Day 8: Southern Oregon
We left Medford earlyinteh morinign and drove towards Granst Pass and rthen turned right on I-5. I wanted to drive some country roads as I was interested in a area that had mining ghost towns. It was supposed to reach 100 degress today and had been that way for the last couple days. They have had a fire hazard alert in the area this week. My first stop would be Winona as I took a right off of exit 66 and drove on Jumpoff Joe Creek road to where the little town used to be. It is now separated into acre lots of farm land and I didn't see any signs of Winona still visible. There was alot of mining in this area in the late 1800's and still a little bit going on today. As I started back I decided to take a gravel road that would start winding up Roberts Mountain. It was nice to get off of the highway and drive in the quiet forest all by myself. I took the road to the end of the mountain as it gave me a nice view looking west at the mountains on the other side of I-5. To the east of me was hilly forested area and you could see certain sections where they had cut. I stayed there for about 15 minuts in the peace and quiet before starting back down.
I
now was looking for Lucky Queen Mine but the gravel turnoff road now said that
it was private property and i did not go further. I was then going to take a
gravel Mack Creek Rd to Placer as this woud be s shortcut rather than the highway.
It was a couple miles in where the road had collapsed from erosion and I would
have to turn back . I drove back to I-5 and droe tot he little town of Hugo.
I didn't see much there as ther was alot fo farming acres and alos a church
at a Y intersection but nothing that kept me interested so I went back to I-5.
I drove north now to Placer
as I turned off on exit 71 and would come to the Grave Creek wooden bridge.
It is well kept up with a history plaque by it and looks like a new coat of
paint. Past the bridge is where the town of Placer used to be. This town used
to be a mmajore source of activities for miners in the late 1800's s there wer
hotels, saloon, trade stores and speakeasies. It was the largest town in the
county at one time inthelate 1800's. therre wer some old remains of buildings
still left 25 yuears ago but i didinot see any today.
My nest stop wouldl be Golden and there was a shotcut gravel road on Placer
Rd that take me over a quiet forested area and then come back down into the
famland and into Golden.
This town still has a church from 1892 and a Store from 1904 standing along
the side of the road. It churh sign had posted session still on sundays. The
door was alittle open and I went into take a look at small clean church that
also had apamphlet explaining the the town of Golden had been bought by a mining
company withen the last year. It sounded like they intend to keep the buildings
up, only time will tell. I drove west past I-5 and went to Wolf Creek where
there was agas station, store and a Wold Creek Taver whose buildint was built
in 1883. There are stories about President Hayes and Jack London having both
visited here. They also serve food back from when the Oregon trail was still
in use. It sound like a great place to eat but I didn't go in because I didn't
want to have an alcohol this early int eafternoon. if your ever in the area,
stop in to get something to eat, have some coffee or just look around at the
history. there is also a campsight nearby.
I left Wolf Creek and drove north to take exit #80 and would go into the town of Glendale. This is a small town with a couple main business streets and a park. I went into the store and was able to buy three pieces of chicke and and MoJo fries for $3. the chicken was god and not greasy. I went and sat at the park and ate dinner. While I was there I noticed that everybody new everybody as they walked along the sidewalks of the main street. It was both farm land and lu8mber industry here as it had the mountain ranges to both sides of it. there was also a backroad that looked like it went into the mountains but I didn't have time today to take it. I drove back to I-5 and the next stop would be Roseburg. There seeme to be an old part and new part of town that was devided by I-5. The town reminded me of rural area residents trying to live the city life. As I was in town driving by i had one person riding a bike on myside fo thestreet going in my lane. I also had a person walk right in front of me not lookng for traffic. I also saw my first accident at a stop light and one person almost hit me as he drove by the accident . All of this happened in five minutes. I didn't know if it was me or the people hwo lived her. I stopped i thestore and a customer show me a coupon where he was going to get free mile at safeway ontly to find out that you now need a plastic card to get sale prices at Safeway. It seemed like a small town expanding but the people lives weren't changing with it. I bought some pop and left as I had drank two sixpacks of pop in this 100 degree dry weather today.
I
wanted off of I-5 and took highway 138 going east thru farming valley. This
is a wide two lane quiet highway that passes rolling hills and a lot of sheep.
The fog finally lifted around 11:00 and we could tell it would be a nice day
down here as it was partially cloudy and expected to be 65 today. We turned
off on the exit to Whistler Bend Park and drove by lots of green pastures, sheep,
horses, cows and finally came to the park. There was only one other person there.
It was along the North Umpqua River and had camping and picnicking. It looked
like a good family camping area or if someone was interested in fishing the
river.
Back
on highway 138 we come to a small community of Glide which is where the Little
River splits off from the Unpqua River. There are a couple hotels here and not
much more. There are also many waterfalls around this area. We stopped at Swiftwater
Park which was right off of the highway. There was a person there who told us
that in the Fall fish are jumping out of the water trying to go upstream to
spawn. He also mentions a trail here that went to Deadline Falls but we did
not take it. We also passed trails to Susan Falls and Fall Creek Falls which
were both one mile hikes. We didn't stop for these because our real destination
was Southern Oregon. Steamboat Falls was next and this was six miles off the
main highway and then you turned left into a campsite. The location of the falls
wes not marked. It was a large,wide falls and not very high. The trail was still
pretty muddy because of the time of year and the spray coming from the falls.
From
the Steamboat Falls campground we took National Park road 1470, which was gravel,
to the Illahee Lookout and drove around the mountain. 
It
wasn't rvery good scenery but we were high in elevation and eventually reached
snow. we came out back on highway 138 and drove around the small village of
Toketee. There are more hiking trails to go to Watson Falls, Toketee Falls and
Umpaqua Hot Springs in the vicinity. I would like to come back here and spend
a weekend in the area and see all the falls. We did take Fish Creek (NFD 3701)
which had some snow on it. We saw four deer in front of us crossing the road.
We came out at 138 just before Stump Lake. About a mile further is Clearwater
Falls which was only a short walk from the parking lot. So we decided to see
this one as it was a nice quite area and no one was around. The water runs into
Lost Creek which had a lot of moss-covered trees which had fallen in the river.
There were also benches in the woods to view the falls. This would be a nice
place to stop for a picnic in the middle of the day. We also drove back to Whitewater
Falls Campground and walked to the falls which were a punchbowl-type
Next
we left highway 138 to go north and see Limbo Lake. This was only a couple miles
away. We drove across a narrow dam and there were several campgrounds in the
vicinity. Warm Springs Falls was also in the vicinity which we did not look
for. There was a lot of snow on the side of the road. It might be a good place
to come a little later in the year after the snow has melted. Driving back on
highway 138 and going south would take us next to Diamond Lake. This ia a large
lake that still had ice on it at this time of year except near the dock. There
was a resort here where the people were taking their boats out and preparing
the engines for the summer season. The resort didn't look great as the cabins
were kinda dull and mainly for fishermen. There was one road that looked like
a shortcut to the highway that I took and ran into snow. I was driving over
the snow and started fishtailing all over the road. I was worried for a second
but I got control of it again. Cindy gave me a lecture about 'stop playing with
the truck and start using the 4-wheel drive even in the littlest amount of snow.'
I was embarrassed and deserved theleture