Nine of us loaded up in two cars from CVS in Ashland and proceeded to the East Applegate Ridge Trail off of Sterling Creek Road. It's approximately a 35 minute drive — and provides great views of the Applegate Valley from a mountain ridge trail.
The trail was in good shape and quite dry, surrounded by dry brush. It's a reasonably flat moderate hike, rising a few hundred feet. It's more out in the open than not, with much full sun on us, but we were graced with occasional breezes and shaded areas.
The weather was warm, the air was clear with little humidity, and the views were as far as the eye could see — and those views are indeed fabulous. Mountain range after mountain range staggered clearly in view. Everyone remained in good spirits and conversations flowed, other than our period of silence after lunch.
We stuck together for the hike, which included one new member. This time of year, the birds and flowers are few, but we did spy some lovely common madea, and some hawks floated gracefully over the valley — but unfortunately saw no parasails from the launching pad across the valley. We did encounter several runners, a few other hikers with their dogs and kids, but for the most part, we had the trail to ourselves.
A new bench had been added, cut into the hillside, about a half mile in. We stopped frequently for water breaks, and for a longer time at the view bench near the halfway mark, where pictures were taken of the group, before proceeding on to a crossing trail which we took to the left, just past the 2 ½ mile mark. We found a large downed shaded tree, where we all sat in a row for lunch with great views. All in all about 5.4 miles and three hours.
Richard
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