Appeal Tribune
| WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 2020 | 1B
OUTDOORS
BRANCH OUT
Oregon Redwoods Trail is on Oregon’s South Coast, near the town of Brookings. It’s one of only two places in the state where redwoods can be found.
PHOTOS BY ZACH URNESS/STATESMAN JOURNAL
See ancient forest,
unique trees on
these hikes
out. They have a grey-ish white, shaggy
bark, with an almost golden hue to
them. They stick out to pretty much ev-
eryone who hikes this trail.
One of the reasons they grow in this
area is the geologic region — it’s an area
known as the Old Cascades. It’s a much
older range of mountains compared to
the volcanoes of the young Cascades,
and the old ones are a lot more biodi-
verse. A lot of really interesting wild-
flowers and trees all grow here, includ-
ing the Alaskas, which are some of the
oldest trees recorded — they can age to
1,800 years old and have kind of droop-
ing appearance that goes along with
shaggy bark.
Zach Urness
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
This won’t come across as any sur-
prise, but Oregon is home to some of the
world’s most spectacular forests and
trees.
From yew to sitka, ponderosa to red-
wood, from redcedar to myrtle, oak,
hemlock and Douglas-fir, trees are the
star of the show in the Beaver State.
A few months ago — pre-pandemic —
I sat down with Chandra LeGue, author
of “Oregon’s Ancient Forests: A Hiking
Guide” and a field coordinator for Ore-
gon Wild. We picked our 10 favorite tree-
centric trails — hikes that are all about
interesting, or unique, or downright bi-
zarre patches of forest across the state.
Our conversation can be heard online
in an episode of the Explore Oregon
Podcast. But included here are our 10
picks that include trails in every corner
of the state.
(Note: While most of Oregon’s out-
doors has reopened, double-check be-
fore traveling for COVID-19 limits or clo-
sures. See the online version of this sto-
ry for links to stories with more details,
including directions).
1. Oregon Redwoods (Zach pick)
My first pick has to be the Oregon
redwoods, just because nothing quite
compares with the majesty of an old-
growth redwood, and because there’re
so few places to see them on Beaver
State soil.
Redwoods just look and feel different
from any other tree.
There are actually two places to hike
4. Marys Peak East Ridge-
Tie Trail Loop (Chandra)
Sunlight breaks through the trees in the Valley of the Giants.
among Oregon redwoods and both are
located around the town of Brookings in
the extreme southwest corner of the
state. My favorite is Oregon Redwood
Trail. It’s a little more remote, a little far-
ther back there, and I love this trail be-
cause it starts off being pretty nonde-
script. You’re hiking through the forest,
pretty typical, and then the first grove of
giant redwoods show up out of the mist
and just tower over everything around
them. I love the hikes where the trees
really jump out, and that’s true here.
(Listen to the podcast for a story on
how the grove was saved from plans to
log it).
2. Malheur River Canyon (Chandra
pick)
Here’s a great trail for a unique mix of
trees: The Malheur River Trail. It begins
about 5.5 miles from the river’s headwa-
ters, in the Malheur National Forest
southeast of John Day, at the Malheur
Ford, and heads downstream past steep
canyon walls up to 1,000 feet tall.
Designated as a Wild and Scenic Riv-
er corridor, the forest along the trail is
dominated by big lodgepole and pon-
derosa pines and Douglas-firs, with
quite a bit of forest diversity. The trail
follows the river, climbs to forested
benches, crosses small drainages with
vibrant riparian vegetation and enters a
grove of ancient larch trees. The recom-
mended segment of the trail is 4.5 miles
round trip.
3. Echo Basin (Zach)
For my next pick I am going with
Echo Basin, a 3-mile trail off South San-
tiam Highway near Tombstone Pass in
the Cascade Range.
The reason I am picking this trail —
which is typically known for spring
wildflowers — is that it’s home to one of
Oregon’s most impressive groves of
Alaska Yellow Cedar. They are a really
cool tree that only grows in a handful of
places in Oregon and here, they stand
My next pick is also best known for
the spring wildflower displays in its
summit meadows, but the forests that
surround Marys Peak, and that shelter
the Corvallis water supply, are just as
worthy of exploring.
Located on the eastern edge of the
Coast Range and Siuslaw National For-
est, Marys Peak is the highest peak in
the Coast Range and not far outside of
Corvallis. The recommended 5-mile
loop begins on the East Ridge Trail at
Conner Camp, climbs through a tall, ca-
thedral-like forest of Douglas-fir and
vine maple, then gains elevation
through a forest that transitions to a
unique stand of old-growth noble firs.
The loop uses the Tie Trail, which fol-
lows a moist slope of Douglas-fir and
hemlock forest dotted with huge cedar
trees, to return from the summit area.
5. Myrtle Tree Trail (Zach)
Next I’m again headed down to
southwest Oregon to pick Myrtle Tree
Trail — which, as you might guess, I
See HIKES, Page 3B
Learning to ‘put the ill wind behind me’
Fishing
Henry Miller
Guest columnist
Anyone who has been camping with
a bunch of males knows, to put it polite-
ly, about “intentionally (releasing) a
massive intestinal wind.”
That was how Vienna, Austria, au-
thorities delicately described an inci-
dent at a public park where a man was
fined 500 euros (a whopping $564) for
“violating public decency” by, ahem,
breaking wind intentionally at police.
“Members of the city’s police force
‘prefer not to be farted at,’” was the way
the reporter for BBC Europe put it in an
article about the, ahem, blow-up.
You’ve probably heard about it.
The story, originally posted in early
June, has spread virally like a beer-and-
boiled-egg toot between the under-
ground parking and the penthouse in
the elevator shaft of a high-rise.
The story brought on a whiff (sorry)
of nostalgia for me with the recent an-
nouncement of the re-opening of some
campgrounds in the Pacific Northwest.
While the phrase “diet and exercise”
generally is associated with health and
fitness, it takes on a different connota-
tion when it comes to hiking, biking,
rowing, fishing, hunting and other out-
door pursuits among the Y chromosome
set.
See MILLER, Page 3B
Henry’s tried and true one-person tent. HENRY MILLER/SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN