October 2022 – Friends of the Umpqua Hiking Group

Hike Coordinator: Richard O’Neill

Narration by Richard O’Neill

Misery loves company and I’ve been known to take friends on a hike that made me miserable. However, the opposite can be true in that happy hikers also love company, which is why I took the Friends to the Upper Rogue River. The Upper Rogue is the site of many of our favorite hikes such as Rogue Gorge, Takelma Gorge, Natural Bridge, and Knob Falls. However, north of these iconic places, the Upper Rogue River Trail has not felt the love in terms of trail maintenance and the number of visitors. That’s too bad, for this section is certainly worthy of a visit.

Eight of us set out on the trail from the Big Bend Trailhead and immediately, the tenor of the Rogue River was noticeably different from the aforementioned iconic hikes. Here the Rogue snakes back and forth in a series of serpentine bends, the river seemingly in no hurry to reach the turbulence downstream. The river is placid and serene and the tranquility cannot help but soothe your soul, although it didn’t stop me from making fart jokes.

The trail alternated between dark conifer woods and river overlooks from tall cliffs. In the woods, an understory of alder trees with leaves glowing yellow waved the autumn colors. On the ground, tall bracken fern likewise added to the fall vibe while making the trail faint and hard to follow. The tall cliffs were comprised of volcanic ash deposited when Mount Mazama blew its top and created Crater Lake.

At about the three-mile mark, the trail passed the largest log jam in the world, extending hundreds of yards. The Rogue here, snakes through the logs in an equally large open meadow. The terrain is marshy here, but a large footbridge keeps boots dry and made a logical place to eat lunch at. Several of us continued on into the woods on an increasingly faint trail that led to another picturesque overlook of the mirrorlike river.

On the way back, the forest vegetation was wet as if it had rained but fortunately, the rain missed us. We even enjoyed some sunlight on this cool day, the weather gods refusing to rain on our hiking parade…this time.

More pictures of this hike on Richard O’Neill’s Flickr page

Pictures below by Richard O’Neill

[Show slideshow]

Hike coordinator: Richard O’Neill

Narration by Richard O’Neill

We were few but we were mighty. Four of us, includng your intrepid hike leader, made the trip to Briggs Valley for a nice and easy hike along Briggs Creek.

The area had been off limits for most of the summer because of the nearby Rum Creek Fire but fortunately, that fire was contained by the time we did our hike. Fortunately for Briggs Creek fans, the Rum Creek Fire did not ever reach Briggs Valley. That’s not to say though, fire was not a part of this hike for the forest here bears the scars from at least two fires that scorched the woods along the creek.

We began with a quick history lesson at the meadow at Sam Brown Campground. The meadow is the sight where the mining town of Briggs, Oregon once stood. In the meadow is the actual grave of Sam Brown, a bartender at the hotel in Briggs.

History lesson over, we headed out into a green forest with hints of of the coming fall season. The trail went between Briggs Creek and the campground with plenty of side trails braiding off the trail. Once we left the campground behind us, the next point of interest was Dutchy Creek, which was barely trickling, the low water making for an easy creek crossong.

From there the route alternated between actual trail and jeep roads and Briggs Creek soon became our hiking companion, flowing below the trail. As mentioned the forest was singed but there was plenty of greenery on the ground beneath the trees. We enjoyed the up and down ramble through the woods, where eventually we reached Elkhorn Mining Camp. The camp serves as a rustic backwoods campsite nowadays but we explored a bit and found all kinds of rusting mine equipment and the old garbage pit replete with rusting tin cans.

A short walk past Elkhorn Camp brought us to a crossing of Briggs Creek itself. We sat down for lunch, choosing to soak in the sight of an idyllic creek flowing in the bottom of a deep canyon surrounded by green vegetation. This was also our turnaround point, so we avoided that whole wet boots thing. The one good thing about an out-and-back hike is that you get to enjoy the same woodland and creek scenery all over again, so we were all pretty satisfied with the day’s venture.

More pictures of this hike on Richard O’Neill’s Flickr page

For pictures of the pre-hike that Richard conducted, you can see those here on Richard O’Neill’s Flickr page

Pictures below by Richard O’Neill