Blair Lake to Mule Mountain

Sunday, June 11, 2017 – Overcast, foggy, snow/rain/hailing, mid 50’s

Info: appx. 4.95 mi, appx. 1,187′ elevation gain, about 3:30min, Park fee questionable (no signs)

Directions to trail head:

1. Take I-5 exit 188 for OR-58 toward Oakridge/Klamath Falls. Continue onto OR-58 towards Klamath Falls.
2. In Oakridge, take a left onto Crestview St (at a light).
3. Turn right onto E 1st St. E 1st St will turn into Salmon Creek Road.
4. Turn left onto NF-1934. After 1.9mi, there is a fork. Stay left to continue onto NF-1934.
5. After 5.5mi you will encounter another split. Stay right for NF-733.
6. Continue on NF-733 for appx 1.3 mi. You will see a small sign on the right that says “Blair Lake Campground” and a little hiking symbol. Turn left at the side road. The trail head is on the right. You will see a piece of plywood, which allows you to cross a small creek to the trail head.

Back when planning the June group hike, Blair Lake to Mule Mountain was suggested. After a quick Google search, we found out it is a little-known hike outside Oakridge. We could find literally zero recent hike information, which led us to believe it was extremely lightly trafficked, and we were not wrong.

We travelled up NF-733 for about 1/3 of a mile before hitting major patches of snow, deep enough we couldn’t go over without our vehicle bottoming out. We parked on the side of the road and hiked the rest of the way in, about 1 mile.

Let me start by saying that we did not believe the reports of possible snow in June. Whaaaat is that nonsense anyway? Well, we probably should have. Luckily we all came prepared for most weather situations, barring any blizzards, and the rain/hail never came down that heavy. But, hiker beware, the trail head is at a high elevation and this hike does increase in elevation quite a bit, so you will get up there.

The trail head starts at a questionable point, at least when its been raining recently. There was a trail head marker, a piece of plywood going over a creek, and a somewhat visible trail. But, you can see from the photos we took, the trail was completely flooded and looked like a creek, so it was hard to tell where to go. About 1/4 mile in we even turned around and went back to see if we missed a turn off. Good thing I had invested in a good old fashioned paper map at REI before we left!

We finally figured out where to go and followed the small trail through thick grass, swampy marsh, and eventually zig-zagging up the mountain climbing over downed trees and balancing across patches of deep snow. After finding fresh animal tracks and the path being swallowed up in the snow, we stopped to take in the beautiful dense woods.

Then, the scariest thing to date happened. We were a party of three this week, and one of us walked ahead to see if we could continue to follow the trail. She thought we were following behind quietly, but didn’t realize we had stopped. After sitting at the top for a few and eating a quick snack, she turned around. Meanwhile, the other two of us had been sitting back using our emergency whistle and yelling in hopes that she’d hear us. We started debating what to do. Ultimately, we stayed put, all met back up, and made our way back down the mountain.

This hike was truly back country, brought out our adventurous side, and made us realize we need to implement the buddy system on our hikes! We also brainstormed some awesome ideas that I am still researching how to implement (more to come).

Here are some snaps from the iPhone:

Big-girl camera photos, I actually brought it out for once! 🙂

P.S. You see that puddle in the last image…Casey, our driver, tried to drown my camera by hitting the puddle head on with her passenger tire. Crisis adverted…I was able to pull back just in the knick of time.