Tag: Boulder Creek Wilderness

Illahee Rock & Twin Lakes – 06/14/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 22, 2022
8 Comments on Illahee Rock & Twin Lakes – 06/14/2022

Our original plan for this vacation was to do a pair of hikes on the way down to Roseburg on Monday, Illahee Rock and Twin Lakes but the weather hadn’t cooperated with that plan. Monday was cloudy so doing two viewpoint hikes didn’t make sense. Instead, we had spent Monday visiting various waterfalls along Highway 138 (post). The plan for Tuesday had been a hike along Cow Creek on the way south to Ashland but during one of the many drives between trailheads on Monday we had decided instead to do the Illahee Rock and Twin Lakes hikes on Tuesday, weather permitting, and to save Cow Creek for another year. There were two reasons for this change. First Twin Lakes is one of Sullivan’s featured hikes while Cow Creek is not. The second reason was that we were both still dealing with blisters from our 17.5-mile outing at the Columbian White-Tailed Deer Refuge three days earlier (post) and with at least four creek crossings on the Cow Creek Trail the probability of us having to ford the creek and soaking our feet didn’t sound like the best idea. Before going to sleep Monday, we checked the forecast which was “Becoming Sunny”. I don’t think we’d ever come across that particular forecast, but it sounded hopeful so Tuesday morning we packed up the car and headed east once again on Highway 138.

Our first stop was at Illahee Rock, a former featured hike that was hit with fires in both 2017 and 2021. Two lookout towers sit atop Illahee Rock and the Umpqua National Forest website listed the Illahee Lookout Trail as open but gave no update on conditions. We wound up cutting the drive short by three quarters of a mile due to a decent amount of debris in the road due to damage caused by the fires.
We parked in a pullout just before this section.

The “becoming sunny” forecast was obviously not for the morning as we found ourselves in heavy fog as we hiked along FR 100.
The Boulder Creek Wilderness (post) under the slowly rising clouds.

After 0.75 miles on FR 100 we came to FR 104 on the left which led to the Illahee Rock Trailhead. Before heading up to the lookouts though we wanted to make an attempt to reach nearby Wild Rose Point which Sullivan described in his book.
FR 104

We passed FR 104 and continued on FR 100 for another 0.2 miles to a fork.
Rabbit on FR 100

Lots of fawn lilies along the road and trails.

Red flowering currant

Is this an apple tree? Whatever it is it seemed very out of place.

FR 105 on the left and FR 100 on the right.

We could see a post for the trail on the hillside in brush but had a bit of trouble figuring out where the trail began at the fork. We first looked for it right at the fork then a bit down FR 100 but it was actually just up FR 105 next to the post for the road.

This little path brought us to the post in the brush where it was already obvious this was going to be an adventure.

The 2021 fire had burned over this area as well and it didn’t appear that any maintenance had been done aside from some occasional flagging and cairns. We decided to give it a go though since it was under 1.5 miles to Wild Rose Point. We picked our way uphill and found some decent tread in some trees that had been spared by the fire.

Another uphill through a burned area brought us to another short section of better trail before fallen trees began to be a problem. A little over half a mile in near Illahee Spring we decided to turn back. Several larger trees blocked the trail head and looked like more trouble than it was worth to try and navigate around and even if we did manage there wasn’t going to be a view due to the fog.
A cairn on the left.

Damp trillium

Downed trees across the trail near Illahee Spring.

We returned to FR 100 and walked back to FR 104 which we now turned up.

Gooseberry

Two tenths of a mile up FR 104 we came to the Illahee Rock Trailhead.

This trail was in much better shape and we had no problem following it the three quarters of a mile up to the lookouts.

The tread was a little faint but otherwise in good shape.

Lots of cool rock outcrops along the trail.

Fawn lilies

Typical trail condition.

Ragwort and blue-eyed Mary covered hillside.

Blue-eyed Mary

Ragwort

Rocky hillside below the lookouts.

Larkspur

1925 Cupola style lookout.

1956 L-4 tower lookout

Paintbrush

We spent some time exploring the summit and checking out the lookouts while we waited for it to become sunny. We eventually gave up on that and headed back down.

Illahee Rock

A sliver of hope for blue sky at some point.

It wasn’t more than 10 minutes after we started down before the blue sky started appearing.

Back at the trailhead.

On FR 100

Wallflower

The Boulder Creek Wilderness

We’d missed out on a view from Illahee Rock but we had another opportunity coming up on our hike to Twin Lakes. We drove back down FR 100 to Highway 138 and turned left (east) for 2.25 miles to FR 4770 where we turned right at a sign for the Twin Lakes and North Umpqua Trail. We followed FR 4770 to the Twin Lakes Trailhead . (The east trailhead not the west.)

The same 2017 fire that burned Illahee Rock affected the Forest here as well although many large trees did survive. We followed the Twin Lakes Trail for 0.6 miles to a junction.

Meadow along the trail.

Trillum

Becoming sunny in action. From this viewpoint Diamond Peak, Mt. Thielsen, and Mt. Bailey are visible sans clouds.

A carpet of blue-eyed Mary at the viewpoint.

Illahee Rock was visible from the viewpoint despite the clouds.

The lookout tower on Illahee Rock.

Indian plum

Hellbore starting to sprout in a meadow.

Waterleaf

Nearing the junction.

At the first junction we stayed right then veered left at the next, avoiding the Deception Creek Trail, and descended through a meadow to the Twin Lakes Shelter.

Woodpecker

Gray jay

The second junction where we turned left.

Mushroom near the shelter.

After a short break at the shelter we started around the bigger of the two lakes going counter-clockwise. We passed a walk in campground and continued along the lake shore.

The lake was very colorful and it was easy to see into the water which allowed us to watch fish as they swam around.

No fish but it was easy to see them when they were present.

This big rock added to the scenery.

We couldn’t decide if that was an old bridge or dock in the water.

Passing behind the big rock.

The rock turned out to be split.

There was a lot of water in the section between the two lakes. Fortunately there didn’t seem to be any mosquitos which was really surprising but in a good way.

We weren’t entirely sure where the trail between the two lakes was and we started thinking that we’d missed it so when we saw an opportunity we headed cross country toward the smaller lake.
This looked like it could be a trail.

How were there not any mosquitos in here.

A local wondering what we were up to.

We spotted more large rocks with a bit of a shelter underneath and were headed for it when we spotted an actual trail running by the rocks.

We followed this trail to the second lake and made our way around it counter-clockwise as well.

The outlet creek.

Yellow-rumped warbler

Red-breasted sapsucker

Stellar’s jay

There was still snow in the basin on the south side of the lake making this side very wet.

A 1995 log shelter used to be located on this side of the lake but was lost to the 2017 fire. A small outhouse and a whole lot of garbage (people are awful sometimes) is all that was left.

After completing the loop we followed the trail back toward the larger lake passing the boulder shelter and a balancing rock.

This cracked us up, someone just nailed the planks into the tree that broke the bridge.

This trail led back to the trail around the larger lake.
A small sign at the junction.

We finished the loop around the larger lake and stopped again at the shelter.

A 1.1 mile climb from the first junction that we’d come to earlier would take us to a viewpoint above the lakes.

We had been waiting to see if it really did become sunny before deciding on this optional side trip but now that there was quite a bit of blue sky overhead we decided to head up.
Another meadow along the 1.1 mile section.

The 2017 fire hit this section pretty hard.

There was a bit more snow over 5400′ but not enough to cause any problems.

A well established use trail led out to the viewpoint where we met another pair of hikers enjoying the view.

The larger lake.

The smaller lake.

Illahee Rock from the viewpoint.

The lower flanks of Howlock Mountain, Mt. Thielsen (post), and Mt. Bailey (post).

We chatted with the other hikers long enough that we could almost see all of Mt. Thielsen and Mt. Bailey by the time we were headed back.

Bee on an anemone.

Glacier lily

Moth and a violet.

When we passed by the lower viewpoint the views had improved even more.

Mt. Thielsen and Mt. Bailey

Black Rock on the right.

Highrock Mountain

Howlock Mountain

Cowhorn Mountain (post)

It truly had become sunny and was supposed to stay that way at least for the next couple of days. After driving back to Highway 138 we followed it east to Diamond Lake then took Highway 230 south to Highway 62 and followed it into Medford to I-5 and took the freeway south to Ashland where we would be staying for the next four nights. We’d hoped to stop by Becky’s Cafe in Union Creek but when we drove by it was closed so instead we wound up with Wendy’s after another long day (sigh) of driving.

The hikes were 5.2 miles and 6.2 miles with 650′ and 850′ of elevation gain respectively giving us an 11.4 mile 1500′ day.

Tags Boulder Creek Wilderness, hiking, Illahee Rock, Illahee Rock Lookout, Oregon, Twin Lake Shelter, Twin Lakes, Twin Lakes Trailhead, Umpqua National Forest, Wild Rose Point

Hiking

Progress Report – Oregon Wilderness Areas (Completed)

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date February 1, 2022
8 Comments on Progress Report – Oregon Wilderness Areas (Completed)

Several years back we set several hiking goals, one of which being to hike in all of Oregon’s federally designated wilderness areas. At that time there were 47 such areas in the State with two of those being off-limits to visitors (Three Arch Rocks & Oregon Islands are also National Wildlife Refuges that provide nesting habitat for sea birds as well as serving as pupping sites for marine mammals. To prevent disturbances public entry to any of the rocks/islands is prohibited and waters within 500 feet of the refuge are closed to all watercraft from May 1 through September 15.) In 2019 Congress added the Devils Staircase Wilderness to the list giving us a total of 46 designated wilderness areas to visit in order to complete this goal. Staring in 2019 we began posting annual updates on our progress (2020 & 2021) and we are excited to report that, unless any new wilderness areas are established in the future, this will be our last update. We managed to make it to the final four wilderness areas on our list, the North Fork Umatilla, Devils Staircase, Black Canyon, and Monument Rock, in 2021. We have to give credit to Bruce (Van Marmot) over at Boots on the Trail for not only getting to all 46 first but also providing inspiration and a lot of helpful information.

A little over 2.5 million acres are designated as wilderness throughout the State and range in size from 15 acres (Three Arch Rocks) to 355,548 acres (Eagle Cap). Oregon shares a wilderness with three of its bordering states. The Wenaha-Tuccanon is shared with Washington, Hells Canyon with Idaho, and Red Buttes with California. The areas are managed by three different federal agencies. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) manages the Oregon Islands and Three Arch Rocks areas while the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages nine and the Forest Service manages forty-one. If you do the math those numbers add up to fifty-two. The reason for that is four of the areas, the Devils Staircase, Lower White River, Hells Canyon, and Wild Rogue are managed jointly by the Forest Service and BLM. Seven of the areas have no official trails, the two off-limit areas, and the Devils Staircase, Rock Creek, Lower White River, Bridge Creek, and Spring Basin wildernesses. Although irregularly shaped (except for the exactly 6 square mile Mountain Lakes Wilderness) the majority of the areas are a single unit. In addition to the Oregon Islands and Three Arch Rocks the Mount Hood (4), Mark O. Hatfield (2), Badger Creek (2),Salmon-Huckleberry (3), Clackamas (5), Soda Mountain (2), North Fork John Day (4), and Steens Mountain (2) consist of multiple separate areas.

We visited our first Oregon Wilderness in 2009 when we visited Henline Falls in the Opal Creek Wilderness. Since then we have spent parts of 215 days in these special places. For sixteen of the areas it was only a single day while we’ve spent part of 30 days in the Three Sisters Wilderness. Below are some of our best memories from each of the wilderness areas. We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed visiting them.

Badger Creek: 28,915 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-6

Black Canyon: 13.088 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Boulder Creek: 19,911 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Bridge Creek: 5,337 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Bull of the Woods: 36,869 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-6

Clackamas: 9.465 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-2

Copper-Salmon: 13,724 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Cummins Creek: 9,026 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Devils Staircase: 30,787 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Diamond Peak: 52,477 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-7

Drift Creek: 5,792 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-2

Eagle Cap: 355,548 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-5

Gearhart Mountain: 22,587 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Grassy Knob: 17,176 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Hells Canyon: 131,337 acres in OR (217,613 in ID) Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Kalmiopsis: 179,550 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Lower White River: 2,871 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Mark O. Hatfield: 65,420 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-12

Menagerie: 4,952 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-2

Middle Santiam: 8,845 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-2

Mill Creek: 17,173 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Monument Rock: 20,210 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Mountain Lakes: 23,036 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-2

Mount Hood: 64,742 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-22

Mount Jefferson: 108,909 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-27

Mount Thielsen: 55,151 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-5

Mount Washington: 54,410 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-7

North Fork John Day: 120,694 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-8

North Fork Umatilla: 20,225 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-3

Opal Creek: 20,774 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-6

Oregon Badlands: 28,182 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-2

Oregon Islands: 925 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-0

Red Buttes: 3,777 acres in OR (20,133 in CA) Days Spent in Wilderness-2 in OR, (4 in CA)

This photo is from CA but it actually shows the namesake Red Buttes

Roaring River: 36,548 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Rock Creek: 7,273 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1
Closest thing to a “wilderness sign” we saw for this one.

Rogue-Umpqua: 35,749 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-6

Salmon-Huckleberry: 62,061 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-11

Sky Lakes: 113,687 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-3

Soda Mountain: 24,707 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-2

Spring Basin: 6,404 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-1

Steens Mountain: 170,202 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-5

Strawberry Mountain: 69,350 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-5

Table Rock: 5,784 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-3

Three Arch Rocks: 15 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-0

Three Sisters: 283,619 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-30

Waldo Lake: 36,868 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-6

Wenaha-Tuccanon: 65,266 acres in OR (176,737 in WA) Days Spent in Wilderness-2

Wild Rogue: 35,221 acres Days Spent in Wilderness-2

Tags Badger Creek Wilderness, Black Canyon Wilderness, Boulder Creek Wilderness, Bridge Creek Wilderness, Bull of the Woods Wilderness, Clackamas Wilderness, Copper-Salmon Wilderness, cummins creek wilderness, Devil's Staircase Wilderness, Diamond Peak Wilderness, Drift Creek Wilderness, eagle cap wilderness, Gearhart Mountain Wilderness, Grassy Knob Wilderness, Hells Canyon Wilderness, hiking, kalmiopsis wilderness, Lower White River Wilderness, Mark O Hatfield Wilderness, Menagerie Wilderness, Middle Santiam Wilderness, Mill Creek Wilderness, Monument Rock Wilderness, Mount Hood Wilderness, Mount Jefferson Wilderness, Mount Thielsen Wilderness, Mount Washington Wilderness, mountain lakes wilderness, North Fork John Day Wilderness, North Fork Umatilla Wilderness, opal creek wilderness, Oregon, oregon badlands wilderness, Oregon wilderness areas, Red Buttes Wilderness, roaring river wilderenss, Rock Creek Wilderness, Rogue-Umpqua Wilderness, Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness, sky lakes wilderness, soda mountain wilderness, Spring Basin Wilderness, Steens Mountain Wilderness, Strawberry Mountain Wilderness, table rock wilderness, Three Sisters Wilderness, waldo lake wilderness, Wenaha-Tuccanon Wilderness, Wild Rogue Wilderness, Wilderness Area

Uncategorized

Progress Report – Oregon Wilderness Areas – January, 2021 Update

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 12, 2021
9 Comments on Progress Report – Oregon Wilderness Areas – January, 2021 Update

Heading into 2020 we had plans to visit 5 of the 6 remaining wilderness areas in which he haven’t hiked (post), but 2020 had other plans. Plans to visit three of the areas were moved to another year and a fourth was pushed back from May to September. Flooding in February wiped out our plans to visit the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness which was the same trip that we had planned on visiting the Black Canyon Wilderness. Rearranging hikes due to COVID-19 pushed a visit to the Devils Staircase Wilderness back a year.

Plans for a Memorial Day weekend trip to Roseburg involving a hike in the Boulder Creek Wilderness were a COVID cancellation but we managed to fit the Boulder Creek hike into our Labor Day weekend plans (post).
Boulder Creek Wilderness sign

Boulder Creek Trail Ponderosa Pines in the Boulder Creek Wilderness

Looking up the Boulder Creek Valley Boulder Creek Wilderness

Boulder Creek

A July vacation to Lakeview and a visit to the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness (post) was the only visit that happened as planned.
Gearhart Mountain Wilderness sign

The Palisades in the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness The Palisades

Gearhart Mountain

View from Gearhart Mountain Looking down from Gearhart Mountain

Meadow below Gearhart Mountain

Gearhat Mountain Looking up at Gearhart Mountain

Visiting these two wildernesses puts us at 42 out of the 46 accessible wilderness. The three areas mentioned above are again in our plans for this year as well as the Monument Rock Wilderness in eastern Oregon. With any luck 2021 will be a better year and we will be able to reach our goal, but if not there’s always next year. Happy Trails!

Tags Boulder Creek, Boulder Creek Wilderness, Gearhart Mountain Wilderness, Gearhart Mountian, hiking, Oregon, Wilderness

Hiking Year-end wrap up

The Hikes of 2020 – A Look Back

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 2, 2021
3 Comments on The Hikes of 2020 – A Look Back

Well 2020 is officially over and I think nearly everyone is glad to see it go. It was a rough year for so many between COVID-19 costing lives and jobs and wildfires claiming homes and businesses. We were fortunate in that we were able to keep working throughout the year, stayed healthy, and were just slightly inconvenienced by the fires that impacted so many after Labor Day. The most traumatic event that we personally experienced was the loss of our eldest cat, Buddy (post) in January.

With all that going on during the year, hiking became a way to try and escape and yet it seemed nearly impossible not to feel the cloud that was 2020 hanging over everything. It certainly made for a “different” year of hiking. I made more changes to our planned hikes in 2020 than in any previous year. It wasn’t just COVID and fires that triggered changes either, flooding in the Blue Mountains east of Pendleton in February damaged Forest Service Roads and trails forcing us to cancel a planned June trip. We originally had 58 days of hiking planned (as of January 1, 2020) but we cancelled a September backpacking trip in the Sky Lakes Wilderness due to heavy wildfire smoke which left us ending the year with 52 days of hiking. Of those only 19 days consisted of hikes that were on the list on January 1, and just 9 wound up happening on the day originally scheduled (an additional two happened within a day of the original plan).

During those 52 days we spent 10 nights backpacking, stopped at 70 trails/trailheads, and 3 roadside waterfalls.
2020 hikes Hiker symbol = Trails/trailheads, yellow houses = campsites, purple binoculars = roadside waterfalls

This year saw no repeated hikes and just 18 days where we were on the same part of a trail that we had hiked in a previous year, roughly 34.5 out of the 586.7 miles that hiked. That meant a lot of new trails and sights for us. Two of the hikes, Gearhart Mountain (post), and Boulder Creek (post) were in wilderness areas that we had yet to make it to.
Gearhart Mountain Wilderness Gearhart Mountain

Boulder Creek

Here are just a few highlights from the places we visited over the year. (* denotes at least some of the area burned in a 2020 fire.)

January
Cobblestones along the beach at Cape Lookout State Park Netarts Spit

February
View from Spencer Butte Spencer Butte

Shotgun Creek

Horse Rock Ridge Trail Horse Rock Ridge

March
Morning at Miller Woods Miller Woods

Trappist Abbey

April
Camas Bush Pasture Park

May
Baskett Butte Basket Slough Wildlife Refuge

North Fork Willamette River

Little Luckiamute River

Old growth at Valley of the Giants Valley of the Giants

Indigo Springs

Rigdon Meadows

Pigeon Butte Trailhead Pigeon Butte

June
East Fork South Fork McKenzie River

Sullivan Creek Falls*

Henline Falls*

Bull-of-the Woods and Whetstone Mountain from the lookout site Henline Mountain*

Spirit Falls

Pinard Falls

Moon Falls

Memaloose Lake*

Echo Basin Trail Echo Basin

Hall House Fish Lake

View from the Green Ridge Trail Green Ridge*

High Ridge Trail Table Rock Wilderness* (The Riverside fire burned at least the access road and may have encroached into the SW portion of the wilderness.)

Mt. Adams from the Monte Carlo Trail Monte Carlo Trail

July
Hunchback Trail Hunchback Mountain

Meadow along the Pyramids Trail Meadow below the Three Pyramids

North Pyramid from Daly Lake Daly Lake

View from Winter Ridge Winter Ridge

Light Peak from Fence Pass Fence Pass

Beatys Butte from Flook Lake Flook Lake

Barnhardy Road Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge

Petroglyphs around Petroglyph Lake Petroglyphs along Petroglyph Lake

Waterfall on DeGarmo Creek DeGarmo Canyon

The Palisades in the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness (This was probably our favorite area of the year amid these rock formations.)

August
View from Sleeping Beauty Sleeping Beauty

Red Butte and Mt. Adams from the Highline Trail Highline Trail

Cottonwood Creek Falls (This was probably the sketchiest hike we’ve done.)

Mt. Thielsen* (The Thielsen Creek fire burned a small part of the trails in the area.)

The old Bohemia Post Office Bohemia Post Office

Diamond Peak from Diamond View Lake Diamond View Lake

Climbers trail to Diamond Peak Diamond Peak (The sketchiest hike we didn’t do.)

Diamond Peak from Karen Lake at sunset Karen Lake

Middle Erma Bell Lake

September
Mt. Bailey from the Dellenback Trail Diamond Lake

Rattlesnake Mountain from the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Trail Rattlesnake Mountain

View from the Spruce Run Creek Trail Spruce Run Creek Trail

October
Deep Lake Trail Indian Heaven Wilderness

Deschutes River with Grizzly Mountain in the distance Wildcat Canyon

National Creek Falls

Takelma Gorge

Hershberger Mountian Lookout Hershberger Mountain

Rabbit Ears

Rogue River at Natural Bridge Natural Bridge

Old lookout tower on Abbott Butte Abbott Butte Lookout

Wild Cherry Trail Forest Park

Upper Latourell Falls

Larch Mountain from Multnomah Basin Larch Mountain

November
McKenzie River

December
Sun rays through the trees Yachats

Not all of the trails were in the greatest of shape, an issue that is unfortunately becoming more common as the agencies that manage them often lack the funding to maintain them.
Blowdown over the Swordfern Trail Swordfern Trail

East Fork Trail under blowdown East Fork Trail

Blowdown over the Riggs Lake Trail Riggs Lake Trail

Hackleman Old Growth Trail Hackleman Old Growth Loop

Howlock Mountain Trail

Shale Ridge Trail continuing on the far side of the North Fork Middle Fork Willamette River Shale Ridge Trail

Acker Divide Trail covered by blowdown Acker Divide Trail

Union Creek Trail (it is straight ahead, really) Union Creek Trail

While we haven’t run out of new trails and areas to explore we are finding it harder to see wildflowers and wildlife that we haven’t already seen at some point but there always seems to be some. We spotted a bobcat for the first time (from the car) on our way to Winter Ridge (post). Lake Abert and Summer Lake hosted a few species of birds that we hadn’t run across before. (post) We plan on posting wildflower and wildlife galleries soon but for now here are those that were new to us this year.
Castilleja levisecta - Golden Paintbrush Castilleja levisecta – Golden Paintbrush at Basket Slough Wildlife Refuge (post)

Musk Thistle at Winter Ridge (Unfortunately it’s an invasive but they were impressive.)

Pandora moth catapiller Pandora moth caterpillar at Green Ridge (post)

Horned Lark at Flook Lake (post)

Gulls and American avocets at Lake Abert

Various birds including a white faced ibis and a black necked stilt Black necked stilt at Summer Lake

Frog under Heather's daypack Possibly a coastal tailed frog at Wiley Camp in the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness (post)

The most interesting thing that happened this year though was stumbling on a human mandible. It was a little unsettling but it was clearly fairly old. We left it alone and marked the coordinates the GPS and reported it to the agency in charge of the land. The agency was nice enough to keep us in the loop when archeologists were called in to confirm that it was Native American at which point they contacted the appropriate Tribe(s) so that they could decide what to do with it. We were asked no to share the location for obvious reasons. It was very interesting getting to see how that process worked.

We also hit a couple of milestones this year, our last hike at Yachats (post) was our 500th day of hiking and we reached our long term goal of hiking all 100 featured hikes in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Central Oregon Cascades” (4th edition). We will talk a little more about that in a progress report on our goal to finish the 100 featured hikes in all five of his guide books covered areas.

Despite all its troubles 2020 will at least be memorable. Here is to a better 2021 with more new trail, new discoveries, and hopefully some happier stories. Happy Trails!

Tags backpacking, Boulder Creek Wilderness, Gearhart Mountain Wilderness, hiking, indian heaven wilderness, Mt. Adams, mt. thielsen, Oregon, Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness

Hiking Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Boulder Creek Wilderness – 09/07/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date September 13, 2020
4 Comments on Boulder Creek Wilderness – 09/07/2020

We woke up at Wiley Camp on Labor Day and got ready to head back to the Hummingbird Meadows Trailhead. Our plan for the day was to drive back to Salem via Highway 138 and stop at the Boulder Creek Wilderness, one of the five remaining Oregon wilderness areas we had yet to visit (post) and one of Sullivan’s featured hikes.

It was the least smokey morning of the weekend which made for a pleasant 2 mile hike back to our car.
Buck Canyon Trail

View from the Buck Canyon Trail

Hummingbird Meadows Trail

West Fork Muir Creek

We drove back to Diamond Lake (post) from the trailhead then took Highway 138 toward Roseburg to milepost 55. There we turned right onto Medicine Creek Road and made an immediate left onto Soda Springs Road following it for 1.3 miles to the Soda Springs Trailhead.

From the trailhead we took the Soda Springs Trail which ducked beneath a large steel pipe diverting water from the North Umpqua River to a nearby power station.

The trail began climbing immediately after passing under the pipe and quickly arrived at a signed junction where the North Umpqua Trail forked to the right.

The trail continued to climb through previously burned woods to another junction .4 miles from the trailhead.

This was the Bradley Trail onto which we turned left following pointers for Pine Bench.

This trail climbed over 650′ in the next mile before leveling out along the broad plateau of Pine Bench. There was an increasing presence of poison oak along the trail which we kept our eyes out for. It was especially bad along the hillside after we entered a more recent (2017) fire scar.

Bradley Trail passing below some cliffs.

A lot of the poison oak was turning color which made it easier to spot.

Entering the 2017 fire scar.

Lizard

Bradley Trail arriving at Pine Bench.

It was a hot climb in the exposed sun so reaching the forest atop Pine Bench was a nice reprise from both the heat and the vast majority of poison oak.

Rock formation visible from the Bradley Trail.

A little over a mile and a half from the Soda Springs/Bradley Trail junction we arrived at the Boulder Creek Trail.

We turned right here looking for a side trail to a spring near a campsite.

Common wood nymph

Illahee Rock Lookout

We passed the campsite after .4 miles but we didn’t take the unsigned spur trail down to the spring due to the GPS map showing the trail further off.

Spur trail to the left.

We quickly realized that the trail we had seen must have been the one we wanted but decided to continue on for now. From the campsite the trail continued to Boulder Creek after 1.7 miles. We were seeing very little poison oak and it was a nice day on the bench so we opted to do Sullivan’s longer described hike to the creek. The trail made a few unexpectedly steep up and downs and it grew fainter with a few downed snags but it was passable and there were signs of recent brushing/trail maintenance.

Just over half a mile from the campsite we passed the very faint Perry Butte Trail.

Trail maintenance and ripe blackberries.

Looking up the Boulder Creek Valley

Looking down at the trail across a side drainage.

Looking across the Boulder Creek valley.

Small fall on Boulder Creek

Final drop down to Boulder Creek.

Boulder Creek

We took a short break on the rocks along the creek before turning back.

The continuation of the Boulder Creek Trail on the far side of Boulder Creek which reportedly becomes even fainter and more wild.

After cooling off a bit we started the process of climbing back up to the campsite and the spur trail to the spring.

When we made it back to the spur trail we turned down it for 100 yards to a wide open area with madrone trees.

The spring was just below some rocks on the left but there wasn’t much water flowing this time of year.

After another short break we continued back to the Bradley Trail junction. We stayed straight here following the Boulder Creek Trail downhill through the 2017 fire scar. While there had been a good deal of poison oak along the Bradley Trail this trail put that one to shame. It was all avoidable but it was thick along the trail as it switchbacked downhill. There was also one switchback near the top where we were forced to walk down a large downed tree.
Fern tree along the Boulder Creek Trail.

This log was the trail.

Another switchback with poison oak on all sides of the trail.

The bright side of going down this way was there was a wilderness sign, or at least most of one (we hadn’t seen one on the other side).

After a approximately 1.5 miles we arrived at a junction with the North Umpqua Trail where we turned left on an old roadbed.

We followed the road another tenth of a mile or so to a gate blocking the road at the Boulder Creek Trailhead.

Not too far from the gate we came to a pair of boulders blocking the road meaning the actual trailhead is inaccessible via car although there was room to park at the boulders. We continued down the road which brought us close to the North Umpqua River near the power station.

We stopped at the far end of the Soda Springs Day Use Area to read the interpretive signs before returning to our car.

We headed back to Salem and when we were back in cell range began receiving alerts about a hazardous wind event. By the time we made it back to Salem strong dry winds from the east had pushed the Lionshead and Beachie Creek Fires into the valley. Later that evening/night those fires would explode along with numerous other new fires up and down the West Coast. A slightly smokey but wonderful Labor Day Weekend turned into a nightmare for thousands. The fires continue to be a huge danger to many but the winds have shifted and rain is in the forecast so hopefully some relief is coming. Happy Trails and stay safe.

Flickr: Boulder Creek Wilderness

Tags Boulder Creek, Boulder Creek Trail, Boulder Creek Wilderness, Bradley Trail, Buck Canyon Trail, hiking, Hummingbird Meadows Trail, Hummingbird Meadows Trailhead, Illahe Rock Lookout, Oregon, Perry Butte, Pine Bench, Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness, Soda Springs Trail, Soda Springs Trailhead, Spring, Wiley Camp, Wiley Camp Trail