Upper Rogue River Trail #1034 - Natural Bridge to Takelma Gorge

July 8, 2020

We continued with our "wandering Wednesdays" this week with a trip to the Union Creek area.  We took Katie and drove to and parked in the Natural Bridge Day Use area to hike a section of the Upper Rogue River  #1034 trail.

Time to hike on a "wandering" Wednesday

View of the Natural Bridge area

 After taking a short hike to view the Natural Bridge area from the man-made bridge over the Rogue River, we began our trek south along the Upper Rogue River trail.  We hiked past Knob Falls, through the Woodruff Bridge area and made our way to our turnaround point, Takelma Gorge.

Lots of Prince's Pine on this hike

Takelma Gorge, our lunch and turnaround point

Along the way we had great views of the beautiful Rogue River, saw a pair of doe's with fawns along the shoreline, osprey and blue heron flying along the river, and were treated to lots of Prince's Pine, Twin Flowers, Wintergreen, Candystick, Wild Roses and Horsemint too.

The beautiful Rogue River

Candystick

The section from Natural Bridge to Woodruff Bridge did have a number of trees across the trail due to lack of trail maintenance this year, and on the section from Woodruff Bridge to Takelma Gorge we had a few sections of trail that were completely overgrown with shrubs.  Made for some interesting navigation.

Tree blockage along the trail.....

....and overgrown shrubs on other sections of trail.

At Takelma Gorge we took a nice break on some stone ledges to enjoy the sound and view of this area.  We only saw a few other hikers throughout our trek.  Weather was great, although towards the end of our 10.5 mile hike the temps were starting to get up in the low 80's and by then were we tired.  Still it was a great day & an incredible hike along a beautiful river.  Beats work anytime!

Trekking Together
Glenn and Carol

PCT - Ashalnd Meadows/Grouse Gap Segment

June 17, 2020

Glenn took another Wednesday off and this time we hiked without Katie since these longer hikes seem to do her in.  We drove up towards Mt Ashland and hiked an out and back on the Pacific Crest Trail, a segment known as Ashland Meadows (due to the varioius meadows with wildlflowers along this trail) or Grouse Gap (since most folks turn around at the Grouse Gap Shelter for a nice 6.8 miles hike). We were actually a little early for the full blooming of wildflowers although there were plenty to see including Larkspur, Pussy Paws, Wallflower, Skunk-leaved Jacob's Ladder, Blue Stickseed, Mission Bells, a Dwarf Lupine and many more. About 2-3 weeks from now should see the wildflowers at their best. As we began our hike there was some leftover ice/snow from the recent storm, but that soon gave way to plenty of sunshine, blue skies and temps around 62 degrees --- beautiful!  We had views of snow-covered Mt Shasta to the south and there was plenty of run-off water crossing the trail.  We did meet one PCT hiker who started in Castle Crags SP in Northern CA and was planning to go all the way to Canada.  He ran into 5" of snow in Seiad Valley a few days ago.    We had a beautiful 11.4 mile hike as we went a few miles past Grouse Gap (after a break at the shelter) before deciding it was time to turn around.   We wanted to just keep going!  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol

The old familar trail sign at the start of the Grouse Gap hike.

First meadow comes into view.

View of Mt Shasta to the south

Wallflower

PCT indicator

Trail segment past the Grouse Gap Shelter

The elusive but beautiful Mission Bells

Grouse Gap Shelter and Restroom

View at our turnaround point

Fish Lake Trail #1013

Saturday, May 8, 2020

We took Katie and drove to the Fish Lake boat ramp area and hiked the Fish Lake trail #1013 from Fish Lake to the North Fork Campground for a nice 6.9 mile trek through the forest. This hike also put us over the 200 mile mark for the year.

The trails starts by following the outline of the lake affording us some great views of a still full Fish Lake as well as a snow covered Brown Mt in the background.  Eventually the trail heads away from the lake as it skirts around some private cabin properties and then comes back toward the lake near the dam.  From here the trail follows the North Fork of the Little Butte river.  It has been a while since we last hiked here and since then they have put in logs across portions of the stream to create better wildlife habitat.  We only disturbed a couple of Canada Geese along the slow section of river, but the area looks like an ideal place for deer, elk and even beaver.  We took a break at a campsite in the closed North Fork campground befroe retracing our steps back to Fish Lake,   Lots of wildflowers, a few patches of snow, and the wonderful smell of the woods.  All in all a great hike on a very hot spring day.  Katie also enjoyed the "leash free" hike, eating and rolling in the snow, and of course, taking a few dips in the water.

Trekking Together
Glenn and Carol

View of Fish Lake with Brown Mt in background

Calypso Orchid

Yellow Violet

Oregon Anemone

North Fork of Little Butte along the trail.  Notice the "log jam" to far left of water

Some areas of water had lots of green algea

Still a few snow patches on the trail, much to Katie's delight

New boardwalk area over snow runoff water

One last look at Fish Lake and Brown Mt

Wonder Trail - Lower Section

April 11, 2020

With various trails closed due to coronavirus restrictions & those that are open way to narrow to hike with other people out, we headed to the Ashland Watershed area above Lithia Park to try a brand new trail that currently has been desingated as one-way for hiking/biking.

The temporary TH sign at the start of the Lower Wonder Trail

We parked at a pullout near the reservoir above Lithia Park and road walked a short distance to the new Lower Wonder Trail TH located to the right at the Fairy Pond parking area.  A notice is posted here asking all hikers/bikers to use this trail one-way only.

One of many great views of the surrounding area along the trail

A little art work 

Looking up at the trees

It didn't take the trail long to begin climbing as it took us up along a series of switchbacks.  The 2.9 length of this Lower section of the Wonder trail consisted of a nice mix of climbs and flat stretches.  The climbing switchbacks gave us opportunities at each turn to take in the beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and valleys.  The flat stretches gave us more time to look at the various wildflowers that escorted us along the trail.  There were plenty of Frittilaria's in bloom along with Hounds Tongue, Shooting Stars, Popcorn Flowers, Manzanita, Oregon Grape and more. We even saw Snow Queen and Indian Paintbrush in bloom at the same time on the same trail!

View of the Wonder Trail 

A group of Frittilaria's

A beautiful new trail!

The trail also had a varied mix of sections or landscapes.  The more open sections allowed us to enjoy the sunshine on a beautiful day while the forested sections allowed us to stop and listen to the wind blowing through the trees.  We also had shaded sections that navigated various ravines and allowed us to look up those ravines at the beautiful large trees and some very large boulders!

One large boulder with trail to the right

Another trail view

One of the boulder sections of the trail

We really enjoyed this brand new trail and want to say a special THANKS to the Ashland Woodlands & Trails Association for providing another wonderful trail to hike!  For today's hike, after we finished the Lower Wonder Trail, we hiked FR2060 back to our car for a nice 5.3 mile loop.  We hope though to come back soon and hike this trail again and then continue on the Upper Wonder Trail and Fell On My Knee trail while connecting with a few roads for a longer loop hike.

End of the Lower section - we went left to FR2060

Heading down the wide FR2060

Osprey we saw on way back to our car

In regards to people on the trail, we had one pair of joggers start just in front of us at the TH and one other couple that we saw behind us near the end of our hike.  We did have a pair of mountain bikers pass us --  we stepped off trail to allow them by.  Otherwise, no other people encounters.

Once again, thank you AWTA for this trail.  We had a Wonderful time on the Wonder Trail!

Trekking Together
Glenn and Carol

Joseph H Stewart State Recreation Area

Friday, March 20, 2020

After a couple of hours of work on Friday, Glenn took off the rest of the day and we drove out to the Joseph H Stewart State Recreation Area for a long hike.  We started at the day use area and hiked along the paved bike path through the park/campground enjoying the many blooming Snow Queen flowers till we reached Peyton Bridge.  From there we made a sharp left and hiked the Rogue River Trail along the Lost Creek Lake shore where we were treated to beautiful views of the lake on this sunny day.  We also got to see deer at least 4 different times along the trail.

View of the meadow near the campground area.

View of Lost Creek Lake

Once our loop was complete and we were back at the day use area (6.5 miles), we took a break at one of the picnic benches and ate some snacks and enjoyed more views of the lake.  There were lots of other folks out today at the park doing the same thing.  We then hiked more of the Rogue River Trail, this time towards the dam, till we reached Upper Brumley Creek Falls and made that our turnaround spot.

Upper Brumley Creek Falls

One last look at Lost Creek Lake

When all was said and done, we hiked 11 beautiful miles on an almost perfect hiking weather day.

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol

Houndstongue

Fawn Lily

Trillium

February Hiking Update

February 28, 2020

During the month of February we hit the trail 7 more times including a nice 9.2 mile hike through every corner and height of Prescott Park.  Since there has been little rain or snow this month, plus lots of sunshine, the flowers are already making their "pre-spring" appearance in some areas.

Oaks Toothwort

Marsh Marigolds

One of many young bucks we saw at the JWT

The first Spring flower we saw this month was the Western Buttercup as we hiked the Lower Table Rock trail.  That was followed by Oaks Toothwort at the Jacksonville Woodlands Trails.  During this last week of February we have seen Grass Widows, Fawn Lilies, Houndstongue and Indian Warriors.  Seems like all of these are a few weeks early due to the warmer and drier weather here in Southern Oregon.

Houndstongue

Grass Widow

Indian Warrior

As March approaches we can only anticipate even more flowers along the trails and when combined with the start of daylight savings time, it makes for one of the high mileage hiking months of the year for us.  We plan on some new trails in March too and will try to post those as  time allows.  Till then, get out and enjoy nature as Spring arrives.

Trekking Together
Glenn and Carol