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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (June 24, 2004)
BY JAMES JOHNSTON JAMES JOHNSTON Tidbits Mountain Check out sweeping views of the Willamette National Forest this summer. T he spring rains are behind us, the weather’s warm, mountain roads are clear of snow. Summer is offi- cially here — time to leave the valley and get yourself somewhere high up and far out. A good option for June-July is Tidbits Mountain in the heart of the Willamette National Forest east of Eugene. The four- mile roundtrip to the summit has got a bit of everything: Beautiful forests, wildflowers and dramatic views. To get there, drive Hwy. 126 east from Springfield for approximately 36 miles. Take a left onto Forest Service Road 15 at a sign for Blue River Reservoir. Stay on 15 as it winds around the east side of Blue River Reservoir. After 4.7 miles, go straight onto FS 1509, a bumpy and windy gravel road that climbs steadily uphill. After 8.3 miles on 1509, take a left at a brown hiker sign onto FS 877. Road 877 is even steeper and bumpier, but in just .2 miles you’ll pull off to the left and park at the trailhead. The first half-mile of the Tidbits Mountain trail passes through an absolutely spectacular stretch of old-growth Douglas fir/western hemlock forest. This is the most common forest type on the Willamette National Forest, but it’s usually an unequal partnership, with big, fast growing Douglas fir filling in the overstory canopy and smaller, slower growing hemlock filling in the gloomy understory. Here, however, slow and steady has won the race, with a number of mammoth hemlocks forming a co-dominant overstory with the Dougs. You can easily identify the hemlock by its small, stubby green needles, thin gray bark, minia- ture cones and low hanging branches. In a little less than a mile and a half, you’ll reach a trail junction. Stay to the left, and in a few moments you’ll break out of the forest and pick your way across a rockslide beneath impressive twin basalt spires. This north side of the cliff face still has some patches of snow across the trail in June. In July there’s a bril- liant display of flowers, including penstemon, paintbrush and gentians. Ignore the use trails that cut to the left until you see the rotting remains of an old ladder. Scramble up the last 100 feet to the top of the mountain and an old concrete foundation — all that’s left of a Forest Service fire lookout tower. On a clear day, looking north to south you’ll see Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, Three-Finger Jack, Mount Washington, the Three Sisters, Mount Bachelor and Diamond Peak. To the west you’ll be looking down the McKenzie River valley towards the Willamette Valley — usually obscured by haze. Almost all of what you see from your 5,100-foot perch is the 1.7 million-acre Willamette National Forest, the largest national forest in western Oregon. The Forest stretches 107 miles from a point east of Salem to a point east Roseburg. It covers all of the central Oregon Cascades from the 800-foot high foothills east of Eugene to the top of the South Sister at 10,000 feet. The high country of the Willamette is the place to be this summer. ew Your McKenzie River ADVENTURE SOURCE RAFT & KAYAK RENTALS WHITEWATER TRIPS FISHING TRIPS FLY FISHING CLASSES Located on the McKenzie River, next to Mom’s Pies FREE RAFT DELIVERY & PICK UP! Adventure River Center 49701 McKenzie Hwy, Blue River, Oregon www.AdventureRiverCenter.com • 822-3888 JUNE 24, 2004 27
