Hike Coordinator – Richard O’Neill
Several years ago, I led the club on an outing on the Taylor Creek Trail and we really didn’t get very far. There were several bridges crossing and re-crossing the creek and all were rotten, dilapidated, and dangerous. Well, I read a newspaper article about the new bridges on the creek, built by our friends the Siskiyou Mountain Club, so it was time to try this hike again.
Attendance was a little bit sparse, surprising on a gorgeously sunny day, but the 5 hikers who went all agreed this was a great spring hike on a great spring day. We didn’t exactly have the trail to ourselves as there was a 50k run taking place and we hikers made sure to step aside every time a runner came up or down the trail, fully respecting the 31 miles they were running on an unevenly treaded trail.
Spring was in full song, with larkspur, false Solomon seal, woodland violet, Siskiyou iris, golden iris, stone crop, pretty face (named after me!), tarweed, balsamroot, luina, orange wallflower, peavine, blue-eyed Mary, western starflower, spotted coralroot, thimbleberry, and…and…and…you get the idea. Safe to say, my hike soon became more photo shoot than hike while everybody else hied down the trail. But that’s Ok, because I had hiked the 10 mile route a couple of weeks prior anyway.
Besides the wildflowers, there were miles of deeply shaded woods, and Taylor Creek burbling well below the trail. The path crossed Burned Timber Creek and an overlook provided a beautiful 20’ish foot waterfall to gawk at in appreciative wonder. And always, rampant greenery bursting into being alongside the trail. All in all, another great hike on a fine spring day.
Pictures by Richard O’Neill
