Southern Oregon Ramble - Fall 2003
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Oregon Fall
-Idleyld Park and Steamboat Inn |
Waterfalls!From my mention of the fireplace and rain squalls in the first installment, you may have gathered that it was somewhat cool on the upper Umpqua the days we were there. You would be right. As one waiter explained to us, we seem to have arrived on the day that the season turned from Summer to Fall. The previous week had been sunny and in the 90's all over southern Oregon, but a front moved in on Sunday and the weather was overcast with frequent misty rain (the weather that makes such lovely complexions on so many Oregonians). While we were initially disappointed, we quickly changed our minds about 30 minutes into our first activity of the day. Because Monday was waterfall day! There are 10 waterfalls in the immediate area and another 15 within fairly easy drives. But the trick is that you have to hike in to see most of them. We managed to do seven of them and visit Diamond Lake in the one day we had allocated, but it was a challenge. The first falls we saw (don't worry, I won't describe them one-by-one) was Deadline Falls (http://www.umpquarivers.com/falls2.jpg), which is a short, powerful falls right in the North Umpqua. It was a very easy quarter mile in from the parking lot and appropriately thunderous even at the end of a long dry season. There were no fish leaping the falls when were there although salmon and both (I think) summer and winter run steelhead (ocean trout) are native to this river (which empties into the Pacific Ocean at Reedsport) and come back to spawn. (Here's a pretty good, if dry, site about Pacific Northwest anadromous fish if you're into it: http://www.psmfc.org/habitat/edu_anad_table.html). This location is also the beginning of a 79-mile hiking trail along the river and up into the Cascades. We had a wonderful flyer put out by the BLM and the Roseburg Visitor's Center which describes all the falls, how to find them and their particular charms. Viewing these falls provides a nearly perfect combination of civility, exercise and nature-appreciation. All the trails are well-marked and well-maintained and there were toilets at every parking lot/trail head. The area has not been over-used, is clean and was nearly deserted the day we made the rounds. Well, actually, it was mostly ups and downs, not rounds. The second falls we did was Susan Creek which has a .8 mile trail to the falls, described as "disabled accessible at a moderately difficult level." You would have to be a wheelchair superjock to make it in a wheelchair and with at least two friends to lift you over the logs, but it could be done, I guess. Maybe that's not the kind of disabled they meant. Probably if you're deaf it's no problem. The falls are well worth it, a 50 ft. drop into a beautiful
little mossy canyon, Susan Creek Falls has another attraction. Another half-mile up a trail listed as "more difficult, not disabled accessible" are the pre-historic Susan Creek Indian Mounds -- stone piles assembled by Indian boys who then "... spent the night in search of a vision from a guardian spirit" (according to our brochure). There also are modern stone mounds, assembled by modern boys and girls who probably didn't spend the night or have a vision. These modern mounds are one-tenth the size and made up of rocks one tenth the size of the ancient ones, but perhaps large enough to inspire at least a daydream. Just getting there was an accomplishment for us and served as a great aerobic exercise. This was when we became *very* grateful for the cooler weather. The hike back down was fun and filled with lively discussions about nature. For example, Are snails and slugs hermaphrodites? The answer is yes to snails, some to slugs (I looked it up later). After that hike, we felt so virtuous that we decided to go to lunch and our target was the lodge at Diamond Lake (http://www.diamondlake.net/). This is an old-fashioned resort, nice for families, kind of like what I imagine the old Catskills resorts to be like, but you probably couldn't afford to go spend the summer there. The lake is vaguely diamond-shaped, but I learned later that it was actually named for its discoverer, John Diamond in 1852. We had a nice lunch and strolled along the lake shore for a while and watched the grackles bathing in the sandy shallows at the edge of the water. The lake has been in the news this summer because it is choked with a scrap fish called the tui chub (non-native, probably illegally introduced as bait fish) and they eat all the insects and that causes a horrible algae bloom in the warm weather so no one can fish or swim and some of the other fishes suffocate. Although the situation has been getting worse and worse over the last few years, the algae bloom was over when we were there and everything was very nice. I understand that Fish and Wildlife is going to try a fish-specific poison soon. It makes everyone nervous; we so often make things worse when we try to solve this kind of problem, which of course we created in the first place. But clearly something has to be done. I hope it works. I haven't mentioned it before, but the whole area we were wandering around in (actually the whole Cascade Range) is made up of volcanic deposits of various kinds from tens of thousands of years of volcanic activity and attendant earthquakes. It's these lava flows that make so many spectacular waterfalls and probably the sulfurous springs, and it also makes for good rock climbing apparently. We overheard a climber explaining to his (apparently out-of-state) companions that you had to watch carefully for rotten basalt, though. When asked how you tell if it's rotten, he thought for a moment and said, "Well, I guess a good rule of thumb is just don't climb any higher than you're willing to fall!" On the way back to Idleyld Lodge, we hit our other five falls (Steamboat, Clearwater, Whitehorse, Watson and Toketee). They were all grand and only two of them had trails that really raised the heart rate -- Watson and Toketee. I admit to skipping the hike up to Watson and just gazing at it from the parking lot, I was saving myself for Toketee. A good thing, too because Jeffi and Sheila said the Watson trail was pretty much half a mile straight up. Toketee means "graceful" in the Chinook language
and it is that. I myself would have named it with a more dramatic
adjective. The trail to the falls leads through a wonderful stand
of old growth and is the most "developed," I guess,
of all. It has lots of actual stairs that go up and down and
around, as well as more normal climbing path sections until you
end up on a Tired, satisfied and nearly at dusk, we called it a day and
began worrying about what the weather might be like at Crater
Lake where we were scheduled to go next. |
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