Lithia Park and Applegate Lake 5-30-25

Photos by Elisabeth

Ashland Hiking Home

The original plan for this hike day was to follow the trails around the Applegate Lake peninsula, cited by Sullivan as 6.4 miles with 400’ elevation gain. Placing us in the Applegate made it easy for some of our hikers to attend the late afternoon “In A Landscape” piano concert by Hunter Noack on the shore of Applegate Lake. It had been at least 5 years since I’d done that hike, so scouting it on the prior Wednesday made sense. Good call because I discovered it very much unmaintained: Loaded with poison oak, not cut back. A pleasant walk alongside the lake with views for the first few miles, but then ran into many downed trees, some very hard to get over or under, and impossible without shimmying under it and through poison oak. Trail signs were missing at most junctures and getting around to complete the lollypop loop was less than clear. The route turned out to be nearly 8 miles based on GPS. I include this description for information to others considering this hike at this time. The conditions may have to do with cutbacks to the Forest Service, realigning staff to cover parks more heavily used.

So, change of plans. Since three of us had tickets to the “In A Landscape” concert at Applegate Lake, the Friday group hiked locally at Lithia Park. We started from the Plaza, paused at the swimming reservoir where my favorite view was a young woman reading a book under the shade of a tree by the shore with a duck keeping her company. It struck me as a “Jane Eyre” scene. Although early, we still imbibed in our chocolate, this time laced with coffee. Proceeding back around through the park, we took various trails while enjoying the rhododendron and various wildflowers (forget-me-nots, included), a piliated woodpecker, and a little dipper enjoying the Ashland Creek. As is well known, this amounted to about 3.7 miles with about 200’ elevation gain.

A funny post-hike story: Two of our hikers have cars that are the same model, year, and color, and their license plates are the same but for one digit. One of these hikers arrived at the area we parked and tried to open the wrong car, trying the fob, the key, and even calling the dealer for advice since “the key didn’t work.” The hiker who owned that car wasn’t around, probably hanging around in the park. Finally, the would-be ‘car thief’ saw unfamiliar glasses in the car and figured out the conundrum. The only harm done? Her embarrassment.

Report on “In a Landscape.”  Sue, Penny, and Elisabeth recommend watching out for this beautiful and entertaining concert by Hunter Noack in its next season. He was in Ashland some years ago, performing atop the first mountain plateau at Mt. Ashland. Last year and this, he performed on the shore of Applegate Lake. It is his 10th season bringing first-class music (classical and more) on a grand piano to audiences enjoying the landscape, wearing headphones to encourage listening while strolling about the natural environment. Since 2016, In A Landscape has presented 305 concerts in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, California, New Yorek and Canada to over 75,000 people. It is a non-profit based in Portland, Oregon. Hunter is from central Oregon.