Siskiyou Wilderness

Christine’s spring break is this week, and we took the opportunity to go on a little camping trip – our first in almost two years!  We settled on the Siskiyou Wilderness, a mountainous area to the north of us and just a little inland.  Normally, most of this area is not accessible at this time of year, due to high water in the streams and rivers at low elevations and snow at higher elevations.  But the unusually dry winter left us hoping for good conditions, so we packed up, piled in the car, and drove north!

Our first plan – to explore some of the higher alpine areas – was stymied by a ranger’s warning of icy, potentially dangerous roads to the trailheads.  So instead we decided to take the low-elevation South Kelsey Trail, which stretches for nearly 30 miles along the South Fork of the Smith River.  We managed to hike in about four miles from the trailhead, fording numerous small streams and a couple of bigger ones, before we reached Eightmile Creek.  Early spring wildflowers were blooming all along the way, as the trail hugged the  steep walls of the damp river canyon.

Even with the dry winter, Eightmile Creek was wide and fast-flowing and somewhat intimidating, and we opted not to try crossing.  So we camped on the tiny flat just above where the creek runs into the South Fork of the Smith, and where the pleasant, dull roar of rushing water drowns out most other noises.   From time to time, out of that loud white noise, voices and music and other unexpected sounds seemed to emerge.  But we knew they were the inventions of our noise-addled brains, and for reasons that escape me, they were strangely comforting.

South Fork of the Smith River

 

Eightmile Creek

The next day, we back-tracked a little and connected to another trail up out of the South Fork canyon.  The Summit Valley Trail took us on a nearly uninterrupted climb for about six miles, gaining roughly 3,500 feet of elevation to the Summit Valley Lookout.  Along the way, we passed through a striking patchwork of habitats, from the wet temperate rainforest of the canyon to the dry scrub of the south-facing hillsides to the subalpine vegetation near the Lookout.  Hummingbirds defended the blooming manzanitas with aggressive dives at our heads on the lower slopes, and we got a look at a beautiful pileated woodpecker on a snag.  On the higher slopes, we began to encounter substantial patches of snow in the shady areas.

After the strenuous climb, the Lookout itself was somewhat anticlimactic – a flat, gravelly, bald hilltop.  Trees blocked some of the inland view, and in fact we got better views of the mountains along the trail itself.  But from the top, looking west over the ridges and valleys, the Pacific Ocean was clearly visible.  We could even see waves breaking near the beach!

Manzanita Flowers

Snow on the Trail

View from Summit Valley Trail

Summit Valley Lookout

The Pacific Ocean!

We descended back to our campsite on Eightmile Creek with sore feet and spent another night there before packing back to the trailhead in the morning.  From the sand of the riverbank to the snow on the mountain, our own tracks were the only ones we saw for the entire trip.