#15 North Umpqua Trail, Glide, Oregon

Hike 15 North Umpqua Trail, Portions of  Swiftwater, Tioga, and Wright Creek sections.

#52HikeChallege

Date:  April 28, 2020

Distance: 5ish mile

Weather: Gorgeous!
Type: Trail along the river
Company: Solo, of course! Along the way I an into a couple of cute pups and the people though. We made small talk and I took a pictures for one group from a respectable distance of course!

I was perusing some hiking pages on Facebook or Instagram when I noticed a  post about Wolf Creek Falls that seemed to be fairly recent. I started reading the comments and several people claimed the trails were open for hiking as long as users maintained social distancing and accepted that the restroom facilities were all closed.  WHAT?! What is this trickery!  Based on the news and press releases we have very much been led to believe that all outdoor spaces were OFF limits! Now, earlier this month I learned that the BLM land at the NorthBank Habitat was open and I enjoyed a lovely day exploring there. At the time I briefly considered heading out to the forest land to see if it was also open but ASSUMED based on the news reports that it wasn't. Well, you probably know what "they" say about assuming, right?  It makes an ass out of you and me...well in this case, definitely ME! I have been home for seven weeks now and I could have been hiking all that time! I truly feel robbed. BUT, the important thing is that I know now.

Now to the hike. I started out at the Swiftwater Trail Head of the North Umpqua Trail (sometimes referred to as the NUT). My initial plan was to hike to Fern Creek Falls which would have been about 3 miles (2.8 to be exact) round-trip.  Instead, I got distracted by a side trail and decided to follow it to see where it went. Turns out it makes a loop and takes you to an old parking area, down the road, and eventually back to the parking area. The whole things was just over a mile. I wanted to do a longer hike and it seemed silly to hike back out to where I had already been, so instead I hopped in the car and headed down to the next trail-head which is the Tioga Bridge. 

After stopping along the bridge to take some lovely pictures I headed towards the Wright Creek trail-head. It is 8 mile section, clearly I was not going to do the whole thing--since I was alone and didn't have a shuttle car-- but I explored parts of it for fun. I went out about a mile-and-a-half until it got too muddy. By the time I made it back to the Tioga section, I had walked just under four miles. I felt like I had a little more in me so I headed out towards the Swiftwater trail-head (from Tioga).   I didn't have any specific destination at that point, just thought I would see how far I could go. I was reluctant to leave the peace and tranquility of the forest. I loved being lost in the trees, feeling the breeze, hearing the river, and the crunch of the trail beneath my shoes. Bliss.

Until my stomach started growling! It was almost 5:00 by them so I turned around and headed back to the car.   In the end I had walked around 5 miles and soaked up lots of tree therapy! MUCH needed therapy!

#bliss #everydayadvdentures #thingsthatmakemehappy #52hikechallenge