In 1915, Jessie Wright and her husband Perry homesteaded at Illahee Flats on the North Umpqua River. She was a sixteen-year-old bride then and for many years the Wrights packed in supplies with horses and mules for the Forest Service and early hunters in the area. In her later years she wrote an entertaining book describing her life on the North Umpqua entitled “How High the Bounty.”
In 2024, the Friends of the Umpqua Hiking Club, sans horses and mules, packed in their own supplies for a hike along the North Umpqua Trail on the section named after Jessie Wright. Although the day was probably not worth writing a book about, us modern-day pioneers had a thoroughly good time on this early spring day!
Beginning at Marsters Bridge, the posse of 21 set out with a chill in the air and a spring in our step. Like other sections of the N.U.T., this portion has its own feel and flavor to it. The trail is rather mild, gaining only a few hundred feet from the trailhead up to Boulder Creek. While offering a myriad of river views, the real treat is higher up: way up! The monoliths of Eagle Rock, Rattlesnake Rock, and Old Man Rock can be observed from various places along this section of the trail. Hikers need to be observant, however, as it’s easy to miss these mega-rock formations, even as they loom directly above you through the trees.
After reaching the footbridge at Boulder Creek, the group found spots along the bank of the creek and had a bite to eat, chatted, and admired the beauty of this place. The weather gods had smiled on us this day, and all hikers stayed happy and dry. The only thing that could’ve made the day better was to have a pack mule carry our gear back to the trailhead.
I had planned this hike based on the low tide occurring around noon on this particular day. Good thing too, because even at low tide, the rocky point near Agate Beach was challenging to get around.
We had a few spectacular sunny spring days leading up to this hike, and that would continue into the weekend, so I was extremely pleased with that fact. However, what I did not count on was how still the air would be once we arrived at Seven Devils Wayside north of Bandon. With just a hint of a light breeze, most hikers shed any heavy outer layers they had anticipated might be needed on this hike. With the sun out in full force and the air temperature somewhere in the mid-60s, this was certainly going to be a fantastic day!
After gathering for a few group photos, we headed north along Merchants Beach. There were other beachgoers who were out enjoying the unusually warm day, most of them remaining stationary while our group trekked on past them towards Agate Beach. There’s really no distinguishing features between Merchants Beach and Agate Beach, except for the fact that there may be more agates and other small rocks found upon the shoreline at Agate Beach. To be honest, I wasn’t really paying attention to that, as I was mainly focused on reaching, and hopefully getting around the rocky feature ahead of us. This was the first time I’ve been here, so this was all new to me. And no, I did not feel the need to prehike this particular hike. I mean, its just flat sand, right?
Well, the flat sand soon ended and we were met with large rocks and boulders scattered around the intertidal zone, creating a maze-like puzzle that each hiker had to solve on his or her own. I’m certain none of us took the exact same route around these rocks, which was fairly easy at first. It quickly turned to a game of either waiting for each surge of the ocean to subside, or to just wade through the shallow ankle-high pools. I dubbed the game “Wait or Wade.” Most of us just waited with a spattering of wading. A few were purists and were either always waiting or always wading.
Just when we thought we could merely skirt around the final obstacles, we were reluctantly forced to climb over extremely large, monolithic rock outcroppings. It was now a very strategic game of deciding which way to go, as our options were getting limited. By this time, we were all yelling at each another. No, not out of frustration, but with instructions to others, saying “go that way” or “no, don’t come this way!”
Eventually, most of us made it to Sacchi Beach and had a well-deserved lunch at the far north end. A few hikers didn’t make it through the gauntlet of boulders and were sadly swept out to sea by the outgoing tide. Just kidding, they were more likely swept up by the feeling of “To heck with this, we’re turning around!”
Fortunately, our trek back was a bit easier, as the tide was lower than during our northbound trip. No big boulders to get over, and very little waiting or wading. That being said, there were several small streams that we did have cross, and on any other hike we may have whined more about our boots getting wet. But playing the wait or wade game and completing rock hopping 101 made these little stream crossings seem like child’s play.
When we arrived back at Merchants Beach, I presented the option of adding in a few more miles by hiking to Fivemile Point and back. Not surprisingly, there were no takers on that offer, myself included. I guess after our exciting rock climbing adventure, a straight, flat beach with no challenges sounded quite boring.
