While we’re glad, thanks to El Niño, to be able to snowshoe again, we do (selfishly) miss being able to hike clear trails in the high country in January. Casting around for snow-free mid-winter trails brought us to some lower elevation ones that we’d passed on during the previous two dry years. Two such trails – the North Shore and the South Shore – circle Lost Creek Lake, a reservoir managed by the Corps of Engineers, that sits astride the Rogue River about 30 miles northeast of Medford, Oregon. The Corps calls both these trails, as well as the trail that goes east up the Rogue River from Peyton Bridge, the Rogue River Trail. This can be confusing since neither trail makes contact with the famous Rogue River Trail many miles down river to the west nor much of one with the southern trailhead of the Upper Rogue River Trail (USFS #1034) to the east. The common denominator is apparently just the river, whether the trails connect or not.
Continue reading “Blue Grotto (Lost Creek Lake, Oregon) 04-Feb-2016”
BOOTS on the TRAIL 