Month: October 2018

Hike Coordinator Richard O’Neill

With our Cascades being overly populated with firs, cedars, and pines, autumn can be not very autumny. So, if you want to see fall colors, you have to go where the vine maples grow, which generally will be next to a river, creek, or lake. One of the best places to observe the fall colors is on the Upper Rogue River, so we piled into our vehicles and made the trek to the Rogue River Gorge parking lot.

Seems we missed the peak of the vine maple display but no worries, dogwood stepped up to the plate, so to speak. The trees were bright red and pink, contrasting nicely with the cobalt blue sky above. And just in case the fall colors were not enough reason to enjoy this hike, the Rogue River was always nearby, alternately running calm and reflective, or running turbulent and noisy.

We walked south along the river and crossed over on a wooden footbridge spanning the river raging in a narrow defile carved into the surrounding lava bed. Past the bridge we were greeted with the only uphill portion of the hike as the trail went up and over a forested ridge bright with autumn plumage.

We turned around at Natural Bridge, where the Rogue River disappears into a lava tube, only to reappear about 75 yards downstream, where it exited its subterranean conduit. We ate lunch there and enjoyed the sunny side of the river and colorful trees for the remaining 4 miles of this hike.

Pictures by Richard O’Neill

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Hike Coordinator Edwin Case

Five hardy hikers braved the possibly wet weather for this hike. We almost didn’t reach our destination because on the drive to the trailhead, where the bridge crossing the South Umpqua River used to be was no bridge at all. There were no signs to direct drivers to an alternate route to Skimmerhorn Trailhead, either.

Working on a combination of guesswork, divination, and blind luck, Edwin found a brand new bridge crossing several miles further up the road and it was “hike on” at that point.

This area had been closed last year because of fire but except for one spot, there was no evidence of fire damage. Fortunately, landslides (which are a common occurrence after a fire) was not an issue either. Scenic Highrock Mountain, which looms over Fish Lake had clearly received the brunt of the fire’s fury.

The weather had been threatening and the threat was made good at the start of the hike as we began hiking under a light rain. However, it soon let up, only to return again when we reached Buckeye Lake. We were soon soaked, not from the rain, but from the water-soaked vegetation encroaching the trail.

This late into a long and dry summer, Buckeye and Cliff Lakes were much lower than normal. They were still scenic though, and after eating lunch at Buckeye Lakes, we turned around and enjoyed the lake scenery all over again.

Pictures by Brad Bishop

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