Sterling Mine Ditch Trail – BOOTS on the TRAIL

Tunnel Ridge Loop (Southwest Oregon) 15-Apr-2022

2022-04-152022-04-16Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Applegate Valley Oregon, Bear Gulch Trailhead, BLM, Bureau of Land Management, Day Hiking, Hiking, Little Applegate Trailhead, Southern Oregon, Sterling Mine Ditch Trail, Tunnel Ridge Trail2 Comments

Well, last week gave us some of the weather we’d liked to have gotten spread out across January, February, and March – rain, snow, hail, sleet, high winds, etc. But, no, the skies waited and then slammed us with this stuff all at once. Recently brown hills are now green lower down and white higher up. The wildflowers are confused. But magic sky water is most welcome here however and whenever it arrives. More of this celestial moistness is expected in this evening and may then continue for another week. 😁

Continue reading →

Deming~Wolf Gap Loop (Southwest Oregon) 17-Dec-2021

2021-12-172021-12-18Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Bureau of Land Management, Day Hiking, Deming Gulch Trailhead, Hiking, Siskiyou Upland Trails Association, Southern Oregon, Sterling Mine Ditch Trail, Wolf Gap Trailhead2 Comments

The full conditions we “enjoyed” recently on Roxy Ann brought enough snow – at least to the high country above 6,000 feet (1,829 m) – for our local ski area to open tomorrow. 😊 More storms are expected next week, hopefully bringing more rain 🙂 and more snow 😁 to our still parched region. So we wanted to do a longer hike before being confined to quarters by these oncoming Winter storms. Something long but not too hard, with little or no snow, no cross-country, and no anxiety (Lord knows there’s enough of that going around these days) about route finding. The nearby Sterling Mine Ditch Trail came immediately to mind. 😃

Continue reading →

Grub Gulch Loop (Southern Oregon) 09-Nov-2020

2020-11-092021-02-03Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Anderson Butte Oregon, BLM, Bureau of Land Management, Day Hiking, Deming Gulch Trailhead, Grub Gulch Trailhead, Hiking, Siskiyou Crest, Southern Oregon, Sterling Mine Ditch Trail

The Sterling Mine Ditch Trail is one of the premier hikes in Southwestern Oregon. The trail follows the alignment of a ditch dug by hand in 1877 to divert water from the upper reaches of the Little Applegate River to the Sterling Creek Mine. As built, and allowing for its ins-and-outs through canyons, it’s pretty linear from the Little Applegate Trail on one end to the Grub Gulch Trailhead on the other. This makes forming loops a bit of a challenge. There are short ones at its east end between the Little Applegate, Tunnel Ridge, and Bear Gulch Trailheads. And we’ve done one from the Deming Gulch Trailhead by adding a road walk up to the Wolf Gap Trailhead. And I did one to Grub Gulch from Deming Gulch with a return on the Jackash Trail, Sterling Creek Road, and the dirt road to the trailhead. But was there a way to do a loop from Deming to Grub without much road walking?

Continue reading →

Circling the Ditch (Southwestern Oregon) 29-May-2020

2020-05-292020-05-30Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged BLM, Bureau of Land Management, Day Hiking, Deming Gulch Trailhead, Hiking, Ruch Oregon, Siskiyou Upland Trails Association, Southern Oregon, Sterling Mine Ditch Trail, Wildflowers, Wolf Gap Trailhead5 Comments

The Sterling Mine Ditch Trail is undoubtedly one of the best known trails in Southwestern Oregon. For some 21 miles, it follows the route of an old ditch dug (in the 1870s) to supply water from the Little Applegate River to a hydraulic mine in Sterling Gulch. Because of its linearity, doing a loop hike involving a long stretch of it requires some improvisation. So back in 2015, we figured how to do such a loop from the Deming Trailhead by combining a little road walking with the then newly opened connector trail from Wolf Gap. Although today was forecast as a hot one (some 20°F (12°C) above whatever passes for normal these days), the weather in the days ahead was forecast to involve exciting bursts of water and electricity, so we ventured forth today to repeat this loop.

Continue reading →

Sterling Mine Ditch (Oregon) 26-Mar-2020

2020-03-262020-03-27Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Bear Gulch Trailhead, BLM, Bureau of Land Management, Day Hiking, Hiking, Little Applegate Trailhead, Siskiyou Upland Trails Association, Southern Oregon, Sterling Mine Ditch Trail, Tunnel Ridge Trail2 Comments

Our governor’s shelter-in-place order went into effect on Monday, with the now all too familiar (and painful) public closures, stay-at-home injunctions, and self-isolation directives. But, hiking, running, and biking are still encouraged PROVIDED you maintain a 6-foot (2 m) “alone cone” around yourself. Basically, just stay away from other people. And we’ve been good about that, as neither of us wants to give the Big V a shot at our decrepit immune systems. So, except for brief forays out for groceries, liquor, prescription refills, and the occasional take-out, we do not leave the house. Hiking is the one big exception. When doing so, we now have to think carefully about when and where to go – and be willing to abandon or revise a planned hike if trying to do it would compromise social distancing.

Continue reading →