** RESCHEDULED DUE TO WEATHER **
?2019 SPRING HIKE SERIES?
LOOK OUT RED BUTTES HERE WE GO
?GET FIT – CONNECT – EXPLORE?
WHY MEMBERSHIP MAKES SENSE
WE PROVIDE EVERYTHING YOU NEED:
?Thirty-two Hikes April thru November
?Carpooling – Maps – Hike Difficulty Rating
?Evenings & Weekends – Doggie Information
?Perfect Picture Spots – Post-Hike Beers ‘n Fun
?Cool People – Rad Concept – Positive Vibes
Learn what everyone is raving about, and try a whole month on us for FREE using the code “HikeRush2019” when you check out at membership!
RUSHMORE HIKE BASICS:
The Rushmore Society, your real life social network of very busy people, INVITE ALL to join us on our famous Southern Oregon hikes. It’s one of the easiest, coolest ways to meet neato active people!
WHO: All welcome / MEMBERSHIP DETAILS ABOVE
VIBE: Social — Positive — Fun
WHAT TO BRING: Lunch – Water – Camera – Smile – Sunscreen – Hat – Good Trail Shoes
RED BUTTES SPECIFICS:
CONNECTION POINT: Schoolhaus Brewhaus/ 9:00 am
CARPOOL DEPARTURE: 9:20 am
ESTIMATED RETURN: 4:00 pm
DOGS: Yes, doggies are allowed
HIKE DIFFICULTY RATING: easy to moderate
HIKE DISTANCE: 9 miles – 1786 ft elevation gain
COMPLETE RED BUTTES DESCRIPTION:
Do More, Live More Hikers unite, we’re headed out to the Applegate and Seiad Valley for a tough workout and early season wildflowers on the Siskiyou Mountains crest of the Red Buttes.
?Unique views and tiny lakes dot our adventure?
?RED BUTTES IS RATED “MR. T” FOR A MOSTLY TOUGH WORKOUT. We cover 9 miles and 1,786 ft elevation gain? Yummy!
The 20,796 acre Red Buttes Wilderness straddles the crest of the Siskiyou Mountains. The twin summits of Red Buttes anchor the southern extreme of the area in California, where reddish peridotite rock, nudged up from a 425-million-year-old seafloor by plate shifts in the earth’s crust, now supports unusual plant communities. The area’s geology is ancient and very complex; some of the highest points were carved by glaciers during the last Ice Age.
The area is about 13 miles long and six miles wide, with elevations ranging from about 2,800′ in the lower Butte Fork Canyon to 6,739′ on the east summit of the Red Buttes. Rocky buttes, forested ridges, and small glacial-carved lake basins characterize this rugged terrain, with a dense jumble of manzanita, snowbrush, and other brushy plants carpeting the dry south-facing slopes.
Cold streams rush through extensive stands of old-growth ponderosa pine, sugar pine, western white pine, incense cedar, and Douglas-fir. White fir, Shasta red fir, and mountain hemlock grow on upper slopes. The endemic Brewer’s spruce and Sadler oak, as well as Alaskan yellow cedar (on the far southern fringes of its natural range), and other unusual plant species are found here. Even the area’s many different evergreen-broadleaf brush species are rarely found growing in such close proximity.
Big sugar pines (some over 8′ in dia.) dominate the lower-elevation forest of the Butte Fork canyon, which provides habitat for black bears, cougars, deer, and coyotes. The rarely seen ring-tail cat (a reclusive relative of the raccoon) inhabits the area, peregrine falcons nest on remote cliffs, and bats roost in the rock overhangs and sinkholes near the Buttes.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS FROM SCHOOLHAUS:
Head towards the town of Ruch, and take Upper Applegate Road south toward Applegate Reservoir. Once you reach Applegate Reservoir, continue along the lake toward its top end to a T-junction. Turn left at the T-Junction to a gravel road intersection about two miles up the road. Continue straight from the gravel intersection on Forest Road 1050 for one mile. After one mile, turn right on rough and steep uphill Forest Road 1055.
Follow this very rough road not suitable for low passenger cars for about nine miles to a pass where multiple roads and trails branch off. This is Cook and Green Pass. Choose the section of the Pacific Crest Trail — marked by a white diamond — that heads uphill through a forested ridge and is paralleled by an old rough road (it’s the trail on the right-hand side as you drive up).
The Rushmore Society is your premiere real life social network of very busy people living life to the fullest with Adventure, Connection and Play. Do More, Live More, Rushmore.
