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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 20, 2000)
V. . Come out and play Performance and comfort FOOTWISE THE BIRKENSTOCK STORE /.//.> Siaiinn //>r \invl!! F >>i fickfN iSt Information The Fabulous bo’s Dinner, Dessert & Beverages Available Actors Cabaret, 996 Willamette Remember when you discovered Reck N* Roll? Chapel of Love, Do Wah Diddy, Da Doo Ron Ron, and MORE!!! The Elfie Greenwich Musical Seek by Anne Beatts Music & lyrics by Ellie Greenwich & Friends Directed by Michael P. Watkins June 23,24,30 & July 1,7 & 8, 2000 Relive The Music of Call 683-4368 Be cool... Make a better world. RECYCLE! Bankof America McKenzie-WMametif H O S PI T \ | Inge Scheve for the Emerald Fall Creek is just a short jaunt away and offers up a cool respite from the hot days. Fall into summertime with a hike up the creek By Inge Scheve for the Emerald I’m a kid from interior Alaska where trees — beyond birch and alders — are limited to stick-like black spruce, stunted by intermit tent permafrost and nine-month winters with temperatures fre quently dropping below minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. To me, western Oregon woods seem like tropical rain forests. Al though technically far from tropi cal, the mild winters and bounti ful rainfalls in the Western CaSCadeS • N#S» N# Reporter’s NOTEBOOK provide for abun d a n t moss, gi g a n t i c ferns, larger-than-life firs and lots of caky mud. Fall Creek, only 40 minutes from Eugene, is one of my fa vorite getaways. On a beautiful day, sunshine barely trickles down onto the trail through the lush, moss-covered trees, making the understory foliage seem fluo rescent green. On rainy days — and there are plenty of these — the trail’s thick canopy offers trail runners, mountain bikers and hikers some protection form the rain. Exactly what is it that protects hikers from the rain? Trail users will encounter yew trees that are several hundred years old, with their skinny, nee dle-rich branches covered in hanging moss, almost to the point where the trees are invisible. Douglas firs, cedars and western hemlocks are among other conifers that help shelter the trail. Vine maple and hazelnut spread their leaves over the trail and pro tect trail users from whatever ele ments the conifers let through. Which is exactly why I love to run along Fall Creek when soggy Eugene winter days have me drenched on my other, more open running alternatives. In the sum mertime, that rain protection doubles as a shelter from Eu How to get there To find Fall Creek, take Highway 126 (business route) through Glen wood and most of Springfield. Just before the West McKenzie strip mall, take a right at the road sign toJasper-Lowell Road. Follow this road about 11 miles to Place Road, then take a left and follow this road pasta covered bridge on the left; Place Road becomes North Shore Road. Follow this road an other 13 mi ies through a few sma 11 dwellings and past the Fall River Dam to a sign for Willamette Na tional Forest. Keep going another 1/4 mile and park right before a bridge crossing the river. If you see the Dolly Varden campground, you’ve gone too far. Pull out your Willamette National Forest trail pass (available at G.l. Joe’s, REI or any Forest Service office in town), place it somewhere visible in your vehicle and start from the trail head next to the river. gene’s occasional sweltering heat. The trail meanders along the creek’s southwest bank for miles. Any hike is an out and back, rang ing from a few miles of easy ter rain to more challenging trail handling farther from the parking area. Other more challenging op tions exist in trails branching off from the main Fall Creek trail. One of those trails takes hikers to Clark Butte, elevation 2,643 feet, just short of two miles into the hike. Another one leads to Jones Creek Trail about three miles from the parking area. If hikers arrange for a shuttle, it is possible to hike nine miles to Forest Road 1828. The easiest hike, to Timber Creek where the trail crosses over Fall Creek, has a 200-foot eleva tion gain. Hikers who go all the way to Forest Road 1828 experi ence a 700-foot elevation gain and a terrain change to more open meadows and sunnier forests. Those who choose to scale Clark Butte face a 1,763-foot elevation Turn to Fall Creek, page 6B
