Back on the Sunny Ditch (Oregon) 24-Mar-2019

Last week, I returned to the middle section of the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail for the first time in several years. Except for the absence 😦 of The LovedOne, it was a great hike in near perfect weather. It was this earlier hike between the Bear Gulch and Tunnel Ridge Trailheads that convinced us that Southern Oregon was a good place to be if you wanted to enjoy the outdoors year-round. Today was cast as a similarly near perfect hiking day between periods of rain and gloom. And The LovedOne was free (temporarily) of both the library and her numerous fabric projects. So I pitched a bike-assisted hike of the eastern end of the ditch – one we hadn’t done since 2013 – and she went for it. 🙂

Today we hid the bike at the Little Applegate Trailhead, drove back and parked at the Bear Gulch Trailhead, and then followed the ditch trail back to Little Applegate. Then I rode (coasted mostly) the bike back to Bear Gulch and drove back to collect The LovedOne. Superb hiking weather! A few wildflowers (Grass Widows, Henderson’s Shooting Stars, Henderson’s Fawn Lily, Desert Parsley) were out but the big bloom is 3 to 4 weeks away. However, the poison oak is leafing-out in all its oily, toxic glory 😥 and the ticks 😡 are active. Those irritations aside, this was a great 8.3 mile, 1,000 feet of gain nostalgia hike on a wonderful trail. 😀