Thistle Ridge Trail – wanderingyuncks

We spent the night in Roseburg after making the long drive from Salem to Marial for a day hike along the Rogue River (post) and on the way home we made a couple of stops. Our plan involved portions of two of Sullivan’s featured hikes. Because we’d done one of the options for each of the hikes we had checked them off our to-do list, but we didn’t want to pass up the chance to do the additional options.

Our first stop involved a short out-and-back to Fern Falls along the North Umpqua Trail. In his Fall Creek Falls hike Sullivan provides two options, the hike to Fall Creek Falls (post) or three stops including Fall Creek Falls, Susan Creek Falls (post), and Fern Falls.

It took a bit of research online to figure out if the section of the North Umpqua Trail to Fern Falls was actually open. The area burned in the 2020 Archie Creek Fire closing the lower sections of the trail. The first few miles are managed by the BLM before the Forest Service takes over at the Umpqua National Forest boundary. The Forest Service has not lifted their closure order but it wasn’t clear whether or not the BLM had reopened their portion. Since there was no information on the BLM site stating that the trail was closed and several people had posted recent trip reports on Alltrails we decided to give it a try and drove to the Swiftwater Trailhead along the North Umpqua River.

There was no closure order posted at the trailhead and a couple of fishermen had beaten us to the parking area so we set off on the trail.

Fireweed

At the quarter-mile mark we forked right on a spur trail to an interpretive sign overlooking Deadline Falls.

Deadline Falls

After admiring the falls we returned to the North Umpqua Trail and continued on through the fire scar.
Signs of ongoing trail work.

Northern phlox

Remains of a footbridge lost to the Archie Creek Fire.

The current creek crossing. We joked that this was a prime difference between the BLM and Forest Service. It feels like the Forest Service waits until everything has been repaired (plus a year or two) before reopening trails after a fire while the BLM reopens them once they are passable.

Self-heal

The trailing blackberries were ripening along the trail providing us with a nice second breakfast.

North Umpqua River from the trail.

We also spotted a few ripe blackcap raspberries.

Bleeding heart

Crab spider on a California harebell.

Heather was really excited to find ripe thimbleberries too.

Highway 138 on the far side of the river.

Approximately 1.7 miles from the trailhead we arrived at Fern Falls.

A fallen log dissected the view of the falls, a result of the fire but it was a nice view and a good turn around point.

Musk monkeyflower

I managed to pull a ripe salmonberry out of this bush below Fern Falls.

We returned the way we’d come under increasing sunlight. Birds had been singing all morning and with the increased light we were finally able to spot some of them.

Moth

Lazuli bunting

Black-headed grosbeak

Unidentified small bird.

Wren, possibly a house wren.

This little one was way up atop a snag. Merlin suggests it’s a Macgillivray’s warbler.

Woodpecker

Backside of a Stellar’s jay.

Raven

Our hike here came to 3.4 miles with maybe 300′ of elevation gain.

We hopped into the car and drove to our next stop at the Comstock Day Use Area for the BLM managed North Bank Habitat Management Area.

We had visited the area in 2015 starting a loop from the West Access Trailhead. We planned another loop from this trailhead which would share a 1.2-mile section of that earlier loop.

We began by passing a green gate at the NW end (left) of the trailhead parking area and following an old roadbed for 0.1-miles to a fork.

We stayed right on the signed Soggy Bottom Trail.

We followed the Soggy Bottom Trail for 0.7 miles to the Middle Barn.

Checker-mallow

Turkey vulture

We spotted a deer way up on the hillside in the distance.

Heading down to Soggy Bottom.

Middle Barn

We stayed right past a road to the barn and continued to the next fork and turned left on the North Gate Trail.
Soggy Bottom

Bindweed

The North Gate Trail ahead on the left.

North Gate Trail

Elegant brodiaea

Common wood nymph

The trail climbed steadily for the first three quarters of a mile passing a grove of cedars near the end of the stretch.

The cedar grove.

A little past the cedar grove we passed an old structure on the opposite side of a barbed wire fence.

On the far side of the structure was a sign for the Wrong Way Trail which looked as though it saw little to no use. The map at the trailhead showed this trail dead-ending in the forest which might explain why.

Beyond the Wrong Way Trail junction the North Gate Trail began a much steeper climb up to a junction at a saddle with the Middle Ridge Trail.

Much of this section was in full sunlight making it a bit of a trudge.
View from the North Gate Trail.

Steepest section of the trail but at least there was some shade here.

Gopher snake

Trail sign at the saddle.

We turned left on the Middle Ridge Trail for 1.2 semi-familiar miles.
The Middle Ridge Trail.

View from the Middle Ridge Trail.

View from the saddle.

A dip along the ridge.

First view of the North Umpqua River.

Hawk on a tree.

A different hawk in flight.

Elegant brodiaea

Looking back along the Middle Ridge Trail.

We remembered this structure in the ground.

Approximately 1.2 miles from the saddle we arrived at a junction with the Thistle Ridge Trail.
Approaching the junction.

View back up along the trail.

Whistlers Bend Reservoir and the North Umpqua River. Despite a bit of haze the view was far better than it had been in 2015.

The 2015 view on a cloudy June 5th.

We turned onto the Thistle Ridge Trail which led us past a few great madrone trees.

Ookow

View from the Thistle Ridge Trail. Below is the lower portion of the trail which seemed to be quite a way down.

We quickly realized why it seemed so far down when we came to what we believe may be the steepest section of trail we’ve hiked.
When you can’t see the bottom of the hill you know it’s steep.