After a week spent adventuring – hiking, rafting, beach walking, wine tasting – with family visiting from the East, we needed a short hike in a new area to regain our senses. Eagle Mountain seemed like a good choice (Hike #83 in Bernstein & Urness’s Hiking Southern Oregon (2014)). The peak can be reached via the Kalmiopsis Rim Trail #1124, sits just west of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, and so would give us a chance to see how the wilderness looked 10+ years after its devastation by the 2002 Biscuit Fire. One of my few regrets in this life (other than not buying Apple shares in 1992 for $5 each) is not having found the time to visit this wilderness before the Biscuit Fire, despite having driven past it numerous times. A hiker’s mea culpa for sure. The Kalmiopsis Rim Trailhead was readily accessible via 12 miles of good gravel Forest Road 4201 [which is also access to the popular Babyfoot Lake trailhead and the trail down to the Chetco River] but seemed a little naked.
While the little sign near the trail itself didn’t send out waves of hiking happiness,
it didn’t dissuade us from heading down the trail through the forest.
The trail soon passed out of the snags and we could see Whetstone Butte in the distance, under the requisite bluebird skies.
This part of the trail runs along the rocky, open part of the ridge, with expansive views all around and different colors of serpentine under foot.
The Rim trail goes to the west of Whetstone Butte, then over Eagle Mountain, and used to continue on to Pearsoll Peak but the fire did heavy damage to that part of the trail.
We went toward Whetstone Butte (which is another scramble opportunity),
then down the trail along its west side.
It’s our understanding that local volunteers have labored to keep this trail open and they’ve done a good job on the southern half below Whetstone but it’s been awhile since anyone got to the second half.
This meant plowing for a mile (out and back) through long, sharp buckbrush thorns nastier than razor wire. Too bad we were both wearing shorts. After this short trail of tears, we came out of the brush at Eagle Gap,
and were able to continue our climb to Eagle’s summit on rocky, open slopes.
From the broad, open summit,
we got an expansive view to the west of the almost 500,000 acres burned by the Biscuit Fire. Its burn severity was highest in this area of the wilderness.
500,000 was just a number until we looked southwest from summit into the heart of the wilderness, with its mile after mile of burned, dead trees.
The little pockets of trees that remain gave us a sense of what this area was like before the fire. To the north is Pearsoll Peak,
with its still extant fire lookout. The cupola style lookout from the 1920s was replaced by the present L-4 style structure in 1954. In 1994, the Illinois Valley Ranger District and the Sand Mountain Society completed restoration of this structure.
After a quick snack on the summit, we headed back, glad for the good weather and great views but more than a little sobered after seeing what a big fire can do to a forest (5.6 miles round-trip; 1,700 feet of elevation gain). Unfortunately, yet another fire – the 1,100 acre Buckskin – is currently working its way into the southern end of the wilderness, where old snags from the Biscuit fire now pose a threat to fire crews. {In 2017, large parts of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness would be burned again by the Chetco Bar Fire.}
BOOTS on the TRAIL 
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