Welcome to John Carr Outdoors!
Please visit the blog and follow. The follow button can be found at the bottom of the page.
If you are seeing this on Facebook, click the link to visit the blog to see all of the photos.
Wildcat Mountain
Because of the dense rainforest environment, most of the potential outings in the Coastal Mountains are on logging roads. Many of the roads are closed by a gate, but accessible by hikers.
On the last weekend of April, I decided to try a 10-mile out-and-back hike to the top of Wildcat Mountain. As the crow flies, the summit is about 30 miles west of home.
In truth, it wasn’t a very exciting hike – – – the skies were dark with clouds, a little drizzle continued to fall, and the road steadily climbed until coming to a large rock quarry.
The upper area was an active logging operation, but shut down for the weekend.
After taking photos of delightful calypso orchids, I climbed a steep, freshly made cat track to the summit.
If the clouds hadn’t been so thick, the views would have been very nice of the Buxton area all the way to the Willamette Valley.
Interestingly enough, I picked up a tick. Who ever heard of a tick in the Coastal Mountains!
Salmonberry
Calypso Orchids
Steep trail (cat road) to summit
Stormy view from summit with small town of Buxton in distance
Vanilla Leaf
Would you believe we were bitten by a deer tick camped in the Siskiyous? We had the typical red ring around the bite and all. Looks like Lyme disease may have arrived in Coastal Oregon.
Apparently it’s a bad year for tick bites.
Stunning wildflowers on this hike, John. I was not familiar with the Vanilla Leaf. And the Calypso….ah, so fetching. Handsome clouds, too.
Thanks Jet. It wasn’t the most exciting hike of all times, but there is always a little beauty to be found.