA or whoever know if they haven't already done so. A few local airstrips near me were charted long after they grew up in alders or were bulldozed for development. I finally contacted the chart people (NOAA) and advsied them of this, a couple a sectional issuances later they were removed from the chart (and the airstrip database, I assume).
Is the Flying M airstrip marked as closed with white X's?

Eric