One Last Summer Fling - Brookings and The Stout Grove Trail

As summer was nearing it's end here in Southern Oregon, our nephew Dylan from Southern California came up to visit and check out some local colleges.  Since Dylan enjoys hiking, which of late has included Mt Whitney and Half Dome, we thought it best to get him out onto a few trails here in Oregon.

Since most of the weekdays were taken up with work and Dylan scouting out the schools, our first chance to hike with him was the last Saturday and Sunday of Summer.  On Saturday we took Dylan to nearby Upper Table Rock and hiked to the summit and back.  Dylan had hiked Lower Table Rock on previous visits,  so upon completion of this hike he had completed the Southern Oregon Double Crown.

Dylan preparing for the ascent up the Upper Table Rock trail

We hiked in the morning to beat the heat and hiked around the entire loop at the top to take in the views of the surrounding valley.  Upon our descent Dylan decided to jog down the trail.   Oh to be young!

The 3 Amigos at the top of Upper Table Rock

On Sunday we were joined by our son and daughter-in-law and along with Dylan drove to Brookings at the coast.  We stopped at the Harris Beach SP day use area and hiked along the beach and rocks.  We also hiked a trail from the beach up to the campground and walked around the loop to show Dylan what a Yurt looks like.  We hiked the Harris Butte trail and then the wooded trail from the campground back to the day use area.

A cloudy but still beautiful day at the Oregon Coast

Matthew, Cassie and Dylan exploring one of the large rocks at Harris Beach

A seagull holding still long enough for a picture.

Dylan and Matthew hiking along the beach???

By this time everyone was getting hungry so we drove into town and made a stop at the Fred Meyer Deli where almost unlimited choices abound.  We took our lunches back to the Harris Beach day use area and enjoyed eating  to the sound of ocean waves.

After lunch we drove up highway 101 and made stops at Arch Rock, Thunder Rock and Natural Bridges - hiking to each viewpoint.  We also made one more stop at the beach near the Beachfront Inn.  While in the area we posed for pictures using some painted cut-outs along the port boardwalk.  We will post one of Glenn but told Dylan that we would not print his "mermaid" pose.

Watch out for "crabby" old men in Brookings!!!

As we drove home from Brookings we had one more stop.   We have driven through the Redwoods and hiked many trails in and around the Redwoods, but had never hiked The Stout Grove loop located in Jedediah Smith State Park.

This is a short 0.6 mile loop that is easy for anyone to hike and takes you by some incredible trees. Although the hike did not take long, the views of these trees was well worth the trip

The start of the Stout Grove trail

One of the first views of Redwoods on the trail

Trail wandering by some large Redwood trees

Not all the big trees were standing upright.

Dylan enjoyed both the Redwood trees and our Oregon Coast.  He especially enjoyed how the Oregon Coast has trees right near the shoreline and we would have to agree with him.  Oregon is a beautiful state and has so many opportunities for hiking and enjoying the outdoors.  We are so thankful that we are able to get out and enjoy the outdoors through hiking and hope you enjoy hiking along with us.

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol

High Lakes Trail to Fish Lake

It's the Labor Day weekend and what better thing to do than labor on a trail.

Our first stop on this holiday weekend was a trip back to the Cathedral Hills Trails in Grants Pass.  We hiked the same trails as noted on our March blog posting plus a few new ones. Of course all of the spring flowers are now gone.  Rather than do a posting on that hike and bore you with pictures of brown plants, brown trees and the brown trail, we recommend you go back in time and see the flowers from that March hike with us.

When we recently hiked the Brown Mountain Lava Flow trail, we met another hiker who was just starting out on the trail and found through our conversation that he was hiking down to Fish Lake via the High Lakes Trail, eating lunch at the lake, and then returning to the Summit Sno Park parking area.  That sounded like a nice hike for us in the future and sure enough, the future is now.

In addition to our dog Katie, our sister Karen joined us for this relatively easy 5.6 mile hike.  From the Summit Sno Park parking area we hiked the access trail to the PCT and then hiked the PCT across highway 140 to it's intersection with the High Lakes Trail.

The High Lakes Trail from here to Fish Lake is just 2 miles.  The entire High Lakes Trails runs from Fish Lake to Lake of the Woods, and if you include the Fish Lake Trail and Great Meadow Trail at either end, the entire length is over 12 miles one-way.  The trail is for hiking and biking and today we came across a good number of bicyclists, including our auto mechanic Jason and his family.

View of the High Lakes Trail - nice and wide for hikers and bikers

The trail is well maintained, has a few ups and downs, and provides views of Mount McLoughlin and some of the Brown Mountain Lava Flows.

View of the Brown Mountain Lava Flow and Mt McLoughlin from the trail

After hiking a little over an hour, we arrived at Fish Lake and took a break to eat and drink and enjoy the quiet.

The lake itself is very low this year (see pictures below) and as a result there were not a lot of people around despite being a holiday.  Fish Lake, much like Lake of the Woods, does have cabins for rental which makes hiking or biking this trail an ideal activity when visiting or staying at either location.

Very low Fish Lake

Looking towards the boat launch and dock areas of the lake

After we finished our snacks and Katie took a dirt bath, we hiked back along the High Lakes Trail enjoying the views from the other direction.  Despite cool temps when we started, we were plenty warm by hikes' end and especially thankful for a car with air conditioning!

Katie after her "dirt" bath --- one dirty dog!

Having completed these last two hikes, we have now surpassed our previous personal best for hiking miles in a year -220 miles - and are currently at 228 miles.  Just 72 miles away from the big 300!  Hope you join us as we hike on through the last third of the year.

Trekking Together
Glenn and Carol

P.S.  Many times while hiking we take pictures of the sky with the tree tops as an outline.  On the High Lakes Trail hike Glenn took the following picture and after viewing it, we think the outline of trees forms a dog silhouette.....what do you think.  The two ears are at the top with the dog nose to the right. Are we losing our minds and seeing things???

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's a dog????

Brown Mountain Lava Flow Trail - PCT

August is our least favorite month of the year here in Southern Oregon due to two things -- heat and smoke.  As a result, August tends to be the month that we hike the least and this year is following that trend.  Since our trip to Cape Blanco back in July, we have hiked a couple times locally -- Jacksonville Woodland Trails and the Roxy Ann Loop.  With August almost done, it was time to head for the mountains and get back to more hiking!

Time to hit the trail again......

So off we went early one morning up highway 140 to the Summit Sno Park between Fish Lake and Lake of the Woods to hike a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail known as the Brown Mountain Lava Flow.  We did this hike a few years ago and it was quite memorable.  That was due to the fact that Glenn forgot to put Carol's hiking shoes in the car - a fact not known till our arrival at the trailhead.  As a result, Carol hiked the trail in flipflops  -- true story -- see picture below. This time Glenn remembered Carol's hiking shoes, so all was right in the hiking world.

Proof of the famous "flip-flop" hike!!

From the parking lot it is a short hike along an access trail to get to the PCT.  It is then another short hike along the Fourmile Lake overflow stream till you reach and cross (carefully) highway 140.

The trail proceeds through a nicely forested area and passes the intersection with the High Lakes Trail - another great hike between Fish Lake and Lake of the Woods. Eventually the trail emerges from the forest and begins crossing the lava flow.  The entire Brown Mountain lava flow covers 13 square miles, but for today we would be hiking through four different portions of that lava flow. It didn't take long for us to notice the very strong fragrance from the Chinkapin bushes along the trail.  Other than a few trees, the Chinkapin was the only vegetation along the various portions of the lava flow.

Chinkapin blossoms and berry

One of many large Chinkapin bushes along the trail

These bushes can grow up to 10 feet tall and were loaded with blossoms and berries.  Eventually the chinkapin grows a spiny fruit known as "porcupine eggs" which contain three sweet edible nuts that the local pika and squirrel population consume.

Chinkapin "porcupine eggs"

We had great views of Mount McLoughlin (no snow) along the trail and even had a quick glimpse of Fish Lake. When we hiked this trail in June 2012 there was still snow on Mount McLoughlin (see below), but either way the mountain is still a beautiful and awesome sight.

Mt McLoughlin last time we hiked this trail.....

...and Mt McLoughlin on this hike.....

We also enjoyed blue skies and a light cool breeze throughout our hike and made our turnaround at the "high point" of this segment - just over 3 miles in on the trail.  It is hard to describe how beautiful the views were as  we hiked along this trail, so we will just let a few trail pictures do the talking.  

After crossing highway 140 to get back to the access trail, we noticed a forest service notice posted on a tree.  It stated that due to fire danger, this portion of the PCT would be closed to hikers today.   So we quickly hiked back to the access trail to avoid arrest and deportation, stopping only to let Katie take a few celebratory dips in the stream.

Now that autumn is getting closer, we are looking forward to getting in more hikes as we try to set a new personal hiking mileage record and maybe even reach the 300 mile mark!  Stay tuned.

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol