Spence Mountain Trails

May 28, 2019

Glenn had an extra day off for the Memorial Weekend & Carol took a day off work, so along with Katie we drove over to Klamath Falls to try out the Spence Mountain Trails.  If you are not familiar with the Spence Mountain Trails or the many other trails maintained by the Klamath Trails Alliance, be sure to check out their great website which has maps, listing of the various trails, trail conditions and more. Click here.  A special thanks goes out to the entire group -- the trails were great.  Also a special thanks to Mark Goodman and Drew Honzel for your quick email responses complete with pictures, updates, and suggestions for our hike!

And so we begin....

View from Shoalwater Trail back towards the lake

There are two trailheads at the Spence Mountain Trails and since our fellow hikers at Boots On The Trail recently hiked from the Spence Mountain TH, we decided to hike at the Shoalwater Bay TH.  The trailhead was easy to find and access and is large enough to hold 30-40 vehicles.  Our planned hike was in the shape of a figure eight and would consist of 6 trails covering 10.1 miles.

View from the Modoc trail

Junction of Winema and Captain Jack trails.

 We started on the Shoalwater Tr which headed up to Junction 7 and along the way we were given some great views of the Upper Klamath Lake and Shoalwater Bay area complete with snow-capped mountains in the background.  Not a cloud in the sky as we started our hike.  At Junction 7 we took the Modoc Tr up through open and forested sections with more views of different areas of the lake.  We did see some wildflowers today, with the Mahala Mat being the most visible while both the Oregon Grape and Antelope Bitterbrush were in bloom too.

Mahala Mat

Oregon Grape

Antelope Bitterbrush

When we arrived at the Junction 8 with the Winema Tr, we took a break and enjoyed more scenery.  The Winema Tr was the shortest trail we hiked today at just over a mile, but it also had the most climbing.  Before long though we arrived at Junction 6 and headed back downhill along the Captain Jack Tr.  It was along this trail that we saw a very weird fungus-thingy (see below).  When we returned to Junction 7, we continued along the other half of the Shoalwater Tr down to the Old Eagle Tr.  We did see 2 Bald Eagles while hiking on the trails today and as we got closer to the lake we saw more wildflowers including Lupine, Paintbrush, Mission Bells Fritillaria, along with many Western Serviceberry in bloom.

The mysterious fungus-thingy - anyone know what it  is?

Heading down the Shoalwater trail towards the lake.

View of the Shoalwater Bay area of the lake

The last leg of our hike along the Old Eagle Tr followed mostly along the lake shoreline where there are large marsh areas in the bay. We took lots of pictures and saw many birds including Terns, Herons, Red-Winged Blackbirds, various ducks and what were think were either Western Tanagers or Yellow -Headed Blackbirds.  Beautiful area.

View of Shoalwater Bay Marsh Area

Marsh areas are just beyond the waterline

One thirsty and tired dog!

When we completed our hike that lasted almost 5 hours, Katie dug a bed in the parking lot and settled down to drink and sleep.  She wasn't the only one that was dog-gone tired, but we were very happy to have hiked here and hope your will give Spence Mountain or one of the other trail groups a try.  Klamath Falls is very lucky to have such  trails and a group like the Klamath Trails Alliance in their area.

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol