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I would check the fire status and smoke status before you leave. You can log on the NOAA sites and check out their images for that area before you leave.

Driving up or down I5 with a lot of smoke is not fun and it is dangerous. You have people barreling through from Portland and Kali, and the smoke can be like our fogs.

If it is still smokey in Oregon, I would drive right up 101 and spend the night in Gold Beach or Brookings. Then you can check which cross roads to take that morning.

Maybe Blackie can give you his phone # or call you for an update that morning when you plan to cross over if you go up 101.

Route 38 east or the Drain route from Reedsport is about the best route from the coast to I 5. You should be above most of the fire, but that depends on what's happening two weeks from now.

AuntB can inform you what I5 is like from the Medford area.

Driving up or down I5 with a lot of smoke is not fun and it is dangerous. You have people barreling through from Portland and Kali, and the smoke can be like our fogs.
If it is still smokey in Oregon, I would drive right up 101 and spend the night in Gold Beach or Brookings. Then you can check which cross roads to take that morning.

Potential fires off the I-5 in California in two weeks IS becoming a concern - we will monitor the situation,stay in touch with all of you good people and be ready to head on up the 101 all the way to Gold Beach. We wouldn't even mind driving all the way up the Coast as far as Lincoln City, then east on Highway 18, except that it is so much slower and the wedding is at 4:00 Saturday.

We got caught Christmas of '92 heading home when the I-5 was closed because of snow from Ashland to Redding, and had to take the 101 all the way home. Slick, slippery, and scary all the way to Ukiah.

Then, this past Thanksgiving, we left Grants Pass Saturday morning at 0600 (having driven from Orcas Island, WA the day before) and it was raining. By the time we got to Ashland, there were semis stuck all over the I-5 on the mountain. Once finally south of the Oregon border, no snowplows because it was a weekend. We didn't get to Redding until 1100. On a trucker's advice we got off the I-5 at Henley, and took the Klamath River Highway into Yreka. Thank goodness for him, saved us a lot of grief, but it was still a mess all the way to Mountain Gate, likewise for the Northbound.

Mr. Inspectorette looked at it as an adventure and fell in love all over again with his Dodge Durango; I was white knuckles all the way ;-)