What does one do on Thanksgiving weekend? On Saturday, there were only 5 of us who decided hiking was the answer. Liz, Cleve and I met at the courthouse and met Shannon and Jan at South Slough.
There was no sunshine, but just a drizzle here and there with gray cloud cover, not very picturesque. We enjoyed the downhill side and the various viewpoints along the water, and then made the trek uphill to the cars. The tide was out so there was no wildlife to speak of. We just took our time and enjoyed each other’s company. All told, we only hiked about 3-4 miles.
The morning started off foggy in Roseburg, but the forecast said it would lift as the day wore on. I was more interested in the weather near Grants Pass, however, and it pretty much said the same thing. Nice, we should have great views today!
To be honest, I was more concerned about losing hikers on the way to Bolt Mountain trailhead than I was about the weather, as the route there isn’t easy. There are no signs in Grants Pass saying “Bolt Mtn this way”. While it’s paved roads all the way to the trail, if you’re not paying attention to the road signs, you may find yourself in Jacksonville before you know it! To prevent this from happening, I handed out directions to drivers and navigators alike, hoping they’d appreciate the nice little pictures I grabbed from Google Street View, showing what each turn looked like with landmarks, etc.
The good news is I got many accolades for the very kid-friendly directions with pictures. That, and all hikers arrived safely. However, Missy and Michael did admit they took the wrong exit off the freeway, followed by at least one other vehicle who knew better, but decided to follow them anyway, as dutiful hikers will do. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with an impromptu scenic side trip through downtown Grants Pass!
With everyone accounted for, we set out on the trail! I chose to actually lead the first part, as I wanted to get everyone past a few confusing places due to a series of little trails that can be tempting to walk on. These trails stay closer to the river, which I’m sure are lovely to hike on, but we were here to go up! And up we went after a level half-mile had passed underneath our boots.
The climb up Bolt Mountain isn’t the hardest hike around, but it constantly reminds you that you are definitely going up, as the valley floor keeps getting further and further away as you round each corner and look down. Thankfully, the trail builders showed mercy and kept the grade nice and steady, never going too steep. This makes the 1200 foot ascent over the course of 3-plus miles very doable for most hikers.
As we steadily strode up the south side of the mountain, I had hoped the fog would begin to lift. Oh, we had some views of the nearby hills and such, but the views were nothing like when I had hiked this trail back in March. Maybe it would be clearer on the north side, which is closer to the top…
As we basked in the deep fog on the north side, hopes of a clear view from the top had all but faded. Was this the price to be paid in exchange for all hikers making it to the trailhead today without getting lost? Was it too late to make a sacrificial offer to the fog gods (yes, I just made that up) in exchange for clear views from the top? Apparently, the answer was yes.
The top of Bolt Mountain, even on a clear day, doesn’t quite offer 360 degree views, as some of the treetops obscure the views. But, you can see enough that you can consider it a worthy reward for making it to the top. Today, we would not be awarded ANY views, and the treetops would not be to blame. Today, the fog gods would have their way and force us unworthy hikers to eat our lunch under their cold, grey blanket of dreariness. Ok, so it wasn’t that bad, and it wasn’t that cold. But we definitely could NOT see anything around us. I even mentioned to the group that we only had to wait 2, maybe 3 hours for this fog to lift, and then we would get our views…. maybe. Unsurprisingly, my comment was met with an outbreak of laughter, you know, the kind that says ‘good luck with that’!
Saying farewell to the fog gods, we all departed the top of Bolt Mountain and began the descent downward. It was heading down that I began to realize that there were actually better views of the valleys below with each step I took. This was due to the fog not being as thick as it was at the top. I had mentioned to everyone before the hike to take in the views both on the way up and the way down, as the views on top may not live up to their expectations. Boy, was I ever right about that!
Upon reaching the parking lot, I mentioned that we will need to get this one back on the schedule again and hope for a clearer day, perhaps in the spring. I will have my trusty kid-friendly directions with pictures ready so no one gets lost on the way here.
Oh, and on our way back through Grants Pass, I got a bit turned around and we ended up taking an impromptu scenic side trip through downtown Grants Pass. But hey, I’ve heard there’s nothing wrong with that…
Narration by Richard O’Neill, edited by Lane Harris
We had hoped this would be a repeat of last year’s superb autumn hike but alas, this was more like winter. It has been raining for the last several weeks and the rain drops have knocked a lot of the leaves down. But while there were little leaves on the trees, the trail and forest floor were covered with them.
Most of the group of ten hikers proceeded past Deer Creek bridge toward Columnar Falls, which is technically on the Dread and Terror section of the N.U.T., but only slightly when approaching from the west. This was the turnaround point of the hike.
The day was chill and rain fell for most of the hike and we all agreed it was a grand hike!
We left the fog in Roseburg, heading south on I 5 toward Azalea and the trailhead. Beautiful Autumn colors were everywhere as we drove out Cow Creek Road. As we passed by Galesville Reservoir, everyone took notice of how low the water level was.
Upon arriving in partial sunshine, 9 hikers headed down the trail for a 7 mile out and back hike, taking in views of the beautiful old growth forest in the drainage of East Cow Creek.
This proved to be an eventful hike for a number of reasons. For one, the trail hasn’t experienced much recent use, and the vegetation has grown up along parts of the trail making for some damp pant legs. Additionally, a number of trees have fallen in the trail since last winter and walk arounds had to be used. And lastly, and most amusing of all, there were 3 creek crossings that required skillful rock hopping on slippery surfaces!
As we all returned to our rides, I was betting that there wasn’t a dry foot among us! All of this added to a wonderful fall day with fellow hikers, just enjoying Mother Nature.
If you didn’t make this year’s campout, you missed out on some fantastic hikes! What’s the next best thing?… Pictures, videos and stories of the hikes, of course! Please enjoy the beauty of hiking by proxy without breaking a sweat by following the links below. (You should really join us sometime…)
This hike was supposed to go to Cliff and Buckeye Lakes, located in the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness. But due to wildfire closing the road to Skimmerhorn Trailhead we opted to visit the Upper Rogue which had the fall colors thing going on and as an additional bonus, there were no wildfires in the area.
10 hikers set out on the trail and the first item of interest was Rogue Gorge, where the Rogue funnels into a narrow slot canyon that used to be a lava tube before the roof collapsed during some bygone millennia. Also at the Gorge viewpoint area is the Living Stump which is a stump whose roots melded with the roots of nearby trees and so manages to live despite showing no outward signs of life. It kind of reminded me of when I take Lane hiking with me! I vote his trail name should become Living Stump!
Once we began hiking downstream along the Rogue River, the fall colors became the reason for doing this hike. Every tint and hue that can be found on the warm end of the color spectrum was readily seen in the ample vegetation growing along the river, often all on one single leaf! Across the river and in the bright sunlight, the colors were so bright we had to wear sunglasses so as to prevent further retinal damage.
About halfway to Natural Bridge we switched river sides by walking over a bridge at particularly scenic stretch of wild river seething in yet another collapsed lava tube. This allowed us to walk in the more brightly colored and more sunlit side even though it meant we had to hike on the only uphill section of trail.
At Natural Bridge, the Rogue disappears from sight while it travels a short distance underground in an uncollapsed lava tube, and reemerges about 100 feet downstream. The sight of the river bounding between boulders was awesome and we all stopped to gawk at the splendor of it all.
After lunch at Natural Bridge, it was a perfunctory 3.5 mile walk along the river. Because the afternoon sun was high in the sky, each side of the river was the sunny side now. Accordingly, we hiked in veritable rainbow of autumn-colored foliage on the way back.
The Upper Rogue, in my opinion, is the best fall hike in southern Oregon and we certainly all enjoyed this hike, it was a great show.
Cooper Creek reservoir is always a great close hike and a great way to stay active. We had 8 brave souls, with 4 of them new faces on this very smoky day. Early morning wasn’t too bad regarding air quality, but it did catch up to us at the end.
John was adventurous leading 5 on the new trail after the upper boat ramp. This side of the trail still has not been completed , so they “bushwacked” up the hill to get on the road. I kept to the road with 2 in tow.
It was a great day, thank you to all that showed up.
We had five that traveled from Roseburg, meeting two who traveled north from camping at Eel Lake that took part in the Siltcoos Lake loop trail. The weather was perfect after rain showers passed through, although the trail was dry.
This trail is very shady with all the undulations of a typical Richard hike, uphill both ways. Wait this wasn’t a Richard hike though. Most of the boggy areas had dried out although there was still one creek running to the lake.
We had lunch with views of the lake before completing the loop. On the north end of the loop there were many stumps left from the 30’s where you could see the axe cuts from where they put the springboards in to use crosscut saws to take the trees down. These hallmarks from the old logging days are finally fading after 90 years.
A short 4.5 mile trail: Perfect for the old lady who picked it.
Several days prior to our scheduled hike, much discussion ensued regarding fire, smoke and heat, and should we change our hike location. After some texts and phone conversations a last minute decision was made to hike Humbug Mountain near Port Orford instead of our originally planned hike to Rocky Ridge. It turned out to be good decision. Thanks to everyone involved!
The drive to the coast can be a bit daunting, however once we got there, the sky was clear, blue and visibility was great. Just what we had hoped. The point of hiking a “mountain” is the reward of a view at the top. We were not disappointed! One could see for several miles to the south, west and north.
This trail is a very well developed and marked “lollipop” type loop. Ferns, big mossy trees and flowers line the trail. Maidenhair fern, Inside-out flowers and ghost plants (Indian Pipes)? ( Richard? Diane?) were amongst the cast of flora trailside. With the big trees the trail is quite shaded, which was a delicious change to the heat we had been experiencing at home. Our group chose to go up the east side and down the west. According to a trail review this way is longer uphill but less of an incline. Even with that our “older” group, although there were a couple youngsters, (Donna and Scott) we arrived at the top significantly before a much younger group of hikers that started at the same time. What enthusiastic hikers we are!
We enjoyed our lunch at the top. We finally tore ourselves away from the warmth of the sun, good food and fellowship and the spectacular views to head down the west trail. We didn’t have to say good-bye to the beautiful ocean view all at once because it kept peeking out between trees as we descended. I think everyone truly enjoyed themselves on this refreshing hike especially not having to think about fire, smoke or heat.
Picture below by Missy Kroeker and Coreena Gosselin
Seven hikers, with one new face, Scott from Roseburg, caravanned to our trailhead at Lund Park campground. It was a glorious warm summer day, perfect for a hike along a crystalline creek to two separate waterfalls. There are several ways to navigate this loop trail. Today the hike leader (Missy) wanted to visit lower Trestle Creek Falls first then proceed to the Upper falls loop. With this in mind, each hiker was given a “map” with these directions.
The group enjoyed the fairly level, fern lined trail along Brice Creek toward Trestle Creek until we came to the Upper Trestle Creek falls trail. Thinking this was the trail to the Lower falls (despite the trail sign to the contrary and the “map” which the hike coordinator had drawn) the group was led uphill toward Upper Trestle Creek falls. Oh, for inexperienced hike coordinators?! Once the mistake was realized, the hikers were led the short distance back to the “right” path.
Everyone continued along Brice Creek amidst the beauty of the dappled sunlight and ferns to the short little spur trail to Lower Trestle Creek falls. The temperature was rising and the cool respite and beauty of the falls was very much welcome. Once water was drunk, photos were taken, snacks gobbled and a boot put back on, the hikers were ready to continue.
There is a bit of a sustained uphill segment to Upper Trestle Creek falls. We must earn our “views of nature’s beauty”, right? We huffed and sweated up this segment of trail to the truly lovely Upper Trestle Creek Falls. We were rewarded with the falls cascading peacefully over the cliff into a clear pool at the bottom. This was our lunch spot. Part of the drama of this place is the trail passing behind the falls before it meanders downhill back to the Brice Creek trail.
Trestle Creek Falls hike is what I would call the quintessential Oregon hike. Old growth timber, moss covered trees and rocks, ferns, crystalline creeks with deep blue green pools and waterfalls. What’s not to love, especially when shared with a group of enthusiastic hiking friends.
