Eel Lake & Lake Marie trails

June 9, 2015

While Medford was on a hot streak, we headed to the coast for a camping trip at William Tugman State Park. Located between North Bend and Reedsport, the park offers fishing at Eel Lake and close accessibility to the Oregon Dunes National Recreational Area. We were here though to relax and get in some hiking and we are happy to report success on both fronts.

Eel lake is a large, deep lake in a chain of water bodies along this part of the Oregon Coast. Currently there is a 3-mile trail along the south end of the lake that begins at William Tugman SP.  Plans are in the works to try and complete a trail around the entire lake which has 11.5 miles of shoreline.  So for now we had to settle on the shorter version which we found to be even shorter - 2 miles out -  due to some clear cutting along a slope that caused lots of windfall damage and made the trail very dangerous for the last mile.

The trail began near the day use area and crossed Eel creek via a small bridge.  Throughout our hike there were beautiful viewpoints of the lake and at many of those viewpoints there were benches for just sitting and taking in the view.  We were treated to various wildflowers along the trail which included Starflowers, Mexican Hedge Nettle, Yellow Woodland Violets, Foxglove, Spring Beauty, Oxalis, and a new flower for us - Fairy Lanterns,  .  We also saw a few Newts on the trail and in the lake.  Katie did take a dip or two in the lake but we made sure she didn't eat a newt!

Eel lake view from the day-use area

As we mentioned at the start of this post, the trail is closed after 2 miles.  Nothing prevented us from continuing as there is a trail, but with all of those logs on the hillside just waiting to slide down to the lake, we decided to turn around and hike back rather than risk an unwanted log ride.

Since Eel lake ended up being only a 4 mile hike (instead of 6 miles), we decided to drive Highway 101 north to the Umpqua River Lighthouse SP day-use area and hike the 1-mile loop trail around the smaller but beautiful Lake Marie.

We camped at this park a few years back and stayed in a cabin (spot #42) that had a beautiful view of the lake from the porch area.  When we arrived today, the campground was closed due to repaving but the day- use area was still open and very crowded. We hiked the loop trail once in each direction to make up for the two miles we were short on the Eel Lake trail and saw lots of folks on trail enjoying a beautiful, sunny yet windy day. This small lake sure is pretty and like the Eel Lake trail, there are many places where you can stop and take in a view of the lake. (pictures below are from our 2012 camping trip)

Lake Marie

Part of the trail around Lake Marie

Lake Marie

When we finished hiking Lake Marie, our hiking for the day had come to an end. Instead of one hike we were given a chance to hike two shoreline trails along two very beautiful lakes.  One was small in size, the other quite large.  One had many wildflowers while the other had very few.  On one we encountered many hikers yet we met only a single pair of hikers on the other. Sometimes you just don't know what a hike (or two) will lead to, but then again, that's why we hike!

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol

Big Tree - Mt Elijah - Bigelow Lakes Loop

May 25, 2015

A few weeks ago we had intended to drive down to the Oregon Caves National Monument and do an all day hike consisting of the Big Tree trail and the Mt Elijah - Bigelow Lakes loop trail.  But after calling the visitor center the day before and finding out that there was currently a light snow on Mt Elijah with forecasts of rain-thunderstorms and 43 degree temps on our hike day, we had to forego our planned hike.

But that was then and this is now. Memorial Day weather was forecast for 71 degrees and sunny, the perfect weather for a 10+ mile hike.  So off we went to the Oregon Caves National Monument and another adventure.

We started our hike along the Big Tree trail at the visitor center.  This 3.3 mile loop is a great hike by itself and begins a steady uphill climb the moment you leave the visitor center.  On our clockwise hike out to the Big Tree we began seeing what would be a trend throughout the day -- WILDFLOWERS!  They were everywhere.  By hikes' end we probably saw over 30 different varieties.  We came across large patches of Yellowleaf Iris', Spring Beauty, and more Snow Queens than we had every seen hiking before.  What a start!

After a stop at the Big Tree, we continued on to a couple of connector trails that took us to the Mt Elijah - Bigelow Lakes loop trail.  From the time our hike started till we arrived at the summit of Mt Elijah, the trail seemed to always go up and up and up.  In all we climbed around 2,500 feet in less than 5 miles.  The good news was that after Mt Elijah, the rest of the trail was either level or downhill.

Once we reached Mt Elijah, we took a much needed lunch break and enjoyed the incredible panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and valleys.  We enjoyed the silence during our break, but occasionaly heard the wind in the trees or the frogs from one of the Bigelow lakes below.  We also did our part to add a few cairns around the Mt Elijah sign before continuing our hike.

From Mt Elijah we headed down to the larger of the two Bigelow Lakes,  We took a faint side trail that included some bushwhacking to make it to the shore of the lake.  The frogs sang very loudly until they noticed that we had arrived - then they went quiet.  The lake is very shallow but was pretty with the mountains and Mt Elijah in the background.

The trail wound through various meadows in this area which were currently decorated with large patches of Yellow Fawn Lilies/Avalanche Lilies. We could only imagine that in another month there will be even more color in these already beautiful meadows.

After hiking an abandoned and rocky road, we completed the loop and backtracked on the two connector trails to arrive back at the Big Tree trail.   We completed the last half of the Big Tree trail which was all downhill, to arrive back at the visitor center -- five and a half hours after we started.  We were both very tired but happy to have hiked such a beautiful area.

Since we didn't take pictures (our hike would have been 7-8 hours long if we did), you can click HERE to see some pictures that we found online of another hiker that did this loop during the month of July. The hiker included picutres of various wildflowers, the larger Bigelow lake and views from atop Mt Elijah. His entire album consists of 70 picutres - enjoy!!  If you want to see the various wildflowers that are in the Oregon Caves National Monument, click HERE.

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol

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