[Sir-Hikes-A-Lot]

[lookout bob]

Beautiful...thanks for posting. Now I gotta go to Oregon....sigh...

[olderthanIusedtobe]

I did a 3 day rafting trip on the Rogue several years ago. I've been interested in going back and hiking it ever since, but haven't done so yet.

[Stefan]

awesome!!!

[mbravenboer]

Flowers! That's nice to see . The river looks beautiful. I hadn't heard of this before.

[John Morrow]

My favorite TR of the year so far! Always love seeing something new and different and with such great pics. Thanks for posting this. John

[wildernessed]

Nice as always. Do they sell the endurance tonic your taking ? GU and Beet Elite is all I got.

[drm]

There is a loop option now, recently resurrected. Going east to west, about half way, you can turn uphill, climb to the ridge and then come back and down. I suppose the ridge is still under snow, and if you wait too long, it might dry out, leaving only dry camps up there. I haven't done the loop but would be nice to do for those of us without local family and not wanting to hassle the shuttle (which is definitely worth doing at least once).

[Dick B]

5 of us did this hike several years ago. The intent was to go from Graves Ck to Foster Bar, a 4 night affair. We did it in May before the hot weather, ticks and rattlers. The forecast was for good weather which didn't turn our as expected. The first 2 days were ok, then on the 2nd night the rains set in, and kept it up thru the 3rd day. That afternoon we made it to the Rogue River Ranch in the pouring rain. Thank goodness we had brought ponchos so were pretty dry except for our feet. The caretakers at the ranch took pity on us and l let us bunk down in one of the out buildings(think it was sort of a chapel that was used in the early days). The next morning it was still coming down, so we thought about trying to get our shuttle driver to come in to the ranch and pick us up. The caretakers had radio communication to the outside so we first asked her to contact the Paradise Lodge,about 5 miles down river,to see if they had overnight lodging for our last night. They did, but at a very high cost. She found out that if we made it to Paradise by 11 AM we could catch the mail boat back to Gold Beach. A nice warm dry motel room sounded pretty good so off we went giving up the idea of spending the last night in the rain. It was a memorable hike in spite of the weather. Well worth it if the conditions are right.

[mountainsandsound]

Very nice river hike. You should hike the Selway River if you haven't already.

[drm]

Posting a correction. I looked into that Rogue loop and see that it actually is closer to the west end of the river trail, not the east end as I previously thought. I also want to point out a practical affect of hiking through to the west side of the trail. It is an hours longer drive home for most of us given getting through the coast range, which could be a factor if time is tight for your trip.

[Billoutwest]

Instead of a loop one could just tack on the Illinois River Trail. I did that with a buddy in December 1975. I think it was 1975 ?? We only got in a mile of hitchhiking near Agness so it was a 90 miler. On both trails we saw no other person. The Rogue did have a lodge with smoke from a chimney. Otters were our highlight. Trail was typically slightly above the river. We'd come around a ridge bend and quietly hope. About once a day we'd get to sit and watch them play. Your photos are a nice remembrance. We got wet too. I had a Jansport frame pack, an REI Crestline tent and an Optimus stove that was closer to a coleman than a whisperlite. I had been on two fires there in 1970. Quail Creek and Winkle Bar. The President of Levi Strauss owned Zane Grey's cabin then and each one of us got a certificate for a pair of Levi's. There have been so many fires there I was glad to hear you say something good about the forest.

[Billoutwest]

I recall some sort of warning about arsenic in a stream near Grave Creek. At other times of the year Stair Creek can have a view where it is clear water coming into the Rogues dirty flow. That freshly oxygenated clear pool may still have salmon lazily taking it in. Most river users on this stretch are high ethic and litter not at all. That garbage is from Grants Pass and Medford 'users'.

[Dick B]

Sir-Hikes: The high water sign brings back memories of my traveling thru that area shortly after the flood of '64. I was buying logs for a paper mill in North Bend at the time. During the flood we were pretty much cut off for several days either going north or south on 101. Prior to the flood, the Forest Service was constructing a new concrete bridge on the south side of the Rogue across the mouth of the Illinois. I saw the bridge shortly before the flood while it was under construction. It was concrete poured in place. The deck was poured & held up 2 bents. As I remember the abutments had not yet been poured so the bridge was not connected to the river bank. The next time I saw it, it was laying flat in the river. The bridge upstream from Agness had debris laying on top of it so the river had to have washed over the bridge deck. It was a pretty exciting time for awhile.

[mountainsandsound]