Southern Oregon Hiker

It’s March and that means it’s time to start getting ready for another season of hiking and hopefully backpacking. I am hoping this year is going to be better than last year was here in southern Oregon. We had so many large wildfires last summer that it actually became unhealthy to spend to much time outdoors. This winter has seen a lot of snow fall so the area shouldn’t be as dry as last year. Of course we’ve gotten so much snow that it may be late spring before the high country has enough melt off to allow access to some trail heads. I’ll take that over wildfires any day though. In preparation for the season I’ve been reading a few books related to the sport. I recently finished Fixing Your Feet: Injury Prevention and Treatments for Athletes. Its a great book that covers just about anything foot related. I..

Took a quick hike up one of my local favorites today, Wagner Butte. This is a 9.5 mile out and back  hike located in southern Oregon. The first couple miles are pretty steep. After you get about half way up it levels out a bit. Its has one of the best views in the area. One of these days I would like to get up early enough to catch a sunrise from the summit.   I tested out a new garment on this hike. The R1 Fleece from Patagonia. Its to early to have any solid opinions about it but I think I like it. Its the blue top in the picture below.   The hike tends to take me around 5 hour depending on weather. Its a slow slog if there’s  a lot of snow  on the trail.    

Took an overnight backpacking trip to the Sky Lakes Wilderness Sunday-Monday September 23-24th 2018. This was my first time going backing overnight solo. I have been wanting to try a solo trip for some time now. I really wanted to find out if I was up to spending the night alone in the wilderness miles from any public roads and other people. Getting away from other people didn’t totally work out because the area I was in is pretty popular this time of year but I was far from any roads. I chose the Sky Lakes Wilderness because I’ve been there a few times before and its a great place to backpack. Also its popular enough that if I  did end up in trouble I could probably find help. I started my trip at the Cold Spring trail head 11 miles off highway 140 in southern Oregon and ended the..

This summer has been really bad for any hiking and backpacking trips here in Southern Oregon. It has been pretty bad in most of the Pacific North West actually. The wild fires around here have gotten really out of hand. As you can see in picture below the air quality in Oregon is horrible right now. Its been one the worst fires seasons I can remember. The smoke stretches from northern California to Northern Oregon all along interstate 5.   I cant imagine what its like being a fire fighter this year. That has got to be a crazy hard job! I know I’d last about two minutes out there before having to be hauled out on a stretcher. Link to current fires https://www.oregon.gov/ODF/Fire/pages/FireStats.aspx Hopefully we will get some rain soon and get some relive from this craziness!   THANKS TO ALL THE FIRE FIGHTERS!!! Firefighting Resources