Union Creek – BOOTS on the TRAIL

Remembrance of Trails Past (November 2020)

2020-11-232020-11-23Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Day Hiking, Hiking, Huckleberry Mountain Oregon, Hummingbird Meadows, National Creek Falls, National Recreation Trail, Southern Oregon, Union Creek, Upper Rogue River3 Comments

A while back, I found a charming little hiking guide from 1969 that the Rogue National Forest had assembled for the area around Union Creek on the Upper Rogue River. Most, but not all, of the listed trails were short and went to a lake or creek or something scenic. Nothing epic that would dissuade people from getting out of their cars for a brief hike in the woods. Possibly this was an odder activity then than it is now? Anyway, I recognized some but not all of the listed trails. And of the ones I did recognize, the guide’s description sometimes didn’t tally with what we’ve found during hikes on or near them in recent years.

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Rogue Gorge Trail (Union Creek, Oregon) 15-Nov-2018

2018-11-152022-01-30Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Beckie's Cafe Oregon, Day Hiking, Hiking, Natural Bridge Campground, Rogue Gorge Trail, Rogue River, Southern Oregon, Union Creek, Upper Rogue River, Upper Rogue River Trail #10342 Comments

We hiked our first Rogue River-related trail (to Boundary Springs) in 2012. Over the next six years, we hiked all of the other river-related trails between the springs and the ocean, culminating (we thought) with the Lower Rogue River Trail this year. Having thus declared victory, we were chagrined to find we’d missed one. Map-gazing revealed the Rogue Gorge Trail (USFS #1034A), which links the Rogue Gorge Viewpoint to the north with the Natural Bridge Viewpoint to the south. This slight required remedy!

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Union Creek Trail (Union Creek, Oregon) 06-Nov-2018

2018-11-062022-01-30Posted in Hiking, Southern OregonTagged Beckie's Cafe Oregon, Day Hiking, Hiking, Old-growith forest, Rogue River, Rogue River - Siskiyou National Forest, Southern Oregon, Union Creek, Upper Rogue River2 Comments

No better place to wait out the end of the seemingly endless 2018 Midterm election cycle than on a hike. With The LovedOne temporarily liberated from the Palace of Cellulose (i.e., the library), we set out to hike one of the smaller trails we’d by-passed on our many trips to the Upper Rogue. Of course, pie at Beckie’s Cafe on our return was a major motivating factor.

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Wiley Camp Loop (Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness) 11-Sep-2018

2018-09-112022-02-21Posted in Hiking, Oregon Wilderness Areas, Southern OregonTagged Beckie's Cafe Oregon, Day Hiking, Hershberger Mountain Lookout, Hiking, Muir Creek Oregon, Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness, Southern Oregon, Union Creek3 Comments

Wiley Camp Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness Oregon

In May of 2015, we did a loop hike through Buck Canyon, the only part of the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness that sits on the east side of the divide. We came in from Muir Creek and left via Meadow Creek, passing Wiley Camp along the way. I got to wondering if you could loop around Fish Mountain from the Wiley Camp Trailhead and today I decided to find out (The LovedOne opted for a library board meeting instead).

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Cowhorn Mountain (Deschutes NF) 05-Oct-2017

2017-10-052022-01-30Posted in Central Oregon, HikingTagged Beckie's Cafe Oregon, Central Oregon, Cowhorn Mountain, Day Hiking, Deschutes National Forest, Hiking, Howlock Mountain, Mount Thielsen Wilderness, Oregon, Oregon Cascades Recreation Area, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), PCT, Union Creek2 Comments

Cowhorn Mountain Deschutes National Forest Oregon

First off, it seems useful to review where we are here. This is not the Little Cowhorn Mountain topped with a lookout and located on the Willamette National Forest at the end of a one mile trail. This Cowhorn – what some also, for extra confusion, call Cowhorn Butte – is on the Deschutes National Forest (in the Oregon Cascades Recreational Area) a few miles southwest of Crescent Lake. Back before this Cowhorn’s cow-horn shaped summit spine fell over in a 1911 storm (some storm!), it was called Little Cowhorn to distinguish it from Mount Thielsen, which was then called Big Cowhorn. The hike to this Cowhorn Mountain’s 7,664-foot summit is along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) starting north from Windigo Pass, which is reached via Forest Road (FR) 60 (a good gravel road) off State Highway 138 about six miles north of Diamond Lake.

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