Rebel Rock

 I was a little bit nervous about how this hike would go. I knew that the Rebel Creek trail was almost indiscernible last time I attempted to hike that, but the Rebel Rock trail was the other half of the loop. I knew that it was not nearly as impacted by the fire as the Rebel Creek trail. That fire was over 8 years ago, but still the trail had not been cleared since. It was one of my favorite loops to do and I remembered that even before the fire, the trail could be difficult to locate. So obviously, I was a little bit wary about how this was going to go. From the very beginning, I could tell that it was going to go well. It seemed someone had been out here recently cutting trees out and moving debris from the trail. I was able to just hike and find the trail in most places. 

The trail went uphill pretty quickly. Even by the road, the switchbacks began. I was right at the end of the cross country season, so I was in pretty good shape. An uphill hike was nothing to me and I spent most of my time listening to Bill Bryson tell me a tale on the History of Nearly Everything. It had become my practice to listen to audiobooks while hiking. I used to be a little bit ashamed as I should be out listening to nature and thinking my own thoughts. Given that I work so much, this was my chance to do two things that I enjoy doing at once as reading and hiking are two of my favorite activities. This was a really good book and also a very interesting hike. The trees were in pretty good shape. There were sections that were burned out pretty good and other sections where it looked pristine. All and all, though, it was an enjoyable uphill hike through the forest. I wondered how long it would go before I would run into an impassable section of trail that would turn me around. It just kept going and going though. The trail took me past one big creek crossing which looked like it had flashed at some point in its recent history. It looked like it would be interesting to hike up the stream on a different day. 

It took me through a big meadow that was lined out with flagging. You could tell that someone had done some work on this trail recently. At the top of that meadow, the trail went through a dense wood, than popped out to an amazing view of the Sisters. This meant I was on top and I would then follow that around. As I was doing that, I looked for the old lookout site. It was pretty easy to find with some old pieces of the foundation still intact. This was an awesome lookout when it was still around, but now it was burned to the ground. I looked around for a while and enjoyed the view. It was an amazing day with clear views all around. I could look down and see the ridges and mountain tops for miles. I could see why this was a good place to put a lookout. 

Looking over to the actual Rebel Rock, it made me want to come back and climb to the top of that. I would have to do that and also I was hoping that I could connect with the other side of the trail and make a loop out of it. As I approached the other side of that though, the trail rapidly disappeared. At one point I was just in the woods fighting downed trees and fallen branches. I decided right away to turn around. I had already hiked nearly 6 miles anyway and gained over 3000 vertical feet. This was an excellent conditioning hike and I didn't feel the need to fight the woods for much longer. Turning around I really spent some time on the ridge before dropping back down. 

This was such a nice day with great views, but it was also the middle of November, so the light would be slipping away soon. So I started back down. This was smooth sailing with the trail work recently done, most likely by volunteer trail crews like the Salamanders or the Scorpions. I continued listening to my book learning new facts and interesting tidbits of information on each turn of the trail. I really enjoyed being out here along the McKenzie as there were always new places to explore even if those places I had been to previously. This felt like a brand new hike as it was much different than it was when I tread this trail more than 8 years in the past. 

Beeler Spring

 It didn't take long before I was back on the South Olallie Trail. Given I just hiked this trail a few weeks prior and had run into 3 trails that I never hiked before, I knew that this trail was going to become a new favorite. This time I wasn't looking to hike the South Olallie Trail, but was instead hoping to hike the other side of the Rebel Creek Trail. I knew that this was going to be a tough one because when I hiked the Rebel Creek Trail even before it was burned in a wildfire, I never saw this offshoot. This trail, I was expecting, would be long forgotten. I started early enough that I would not have to worry about the daylight that was becoming significantly less this time of year. It is still quite a haul to get up to this trail with significant vertical ascent over 4 miles. I would estimate about 2500 feet of elevation gain.

Where the trail began was essentially where the Olallie Trail stopped gaining vertically. Here there was a sign and the path looked relatively like a path. It didn't look like it had been used much in the past, oh let's say, 75 years, but it was a path. It was too bad that it wasn't used much because this actually turned out to be quite a nice trail. It was fairly level for most of the way and followed a path that seemed rather easy to follow. With GPS as good as it is, it was not hard for me to stay on the supposed "trail" even though in many places it was hard to find. There were times that I would lose it, but would eventually find my way back to it. There were lots of logs to cross over and debris to go around, but there was also the faint, discernible path that led through a comfortable forest. There weren't a lot of views in this forest, but at times it would peak out to the top of a ridge with a view down to the valley below. I loved this section of the forest because it was just so wild. There were huge expanses of untouched forest to enjoy. There was only one significant feature on the map on this entire section and that was Beeler Spring. When I got to where it should be on the map, I could not find any water. From this spot, the trail began to climb and I lost it for a good chunk of time. There would be giant logs down over the trail that I had to work my way around. 

This slowed me down significantly and during this section I was only able to cover 1 mile in about an hour. Eventually, I would regain the path and it would take me to a promontory point where I would have to descend from this point on. It looked like at this point that I was only about a mile and a half from the main trail. The problem was that the trail continued to descend and to become more and more faint. Given the amount of daylight that I had this time of year, I was starting to question whether to turn back. When the trail completely disappeared, I decided that turning back was a good choice. I really wanted to connect it to the other side of the Rebel Creek Trail, but I would just have to come back another day to make this happen. 

I could see Rebel Rock from where I turned around. It was the wise decision. As I was hiking back, I was thinking about why this trail had been abandoned. I thought about the old days when horse travel was a common thing to do to navigate in the wilderness. This would have been a thoroughfare used to get to other parts of the forest. When horses went out of style and the forest service started building roads, this became an unnecessary trail. Since it didn't go to a destination, what was the use of it. I thought that to be unfortunate. Sometimes it seems the forest service uses the designation of wilderness as a way to hide behind not having to maintain an area. This section of the forest was also used for grazing 100 years ago. At one point, there were probably sheep everywhere. I appreciated that they were gone, but the trails were probably in better shape at that point. 

I decided to really look for Beeler Spring on the way back and eventually, I think I found it. It was a damp spot on the ground with a little bit of cut logs around it. At some point, this probably provided water for horses and sheep in this area. Now, it was abandon and had filled in with debris. I wondered what it would take to bring it back to its former glory days. For some reason, it was put on maps all the way back to the 1930s. This was important enough to be on a map, but not important enough to maintain. Kind of like the trail I was hiking today. I made it back to the Olallie Trail finding it a bit easier to hike back on a trail I had already hiked out on. From there I jogged all the way back to the car. It was almost 4 miles all downhill, but I was in good enough shape to make that happen. It turned out to be a great day and when I tried to research more about Beeler Spring, I was stumped by the internet. So, that is why I named my blog post Beeler Spring. I will probably be the only reliable information out there. 

Clear Lake in the Fall

This is a hike we have done as a family many times, but we can't find another one that is easier to see such nice sights so quickly. The issue is that many others have discovered this same thing, so we are often sharing the trail with many people. This day was no different because when we drove up in the early afternoon to the Clear Lake trailhead, there was not a parking spot to be found. There were cars parked in all sorts of odd places. Luckily, being a local in the area, I knew exactly where to park. I drove up about a half mile up the road and there was a dirt road that intersected the McKenzie River Trail. I parked the car and was the only one there. We continued downstream until we ran into the trail around Clear Lake. 

Even though the parking lot was very busy, the trail did not quite seem as busy. There were other things than hiking for people to do, like get out onto the lake in their boats. The real draw were the fall colors that were out in full force everywhere. We enjoyed them a lot especially Jacqueline. We walked south to start and that took us to the parking lot. After a short bathroom stop, we continued down the trail. This was a nice leisurely day for the runners in the family who could use a day off of running. We just walked which was a piece of cake. The trail took us by the outlet where we crossed over the start of the McKenzie River. Then we were back in the trees heading north. 

Here the trail got a little rough in places, but eventually it sent us out into the lava flow that made the lake. A couple of thousand years ago, Sand Mountain which is a volcano, erupted causing molten rock to come down and block up the lake. It is so recent, that you can still see stumps and trees in the lake from when it was formed. The trail by the lava flow is in nice shape, though, because this section is paved. This is also one of the more picturesque spots because you can really see the greens of the lake appearing. Then the trail goes back into the woods and takes you right by the Great Spring. Here, you can see where the water rushes out of the large aquifer that is underneath the Oregon Central Cascades. 

This is really what formed the McKenzie River as the volcanoes in central Oregon are so porous with their soil that most of the snow melt just goes underground rushing out in these large rivers. The Great Spring looks so cold and so clear that the waters of Clear Lake are some of the clearest in the world. The colors all around the Great Spring were really nice too. The trail continues on from here crossing a couple of very nicely built bridges before running into the McKenzie River trail again. We headed back up the trail the way we came to our car, still the only one parked on this dirt road. It was a very comfortable and easy 5-6 mile loop on a Saturday in October to see beautiful colors and have a great day as a family getting outside.