Hiking and Adventures Here and Beyond…
Mount McLoughlin dominates the eastern horizon here, but it’s Mount Ashland (7,532 ft / 2,295 m) – with its ski area and the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and wildflower meadows and views – that draws the crowds. It’s summit is not as distinctly visible as McLoughlin’s but, if you can pick out a giant white ball, you’re seeing Mount Ashland.
Continue reading “Mount Ashland (Southwest Oregon) 01-Apr-2022”
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).
Continue reading “Upper Bull Gap Loop (Mount Ashland, Oregon) 22-Aug-2021”
As the Jack, Bootleg, and Lava Fires sputtered (almost) out, they were quickly replaced by the Dixie (an absolute monster), River Complex, Antelope, Monument, and McFarland Fires, plus a host of other wildfires in Northern California and Southern Oregon. Our valley soon filled with smoke and the air quality index soared into the triple digits (not good). Virus cases in the county have been soaring too. It’s becoming hard to tell which might get our lungs first – the Delta variant or smoke particles. 😬
Continue reading “Siskiyou Peak (Southwest Oregon) 06-Aug-2021”
Siskiyou Peak (7,149 ft / 2,179 m) sits just south of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) about 3 miles (5 km) west of the Mount Ashland Ski Area. In the summer months, reaching it is an easy and pleasant stroll along a mellow stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) through meadows gushing with wildflowers and big views of Mount Shasta to the south. When it’s snow-covered, as it is at the moment, getting to it is more work, particularly if you’re clumping along wearing snowshoes. So we decided to give it a go today on the not completely absurd assumption that consolidated Spring snow conditions would make the journey doable sans snowshoes. Well, almost…
Continue reading “No Shoes On Siskiyou (Mount Ashland, Oregon) 31-Mar-2021”
March? So soon? One day we’re buying our annual Sno-Park pass and the next the snow is melting. More storms are forecast but they’ll increasingly bring rain (if we’re lucky) rather than snow. Winter isn’t a protracted business here – our local ski area typically closes at the end of April. In just another month or so, we’ll be going on and on about wildflowers – which, although very good things, are not snow. So although we had some longer hikes in mind for today, we decided instead to do a short, but aerobic, snowshoe sprint to the summit of Mount Ashland. Get the blood flowing. Feel a cold wind in our faces. Discover seemingly bottomless voids in the snow cover. Totter over steep slopes with boards strapped to our feet. Take in the view. Further amortize our snow pass. And so on…
Continue reading “Mount Ashland Snowshoe (Southwest Oregon) 03-Mar-2021”
Vertically integrated smoke is all of the wildfire smoke in a vertical column extending high into the Earth’s atmosphere. This is the smoke you see at sunrise and sunset (as opposed to near-surface smoke, which you see all the time).
The wildflower season is gaining speed in the lush meadows that ring Mount Ashland. From now through August, there will be changing displays of flowers of different heights, sizes, and colors. The bumblebees will be particularly active in August, as would, in a “normal” year, numerous PCT thru-hikers (but probably not this year 😦 ). We started from where the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) crosses the Mount Ashland Ski Road about two miles short of the ski area and hiked the PCT west to Grouse Gap and back. This is an easy six miles (with no appreciable gain) through patches of forest and swaths of meadows, with occasional views of Mount Shasta. A Lazuli Bunting and a Western Tanager made colorful cameo appearances, as did a doe with two spotted fawns and a nest of noisy baby woodpeckers. But this venture was about flowers and, by focusing on them, we stretched what’s usually a three-hour hike into a four-plus hour one. This was easy to do on a day that offered clear, sunny, and cool hiking weather. 🙂 We had the trail to ourselves going out but “distance-passed” more than a few hikers on the way back.
In keeping with the necessary theme of hikes that are local and not too adventurous, we took advantage of today’s gorgeous weather to reprise a favorite snow hike to the summit of nearby Mount Ashland. The ski area there had gathered a good base despite this year’s drought, but its lodge and lifts had to close early because of the Big V. Fortunately, the area and the forest around it are still open and there is plenty of snow to muck about in.
Continue reading “Spring Snow on Mount Ashland 08-Apr-2020”
While we were up north on business, a small storm swept through Southern Oregon, leaving a few inches of snow at the higher elevations. Supposedly bigger storms are forecast for next week (or the week thereafter or whenever). But with some snow on the ground, we thought it would be fun to do a short (6 mile round-trip; 900 feet of gain) hike to McDonald Peak just west of the Mount Ashland ski area (Sno-park permits had gone into effect on the 1st so this hike started amortizing that seasonal expense). My last trips to this peak had been on snowshoes or while exploring the Split Rock Trail (which goes from Forest Road 20 to McDonald and on down to Wagner Glade Gap). The LovedOne had not been to this peak before.
Continue reading “McDonald Peak (Siskiyou Crest) 21-Nov-2019”
We had a good winter. Copious amounts of snow in the high country. A full season at our local ski area. Reservoirs full – but not too full – for the dry months ahead. But winter seemed reluctant to say good-bye. 😦 Fits of rain, snow, and gloom plagued the holiday weekend. Then – in a day – it snapped over to sunshine and heat. 😎
Continue reading “Clouds Over Mount Ashland (Oregon) 28-May-2019”
The Mount Ashland Ski Area opened last week, with about 24 inches of snow on its upper slopes. Our one (and only) snowshoe last winter had been a flounder-fest to the top of Mount Ashland through snow too soft and thin to keep us out of the underlying brush. We ended-up shuffling back along the plowed road. 😥 So, would there be enough snow lower down to support an out-and-back snowshoe to the Grouse Gap Shelter? Only field work could address this conundrum.
Continue reading “Snow, But No Shoes (Mt. Ashland, Oregon) 12-Dec-2018”
BOOTS on the TRAIL 