Layton Mine Ditch Trail Part 4 8-26-24

Photos by Jerry, Kay and Steve

Ashland Hiking Home

We had an 8:00 AM start from Rite Aid with 10 hikers in three cars. We then drove to the Jacksonville Library parking lot to meet 7 more hikers. After picking three that could squeeze into the back of my Kia Niro and one more to make 4 in Gary’s SUV, we headed 20 miles up Highway 238 to the Williams Hwy turnoff.

We would be hiking on the 4th and final part of the Layton Mine Ditch Trail which most in our group had never hiked. But first we would meet two guest hikers from Williams.

Cheryl Bruner, a leader with the Williams Community Forest Project, met us on East Fork Road and led our caravan of 4 cars down to the end of the paved road and through an opened gate onto a decommissioned service road. We headed up the narrow road until Cheryl stopped her lead car. Getting out we discovered that a Birch tree had fallen across the road! After sizing up the situation about six of us managed to lift the tree off the barbed wire fence and move it to the other side of the road. Then David surprisingly found a pruning saw in the back of his SUV and proceeded to saw off any obstructing branches. Way to go David and all who helped move the tree!

After the clearing, we continued to drive up the old road until we reached the Pipe Fork TH. Then we had just enough room to turn the cars around so they’d be heading out after the hike.

The hike began with a creek crossing and the makeshift bridge of two logs tied together was gone. So we made due using stepping stones, with some getting their feet wet.

After the crossing, we continued up the rocky path through the forest until we met our second guest on the trail, Diana Coogle.

Diana is a naturalist, a published author of hiking guides in the Applegate and an avid hiker, who celebrated the year leading up to her 80th birthday by hiking over 800 miles!

Diana is also a "woman of letters” having degreed at Vanderbilt and Cambridge in England before getting her PH D at the U of O.

She also lived off the grid in the forest for 30+ years before her son helped her build a new house with electricity about 10 years ago.

Janet E. reported on Diana Coogle in the Oregonian.

Before we started our hike up to the ditch trail I gave the group a brief history of the JT Layton Mining Company. I showed them the path of the 600’ siphon that transported water from the creek up the hillside to the ditch dug by Chinese laborers. The mining operation was active water blasting gold from hillsides from the 1870’s to the 1940’s.

The hike starts by following the path of the siphon down then up the hillside to the beginning of the ditch trail. We followed the ditch about 3.5 miles through partially shaded forest until just past noon when we came to the BLM road that separates part 4 from part 3. We found shady spots to sit for lunch on the road and looked at Medicine Mountain in the near distance.

With our early start, the temperature was cool in the 50s and 60s in the forest at 10 AM, but by the afternoon on the way back we had temps in the 70s and 80s.

When we returned to Diana’s mountain road she gifted us with poetry about nature as she had at lunch.

We all said goodbye to our new friend with hopes she would join us again on the trail.

Cheryl walked with us back to the cars and signed the AHG waiver to become our newest member.

Our hike was 7 miles RT with about 500’ of gain.

Post hike 3 of the 4 cars stopped at Pennington Farms for pie.

Happy Trails,
Rich