| Date: July 18, 2006 | | Location North Umpqua Trail Hike | | Where: Tioga Segment | Since moving to Elkton I have been daily fishing or cycling, but have discovered that I am missing hiking. I resolved to fix that and put together a hike on the nearby North Umpqua Trail. Jeanette, Buster, and I were joined by a new Elkton friend, Janet Schaller, who also likes to hike.
|  | | Janet and Jeanette at Swiftwater Trailhead I chose to start at the closest trailhead, Swiftwater, which is the west end of the 15 mile Tioga Segment of the North Umpqua Trail.
|  | | Janet and Jeanette at Fern Creek Falls Bridge The trail parallels the North Umpqua River for the most part, winding through a shady canopy of mixed forest of cedars, alders, and firs, with a thick understory of lush ferns, salal, and Red Huckleberry.
|  | | Janet and Jeanette with large trail cut Our turn around point for the day was directly across the river from Baker Park. On our return we were pleased to see a Varied Thrush in the same location Janet had spotted it on the way in. We were also very surprised at a number of wildflowers we had missed on the incoming trip, such as Bellflower.
Statistics for the day: Distance 6 miles, accumulative climb 740 ft, time 3:45.
|  | | Tioga Segment Map |  | | Fern Creek Falls |  | | Varied Thrush |
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