Hike Coordinator – John Malone
Narration by Richard O’Neill
While Roseburg was baking under an unseasonably early heat wave, nine Friends of the Umpqua enjoyed a respite from the heat by hiking at the coast. While sunny, a brisk breeze kept things cool to the point we were were wearing light jackets and windbreakers pretty much all day.
Dellenback Dunes is such an alien landscape, it wouldn’t have surprised us to see giant sandworms emerge from the dunes to eat us. But looks can be deceiving, as the sands were quite benign, the only threat being sand in our boots. Several hikers were first-timers to the dunes and they were suitably impressed with the both the beauty of the dunes and the burning of leg muscles from hiking in soft sand.
Once we crossed the dunes on the large whaleback dune, we hiked through the marshy forest partly on trail and partly on boardwalk. Fortunately, the marshy bits were fairly dry and we arrived dry-footed, at the beach in short order.
From there it was two mile’ish walk to Tenmile Creek, which really looks more like a river where it reaches the ocean, and we ate lunch behind a sand berm that provided some shelter from the constant breeze. Plus, the berm also prevented airborne sand particles from spicing up our sandwiches as we ate.
There is no trail from Tenmile Creek so we simply went cross-country through the marshes, scrub forest, and dunes. Fortunately, again the marshes were fairly dry. The route spit us out onto the dunes proper and we were rewarded with the vista of Tenmile Creek snaking through the sandy landscape.
A cross-dune walk of several miles closed this 8 mile hike out and regretfully, we returned to Roseburg to rejoin all our sweltering friends and family members.
More on this hike on Richard O’Neill’s Blog
More pictures on Richard O’Neill’s Flickr page
Pictures below by Richard O’Neill
