Trail Talk – September 2024

NATURE BATHING. Mindfulness. Sense of Place. We venture into the out-of-doors to challenge our comfort zones, to enlarge our horizons, and to simply have new experiences. Though there are a wide array of commercial enterprises built around our need for therapeutic self-help, sometimes our wellness is simply dependent on a tried-and-true Walk in the Woods. There are untold numbers of books, pamphlets, and brochures that extol the virtues of simply lacing up one’s shoes and wandering along a trail in the forest. After all, anything that makes us feel well is likely to be, by definition, wellness.

A recent adventure was undertaken for the emotional purpose of laying to rest the ashes of a long-time trail companion. The chosen loop, known as Lone Wolf in the distant days of trail maintenance in the Cascades, has been the source of many happy memories of days and nights spent in the company of our border collie, Sofie. Fastpacking up and around the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Rogue River, me jogging along with my Osprey pack, and Sofie trotting along in her Ollie pack, would bring us into an overnight wilderness camp where the spring water was almost too cold to drink, where the dark skies produced remarkable stargazing, and where the huckleberries were simply too many to devour.

But alas. The trails are no longer maintained on a regular basis. Almost 30 miles of crawling over and under and around and through innumerable downed trees and overgrown brush made for slow progress. Running was out of the question and the simple act of walking became overwhelming at times. Knowledge of the route was critical because the trail often simply disappeared for long stretches. This was a challenge, though in retrospect, a necessary endeavor for the emotional satisfaction of knowing that Sofie is resting in places she loved to visit.

Which brings us to the wonderfully maintained trails of our Jacksonville Parks. As one ventures into these parks, seasonal changes become apparent. The blooms of Spring yield to the shedding of leaves and bark from the Pacific Madrones, interspersed on the trails with the heavy cone drop of the Douglas firs. As Fall arrives and moisture returns to the parched woods, oak, alder, cottonwood, and maple shed their leaves, revealing the skeletal branches of the Winter landscape.

An excellent late season hike to embrace these changing conditions, often in quiet solitude, is the Arrowhead Pass area of Forest Park. Parking at P5 or P7 on Norling Rd. allows access to trails along the creek bottom before climbing the gentle slopes to the ridge. There the trail loops down along China Ditch, another mining area. An aptly named bench provides a view of soon-to-be snowcapped Red Buttes in California. The ridgeline forest provides an excellent example of changing forest conditions, as the climax fir forest yields to climate change, and is replaced by pines. Multiple loops of varying lengths are possible in this area. It’s a quiet place where mindfulness is the rule of the day.