Rogue River Trail – BOOTS on the TRAIL

Farewell, Kitty Mack (Rogue River) 10-Mar-2022

2022-03-102022-03-15Posted in HikingTagged BLM, Bureau of Land Management, China Gulch, Day Hiking, Grave Creek Oregon, Hiking, Rogue River, Rogue River Trail, Southern Oregon, Whisky Creek Cabin16 Comments

Aside from a few exercise walks up Roxy Ann, it’s been 10 days since our last hike. Part of this gap was due to some anxiety-provoking personal business. Part was due to bad weather – which didn’t turn out to be bad enough (in a good way) to pummel us with much needed rain and snow. 😥 And part was due to anger and frustration and ultimately despair about what’s happening in Ukraine. 😪 Seems we’re all getting a harsh lesson in the realpolitik that happens when a delusional dictator is willing to go nuclear if thwarted. So although hiking has always provided us with some respite from the cares of the world, it just seemed somewhat irrelevant.

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2021 ~ Adventures with The LovedOne

2021-12-312022-01-31Posted in Hiking, North Dakota, Oregon Coast, Oregon Wilderness Areas, Other Stuff, Rafting, Southern Oregon, U.S. National Parks & Monuments, UtahTagged Day Hiking, Hiking, Hocking Hills State Park Ohio, North Dakota, Ohio, Rafting, Rogue River Trail, San Juan River Utah10 Comments

Well, 2021 started out bleak, then got happier, then got sad again. This was thanks to the two V’s – variants and vaccinations. Too much of one, not enough of the other. But we survived (yet again), with The LovedOne remaining as elusively photogenic as ever. But, thanks to being vaccinated, we were able to have a few big adventures without expiring.

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Walking the Rogue IV: Paradise Lodge to Big Bend Trailhead 15-May-2021

2021-05-152021-12-28Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Black Bar Lodge Oregon, Day Hiking, Hiking, Marial Lodge Oregon, Paradise Lodge Oregon, Rogue River, Rogue River Trail, Southern Oregon, Wild & Scenic River, Wild Rogue Loop, Wild Rogue Wilderness7 Comments

We had to cover 11.4 miles (18.2 km) on this last day of our trip and we had to do it by a certain time. We had hoped to return to the Galice Resort via the Bear Camp Road but that wasn’t open yet. So we’d have to make the two-hour longer return via Brookings and Highway 199. To get back to our cars at a sorta reasonable hour, we had to be at the trailhead no later than 1330. Because the heat and overly full stomachs had been an issue, The LovedOne and I elected to skip breakfast and start our hike at 0730, right after coffee was served. No one, least of all us, was going to hike uncaffinated! This way we could hike in the cool of the morning and not have to overly hurry to reach the trailhead. Another option was to raft the last few miles to the trailhead. This is faster than walking and half our group availed themselves of this option.

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Walking the Rogue III: Marial Lodge to Paradise Lodge 14-May-2021

2021-05-142022-02-04Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Black Bar Lodge Oregon, Day Hiking, Hiking, Marial Lodge Oregon, Paradise Lodge Oregon, Rogue River, Rogue River Trail, Southern Oregon, Wild & Scenic River, Wild Rogue Loop, Wild Rogue Wilderness5 Comments

This, our third day on the Rogue River Trail, would be our easiest, as only 4.2 miles (6.7 km) of level trail separates the two lodges. The cooling trend had yet to arrive so it was another hot (85°F / 29°C) day. We lounged around Marial Lodge for most of the morning (paying catch with Maggie), then pulled ourselves together and headed out after lunch. Management of the trail passes from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to the U.S. Forest Service at Marial. So soon after leaving the lodge, we passed an historic Forest Service station – which has suffered some damage since we first saw it in 2015.

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Walking the Rogue II: Black Bar Lodge to Marial Lodge 13-May-2021

2021-05-132021-05-17Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Black Bar Lodge Oregon, Day Hiking, Hiking, Marial Lodge Oregon, Paradise Lodge Oregon, Rogue River, Rogue River Trail, Southern Oregon, Wild & Scenic River, Wild Rogue Loop, Wild Rogue Wilderness6 Comments

Our second day on the Rogue River Trail would be our longest: 14.3 miles (22.9 km) from Black Bar, past Zane Grey’s cabin at Winkle Bar, to the lodge at Marial. The weather forecast had indicated a cooling trend but the weather itself hadn’t got the message. So we were looking at another hot (85°F / 29°C), sweaty day. Fortunately, there are several (very welcome) cool, shady stretches along this part of the trail. Most of the small, intermittent, unnamed creeks had already gone dry. But we noticed that many of the named creeks had not – which is probably why they got named in the first place. If you backpack this trail in mid-summer, when it’s really, really hot, these named creeks may be your only (mostly) reliable water sources. Because, while it may be a “river” trail, it doesn’t always take you very close to the cooling waters of the river itself.

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