I had heard of the Metolius River. I had driven by the turnoff for the Metolius River. I hadn't ever experienced the Metolius River. Conrad and I were seeking a place to go camping. It was still a school week, so I didn't want to do anything too ambitious. The Metolius was only an hour away. I figured that would be a great place to go camping. So Thursday night, we got the car all packed up. We were ready to go Friday morning and after a few errands we were on our way. The drive went pretty smooth as traffic was slow, but not exceptionally slow. We made the turnoff for the Metolius in no time at all. I was definitely acting like a tourist at this point. Road side sign, let's stop and check it out. Head of the Metolius, definitely going. Not very remarkable once we got there as it was hard to see after walking down a lonely paved path to a view that really was not much of a view. The river emerged from the base of Black Butte, but I could not have told you that if the guide books didn't.
Then it was off to find a campsite. We tried the Riverside Campground. Sounds nice, right. No river side to be had at this campground and just up the road they were doing a controlled burn. Not so nice. We drove up the road a ways and after looking through one campground, we found our way to site 1 in Pine Flat. $21 a night is pretty steep for a campsite, but the bonus was that the trail we were looking to hike left right from our campsite. We set up the tent, ate some lunch, and then were on our way down the East Metolius River trail. The trail paralleled the river, sometimes being high above it on the plateau and sometimes being right by the banks. The water in the river was so clear and the trail was so quiet. The best part of the whole day was after we went down a series of switchbacks and were right along the water's edge. Here were the most rapids and we saw monster fish in the river.
We followed this for quite some time going about 3.5 miles before getting to Wizard Falls. Wizard Falls was not much of a falls as it was just a part of the river that was carved out deeper. It still looked pretty cool though. From here the trail made a 6 mile loop. We followed the banks and saw many middle aged to elderly men out fly fishing. I don't think we saw any women and I wondered why fly fishing did not appeal to females. I am not a fly fisherman myself, so I could not answer that question. Instead we just continued to hike seeing I flock of geese with about ten young geese and a species of duck that seemed unusual. About 3 miles down the river, we came to another bridge and this time crossed over to the west side of the river.
This was nice because this side of the river was shaded and more forested. We still had great views of the river and walked by many a focused fly fisherman on our way back to Wizard Falls. From Wizard Falls we could stay on the west side and add another 3-5 miles to our hike or go back to the East side and walk with the sun in our faces. Since it was already going to be a 13 mile hike, Conrad chose very quickly to do the east side. I looked longingly to the west side and its shady shores while we baked in the 80 degree afternoon sun. Soon we were back at our campsite to hang for the evening. We took a quick dip in the freezing creek where the best I could muster was a sponge bath and Conrad could really only muster a good foot washing. Then it was some pasta and peas for dinner. We played some cribbage, threw the football around, played some other games, read our books, and turned in once it was dark. All and all a very successful day seeing a very pristine part of Oregon.
