November 2024 – Friends of the Umpqua Hiking Group

Hike Coordinator: Rheo Wheeler

Narration by Rheo Wheeler

Hiking in the rain is not our favorite thing, but it’s always invigorating to be outdoors on a dreary day. However, this was not the case though on our South Slough Estuary hike. The hiking gods were quite kind.

We had a group of 9 folks from the Roseburg area join up with 8 from the South Coast Striders group for this “old lady distance” hike through the beautiful South Slough Estuary just outside of Charleston. The tide was mostly out which exposed a lot of the tide flats. Not a lot of wildlife viewing, but still a beautiful backdrop.

The South Slough was a 3’ish mile loop, so to get our miles in, we (the Roseburg 9) finished our hiking over near Shore Acres. We hiked along the ocean from the lighthouse viewpoint to Shore Acres and strolled the gardens where the Christmas lights are almost ready for our holiday viewing. This added about 2 extra miles here, a more respectable distance for the day.

Pictures by Rheo Wheeler

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Hike Coordinator: Penny Groth

Narration by Penny Groth

Twenty hikers gathered on a brisk morning to head up to Lake in the Woods. This was a wonderful conglomerate of ages, and also many new, or recently new, participants of the hiking club. A large percentage hadn’t hiked in the area previously. Our drive up 138 and Little River Road were roadways of fall color, all part of the adventure.

This day was planned to include three separate hikes, all beginning and ending at Lake in the Woods.

Our first destination was Yakso Falls, a 1.4 mile out and back jaunt. Trail travels through lush forest. I love how rock formations create different presentations of waterfalls. This one is a fan looking fall, very picturesque.

Our second hike was into Hemlock Falls, about a mile out and back. It is not as pretty as Yakso, in my opinion, but let’s face if all waterfalls have some beauty and uniqueness. This hike is steeper, quite a pull coming back out!

The third segment was the Hemlock Creek Trail #1505, 8 miles out and back from Lake in the Woods to Hemlock Lake. The forest stand along here is beautiful, having been thinned many years ago. It consists primarily of Hemlock with some Cedar. This trail allowed participants to hike out as far as they wanted. Many of us noticed the temperature drop as we climbed up to the upper lake (800-foot elevation gain).

I also captured a pic of a Barred owl seen along the road which we sighted earlier in the week when we pre-hiked the trails. He was real pretty and cooperated as we took many pictures of him. Was a special gift to see him!

All in all, it was a spectacular fall day to be out in nature’s beauty!