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On November 15th, the club hiked
on the Dellenbeck Dunes. The
hike was pleasant enough, the
day was sunny and relatively
warm. But winter is coming, and
with it, we have to surrender
the mountains to the snow and
come back again in about 8
months or so. I spent a lot of
time looking at road cams at
Diamond Lake the week prior and
there really wasn't much snow
there, maybe I could sneak in
one last mountain hike. When
Ray voiced the same thought
while on the dunes hike, well,
it was "hike on!" This hike was
a case of having the cake and
eating it too; it gave us
indigestion while simultaneously
being finger-lickin' good.
At the Beaver Swamp Trailhead,
the temperature was in the high
30's but once we descended to
the sunny shores of Fish Lake,
it was a balmy high 60's. The
warm sun brought out the
critters and we startled two
garter snakes engrossed in the
business of making more garter
snakes. We also startled a
beaver who swam across the lake
to get away from us. The lake
was glassy and the ripples from
the beaver expanded languidly
across the lake's surface.
At the lake's inlet the trail
got seriously steep and the
whining and sniveling started so
I told Ray to shut up and keep
hiking. This would be a 3200 ft
climb in just about 3 miles.
About halfway up the whining and
sniveling started anew and Ray
told me to shut up and keep
hiking. At mid-day we arrived,
rubbery legged, at the large
Highrock Meadows.
The meadows were brown and the
vegetation had been flattened by
the recent snows, some of still
existed in shady patches.
Highrock Mtn dominated the view
and Jackass Mtn (there was some
banter about which one of us the
mountain was named for) marked
the actual Rogue-Umpqua divide
just above the meadow.
After a nice lazy lunch in the
meadow we made the short climb
up to the Rogue Umpqua Divide
tral, and from there it was a
short walk to Molasses Camp
Meadow and the eastern terminus
of the Rocky Ridge Trail. The
trail descended on the ridge's
east side and it was ironic that
the further we descended, the
more snow we encountered.
Although it was a little over
ankle deep, the snow slowed us
up quite a bit, and that would
have consequences for us later
on in the hike.
By the time we reached the
cliffs of Standoff Point, the
shadows were getting quite long
over the Rogue Umpqua Divide and
we could see the late afternoon
sun on Crater Lake, Union
Peak, Mt. Thielsen, Mt. Scott,
Mt. Bailey, and Diamond Peak.
Closer to the trail were Fish
Mtn, and Rattlesnake Mtn. The
trail on Standoff Point is
quite cliffy but we were able to
safely and carefully pick our
way through the snow patches.
We pretty much left all the snow
behind us as we arrived at the
spectacular hogback section
above Fish Lake. There was a
wonderful sunset going on.
However, we didn't really
appreciate the sunset as there
is a phenomenon called "night"
that follows sunset. Night's
primary attribute is "dark" also
known as "the inky blackness of
doom" We had already hiked 8.5
miles but still had 4 miles to
go!
From personal experience, night
hiking is not all it's cracked
up to be. Particularly on a
trail where neither Ray nor I
had ever been on. Particularly
on a trail whose last 3 miles
cross a burn area where the
trail was faint and sketchy due
to a vigourous regrowth of
brambles and other assorted
shrubbery. There was a
moment of concern when the trail
switchbacked and made a long
cliffside traverse down towards
Fish Lake's inlet, in totally
the opposite direction of the
trailhead. Fortunately, our
concern eventually abated when
the trail switchbacked in the
correct direction before
reaching the lake. Basically
the last two hours consisted of
a seemingly endless procession
of brambles, branches, and
rocks parading through the pool
of light at our feet (we had
headlamps). Large animals (who
never were seen in the
blackness) ran noisily just off
trail. After what seemed like
half the night, I saw a light
twinkling through the woods and
it turned out to be the
taillight from Ray's truck and
it was thankfully the end of
another zany adventure for the
Dynamic Duo.
For the rest of the pictures
see:
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