Highway 11 from Greer Grade where it meets Highway 12 to Headquarters is called the Gold Rush Historic Byway. We are putting out a series of caches honoring our past Gold Rush History. Some are out with others planned in the near future to create a circle drive: Take Highway 12 to Greer Bridge going up Highway 11. Past Pierce take Grangemont Road back to Orofino and Highway 12.
This route passes through land where Lewis and Clark met the Nez Perce Indians, where gold was discovered in Orofino Creek, where once bustling towns of Weippe and Pierce exist and finally to where a logging industry was started.
I sometimes wonder what it would have been like back in the Gold Rush days when they had to climb this hill the hard way. How long would it have taken?