On Wednesday we had 7 hikers come out to hike the Upper Rogue River trail from Woodruff Bridge to Natural Bridge and Knob Falls. We discussed the concern that a winter storm advisory was due around 2:00 PM, but thought we would take our chances. As we drove down Abbott's Creek Road, we could see that the forest service was burning several piles of brush. We decided that it was best to cross Woodruff Bridge to park away from the fires.
We started hiking at 10:05am. After crossing the bridge, we started along the Upper Rogue Trail. The temperature was 47° which was perfect for hiking along the river. We saw lots of pretty leaves on the trees and bushes. We could see some leftover wild rose hips and Liz also spotted a tree with wild hazelnuts.
We continued on and went on the trail to the Natural Bridge where we had our lunch. We had an extended Hank lunch and then decided since it started to sprinkle we should start making our way back. When we got back to the main trail, we turned right and headed down to Knob Falls. I tried going down the right and ended up sliding in the mud. After taking some pictures, I went up a different game trail. Bob also went that way, but Patricia was able to come back up without getting stuck in the mud.
We made good time getting back to the cars and could see that the guys were still attending the burn piles. We lucked out and never saw any storm conditions. It was 1:45pm and we had hiked 7.07 miles and gained 444 feet of elevation. On the way home, we stopped at Jeffro's BBQ and took away an assortment of food.