On a beautiful spring day, seventeen of us hiked from Union Creek down to Natural Bridge on the upper Rogue River. The river is as high and wild as we’d even seen it. The dogwood trees are in bloom, and wildflowers never fail to delight, including the Trillium and Calipso Orchids.
We enjoyed having a new member, Michael, and some of our frequent hikers were experiencing the Upper Rogue for the first time. At the bridge, we crossed over the Rogue River to hike up the mountainside looking down on the river as we proceeded to Natural Bridge where we enjoyed our group lunch, and of course chocolate.
Four hikers proceeded down river to Knob Falls, which is a thrilling place where the river makes a sharp hairpin turn and crashes down in a waterfall. The 13 others completed the lollypop route across the man-made bridge at Natural Bridge and back upriver to the Union Creek trail to the cars. The foursome returned up to Natural Bridge to await cars to pick us up for the trip home. The “lollypop” group hiked at least 7.5 miles RT; the Knob Falls contingent hiked 6 miles RT.
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1. Union Creek
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2. Union Creek into Rogue River
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3. Trillium
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3a
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3b
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4.1
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4a. vanilla leaf
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6
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6_1
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7
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8. calypso orchid
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9
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10
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11
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12
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13
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13_1
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Group
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Grtoup 2
