Cape Mountain – April 15, 2023

Hike Coordinator: Lane Harris

Narration by Lane Harris

The Cape Mountain Trail system in the Siuslaw National Forest just north of Florence provides hikers and equestrians alike with a variety of options. Cape Mountain itself is not the destination, but the area around it is. With a multitude of intersections here and there, there are many different ways to hike this wooded place.

On this day, our group took the Princess Tasha trail to the Berry Creek trail, then the Nelson Ridge trail back to the trailhead. Although only a few miles from the Pacific Ocean, the dense forest here makes hikers feel like they’re a world away from any ocean. Only when you’re on top of Nelson Ridge can you see the ocean in the distance. It was here where we stopped and had lunch before continuing on.

Although there are no grand vistas, the solitude of this place is well worth the drive to the trailhead.

Pictures below by Lane Harris

Cape Mountain – December 16, 2017

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

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