On the up side, the air temperature here has moderated (for the moment) to a reasonable (for August) 80°F (26°C). On the down (very down) side, we’re still wallowing in thick, near toxic, wildfire smoke from the many (too many 😥) fires burning to our south and north. We’re not even supposed to go outside – or at least not breathe if we do. But, drawing on our considerable experience with tough and stupid, we conjured-up a way to do just that. We didn’t materialize one of the great hikes of Southwest Oregon, but it was a route we hadn’t done before and one that featured thinner air and somewhat thinner smoke (at least for a while).
We got a moderately early start and found our way to where the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) crosses the Mount Ashland Ski Road just downhill from the lodge area. From that trailhead it was SOBO on the PCT to Forest Road (FR) 40S15, then up that to FR 20 and hence to the lodge. The Bull Gap Trail #1017 starts near the lodge and descends – mostly as an old road – to Bull Gap. It’s not the greatest of hiking trails but is popular with mountain bikers in the summer, so we had to watch our back on the way down (yet only one biker passed us). The #1017 is a popular nordic trail in the winter.
This upper section of the Bull Gap Trail is part of the old Beaver Creek-Mount Ashland Loop Road built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the mid-1930s. From then until the early 1960s, this road was the only route to Mount Ashland from the town of Ashland in the valley below. At some point during its construction, a wire-bound wooden pipe was repurposed as a road culvert.
The Bull Gap Trail brought us to a four-way junction with FR 2080, FR 2080-200, and the continuation of the #1017. We spoke to one mountain biker here (the only other one we saw all day) and then turned south on to FR 2080. Last January, we’d snowshoed along this gravel road when it was laden with a fresh layer of untrodden powder snow. That was one of the best snow hikes we’ve had around here, what with the fresh snow, accommodating weather, and cold, crisp fresh air. Ah, fresh air…’tis but a memory. Today FR 2080 was just a smooth gravel load that took us gently uphill to the PCT, which we followed for a short distance back to the trailhead. In January, there had been views; today, not so much.
This loop, on trails and (mostly) roads, came to 8.1 miles (13 km) with 1,000 feet (305 m) of gain. In the grand scheme of things, this is not one of our great summer-time hikes. But on a too smokey day when the alternative was gasping for breath while couch-surfing in the valley, it was a very, very good hike. Very good. 😁
BOOTS on the TRAIL 
I suppose it does look like a cat or a dog (or some horror from a Steven King novel). Yes, the pleas for rain have begun and will just get louder as the summer wanes. Just a day or two of widespread rain would do a lot to help with the fires.
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The heat came earlier this year and the fires are bigger and harder to fight – even containment is hard, forget about putting them out. 😦 So definitely yearning for winter and some rain.
The Bull Gap Trail is one of several established nordic trails on Mount Ashland. It’s one of the harder ones but still popular. 😉
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The loop you made looks like some sort of animal! Here’s hoping you guys get some much needed rain soon to suppress the fires and bring back the blue skies 🤞🏼
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Glad you were able to somewhat escape the smoke—- It does seem like this year’s fire season is worse ( if that is possible) than years past
your photo of the route in Jan makes we wish for winter. It looks like a great XC ski route 🙂
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