On June 1, I headed to Southwestern Oregon and hopped on to the Rogue River Trail. Having a nearby outfitter shuttle my car to the end the following day, I hiked the 39.5 mile trail between Grave Creek Boat Ramp and Foster Bar over the weekend.
After my last larger hike in the beginning of April, I ended up taking all of May off from really any hiking. As much as I keep trying to say “one month off”, somewhere in me, I know it has been getting closer to two months off now, and I was itching to get back on the trail.
Traveling into Northern California, there are a couple of popular hikes that just didn’t really appeal to me. I checked out by the Redwoods where there just wasn’t a really good option for what I was looking for, and out in the Southern Cascades, where the weather still sucks. A little thought, and a little digging… there’s the Rogue River Trail!
The Rogue River Trail travels along the Wild and Scenic Rogue River in the Siskiyou Mountains of Southwestern Oregon. The full trail totals about 39.5 miles, the first half on BLM land and the second half mostly in the Wild Rogue Wilderness, mostly in Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. It is really best done in spring or fall, as even in June, the heat was starting to come in. I thought it looked great, so I scheduled with a local outfitter to shuttle my car between trailheads and hit the trail!
Day One
19 miles
I got to Grave Creek Boat Lunch a little before 10am and set off. A few other backpackers were also getting started on their own journey, and some day hikers as well, but the traffic was overall light. I quickly found some space on the trail.
The trail hugs the river pretty well at first, but it dips in and out of the forest along creeks and up hills quite often. Right away, the climb sucked. While the trail trends downhill with the river, it feels an awful lot like you’re climbing a hell of a lot of it, and that starts right away!
The trail is really pretty straightforward on this one. There’s not even much in the way of side trails. A few campsites, cabins, and nice spots to rest dot the way quite regularly, when the trail isn’t skirting along canyon walls thin enough to get my fear of heights going pretty fun.
After about 19 miles of hiking, I arrived at Quail Creek. I stopped and ate dinner there before deciding the campsite I had found was good enough for the night. I setup and went to sleep.
Day Two
20.5 miles
Sleep was somewhat typical for a first night out in a while for me. I basically got a full night of sleep, but I woke up frequently and never really got comfortable. Nonetheless, after sleeping good enough for me and packing back up, I hit the trail again around 7am.
Still rather early in the morning, I got to Mule Creek, where the trail follows dirt road past Marial Lodge and on into the Wild Rogue Wilderness and Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. This area, around Inspiration Point, and on to Blossom Bar was some of my favorite hiking. It was mean on the fear of heights in parts, but a joy to see.
As the trail continued, the worst parts for my fear of heights finally came in. Loose, gravely ground with evidence of slides down steep hills. I didn’t stop to take any pictures as I ran across section after section that had me thinking I might have to stop and thank my choice of wearing a kilt…
When not hugging steep cliffsides with sketchy, worn out and broken support, the trail spent a lot of time in the shade of the forest. About four miles from the trailhead at the end, I stopped at a waterfall where a family had day-hiked in. I didn’t get a picture, because I didn’t want to be weird with the family, but it was a lovely spot.
The last bit of the hike cut through a bit of tall grass that was really quite uneventful as well, near Illahe. And then it was a road walk to Foster Bar, which kinda sucked. I actually didn’t mind the road walk so much. It was just a mild half mile, partly paved, partly on dirt. I found myself enjoying it for what it was.
And finally, I arrived at the Foster Bar Boat Launch parking. I had paid to have my car picked up and dropped off here. I have never done this before, so I was running purely off of hope. But sure enough, my car was there and all was well!
Conclusions
This was a pretty amazing hike. It really is best done in the spring or fall. Even in the very beginning of June, it got pretty hot at times in the canyon. I am sure it can get even worse in the deeper summer. I don’t regret doing it when I did, though I drank a lot of water.
I can’t actually say I would change anything about this one. I know most people probably don’t want to push 20 mile days like that, and it can definitely be done in shorter pieces and more days. 4-5 days for a short little thru-hike may be great for a beginner or just the more casual hiker on this one.
There are bears. I didn’t see any, but I kept my food in a OPSack and there are bear boxes, etc. at some campsites. Mountain lions, too. I didn’t see any. I ran into 2 rattlesnakes, one on each day. Both were in the middle of the trail. One got off the trail as soon as I walked up, but it rattled at me. The other coiled up and stared at me, sitting in the middle of the trail. With nowhere to go, we got in a good staring match until it moved for me.
I would certainly call this one a highlight, all said! I would love to do it again in the future, probably following a somewhat similar itinerary. The views along the way are constant, and the hiking is pants-shitting fun.
