Upper Table Rock Trail

This past week we made a quick trip to the Upper Table Rock trail after Glenn got off work so that we could hike to the plateau before darkness set in.

Time for a quick hike!

When we arrived at the parking lot it was completely full of cars, but we created our own parking spot and headed up the trail by 4:00 pm.  We quickly came across some of the BLM burn areas on the lower portion of the trail.  In an effort to reduce the fire hazard, BLM came through a week or so ago and cleared out some undergrowth and brush and burned them in large piles.  Although not a pretty site when hiking, this effort will allow grasses and wildflowers to grow in these areas over the next few years.

On the hike up to the plateau we encountered at least a dozen groups of people hiking down and as a result, we were the only ones at the summit when we arrived.  Of course a few other groups soon arrived, but it was still very beautiful & quiet.  Our hike to the summit went by fast and as you can see from the picture, our legs were very long and tired!

Those are some long and tired legs!!!

There were still many vernal pools at the summit and various wildflowers were in bloom including the pretty Grass Widow.  Looks like a lot of other wildflowers were getting read to bloom over the next few weeks. We hiked across the plateau and then hiked the trail along the edge till we arrived back at the main trail.  Someone even saw some artwork on the plateau as someone took the time to arrange a group of rocks into the phrase "I love you",

One of the vernal pools still on the plateau

Grass Widow

The "I Love You" artwork

Despite wanting to stay longer, we knew we needed to start back down to beat the darkness and get home to Katie.  "No dogs allowed" on this trail although we have seen people bring their dogs on this trail before.  If you live in the Southern Oregon area and are interested in hiking Upper or Lower Table Rock, the rest of March and even early April should provide you with some beautiful flowers and beautiful views.  Get out there and enjoy.

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol

Oredson-Todd Woods Trails

For our third hike in a row, we tried a new trail - or in this case, a new set of trails.

We drove to Ashland and the Oredson-Todds Woods trailhead on a beautiful sunny Sunday. We started by hiking the main trail, which is only a half mile in length and follows Clay Creek. Various trails branch off from this main trail, but we hiked the half mile to the end to see the Clay Creek waterfall. It was pretty, but had much less water than the picture they show on their website.

Carol and Katie leading the way down the main trail towards Clay Creek Falls

There is set of connecting trails that lead from the Clay Creek area up to the crest and it is known as the Creek-To-Crest trail. We didn’t follow this route, but you can by looking for the Creek-To-Crest Logo on the various trail signs.

The Creek-to-Crest trail marker.

Our main trails up to the crest were the Mike Uhtoff and White Rabbit. The key word here being UP!

We were treated to beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and Ashland as we took our frequent breaks on the upward trek. They were lots of people out today enjoying the sunshine and since these trails are dog friendly, there were many four-legged hikers too. Yes, we did bring Katie.

View from the Mike Uhtoff trail

Typical look of the trails, except most had a more uphill slant.

View of Ashland and surrounding hills

The map we had showed the Hiker-Only trails, so it was somewhat confusing when we came across the multi-use trails that did not show on our map. We managed to ask a few joggers & hikers for guidance on our way back down from the crest to Clay Creek since we wanted to take a different route but still end up in the right place.

All in all we enjoyed the new trails and after we did further research, we may go back and try a longer hike up to the crest and then work our way across the crest towards Lithia Park. That way we could hike the Alice In Wonderland trail, White Rabbit trail, Cheshire Cat trail and the Looking Glass trail all in one day. Hopefully we won’t run into the Queen of Hearts if we do.

Trekking Together

Glenn & Carol

Illinois River Little Falls Trail & more

We decided to once again venture out to one of those signs on the highway that you often ignore, which points out some vista or viewpoint.  This one along highway 199 indicated "Eight Dollar Mountain Botanical Wayside" turn right.  So we did.

But how did Eight Dollar Mountain get it's name you might ask......well some say it got the name from a nearby discovery of a gold nugget worth $8.00, while another story is that a man wore out a pair of shoes worth $8.00 walking around its base. Regardless of it's name origin, the area is beautiful and worth far more than $8.

About 7.5 miles of Eight Dollar Mountain Road is designated as the TJ Howell Botanical Drive.  We only drove a short distance before parking at a large area on the left side by the Jeffrey Pine Loop trailhead.  We then walked across the road to the Eight Dollar Mountain Botanical Wayside Boardwalk trail - the first of four trails we would hike but the winner for the longest trail name of the day.

This trail, as the name implies, is a boardwalk that stretches one-eighth of a mile out into a botanical area.  The main time for seeing the numerous flowers and plants would be late April till early June -- see the link for more details.  Nothing was in bloom for us today, but we definitely want to come back in a couple of months!  At the end of the boardwalk is a viewing area that overlooks a fen full of the California Pitcher Plant.  The boardwalk is handicap friendly, so if you know someone who enjoys flowers but is handicapped, this would make a nice destination during the blooming time.

The large fen area of California Pitcher Plants

A portion of the boardwalk trail

We then hiked back to the parking area across Eight Dollar Mountain Road and hiked the Jeffrey Pine Loop.

This trail took us through some wooded areas and eventually down near the Illinois river.  There are some side paths one can take to get to the river, but we stayed on the trail (for now).  The loop eventually was intersected by the Illinois River trail which heads downstream for one mile to the Little Falls Loop.  The trail gave us great views of a very beautiful river, and we did make a few side trips down to the river.  As a result, Katie made a few trips into the river.  There were also some side creeks and water seepage that ran across the trail, but none posed any hiking issues for us.

The Illinois River - view from one of our trail side trips

Trail view

One of the sandy beach areas along the river - view from trail

After our beautiful one mile hike downstream, the trail intersected the Little Falls Loop trail. This loop, just like the Jeffrey Pines loop, is just under a mile long.  We hiked the shorter half of the loop down to the river where we took a break on some rocks directly next to and above the water.  What a beautiful spot!!  The sun was out, blue sky with no clouds, the sound and sight of the river - we were lovin' it!!!

Upstream view from where we took a break.......

downstream view from where we took a break.

Carol enjoying the sun and river at our break area.

Afterwards we made our way around the rest of the loop to view the falls.  The Illinois River Little Falls are much like Rainie Falls in Galice or the Rogue Gorge area near Union Creek, not a typical waterfall but a narrowing of the river with small falls and very fast water.  It is a very, very beautiful area!!  If you only wanted to hike the Little Falls Loop, there is a parking area just above the loop on Eight Dollar Mountain  Road at the Little Falls Campground.  There were also numerous places along the river that had sand beaches which would make a great place for a summer day of swimming and fun.

Illinois River Little Falls

River area below the falls

 We completed the Little Falls Loop and hiked the river trail back to the Jeffrey Pine loop and completed that loop trail back to our car -- did you follow all of that?   These trails treated us to numerous river views, wildflowers (trilliums and western spring beauties), and beautiful woods in less than 5 miles of hiking, but provided us with over 3 hours of pure enjoyment.  All because we followed one of those highway signs that are often ignored.  Reminds us of the words of Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol