Blue Pool around Christmas

We had spent Christmas at home. We were waiting to go up to my mom's house until around New Years. It was a fun day and the kids enjoyed their presents as to be expected. We even did a Christmas walk out on the nature trail by the campground near our house. It was great except for the very end when there was definitely a crazy guy on drugs dancing on the trees. We even did a quick high tail it out of there which was not easy with a two and a four year old. The next day, I decided to check out a section of the McKenzie River trail that I had not hiked before. I started from Koosah Falls and headed down the trail from there.

The falls were really impressive given all the precipitation that we had been experiencing lately. The trail followed the river that was flowing quite intensely until it popped out at the reservoir. I should have looked at a map before I went, but I figured the trail would just be following the river and easy to find. In retrospect it was pretty easy to find. What I did, though, was to go left when I hit the road at the dam. Big mistake because it took me all the way to the other side of the reservoir. And who was the genius who kept going until he got to the outlet of the dam with no way to get across to the other side. You guessed it. So I had to back track which honestly was fine because I needed a bit of a hike anyway.

I found the trail which was fairly close to where I left it. There were a few other wanderers on the trail, but mostly just me as I followed the lake before popping out on the other side. From here, I was following the river downstream again. The area was almost swampy in many places and I really appreciated all of the lava flows that had carved this river valley a long time ago. This was a great hike to see big basalt cliffs. My goal on this day was to get to the Blue Pool and Tamolitch Falls. It was longer than taking the trail from Trail Bridge, but I guess it was much quieter. The river itself was not nearly as spectacular as hiking up from Trail Bridge, but I could still appreciate it.

It was almost surprising when I abruptly came upon the Blue Pool. Coming from the other direction, it was easy to anticipate from trail impact, but this way it was like I came around a corner and there it was. The waterfall was not flowing but there was quite a bit of underground stream flow coming out of the rocks. The Blue Pool is a pretty fantastic feature. I honestly didn't stay too long as I was really enjoying being out hiking today. The hike back was the same as the hike in, so I really just enjoyed the day being off work and out. The following day we were looking forward to Uncle Paul's visit which would be short and sweet. Oregon sure had a lot to offer just in our river valley.

French Pete Creek

It had been quite a while since I went on a noteworthy hike. I went back to Proxy Falls which is incredible, but since I had just been there a few months earlier was not really worth blogging about. I had also found it much more convenient to get my hiking bug out by taking the King Castle trail up Castle Rock that was right up the road from the house. I was also doing much more trail running given that Oregon had this perfect climate for running. I was a sweaty guy, so dealing with the heat was always an issue. Running out here, though, was just incredible because the temperatures always seemed to be in that comfortable range.

We had also taken quite a bit of time off and made many sacrifices to take a trip out to Arizona to be in my good friend Steve's wedding. Being teachers in our first year at a new school, most of our time was taken up getting prepared to teach, teaching, and evaluating student progress. It was exhausting and I was feeling it. The wedding itself took a lot out of us and by Christmas Break we were in need of a break. We were both tired. Jacqueline handled that by sleeping in and taking it easy for many days. I handled it by wanting to get out. The problem with that idea is that Oregon is much rainier and snowier than when we were living around Zion.

In fact it had been really rainy. Once Christmas Break started, it rained for 3 days straight. The field across from our house was turning into a lake. It would have been more nerve racking if our house was not situated on a hill above the field. Still, it was not leading to a very good feeling that the trails would be open for hiking. We took one day to celebrate Jacqueline's birthday in Eugene. The next day, though, I was off for a new hike. The goal on this day was to hike French Pete Creek which was up the Auf der Heide Road. I was not quite sure how far I would make it, but I was getting out. The weather was finally a bit better with the rain giving way to just soggy conditions.

I got up to go early and I was on the road by 7:30 AM. The waterfalls were really going especially by the hot spring. The road was in good condition for the most part except for a few rocks and branches on the road. I pulled in to the parking lot and I was the only one there. That was not too surprising. Not many people would consider this a good day to go out hiking. It wasn't too long before the trail put me out by the creek and it was raging. I was struck by the power of what I assumed was typically a fairly mild mannered stream. I hiked the trail which was nearly to water level in many places carefully as I did not want to take a dip in that rushing water.

The hardest part was crossing the side streams. They were really challenging making sure that I did not take any risks. Staying dry was not an option, but staying upright was essential. I was really moving for most of it expecting a good full day by this rushing river. Instead, after just a couple of miles, I found myself trying to figure out where I had lost the trail. I backtracked until I found where I left it. I looked across the creek to see it continuing on the other side of the river. Getting over to that spot was out of the question on this day, but I wondered if I could continue on the other side of the river for a while to where the trail would meet up again.

No luck and I found myself scrambling up steep and slippery terrain for no apparently good reason. I was actually pretty disappointed that my day was ending early, even before lunch time. I took some pictures and headed back to the house. I guess I picked the wrong trail, but I was glad I got to see the river with this much water and power heading out to the Cougar Reservoir. Later, I would learn that French Pete Creek was one of the only examples of low elevation old growth forest that was a topic of discussion in the 60s. It was set to be logged, but environmentalists saved it from the chain saw to eventually be burned by the fires in 2017 and 2018. On this day, though, I was back to spend the day with the family and wait for warmer, drier weather to return.