Latgawa Cove Camp – BOOTS on the TRAIL

Latgawa Peninsula Loop (Applegate Lake) 22-Feb-2021

2021-02-222021-02-26Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Applegate Lake Oregon, Calsh Trail #971, Day Hiking, Hiking, Latgawa Cove Camp, Osprey Trail #973, Payette Trail #970, Prospectors Loop Trail #974, Southern Oregon2 Comments

Most of the geographic features at Applegate Lake (actually a reservoir) don’t have official (USGS) names but some have local names. A peninsula, bounded to the north by French Gulch (official name) and to the south by Squaw Creek Arm (local name), juts out from the east side of the lake. I’ve taken to calling this the Latgawa Peninsula simply because there’s a campsite (actually just a flat spot next to the trail) on it by that name. The USGS spells it “Latgawa” but the Forest Service’s opportunity guide spells it “Latagawa” (and shows the campsite as a trailhead, which it’s not unless you have a boat or want to walk across a mud flat at low water). All this cartographic wizardry aside, the peninsula does harbor some pleasant, low-altitude trails ideal for a winter leg stretch.

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On Applegate Lake (Oregon) 12-Mar-2020

2020-03-122022-04-04Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Applegate Lake Oregon, Calsh Trail #971, Day Hiking, Hiking, Latgawa Cove Camp, Payette Trail #970, Southern Oregon6 Comments

Well, these are trying times. Today we cancelled our long-planned trip to Cuba. The virus of course. Going anyway would have been inconsistent with helping to “flatten the curve” through social distancing (something we’re quite good at actually), avoiding crowds, and no unnecessary travel. As much as we wanted to, visiting Cuba at this time was clearly unnecessary. Not going proved costly, however, as the virus had invalidated our travel insurance.

And then there’s the stock market’s search for the bottom. Watching your life savings evaporate on a daily basis is bracing to say the least. And then there’s that clown car of elected federal officials in Washington who only seem capable of making the Big V’s effects worse. Those poor benighted buggers couldn’t find their arseholes with both hands and a compass. Sigh. So we’re staying home, protected by walls built of the immense supply of toilet paper we seem to have mysterious accumulated. 🙄

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A Peninsular Loop at Applegate Lake (Oregon) 19-Feb-2019

2019-02-192022-01-31Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Applegate Lake Oregon, Applegate Valley Oregon, Calsh Trail #971, Day Hiking, Hiking, Latgawa Cove Camp, Osprey Trail #973, Payette Trail #970, Southern Oregon

Once you’ve managed to injury yourself on the trail, you have two options: wait it out on the couch with a supply of crisps and beer or keep moving (judiciously). While the first option certainly 🙂 has its points, I knew that the second was what needed to be done – but not overdone. Try roaring back into long hikes with a bad back, exacerbate 😦 the injury, and the couch will become a permanent home. So, I’ve been staving off ambulatory senescence with some short, but fun, local hikes. The current weather pattern of one or two nice days interspersed with days of storm and gloom has helped to enforce some rest and recovery time between days with increasing levels of hiking activity.

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Latgawa Peninsula Trails (Applegate Lake) 26-Jan-2017

2017-01-262022-01-29Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Applegate Lake Oregon, Applegate Valley Oregon, Calsh Trail #971, Dagelma Trailhead Oregon, Day Hiking, Hiking, Latgawa Cove Camp, Oregon, Osprey Trail #973, Payette Trail #970, Prospectors Loop Trail #974, Sinns Bar Trail #972

While the Great Storm has made the Mount Ashland ski area (and Nordic skiers and snowshoers) ecstatic, it has had a dampening effect on simple snow-free hiking. On the upside, all this snow has given me permission, so to speak, to hike some of the shorter, lower altitude trails that have been overshadowed by longer trails in less snowy years. So we’ve done more hikes around Applegate Lake than ever before. A couple of weeks ago I did a somewhat snowy hike out to the western tip of the lake’s Squaw Arm and that got me thinking about finishing hiking all of the trails on the Latgawa Peninsula across the water to the north. We had done one of those trails early in 2016 but never got back to do the rest. So, with The LovedOne preoccupied with finishing her quilting class homework, it fell to me to make my way to the Payette Trail’s Payette Trailhead at the head of Squaw Arm to finish these hikes.

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