Jacksonville Woodlands 1-20-25

Photos by Jerry, Linda and Randy

Ashland Hiking Home

We had planned to hike in the Sterling Mine Ditch trail system, but after Francie sent out an email entitled "Lots of Downed Trees" we had to come up with a Plan B hike. Francie's group had done the hike from the Deming Gulch Trail the previous Wednesday and were obstructed in six different spots, from downed trees across the trail. We decided to heed her warning and reschedule that hike after the trails had been cleared.

So a Plan B hike was needed and the Jacksonville Woodlands made sense since we were meeting part of our group across Highway 238 at the Jacksonville Public Library parking lot.

It was clear, cold, and windy at the Rite Aid parking when three cars left for Jacksonville. We made a stop in fog-covered Talent to pick up Lisa and raised our number to 10. We drove through lots of thick fog that lowered the temperature to 25 degrees by the time we reached Jacksonville, at about 9:45 AM.

There we met 12 more hikers trying to stay warm in the parking lot.

Our hike started by taking the old steps from the parking lot up to the Highway 238 pedestrian crossing. A pressed button turned on the flashing amber crossing lights. There was not the usual morning traffic due to MLK Day a Federal Holiday hopefully the Orange Menace won't mess with that.

After climbing the stairs towards the Britt Festival venue, we found the frozen Sarah Zigler footpath in the shade. And took that trail for more than a mile with three bridge crossings over Jackson Creek.

The trail eventually turned left and headed uphill to join Liz's Loop Trail. We continued climbing out of the frozen shade and into our first sunlight towards a summit that promised good views. But when we neared the top of our long climb we saw signs for private property and no trespassing and logs laid across the trail. Someone had bought our viewpoint since we last hiked there!

So we started back down, looking for a trail up to Panorama Viewpoint. After some wrong turns, we found a muddy trail up to the point. The rising sun had melted the icy trail and turned it into mud. 

But the top of Panorama greeted us with the warming sun and a massive Madrone tree. The view was of snow-capped Mt. McLoughlin with Roxy Ann Peak in the foreground.

Randy managed to get all of us in the frame for the group shot in front of the giant Madrone.

Then we settled down for some lunch in the sun.

After lunch, we took the Rich Gulch Trail back towards the Britt and went through an opened door to cross the lawn in front of the stage and out the other side towards La Fiesta. Where about half of us stopped for food, drinks, and conversation.

We had hiked 6 miles with 900' of elevation gain.

Happy Trails,
Rich