Mt Pisgah 29Mar2022 (Trails 1 -> 6 -> 36)

I haven’t been to Mt. Pisgah in years! It’s a very popular place to hike, with many trails to vary your hike from time to time. It’s a pay-to-park, but you can get a yearly pass if you think you’ll be there a lot. The park doesn’t open until 10 am, and when I got there at 10:30 am, there were already people leaving.

At the information board, I was surprised to see keys as lost items. I mean, did they get home? That must have been a bad day for somebody! I try to secure mine, but I’ve lost my Airpods Pro case before, so anything is possible. Oh, and FYI, Apple doesn’t sell the case alone. I tried a knock-off brand, and it couldn’t hold a charge. That was an expensive lesson!

I scanned over the bear and cougar information (because I’m scared of both of those animals – DEEP respect) and laughed at the differences in the “Fight Back” portions. It did nothing for my fears of cougar sneak attacks…

Let me just say that I grew up out in the coastal range mountains. We had a cougar in our front yard, trying to eat our cat (the cougar and our kitty were in the walnut tree, and the kitty had no place to go). We opened the front door and my sister yelled at it! The cougar, probably old and hungry, jumped out of the tree and over the fence, running away. We also had many bears in our area, munching on the blackberries and other things in our garden. We heard horror stories from people as we grew up. So, there’s a reason I’m afraid of these things! Is it likely I’ll be attacked by a cougar or bear? No, not really. Statistically, I’m probably safe. Is there a tiny chance, though? YES. *shudder*

I started out on the trail, which was very nice. The trailheads are at the bottom, so you start climbing right away.

I came across a nice bench, overlooking a clear area…

It’s definitely springtime! Little flowers are poking up everywhere! I hope I get their names right!

The trail stayed nice like this for a while. It’s nice for one hiker, two would be fine, but no more than that side-by-side.

Look at this bushy lichen! It’s so soft! I’m not sure what kind it is exactly, and I think there are two types together. The trees are covered with it.

Some rocks around here are kind of carvable, if that’s a word (it’s not). Somebody carved a heart into this rock, which I imagine took a little bit of time. They probably mostly scraped away the lichen and surface dirt. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I mean, I suppose it’s not killing the rock, right? It’s certainly a sweet gesture.

I’m not sure what the bird is below, I think a swallow of some type. I will say that these shy little suckers are difficult to take a picture of! I’ve been trying for a while, and they don’t like for me to get too close. They also don’t like to stay still. I zoom in and get an iffy picture. One of these days I’ll get a good one!

Confession time. When I read the reviews about this trail, I read that it was a bit rocky and some people didn’t like that. I took that to mean I could finally wear my new Altra boots!! So I was pleased when we finally got to some rocks. Not much, but there were some. I figured there might be more later in the hike, as well.

The peak is great. Open, bright, benches to sit on and enjoy the view: everything you’d want from the top of a mountain! There’s also a metal thing (I don’t know what to call it exactly) with a map on the top. It’s pretty cool!

I tried to get a selfie, but it was bright! The sun was behind the clouds, and it made a very bright sky. I did it, but it’s silly.

I didn’t linger at the summit long and started down Trail #6. It wasn’t as nice, very uneven and looked like a water runoff area. Great views though!

It started to get very rocky and uneven…

Hey. Remember back when I was talking about wearing my boots because of rocky areas. Well, my friends, THIS is what they were talking about. Trail #6 goes to Trail #36, which apparently descends into the pits of hell. I was missing my sticks at this point, very much, and so grateful for my boots!

At last, I broke out of the rocks and into a sweet clearing. This part was nice, but there was a steep decline right after this. It was just nicer than the rock bit.

After the rocks and the steep decline (I didn’t fall!), I came to The Seeps, which cracks me up. What a name! I didn’t see any frog or newts, so hopefully they were hiding well, safe and sound. I was on a gravel road for a bit, but then saw another trail branch off, parallel to the road. I went there and was so pleased to be walking by a pond on this lovely trail.

Look at this cool bench! There are even drain holes in it! Because… well, it’s Oregon.

Close to the end, there’s a nice book of local flowers. It is an arboretum, after all. Oh, I may have forgotten to tell you that there’s an arboretum there.

This is a great place to go hiking. There are so many trails, you can have a different hike and see different things for ages! Especially with the changing of the seasons, etc. It is well-travelled and populated, so it’s pretty dang safe. There’s so much to see! Oh, I saw quite a bit of skat, but I think most of it was coyote.

The only things I found negative were the $5 daily use charge (but again, you can buy a yearly pass that would make it worth it if you went a couple of times a month), the many people, the opening at 10 am, and… TRAIL #36.

Distance: 3.83 miles; Elevation Gain: 1,051 feet