Bolt Mountain

May 9, 2015

About once a month we drive over to Grants Pass for various reasons.  While there we usually try to fit in a hike in the area.  These hikes have included Cathedral Hills, Dollar Mountain, Limpy Creek, Waters Creek and Valley of the Rogue State Park.  Recently a co-workers of Glenn's mentioned that he had hiked a 6.4 mile wildflower trail called Bolt Mountain in Grants Pass and had really enjoyed the trail, wildflowers and view.  So on Saturday when we went to Grants Pass, we headed over to Fish Hatchery Park and hiked the Bolt Mountain trail.

The trailhead parking area is considered part of Fish Hatchery Park, so our first stop was to register our vehicle and pay the $5 fee in the park, then drive back to the trailhead.  Not sure what the fine is if  you don't pay the park fee, but the mountain bikers who parked next to us could tell as they had tickets on their vehicles.  More about that later.

The Bolt Mountain trail was built back in 2010 and trail signs were put in as recently as 2013.  It is open to horse riding, mountain biking and hiking.  We saw evidence that horses have been on the trail and as we began our hike a group of mountain bikers were assembling for their ride up to the summit.

Having hiked Mule Mountain a week earlier, Bolt Mountain was definitely not as steep and overall it was a couple of miles shorter.  A lot of the elevation gain came the final half mile to the summit.  The trail wandered through forested areas and meadows where we saw lots of white yarrow, siskiyou iris' and a flower that is very similar to Henderson's Stars named Pretty Face.

What a Pretty Face!

Since we didn't start our hike till 11:00 am, the open areas of the hike were pretty hot as the sun beat down on us.  This is another hike I would not recommend in the hot hot time of summer.  Dogs are allowed on the trail and even though Katie enjoys hiking, the heat wore on her too.

At various points on the trail as well as on the summit, we were treated to great viewpoints of the surrounding area which included the Applegate River.  The summit itself had a single bench out in the open, so we didn't spend a whole lot of time at the top except to take a quick eating and drinking break.

The overall hike took us about 3 hours and we were tired at the end, but that was mostly the heat and not the climb or distance.  This would be a great hike in Autumn or the March/April timeframe. Although we did not hang around after hiking, Fish Hatchery Park does have picnic tables, a bathroom and is right next to the Applegate River.

We mentioned the mountain bikers at the beginning of this post, so let us finish by telling you that story.  As we began our hike, some mountain bikers were in the day use parking area getting ready to ride up Bolt Mountain.  We were sure they would catch us at some point on the way up and since Katie enjoys chasing bicyclers, we were not looking forward to that meeting.  But alas, we arrived at the summit and no mountain bikers.

As we began hikng back down Bolt Mountain, along came 2 mountain bikers in full gear.  We moved to the side and they passed without incident.  They told us 2 more bikers were coming.  In about 5 minutes we came across the last 2 mountain bikers huffing and puffing as they walked their bikes up the trail.  Made us fell pretty good.  But now the race was on to get down the mountain before the 4 bikers came roaring down the trail behind us!

We were within a half mile of finishing our hike when we heard one of the bikers hollar so once again we moved Katie off trail and let the 2 full gear bikers go flying by us.  It wasn't long till the last 2 and evidently less experienced bikers caught us and passed by.  But before they finished they were off their bikes and walking to the end.  We hiked faster but didn't quite catch up to them.  Still felt good to finish the hike almost at the same time they finished biking and not look half as tired as they did!  Plus, we didn't have tickets on our car for not paying the park fee.

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol