Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Redwood National Park

Stout Grove
Well I've been pretty bad at posting recently, but I have been up to a few up to a few fun adventures. Kerrie and I headed down to the redwood national park for her birthday. On the way, we also stopped at Oregon Caves National Monument.

It's hard to take good pictures in a cave.
Spiral Staircase to the underworld

Heart of the cave
Monster Column

We had a four day weekend so we took our time and enjoyed the vacation and the road trip. The partially crappy part and good part was that it was a rest week for me training wise, but I still had to put in a few longer runs.

The first night we camped on the side of the road up by the Oregon caves. Our campground was closed and we didnt feel like driving all the way back down the winding road and pay $25 for less than a half a day of camping. It worked out, but would have been nice to have the rocket box.



The seat in the Element hold almost completely flat. Super nice for car camping.
All packed up
The next day we headed down to Crescent City and checked out Stout Grove and Boy Scout Tree in the Jedediah Smith State Park. This was our first experience with the big trees and it was breath taking. The road in and out of the area was also super cool. It was a cross between Jurassic Park and Return of the Jedi.














From there, we carried on to Mill Creek Campground and promptly crashed due to being so tired from the night before and not eating enough that day.

The next day we got up and headed down the coast. We stopped at Klamath Overlook to check out some whales and also made our way along the coast on a back gravel road which was right next to the ocean. I'd say that except for the trees, driving these cool back roads were pretty cool


Hard to make out the spray from the whale on these photos
Cool backroads
Old WW2 covert radar station.

Eventually we made it to Prairie Creek Campground, which was definitely a cool campground, although the Stellar Jays were particularly annoying with their scavenging traits.


Kerrie likes marshmallows
I was able to get out for a 16mi run and covered a good section of the park, but it was pretty cool to be out there all alone with all those massive trees. It was a little spooky though not seeing anyone out on the trail till the very end towards Fern Canyon. The trails were in great condition and it would have been lots of fun to explore the area more thoroughly.












That night Kerrie and I went out to try and spot some elk. We barely made out of the entrance of the campground and there they were right in front of us. It was pretty cool to see them up close.







The next day we went and checked out Fern Canyon and the beach on another sweet dirt road. Fern canyon was pretty spectacular with all the bright green ferns and cool creeks. We also spent a good amount of time checking out the beach before heading down to Eureka to check out a few breweries. In the end, we went to Lost Coast Brewery, Redwood Curtain Brewing and Six Rivers Brewery.







Late night fireside Scrabble game
All trip must come to an end so on Monday morning we packed up the car and headed up 101 towards Reedsport, OR. Our goal was to check out the Southern Oregon coast as neither of us had ever been there. We stopped at a few roadside trails, Cape Blanco, and Oregon Dune National Recreation area before heading East to I-5.

Arches. Sam Boardman Scenic Highway
Towards Cape Blanco lighthouse









UNT

Bryan

Monday, June 3, 2013

Upper Rogue River Trail & Table Rocks


Last weekend, I headed down to my family's cabin on the Rogue River with the rest of the crew. I still needed to get my miles in so I pulled out my trusty version of Sullivan's Hikes in Southern Oregon. In all my years of traveling to the Medford area, I've never really explored the area much because the cabin is more than inviting and entertaining. Recently, I've slowly began expanding my range in Southern Oregon. Earlier this year, I went and ran around Lost Creek Lake, but this time around, I wanted to go check out the Upper Rogue River Trail.



Since Adam and Kerrie were with me, it allowed me to run a point to point rather than an out and back. The plan was to drop me off around the lower Takelma Gorge trailhead then run around pass Natural Bridge to Union Creek. From their I'll pick up Adam and the pup and continue on to the upper Union Creek TH. Basically, taking Sullivan's hike #33-35 in one shot for about 16 miles.

Not really sure what these are. Wasn't in my guide book
Takelma Gorge
Big ass pine cones






And all of a sudden we have concrete and fences. This must be Natural Bridge TH.

Hard to tell from my crappy pics, but this is where the river goes underneath this lava flow and disappears and reemerges about a 100 yards down streams.
When you see this sign, it means you should head right and down stream. I missed the bridge to cross the river even though I looked for it. It was just farther down stream than I looked. 
Said Bridge. Dont miss this.

Another bridge near the campground

Sat by this sign for awhile.
Drive home.

We had a slight mix up which ended up having me wait at Union Creek for about 40 mins while Adam and Kerrie tried to find me. Granted I did take a wrong turn which ended up making me 30 mins late.

Anyway, we eventually linked up, but I didn't take too many pics on the tail end.

 ~~~~

The next day I needed a few more miles so I went to Upper and Lower Table rock to check out them out. They are right around the corner from the cabin, and it had been a while since I had been to the top.

Trail up Lower Table Rock TH
I love the Madrones
Tons of room to stretch the legs up top
Devil's Golf course
View from the top



Flat and straight. There used to be a runway up here.
To the top!
Getting closer! 



Snake!

Kriselle Winery, also right around the corner
UNT
Bryan