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

Cape Blanco State Park

"Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost" as J.R.R. Tolkien stated in his poem.

However on our camping trip to Cape Blanco State Park, wandering and lost seemed to go together almost every time we hiked!

Our first adventure started well as we hiked from our campsite through the horse camp and onto the Coast Trail.  This trail took us through thickly wooded areas with a glimpse or two of the beautiful ocean.

View of North Beach from trail

View of North Beach looking back toward Cape Blanco

Eventually we came to a gate which directed us straight ahead to continue the Coast trail, but alas, there was no trail straight ahead!?  There was a trail (sort of) going right (uphill) and left (downhill).  We chose uphill first and ran into another fence, this one without a gate.  So it was downhill we went.  It didn't take long to run into the local residents of this trail, a good sized herd of sheep who were just as surprised to see us as we were to see them.  Since we had our dog Katie with us, the sheep were probably having flashbacks to their past "herding" days and began quickly moving down the trail ahead of us.

Part of the sheep herd making a run for it as we approach!

We eventually made it through the sheep (and their droppings) and continued our loop hike.  The next gate had a sign for the Castle Rock Trail which we took since it led to the beach.  With the river to our right, cliffs to our left and the ocean in front of us, we continued along and after passing through one last dune, came upon the North Shore beach of Cape Blanco.

North Beach and Cape Blanco in the distance.

We hiked along this long stretch of beach enjoying the sound of the ocean and the large pieces of driftwood on the shoreline.  Between the sun, wind and hiking in beach sand, we were pretty tired out when we arrived at the North Shore access trail and had to look UP to the  viewpoint we needed to hike to.

Some of the driftwood along the North Beach shoreline

Carol and Katie along North Beach

Sea Stack along North Beach 

Once we arrived at the viewpoint along the lighthouse road, we connected back with coast trail and hiked the trail through the dense thickets along the South Beach cliffs till we connected with a short trail back to the campground. Whew - for a two and a half hour hike, we were tired and proceeded to take an afternoon nap.  Yes, required naps are another benefit to hiking.

On the following day we took another hike that involved wandering and being lost.  We decided to hike a "horse" trail to the beach and then loop back around through the horse camp.  A 7 mile trek that didn't seem difficult on paper.  The fact that it was a horse trail should have raised some red flags.

The first part of the hike to the beach access was easy to follow and allowed for some great views of the South Beach coastline.

South Beach view from Horse trail

Another view of South Beach from Horse trail

What remains of the last person to attempt a hike of the Horse trail??

But once we connected to the trail back to the horse camp, the horse part of the trail took over.  You see horses are much taller than people, have 4 legs and their rider really doesn't care what they run into below the saddle.  We on the other hand were under six feet tall, had two legs and we do care about plants, bushes, mud and so forth on the ground. After an hour of bushwhacking and hiking this evidently seldom used trail, we turned around and backtracked to our starting point since where we were and what the map showed did not seem to match up.  Add to that the 30-40 mph winds whipping through the trees and all the branches along the trail from past winds storms and you get the picture of two hikers and a dog making a beeline back to the safety of the campground.  Time for another nap!!

So after those two adventures, our last hike was along the safe and well marked South Beach shoreline. Instead of hiking south along the beach, we hiked north back towards the end of the cape.  It was low tide, but not low enough to hike around the entire cape.

Hiking the road down to the South Beach

Sea Stack on South Beach

This hike was awesome as we got to see a large Sea Stack with nesting cormorants, tide pools with plenty of Sea Stars (starfish), and near the end of the cape we watched and heard a pair of Peregrine falcons, a first for both of us.

Sea Star in the tide pools

View of South Beach from inside one of many caverns

Cormorants on Sea Stack - can you see the young cormorants?

We enjoyed our 4-day stay at Cape Blanco State Park which is one of our favorite Oregon State Parks. Plus the temperature was in the 60's for our entire stay - sure beats the heat back in Medford.  Including all the hiking we did on this trip, we are now at 200 miles for the year.  Since our best yearly hiking miles is 226, we are excited that we have five months of hiking left in the year and have set our sights on the 300 mile mark.

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol

Cadra Point Loop Trail

After our hike at Enderts Beach, we drove back into Crescent City and made a quick stop at the Northcoast Marine Mammal Center.  Although the gift shop was closed, we were able to view the various mammal rehabilitation enclosures & talk to a volunteer who took the time to tell us about the current occupants, answered our questions, and even took a picture for us.

One of the current occupants at the Northcoast Marine Mammal Center

The center is run entirely by volunteers and donations with 100% of those donations used to feed the animals. On their website there is a link which allows a percentage of any purchase on Amazon.com to be donated to their facility.

Driving northwest out of Crescent City, we soon arrived at the Lake Earl Wildlife Area.  Along with Tolowa Dunes State Park and Point St. George Heritage Area,  these three areas make up the Tolowa Coast Trails.

Besides the numerous trails available to hike, these areas feature a campground, canoe & kayaking access on some of the lagoons and lakes, and trails for horse riding or bicycling. Check out their website for more information and a map.

We hiked the Cadra Point Loop Trail, a 4.2 mile loop.

Although there were side trails to viewpoints along the Lake Earl Coastal Lagoon, most were overgrown with tall weeds/grass so we opted to stick with the main trail.  The trail itself is still being developed and currently consists of two tire ruts through the fields.

The Cadra Point Loop Trail

Since we stayed on the main loop trail, we did not get a real good view of Lake Earl or Lake Tolowa, but we did get great views of the McLaughlin Pond and Beaver Pond.

McLaughlin pond view from the trail

Beaver Pond covered with lilypads

It was a nice hike but very warm since the sunshine was still out in full force. As we finished the loop it brought to an end our hiking for this trip.  In three days we had hiked 7 different trails totaling almost 25 miles with countless incredible sights and views.  That's why we love to hike!!

Now it was time to head back into Crescent City for Dutch Bros iced coffee and more Jacuzzi time!  Yes hiking is rough but it does have benefits!

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol (& Maggie too)