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Trails of the Applegate Watershed

People have been using trails for a long time. At some point we humans realized it was far easier to move through the forest or jungle, across the prairie or desert, or over the mountains along a path that was already worn. Trails freed us from the need to navigate an uncharted wilderness or negotiate obstacles and rough terrain. We followed them to hunt, forage for fruits and roots, and fetch water.  Later we used trails to reach our fields, transport crops, and trade with neighboring villages. Before roads, trails connected us.

In much of the world, roads have largely replaced trails, at least for quickly transporting people and goods.  Recreational trail use is a relatively recent trend in human history. Today, people enjoy the trails of the Applegate watershed in many ways. Spend time on our trails and you’ll likely see hikers, runners, mountain bike riders, and equestrians. You’ll bump into couples out for a stroll, families on a picnic outing, folks photographing flowers or peering at birds. In the spring you might meet backpackers getting in shape for their next big trip or mushroomers heading to their secret places, and in the fall you’ll often see hunters.

This map shows many of the Applegate’s trails. If your favorite trails are missing, let us know and we’ll update the map. Check in periodically to see how the map is filling out. We hope to add more trail locations and information about the trails and the organizations that maintain them. Help us make a complete Applegate Valley Trails map! Send your updates to [email protected].

Trails still have the power to connect us—to history. As you pass along Applegate Valley trails you’re likely traveling the same paths followed by the valley’s early residents. Today’s trails were often built along the same routes that Native Americans used to migrate up and down the valley or cross mountain ridges to trade with neighboring tribes. Trails built to support mining, lumber, and grazing activities are also still used today—hikers on a historic ditch trail have only to imagine meeting an 1890s ditch rider, armed with shovel and axe, patrolling to keep water flowing toward a distant mine or farming community. Travelers on several higher-elevation trails might envision a 1920s pack train en route to resupply a fire lookout or lumber camp.

Trails connect us to natural communities too. Trails that wander along the contour of a mountainside or switchback up a steep slope take us through different plant communities that arise and thrive with changing elevations and aspects. Stop for a moment and take note of all the trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses that surround you. Walk some distance—a thousand paces on contour or a thousand steps up or down–and you might be in a different botanical world. Birds, mammals, and other mobile members of the natural community will have shifted, too, if they have a preference for where they live.

No two days on a trail are the same. Like walking through an enormous art museum, every turn beckons us onward to gallery after gallery of interesting, exciting, ever-changing works of nature that nurture all of our senses. The more time we spend, the more slowly we move, the more we take in. A new tapestry unfolds each moment of each day of each season. Inhale fragrances that herald springtime, taste the heat of a hazy summer day, feel the crisp, cool snap of winter or hear the crunch of frozen ground beneath your feet. Look up to the clouds racing overhead, lean on a swaying tree for support, and feel kinship as the earth spins on its endless cycle around the sun. Many seek refuge in the solitude of wild places where they can re-calibrate, refresh, and renew, away from the hectic pace of modern life.

Trails have the power to rekindle memories of childhood adventures; they transport us to a place we recall the excitement of beginning a journey, discovering new sights and sounds, and expanding our universe.

In addition to meeting fellow hikers, mountain-bike riders, and others on the trail, you might happen upon a volunteer trail crew. Think about it. The reason we follow trails at all is because they create a vacuum in nature, a path scraped in the earth, small trees, brush, and branches cut away to facilitate passage. But nature abhors a vacuum and is constantly filling the void. Branches and shrubs grow into the trail corridor as much as several feet each year. Grasses reclaim the tread. Burrowing animals leave holes and mounds, which can redirect both foot traffic and water runoff. Fallen trees block the path.

If not maintained, trails soon become impassible. For example, volunteer crews visit each mile of the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail once every two or three years to repair tread and cut back branches and bushes. Trails that receive less attention gradually become overgrown obstacle courses that challenge us to clamber over fallen trees and limbo through encroaching poison oak and brush.

Who works on a volunteer trail crew? People like you! It is estimated that volunteers do well over 50% of trail maintenance in the Applegate Valley. Whether retired or still working, people of all ages from all walks of life volunteer, like teachers, students, truck drivers, accountants, contractors, air traffic controllers, biologists, firefighters, actors, scientists, city planners, horse trainers, farmers, physical therapists, ranchers, architects, mechanics, and more. What do they have in common? A love of trails and the knowledge that they make a difference. If they don’t help to keep trails open, who will? Like it or not, shifting government agency priorities have resulted in fewer hired crews doing this work. Either volunteers do it or it doesn’t get done, and we risk losing the trails we love.

Please volunteer with any of the nonprofit trails groups maintaining trails in the Applegate Valley area. You’ll be rewarded with camaraderie and a feeling of accomplishment. It’s also fun! Contributing just a few hours each year makes a difference. Opportunities abound; there are choices to match your interests and abilities. If you’re not able to help maintain trails but have fundraising, community outreach, or event organizing experience, most trails groups need people with those skills too.  So whether you enjoy working with loppers, a handsaw, or a Pulaski, or prefer working at a computer or talking on the phone, if you enjoy being on trails, you’ll enjoy helping to keep them open. And if you’d like to form a trails organization to maintain your favorite Applegate Valley trail, other trails groups will gladly help you get started.

Whatever your reasons for being on the trail—staying in shape, thrill and adventure, connecting to nature or history, relaxation and renewal—keep using them! You show your support by just being out there. And where trailheads have registries—please sign in. Government agencies review this log to determine user levels, which drives maintenance funding. A trail with a thousand visitors who can’t be bothered to sign in looks to the agency like an unpopular route. And if you can give more, please either make a donation to a trails group or join in the effort to keep our trails open.

Trail etiquette. When you happen upon other trail users, shout out a “hello” when you see them. This is particularly important if you’re on a bicycle, which can move along quickly and quietly, startling otherwise absorbed pedestrians or spooking horses. Always yield to equestrians—ask the riders where they want you to stand so they can pass by. Leave only footprints. Pack out trash to keep the trail pristine for future generations.

Many of the trails on this map are designated nonmotorized and many are shared with off-highway vehicles (OHVs), usually motorcycles. Please respect other trail users’ rights to use trails appropriately.

Please report adverse trail conditions like downed trees, trail damage from misuse, or illegally constructed user-built trails to the land manager (BLM or the US Forest Service) and the trail group associated with maintaining that trail.

The following organizations have partnered with either the Forest Service or the BLM to help maintain trails here.   They have agreed to meet specific trail standards and safety practices, and they all do the essential work of keeping the trails open.

ATA.  The Applegate Trails Association has an agreement with the BLM to help maintain the Applegate Ridge Trail.   At this time (2018), a six mile section of the trail between Highway 238 and Sterling Creek Road—the East ART—has been completed.  ATA is working with government agencies and private land holders to further the Applegate Ridge Trail from Highway 238 to the Cathedral Hills Trails near Grants Pass.  ATA holds work trail maintenance work parties during the winter months.  ATA also hosts guided hikes throughout the Applegate; visit www.applegatetrails.org for more information.

BCHO.  Back Country Horsemen of Oregon has worked throughout the Applegate River watershed to both clear trails and pack in supplies and equipment for trail crews.   You can reach them at www.bcho.org/chapters/sourdough-chapter.

MRA.  The Motorcycle Riders Association has an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to maintain trails in the Applegate Watershed.   Visit www.motorcycleridersassociation.org for contact information.

PCTA.  The Pacific Crest Trails Association maintains the Pacific Crest Trail as it skirts the southern edge of the Applegate River watershed, from the Red Buttes Wilderness to Meridian Meadows, headwaters of the Little Applegate River.   Visit www.pcta.org for information about scheduled trail maintenance.

RVMBA.  The Rogue Valley Mountain Bike Riders Association has agreements with the Forest Service, works on many trails around Applegate Lake, including Mule Mountain, Collins Mountain, Cook and  Green, Little Grayback, and Stein Butte trails.    Visit www.rvmba.org for information.

SMC.  The Siskiyou Mountain Club helps to maintain trails in the Red Buttes Wilderness and beyond.  In 2017 they worked on the Shoofly, Whiskey Creek, Butte Falls, and Boundary Trails.  Visit www.siskiyoumountainclub.org to learn more about their wilderness trail maintenance work.

SOTA.  The Southern Oregon Trails Aliance.  Has an agreement with both the BLM and the Forest Service to maintain trails in the Applegate.   SOTA has been working to keep Greyback Mountain Trails open.  Visit www.sotrails.org for information about trail maintenance opportunities in the Applegate Valley.

SUTA.   The Siskiyou Upland Trails Association has an agreement with the BLM to help maintain the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail, Jacks-Ash Trail, and Hidden Springs Trail, all located on the eastern end of the Applegate Valley, on and around Anderson Butte.   SUTA is working with government agencies to extend the Jack-Ash Trail from Ashland to Jacksonville.   SUTA holds trail maintenance work parties one Saturday each month from October – April.  Work parties start at 8:30 AM and end with a SUTA provided lunch.   Visit www.sutaorgeon.org for an events schedule.

WCFP.  The Williams Community Forest Project has been working with the BLM to open the Layton Ditch Trail that winds across the foothills above Williams.   Visit www.williamscommunityforestproject.org for more information.

Whatever your reasons for being on the trail—staying in shape, thrill and adventure, connecting to nature or history, relaxation and renewal—keep using them!   You show your support by just being out there.  And where trailheads have registries—please sign in.  The agencies review this log to determine user levels, which drives maintenance funding.  A trail with a thousand visitors who can’t be bothered to sign in looks to the agency like an unpopular route.   And if you can give more—please either make a donation to a trails group, or join in the effort to keep our trails open.

Trail etiquette.  When you happen upon other trail users, shout out a “hello” when you see them.   This is particularly important if you’re on a bicycle which can move along quickly and quietly, startling otherwise absorbed pedestrians, or spooking horses.  Always yield to equestrians—ask the riders where they want you to stand so they can pass by.  Leave only footprints.  Pack out trash to keep the trail pristine for future generations.

Many of the trails on this map are designated non-motorized, and many are shared with OHVs, usually motorcycles.  Please respect other trail users’ rights to use trails appropriately.

Please report adverse trail conditions like downed trees, trail damage from misuse, or illegally constructed user-built trails to the land manager (BLM or Forest Service) and the trail group associated with maintaining that trail.

Written by Jim Reiland | Map by Annette Parsons