It seemed time for a STATE OF THE SUTA TRAILS report.  So in no particular order here is what is happening with your SUTA trail system.

Triliium -Photo by Hope

Go for a Hike – the wildflowers are out in abundance!:  Last weekend SUTA hosted a wildflower hike from the Little Applegate trailhead to the Tunnel Ridge trailhead.  An enthusiastic group of us gawked at wildflowers, had a picnic and when needed, used loppers to do a little trimming.  Some of the photos I attempted to take of the spectacular flowers will be posted on our website.  Marion Hadden, who should be dubbed the Sterling Mine Ditch Docent  – provided a great tour of both the flowers and the birds.  So if you have time for a gorgeous hike, this is a wonderful time to enjoy the Sterling Mine Ditch and enjoy the tremendous diversity of wildflowers.  Among many gorgeous flowers, we saw three species of Fritallaria on our walk so if you go soon you could catch them too – they are pretty amazing.

RUN THE DITCH 5-MILER and Nature Hike:  On May 26^th (Saturday) there will be the first Run the Ditch 5 Miler hosted by the Southern Oregon Runners, SUTA and BLM.  The race will be from the Tunnel Ridge trailhead along Little Applegate Road to the Bear Gulch Trailhead, up to the Sterling Mine Ditch and back to Tunnel Ridge.  There will also be a free nature hike lead by a BLM botanist.  If you are interested, in registering for the run, go to www.sorunners.org for the registration form.  Packet pick-up and sign-up are from 7:30-8:30, the race begins at 9 AM sharp, with the nature hike starting 10 minutes later.

2012 Trail Work Parties Complete:  Thanks to the hard work of over 30 volunteers during this season’s work parties – lead by the ever-enthusiastic Jim Reiland, the Sterling Mine Ditch trail is in great shape for your hiking, horseback riding, bicycling or running pleasure for the season.  For those of you that were able to come participate in our always scenic, fun and definitely rewarding work parties, we all extend a huge thank you – especially to Jim Reiland!  Without everyone’s help this trail system would not be growing and improving. So we hope to see even more of you on our trail work parties next year.

Sterling Mine Ditch Trail Continues to Expand: We have made great strides in improving two sections of the SMDT so that you can hike further and have news on two future trail sections!  As you may have read on our website or in the May issue of the Jacksonville Review – you can now hike on the Wolf Gap access trail to reach the Sterling Mine Ditch trail. Although it is still a work in progress, this access trail is stellar. It creates a wonderful long loop for those of you interested in hiking or running a good chunk of the trail or a lovely out and back hike.  While we do not have an official trail sign at Wolf Gap yet, it will be coming soon.  Also please note that the Wolf Gap trail will only be open to hikers and eventually equestrians – NO BICYCLES.  This trail cuts through steep terrain that would be too dangerous to mix bicycles with either horses or hikers.  Owing to years of neglect, this trail needed a great deal of tread work.  A huge amount of great tread work was done by Black Oak Forestry and SUTA volunteers have been out working away to.  There’s more to come.  We would like for the tread to set up and become really solid before horses use it.  It is an absolutely stunning hike for those of you who have not been on this trail.  It is 1.5 miles down to the SMDT, has a wonderful easy grade and passes through lots of diverse ecosystems – with terrific views.  While certainly not finished to normal SUTA standards…. It is more than passable for anyone wanting a hike.  The other portion of the SMD trail we have been working on is north from the Deming trailhead.   You can hike about 3 miles headed north towards Griffin Lane on the Sterling Mine Ditch trail.  The ditch is interrupted for a short distance by a dead-end BLM road but if you walk down the road, cross the Deming Creek, you will see it continue on your left.  The ditch continues for several more miles before dead-ending on private land.  For those of you interested in going on this section, please be respectful of the private property at the end of the ditch and do not trespass.  If you see a house and pond you have gone too far, please turn around!

 Looking into the future and pending funding, we hope to open up a new section of the Sterling Mine Ditch trail.  A private land owner has graciously allowed us to open a roughly one-mile section of the Sterling Mine Ditch trail from where it currently stops at the top of the Little Applegate Access trail out to Rush Creek Road.  We are very excited about gaining a new access point (especially one you will not have to hike up or down to).  However, we will not open this section unless we have the funding to construct a solid barrier to prevent any motorized vehicles from accessing the ditch over this private land. We’ve applied for a grant from Oregon Parks and Recreation and are keeping our fingers crossed – we will know soon.

Last but certainly not least on SMDT news, we will be working on the environmental assessment for a one-mile connector link at the north end of the SMDT to connect the ditch up with the future Jack-Ash trail.  If this process goes well, we may be able to begin construction of this new trail later this year.  This connecting link would allow all of us to access a whole network of BLM roads for long-distance loops going in many directions.  We will be posting a revised map of the Sterling Mine Ditch trail on our website in the near future which will show these potential new trail sections.

The Jack-Ash Trail Marches on towards Jacksonville:  We continue to work on the details of our Jack-Ash trail route since we need to get permission from private land owners to reach Jacksonville.  Two landowners near Griffin Lane have generously allowed us to run the trail through their land so we are now heading into the home stretch to Jacksonville.  Stay tuned.  Meanwhile, we will need to push forward on getting funding for the environmental assessment of the trail route.  We’re in this for the long-haul but we are getting there.

SUTA Will be Promoting our Trails At Buncom Days and Applegate Valley Days: We will be sharing a booth with the Applegate Trails Association at both Buncom Day on May 26^th and Applegate Valley Days June 23^rd and 24^th.  If you would like a chance to hang out and talk about trails, come help man the booth or at least visit!  Love to see all of you at these events.

That’s the SUTA State of the Trails report.

I hope you all have a chance to go out and enjoy the trails now that spring is here. Thanks for all of your interest and enthusiasm!

Hope Robertson

SUTA

new date: April 1^st

(no this is not an April Fools Day prank).  This gorgeous trail (1 mile long – down and up) offers terrific views, highly varied terrain and no doubt some early wildflowers. For those of you who have not experienced this trail –you are in for a treat. We still need work with loppers, hand saws and tread work tools to bring this access trail back to its full glory – so we would love your help.  Please RSVP to Jim Reiland at 541-899-1091 or rogalla-reiland@q.com   so we plan our April Fools Day snacks (just what will be in those muffins?) and other work party details.

Meet at the Deming Trailhead at 8:30 AM. The Deming Trailhead is off of Sterling Creek Road – near the 9 mile marker. Turn onto the Deming-Armstrong BLM road (a BLM Sterling Mine Ditch Trail sign is opposite the turn-off), drive to “T” intersection, turn left.  Go 7/10s of a mile to the Deming trailhead.

Our last  work party is the scheduled Deming North trail on Saturday April 14^th – same time and meeting place.

For further details on what to bring or a map and directions – check our website www.sutaoregon.org and as always – check for schedule changes should another snowstorm hit us!

We look forward to seeing all of you (bring your friends!) April 1^st – SUNDAY.

Thanks for your help,

 Hope

Tomorrow’s forecast combined with today’s rain makes it too wet for anyone except ducks to be out on the trail.  Our next trail work party is April 14^th as scheduled.

Thank you for everyone who had planned to come.  Just think, you have a free morning to work on your taxes…..now doesn’t that make trail work sound fabulous in comparison???

See you all soon on a drier day.

Hope

We will meet at our usual 8:30 AM and be back at our cars around 1 PM.  To save some time and driving you can meet us at the Deming Trailhead rather than Buncom.  Since we originally said we would rendezvous at Buncom, someone from SUTA will also be at Buncom (intersection of Sterling Creek and Little Applegate Rds) and then bring you to the Deming trailhead.  The Deming trailhead is on the BLM Armstrong/Deming Gulch road off of Sterling Creek Road – close the 9 mile marker of Sterling Creek Road.  We will tie some bright ribbons or something obvious on the Sterling Mine Ditch sign on Sterling Creek Rd. – which points across to the Armstrong-Deming Road.  Once you get on the Armstrong/Deming Road you will go a short distance and hit a “T” intersection.  Turn left and drive up the gravel road 7/10s of a mile to the Deming trailhead.  Obvious trailhead sign.

If the weather is rainy all week we may revamp our trail trimming plan and work on the Deming North section of the trail so that we don’t all slip and slide down Wolf Gap.  So we’ll simply reverse the next two planned work parties.

History Night:

Thank you all for participating and coming to a highly successful event last week.  In fact we had such a huge turn-out that many people were turned away.  In case you have not been on our website recently, we announced that we will schedule a second history night some time next fall, probably late October or early November.  We will add more material and hold it where more people can come.  Stay tuned!

Coming Up!

Three additional events to alert you to:

April 14, 2012 – Saturday:  Stroll and Clip Along Deming North

An easy hike on a soon-to-be-opened 3-mile section of the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail.  Should be great wildflowers to enjoy while you help us finish trimming from the Deming Trailhead almost to the northern end of the Ditch.  Meet at 8:30 AM – Deming Trailhead on Armstrong/Deming Road Rd (near the 9 mile marker on Sterling Creek Road).

April 28, 2012  – Saturday:  A Wildflower Hike  

A lovely hike on the gorgeous Little Applegate to Tunnel Ridge section of the Trail.  The focus is on wildflowers but if you happen to bring a clipper we might stop to snip at an encroaching twig here and there as we  enjoy the wealth of flowers found on this trail section.  Bring a lunch – we’ll stop for a picnic along the way and enjoy great views of the surrounding mountains. Meet at Buncom 9:30 AM to carpool to the Little Applegate Trailhead.

May 26 2012 – Saturday:    RUN THE DITCH FIVE MILER:  Inaugural ‘Run the Ditch Trail Five Miler’ race and also a Nature Walk – sponsored by Southern Oregon Runners, BLM and SUTA.  Race and hike begin at the Tunnel Ridge Trailhead, Little Applegate Rd.  9 AM for the race; 9:15 for the hike.  Pre-registration for race required by May 14th, hike is free.  Race Details: www.SORunners.org

Watch the website in case we have a blizzard or heavy downpours – who ever knows in March –  and have to cancel.  Otherwise we hope to see you all on Saturday.  Thanks for your help!

Hope