Tag: Wild Rogue Wilderness

Rogue River Trail Marial to Paradise Lodge – 06/24/23

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 27, 2023
3 Comments on Rogue River Trail Marial to Paradise Lodge – 06/24/23

At the beginning of May we spent a week in Grants Pass completing several of Sullivan’s featured hikes. Our attempt to hike a section of the Rogue River Trail out of Marial during that trip ended with us being turned back by lingering snow on the BLM roads to the trailhead (post). We rescheduled that hike for the end of June which was now upon us. At just over four hours this was too long a drive for a day hike so we’d made reservations in Roseburg for that night. We followed the BLM’s driving directions from Glendale to the Rogue River Ranch National Historic Site and then continued on BLM Road 32-9-14.2 (Mule Creek-Marial Road on Google Maps) for another mile. Just past a large parking area on the left for the Marial Lodge is where Sullivan suggest parking, but a sign at the entrance stated it was for overnight guests of the lodge only. The actual trailhead for the Rogue River Trail is at the end of the road, another half mile away so we continued on what quickly became a much rougher road. Less than a tenth of a mile was enough for us and we parked across from the Mule Creek Fireman Station in a small two car parking area.

From the fireman station we walked the road to the official trailhead.
There were trail pointers at spur roads to ensure we stayed on the right one.

The trailhead near Marial. I couldn’t find any directions online for this trailhead which is why we used a combination of the BLM’s directions to the ranch and Sullivan’s to the trailhead.

We followed trail signs downhill and into the Wild Rogue Wilderness.

Shortly after entering the wilderness the trail arrived at Rogue River.

The trail passed along the rocky cliffs above Mule Creek Canyon. We had hoped to see some rafters navigating this narrow canyon, including the Coffee Pot rapids, but there weren’t any around.

Dragonfly

A peak into Mule Creek Canyon.

There weren’t many flowers left blooming but we did see a lot of elegant brodiaea.

Elegant brodiaea

After following the trail for 0.7 miles we arrived at Inspiration Point across from Stair Creek Falls.

Mule Creek Canyon from Inspiration Point.

We spent a good deal of time admiring the falls. This was our fifth hike along the Rogue River and of those hikes this was one of our favorite views.

We continued on passing above a much calmer river, at least for a moment.

Skipper

Common wood-nymph

Paintbrush

Calmer waters.

Madrone

Salal

The trail alternated between rocky cliffs and brushy vegetation. Poison oak was common among the plants along the trail but there was enough room to pass through without coming into contact.
Some poison oak on the right.

Another madrone at the start of more brush. This area was full of small birds that turned out to be bushtits.

It took a bit to get one of the bushtits out in the open and in the camera frame.

Near the 2-mile mark we got our first view of the boulders at Blossom Bar, the trickiest rapid along the Rogue River.

Blossom Bar Rapid

Near Blossom Bar the trail crosses Burns and Blossom Creeks in quick succession.
Footbridge over Burns Creek.

Footbridge over Blossom Creek.

Blossom Creek

After crossing the creeks the trail climbed above the river where a spur trail to the left led downhill to Gleason Bar.
Trail crossing Blossom Bar.

Rogue River leaving Blossom Bar.

Trail to Gleason Bar on the left.

We detoured down to Gleason Bar where we were greeted by a lizard.

Variable-leaf collomia

We returned to the trail and continued West making our way to another footbridge, this one crossing Paradise Creek.
Bear box near Gleason Bar. We didn’t see any bears on our hike but we did have a bear cub run in front of our car on the drive to the trailhead.

On the far side of the footbridge we detoured down to the creek to get a view of the small waterfall named Devils Stairs.

We followed a path along Paradise Bar paralleling the Rogue River Trail.
Paradise Bar

After a tenth of a mile the Paradise Bar airstrip came into view. Sullivan had mentioned detouring left at the airstrip 200 yards to visit the Paradise Lodge, but a sign here stated that the lodge and property were only open to overnight guests with reservations.

Not sure if this is a recent change, a result of COVID or if we misinterpreted the sign, but we veered right to get back onto the Rogue River Trail.
The trail skirted the grassy airstrip before entering the forest.

Paradise Lodge was the turn around point for Sullivan’s featured hike, but we decided to continue on until we got one more view of the river.
Jackson Creek. Most if not all of the creeks had signs letting us know their names.

Some of the buildings related to Paradise Lodge.

Across the river was another lodge, the Half Moon Bar Lodge.

Rafters and kayakers passing through Half Moon Riffle.

One of Jerry’s Rogue Jets out of Gold Beach. These boats turn around at Blossom Bar Rapids.

We turned around above Half Moon Bar, approximately 4 miles from the official trailhead.

We stuck to the Rogue River Trail on the way back, keeping our eyes out for snakes (again no rattlesnakes despite this being a prime area for them) and lizards.
Alligator lizard

Wine-cup clarkia

A few fluffy clouds moving in.

Stair Creek Falls on the way back.

Mule Creek Canyon

Our hike came in at 9.8 miles with only 250′ of elevation gain, but we felt the heat (mid to upper 80’s) which made the hike feel quite a bit harder than it looked on paper.

We had left open the possibility of stopping at the Rogue River Ranch on our way to Roseburg but by the time we had gotten changed at the car all we wanted to do was get to our motel and then find a Dairy Queen for some ice cream so that’s what we did. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Rogue River West

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

Hiking Klamath/Siskiyou Mountains Oregon Trip report

Rogue River Trail – Big Bend to Clay Hill – 05/14/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 20, 2021
1 Comment on Rogue River Trail – Big Bend to Clay Hill – 05/14/2021

Day two of our Southern Oregon Coast extended weekend had us visiting the Rogue River Trail for the first time. We were admittedly a bit apprehensive about this hike as we had hiked another river trail (the Illinois) in the area around the same time of year in 2016 and had been overrun with ticks on that outing. This turned out to be a much more pleasant outing with just a single tick needing to be flicked off Heather which she promptly flicked straight at me.

We started our hike at the Big Bend/Foster Bar Trailhead at the western end of the Rogue River National Recreation Trail.

It was a beautiful morning as we set off on the trail in the forest skirting a pasture.

Madia

Blue dicks

Near the half mile mark the trail passed below the Illahe Lodge where a couple of deer had their eyes on us.

The trail passed through a fence that was booby trapped with poison oak.
The poison oak trap in the afternoon.

While the relative absence of ticks was great we still aren’t accustomed to hiking with the amount of poison oak that tends to be present in the southern part of the State but we’re working on that. This hike was a good test as the majority of the first 4.5 miles of the trail passed through quite a bit of vegetation that more often than not included poison oak. We weren’t entirely sure what to make of the hikers we saw in shorts or pants that left open skin near the calves and ankles, were we being too paranoid or are they crazy? The first four miles also included a couple of climbs to bypass private land which limited the views of the river quite a bit.
Bridge over Billings Creek.

20210514_072347 Del Norte iris

Tolmie’s mariposa lily

20210514_074548 Douglas iris with insect.

More mariposa lilies (with a poison oak background)

Thimbleberry

The Rogue River from the trail during one of the climbs.

20210514_091222 Henderson’s stars

One of dozens of lizards we saw (or heard).

Camas

We watched a number of rafts float by and later learned that it was the last weekend to float the river without needing a permit so it was an extra busy weekend.

We had honestly been a little underwhelmed with the trail as we reached the bridge over Flea Creek at the 4.5 mile mark. We had equated the Rogue River Trail with the dramatic views we’d seen in others photos but the section of trail up to now was short on those.
Footbridge over Flea Creek

Things changed in a hurry beyond Flea Creek though as the views opened up a bit before the trail arrived at Flora Del Falls less than a quarter mile later.

We took an extended break at the falls before continuing on another 1.75 miles to the Clay Hill Lodge where we decided to turn around. The scenery was now excellent, exactly what we had been hoping for but it was warmer than we were used to and we had more hiking to do over the next couple of days so as tempting as continuing on was, the lodge made for a good turnaround point.

20210514_094507

20210514_094757 Oregon sunshine

20210514_095219 Elegant brodiaea

Yarrow

Bindweed

Poppies

Clay Hill Lodge

Rafts in Clay Hill Rapids

Winecup clarkia

We saw our only snake of the day on our return trip when we spotted our first ring-necked snake in the trail.

The rafts seemed to have given way to Jet Boats which we could hear coming well before we saw them.

We stopped again at Flora Del Falls where I was tormented by a swallow tail that just wouldn’t land.

One of the dozens of photos I took trying to get the swallow tail in flight.

After the break we headed back to the trailhead. We were trying to come up with markers to break up the 4.5 mile section and Heather remembered that Sullivan had said that there were 5 bridge crossings over named creeks. We ignored the “named creeks” detail and began counting bridges down from 5. There were well more than 5 bridge, closer to a dozen but only 5 crossed “named creeks”. Either way we made it back to the car (and past a few cows) finishing a very nice 12.9 mile hike just after 2:15pm.

After staying in Gold Beach the night before we were now headed north to Bandon for a couple of nights. We stopped for dinner in Port Orford at the Crazy Norwegian on a recommendation from Heather’s Dad. We shared a clam chowder and split the fish and chips. They were wonderful, a perfect ending to our day.

We found out a couple of days later that we had missed running into the folks from Boots on the Trail, one of our favorite hiking blogs. They had been hiking the entire trail one way and would be doing this section on Saturday the 15th, one day after our hike. We have wondered if that might happen sometime when we are down in that area and it almost did. Maybe next trip. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Rogue River Trail – Big Bend to Clay Hill Lodge

Tags Big Bend Trailhead, Clay Hill Lodge, Crazy Norwegian, Foster Bar Trailhead, hiking, Lizard, Oregon, ring-necked snake, Rogue River, Rogue River National Recreation Trail. Illahe Lodge, Rogue River Trail. Port Orford, Wild Rogue Wilderness

Hiking Uncategorized

Progress Report – Oregon Wilderness Areas

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date February 1, 2019
5 Comments on Progress Report – Oregon Wilderness Areas

In our last post we wrote about our ambitious (possibly overly so) goal of completing 500 “featured” hikes in William L. Sullivan’s guidebooks. The topic of this post is another one of our goals, visiting all 45 of Oregon’s accessible designated wilderness areas (Three Arch Rocks and Oregon Islands are off limits to all visitors). This goal should be quite a bit easier to accomplish given the much smaller number of needed hikes and the fact that the wilderness areas aren’t changing every few years. (There is legislation pending that would create the Devil’s Staircase Wilderness in the coast range between Reedsport and Eugene.)

The inspiration for this goal came from a fellow hiker and blogger over at Boots on the Trail. This smaller goal fit well into our 500 featured hikes goal too as thirty nine of the wilderness areas are destinations of at least one of the featured hikes. The remaining six: Copper-Salmon, Lower White River, Rock Creek, Cummins Creek, Bridge Creek, and Grassy Knob were still included in the books but as additional hikes in the back. Between the hike descriptions in the guidebooks and Boots on the Trail’s trip reports we’ve had plenty of information to work with.

This was an appealing goal too. Wilderness areas are dear to our hearts and home to many of our favorite places. These areas are the least affected by humans and we feel best reflect God’s work as Creator. To me they are akin to a museum showcasing His finest artistry. Just as we would in a museum we admire and enjoy the wilderness but we do our best not to affect it meaning adhering whenever possible to Leave No Trace principles.

We have made pretty good progress on this goal so far and as of 12/31/18 we had visited 38 of the 45 accessible areas (and seen the other two from the beach). We’re currently on track to have visited them all by the end of 2020.

Below is a chronological list of the wilderness areas we’ve been to (or seen) as well as any subsequent year(s) we’ve visited with some links to selected trip reports.

Opal Creek – 2009, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18

Battle Ax Creek – 2014

Mt. Jefferson – 2010, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18

Mt. Jefferson from Russell Lake – 2016

Drift Creek – 2010

Mt. Washington – 2011, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17

Mt. Washington from the Pacific Crest Trail – 2015

Three Sisters – 2011, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

The Three Sisters – 2014

Three Arch Rocks – 2011, 18

Three Arch Rocks from Cape Meares – 2018

Mark O. Hatfield – 2012, 14, 15, 16

Triple Falls – 2012

Mt. Hood – 2012, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

Mt. Hood – 2015

Oregon Islands – 2012, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Bandon Islands – 2018

Mill Creek – 2012

Twin Pillars – 2011

Mt. Thielsen – 2012, 14

Howlock Mountain and Mt. Thielsen – 2014

Table Rock – 2012, 15

Table Rock – 2015

Salmon-Huckleberry – 2013, 14, 15, 17, 18

Frustration Falls – 2018

Diamond Peak – 2013, 14, 18

Trapper Creek – 2014

Waldo Lake – 2013, 15, 18

View from Fuji Mountain – 2013

Roaring River – 2013

Serene Lake – 2013

Badger Creek – 2014

Badger Creek Wilderness – 2014

Middle Santiam – 2014

Donaca Lake – 2014

Bull of the Woods – 2014, 15, 18

Emerald Pool – 2018

Soda Mountain – 2015, 17

View from Boccard Point – 2015

Red Buttes – 2015

Oregon Badlands – 2016

Oregon Badlands Wilderness – 2016

Kalmiopsis – 2016

Vulcan Lake – 2016

Menagerie – 2016

Rooster Rock – 2016

Eagle Cap – 2016

Glacier Lake – 2016

Mountain Lakes – 2016

View from Aspen Butte – 2016

Sky Lakes – 2016

Mt. McLoughlin from Freye Lake – 2016

Lower White River – 2016

White River – 2016

Rock Creek – 2017

Spring Basin – 2017

Hedgehog Cactus – 2017

Bridge Creek – 2017

Bridge Creek Wilderness – 2017

Wild-Rogue – 2017

Hanging Rock – 2017

Grassy Knob – 2017

View from Grassy Knob – 2017

Clackamas – 2017

Big Bottom – 2017

North Fork John Day – 2017, 18

Baldy Lake – 2017

Cummins Creek – 2017

Cummins Ridge Trail – 2017

Rogue-Umpqua Divide – 2018

Hummingbird Meadows – 2018

Steens Mountain – 2018

View along the Pine Creek Trail – 2018

Strawberry Mountain – 2018

Slide Lake – 2018

Copper-Salmon – 2018

Barklow Mountain Trail – 2018

The remaining areas and year of our planned visit looks like this:

2019 – Hells Canyon, North Fork Umatilla, Wenaha-Tucannon
2020 – Boulder Creek, Black Canyon, Monument Rock, Gearhart Mountain

If the Devil’s Staircase is added in the meantime we will do our best to work that in (it is currently on our list of hikes but not until 2023. For more information on Oregon’s wilderness areas visit Wilderness.net here.

Happy Trails!

Tags Badger Creek Wilderness, Bridge Creek Wilderness, Bull of the Woods Wilderness, Clackamas Wilderness, Copper-Salmon Wilderness, cummins creek wilderness, Diamond Peak Wilderness, Drift Creek Wilderness, eagle cap wilderness, Grassy Knob Wilderness, hiking, kalmiopsis wilderness, Lower White River Wilderness, Mark O Hatfield Wilderness, Menagerie Wilderness, Middle Santiam Wilderness, Mill Creek Wilderness, mountain lakes wilderness, Mt. Hood Wilderness, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, Mt. Thielsen wilderness, Mt. Washington Wilderness, North Fork John Day Wilderness, opal creek wilderness, Oregon, oregon badlands wilderness, Oregon Islands Wilderness, Red Buttes Wilderness, Roaring River Wilderness, Rock Creek Wilderness, Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness, Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness, sky lakes wilderness, soda mountain wilderness, Spring Basin Wilderness, Steens Mountain Wilderness, Strawberry Mountain Wilderness, table rock wilderness, Three Arch Rocks Wilderness, Three Sisters Wilderness, waldo lake wilderness, Wild Rogue Wilderness, Wilderness Areas

Year-end wrap up

The Hikes of 2017 – A Look Back

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date December 28, 2017
No Comments on The Hikes of 2017 – A Look Back

Once again it’s time for our year end review post. Each year has a bit of a different feel to it, but this year was especially so. This was by far the most challenging year we’ve faced in terms of being able to visit the trails we’d planned on. A heavy winter snow pack lingered delaying access to many areas. Then an unusually bad fire season closed much of the Mt. Jefferson and Three Sisters Wilderness areas as well as parts of the Columbia Gorge. Snow returned in mid-September causing more changes to our plans. In the end plans for 39 of our originally scheduled 63 days of hiking were pushed out to future years as well as 2 additional short hikes that were part of multi stop days. Plans for another 12 of those days were shifted around on the schedule which meant that only 10 of our originally planned days occurred as we had envisioned them in January. We had also planned on spending 18 nights backpacking but wound up with a measly 3 nights in the tent. Despite all the issues we actually managed to end the year having hiked on 64 days and covered 751.6 miles.

Here is a look at where we wound up. The blue hiker symbols denote trailheads and the two yellow houses are the approximate location of our two backpacking campsites.
2017 Trailheads

Due to the issues with access to so many locations the mix of hikes this year was very different. An example of this is the average high point of our hikes:

                     2013-2016                2017
Jan.-Apr.    1444′                        1776′
May             2718′                        2355′
June            4900′                        3690′
July 5553′                        6530′
August 6419′                        3048′
Sept. 6400′                        4175′
Oct.             4886′                        3484′
Nov.-Dec. 2042′                        750′

Another example is our mileage distribution:

                     2013-2016                2017
Jan.-Apr.    9.19%                       9.74%
May             13.57%                     14.14%
June            13.75%                      13.50%
July 13.75%                      19.15%
August 19.33%                      6.07%
Sept. 14.13%                      23.28%
Oct.             12.17%                      10.36%
Nov.-Dec. 4.11%                        3.75%

As you can see August was way off the norm with many of those miles coming in September this year. Several wildfires were burning by then and we also changed some plans due to work and family commitments. Finally we chose to stick close to home the weekend of the solar eclipse .

On many occasions we visited multiple trailheads in a single day. We had been slowly increasing the frequency of doing so but this year 25 of our 64 days included more than one stop. In fact we stopped at a total of 106 trailheads this last year.

None of that made it a bad year, it just felt very different. The 64 hiking days was the most we’ve managed in a single year and the 751.6 miles was second only to 2016s 792.8 We managed to make decent headway on our quest to visit all of Oregon’s 45 visit-able wilderness areas by checking 8 more off the list. Rock Creek (post), Spring Basin (post), Wild Rogue (post), Grassy Knob (post), Bridge Creek (post), Clackamas (post), North Fork John Day (post), and Cummins Creek (post).

This year we made use of guidebooks by four different authors as well as a few websites. Most of our destinations can be found in William L. Sullivan’s 100 Hikes in Oregon guidebooks (information) but we also made use of Scott Cook’s “Bend, Overall“, Matt Reeder’s “101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region“, and Bubba Suess’s “Hiking in Northern California“.

A special thanks goes out to Bubba Suess and his Hike Mt. Shasta website for his suggestions and input on our visit to the Mt. Shasta area in July. On that trip we visited four of California’s wilderness areas: Russian (post), Castle Crags (post), Trinity Alps (post), and Mt. Shasta (post). Our visit the the Trinity Alps brought us to the most southerly point while hiking to date. We also reached our highest elevation on that trip when we hiked to the top of Mt. Eddy (post) and saw our first rattle snake along the PCT (post).

We also set a new mark for the western most point reached on a hike when we visited Cape Blanco in May (post).

One way that this year was no different than previous years was that we once again saw and experienced many things for the first time during our hikes. It’s not surprising that we saw new things given that 57 out of our 64 days were comprised of entirely new sections of trail and none of the other 7 were exact repeats. In fact only about 17.2 miles retraced steps from previous hikes which works out to less than 2.5% of our total mileage for the year.

Some new flowers for us included:
Butter and eggs – Yontocket

Possibly tomcat clover Tomcat clover – Rough and Ready Botanical Wayside

dalmatian toadflax along the John Day River Dalmation toadflax – Cottonwood Canyon State Park

Heart-leafed milkweed – Applegate Lake

California groundcones – Jacksonville

Geranium – Lost Creek Lake

Geranium – Round Mountain

Rockfringe willowherb – Mt. Eddy

Leopard Lily – Trinity Alps Wilderness

There were a few new critters too:
Bullock's Oriole Bullock’s Oriole – Cottonwood Canyon State Park

Big horn sheep – Cottonwood Canyon State Park

Sheep moth – Grasshopper Meadow

Pigeon guillemot – Yaquina Bay

Egret Egret – Cape Disappointment State Park

Caterpillar – Cape Disappointment State Park

As is often the case we started and ended our hikes at the coast.
Berry Creek flowing toward the Pacific Baker Beach in January

Exposed rocks on Ona Beach Ona Beach in December

In between we visited some pretty amazing places. Here are just a few of the highlights:
Clarno Unit - John Day Fossil Beds Palisades – Clarno Unit, John Day Fossil Beds, April

Hedgehog Cactus – Spring Basin Wilderness, April

Fern Canyon – Prairie Creek State Park, May

Tall Trees Grove – Redwoods National Park, May

Crack in the Ground, Christmas Valley, May

Wildflowers on Lower Table Rock, Medford, June

View to the north from the Bridge Creek Wilderness North Point – Bridge Creek Wilderness, June

Upper Linton Falls – Three Sisters Wilderness, July

Deadfall Lakes from Mt. Eddy View from the Summit of Mt. Eddy, July

Caribou Lake – Trinity Alps Wilderness, July

Fireweed along the Vista Ridge Trail – Mt. Hood Wilderness, August

Grey back whale seen from Yaquina Head Whale – Yaquina Head, August

Mt. Adams from Horseshoe Meadow Horseshoe Meadow – Mt. Adams Wilderness, September

Bull elk at Clatsop Spit Bull elk – Clatsop Spit, September

View from the Blue Basin Overlook Trail Blue Basin – John Day Fossil Beds, September

Mt. Ireland from Baldy Lake Baldy Lake – North Fork John Day Wilderness, September

Dead Mountain Trail – Willamette National Forest – October

Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and Mirror Lake Mt. Hood from Tom Dick and Harry Mountain – Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness, October

Cummins Ridge Trail Cummins Creek Wilderness, November

It is only a small sample of the amazing diversity that we are blessed with here in the Pacific Northwest. We are looking forward to discovering more new places next year, hopefully with less disruptions to our plans (including not tossing my camera into any rivers). Happy Trails!

Hiking Klamath/Siskiyou Mountains Oregon Trip report

Hanging Rock -Panther Ridge Trail

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 16, 2017
1 Comment on Hanging Rock -Panther Ridge Trail

The second day of vacation we left Gold Beach and headed toward Agness of Jerry’s Flat Road aka NF-33. Our plan for the day was to visit Hanging Rock in the Wild Rogue Wilderness and to revisit Elk Creek Falls to retake the pictures we’d lost when I threw the camera into the Coquille River the day before. When we drove past the Coquille River Falls Trailhead on our way out Road 3348 I gave one last goodbye to the camera.

We began our hike at the Buck Point Trailhead.

The trail climbed for a mile around Buck Point to a spring at the head of Buck Creek.
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Early spring flowers included fairy slippers, fawn lilies and trillium.
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Just over half a mile from the spring the unsigned Hanging Rock Trail split off to the left. We were planning on continuing along the Panther Ridge Trail to make it a longer hike than the 4 mile round trip out to Hanging Rock and back so we decided to save the side trip until later when the sun would be more overhead and not interfering with the view east from the rock. The Panther Ridge Trail followed the rim of Panther Ridge up and down through a variety of scenery.
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Approximately 2.7 miles north of the Hanging Rock Trail we reached the signed cutoff for Panther Camp.
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We continued on passing through a beargrass meadow and a dry section of trail lined with manzanita.
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Two miles from Panther Camp we came to a junction with the Clay Hill Trail which led down into the Rogue River Valley.
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Our guidebook indicated that another .9 miles would bring us to the rentable Bald Knob Lookout so we kept going.

After about a mile we arrived at a grassy turnaround at the end of an abandoned road. There was no lookout to be seen but the trail continued north below a small hill along the ridge. We kept following the trail for another mile and a half where we came to another abandoned road bed. The Garmin showed this road heading up to the top of the hill we’d just skirted around so we followed it up to the top where there was no lookout and just a minimal view to the west.

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While we took a break I did some looking at the map on the Garmin and decided that the actual lookout was likely still to the north but we’d already gone further than we’d planned and were still confused by the description in the guidebook. We returned the way we’d come checking around the grassy turnaround to see if we’d somehow missed the lookout.

On the way back the views to the east had improved and now we were able to make out a snowy Mt. McLoughlin on the horizon.
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We turned onto the .4 mile trail out to Hanging Rock which still had some lingering snow of its own.
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It was quite windy on the exposed rocks but the views were good with Hanging Rock towering over the Rogue River Valley.
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Having slipped on the wet rocks the day before I chose not to make my way out onto Hanging Rock itself although it is possible.
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After a nice long break we returned to our car stopping at Elk Creek Falls before returning to Gold Beach. We hadn’t seen much in the way of wildlife on the hike but on the drive back we spotted a couple of deer and a young black bear along Jerry’s Flat Road. A check of the Garmin back at the motel showed we’d gone 19.5 miles on the day, nearly 5 miles more than we’d planned. We were also able to determine that the Bald Knob Lookout had been another 1.5 miles north of the road we took up the hill where we turned around. It was a good example of what can happen when you don’t take the time to fully research your hikes. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Panther Ridge Trail

Tags Bald knob Lookout, Buck Point Trailhead, Clay Hill Trail, Hanging Rock, hiking, jerry's flat road, Oregon, Panther Camp, Panther Ridge Trail, Wild Rogue Wilderness