Hike Coordinator – Richard O’Neill
The Friends of the Umpqua, aided and abetted by members of the Coos Bay hiking club, the South Coast Striders, numbered a lucky 13 on this hike on Cape Mountain. While the term “mountain” implies a certain geological element to the hike, this hike was all about the forest. Tall trees, moss, and all the ferns you could ever want to hike through.
The first third of the the hike was mostly uphill on Scurvy Ridge where we all got to talk like pirates “Aargh, we be scurvy buccaneers!” One item of interest was a replica of a hitsi, a Native American shelter. At the junction with the Berry Creek Trail, we made a right turn and the trail dropped in a hurry in its haste to reach the bottom of the Berry Creek Canyon.
After crossing Berry Creek on a fallen tree, we began regaining all that elevation we had lost, as the trail briskly climbed away from the creek and to the crest of Nelson Ridge. The ridge was grassy and mostly treeless and made for a logical lunch-stop. Partial views to the Oregon Dunes and Florence were to be had under a gray sky before we resumed hiking.
Seems like we spent all day hiking uphill and such was the case with Nelson Ridge, although we were back in the forest and not in grassy swales, like where we had eaten lunch at. Eventually, the trail came to a close when it ambled by swampy Dry Lake. Nice workout, nice forest, and a nice hike.
Pictures by Richard O’Neill
