| "If your dog is fat," the old saying goes, "you aren't | | | | lookouts. Trail crews and wilderness rangers still work |
| getting enough exercise." But walking the dog need | | | | from Marble Valley today - still with little concession |
| not be just about a little exercise. Here are 15 cool | | | | to modern comforts. The guard station is reached by |
| things you can see around northern California and | | | | a difficult climb at the juncion of trails PC 2000 and |
| southern Oregon while you hike with your | | | | 11W014, about 2.5 miles southwest of Lover's Camp |
| dog.ENGINEERING MARVELS. | | | | Trailhead.LOGGING HERITAGE. |
| Between the town of Dairy and Sprague River, On | | | | You can't come away from a canine hike at Collier |
| the OC & E Trailyou will pass an odd-looking section | | | | Memorial State park without a greater appreciation |
| over a hill. This is a | | | | for the logging industry. The paths through the |
| railroad double switchback, which enabled trains to | | | | outdoor museum wind from the days of oxen and |
| be split for navigating the hill. The original plans called | | | | hand axes through the age of steam and up to |
| for a tunnel through Bly Mountain, but as funds were | | | | today's diesel |
| low it was decided the cheaper double | | | | machines. You'll find railroad heritage here as well. |
| switchback-solution was good enough. Prior to the | | | | Look for an old Baldwin steam locomotive known, |
| 1990 closing of the railroad, this unique engineering | | | | more or less affectionately, as GOP - "Get Out And |
| landmark was last of its kind in the United | | | | Push." The engine strained so much hauling redwood |
| States.FASCINATING BIRDS. | | | | logs in and out of the mountains that it was |
| Shasta Lake is a popular nesting spot for bald | | | | constantly derailing.MYTHICAL CREATURES. |
| eagles, offering an opportunity to see them hunting | | | | On the hike to the summit of Collings Mountain you |
| and nesting in the wild. At McCloud Falls,be on the | | | | will find the world's only known Bigfoot trap. |
| lookout for the little American Dipper birds that patrol | | | | Constructed of wood with a heavy metal door |
| the tumbling waters. These tiny birds, also known as | | | | reinforced by metal bolts by the North American |
| water ouzels, zoom around over the surface and | | | | Wildlife team in 1974, the idea was the lure an |
| plunge in and out of the cascading water in search of | | | | unsuspecting Sasquatch into the 10-foot by 10-foot |
| food. They use their wings to "fly" underwater and | | | | pit from which it could not escape. As you hike along |
| can even be seen walking on the stream bottom | | | | the trails of Mount Shasta keep an eye out for tall, |
| pecking for larval insects, fish eggs and even slow | | | | graceful folks with long flowing hair dressed in white |
| fish just as if they were walking on the trail.FRESH | | | | robes - and a walnut-sized organ protruding from the |
| TASTING WATER. | | | | center of their foreheads. These would be Lemurians, |
| Tub Springs was a popular stopping point for | | | | most probably from the massive lost continent of Mu |
| travelers on the Applegate Trail to refresh with a | | | | that once lay under the Pacific Ocean and helped |
| cool drink of fresh mountain water from tub springs. | | | | explain how lemurs ended up on the island of |
| You can still do so today. A stone water fountain at | | | | Madagascar. One of the more well travelled folktales |
| Hedge Creek Falls dispenses "the best water on | | | | associated with Mount Shasta, some believed the |
| earth," according to townsfolk in Dunsmuir. You can | | | | Lemurians came to live in a city called Telos inside of |
| have a taste and judge for yourself at the gazebo | | | | the volcano.OLD ORCHARDS. |
| on the top of the trail.GOLD. | | | | Joseph H. Stewart State Park |
| People have come to the Shasta/Rogue River Valley | | | | is built on an old homestead from the 1940s. Fruit |
| for 150 years to search for gold and it is probably | | | | grew here in grand orchards, in the beginnings of |
| not all gone. You can rent a pan for $1 and chase | | | | Oregon's commercial pear industry. You can still see |
| gold in the creeks in Whiskeytown Recreation Area. | | | | some old pear trees and apple trees and walnut |
| Prior to 1900, the City of Redding operated a gold | | | | trees scattered around the park. You will find historic |
| mine in Blue Gravel Canyon, the only town in | | | | fruit trees along the trail at Wolf Creek Inn State |
| California to do so. The mine is long gone of course, | | | | Heritage Site as well.UNUSUAL BRIDGES. |
| but the trail remains and has relics from the gold era | | | | The Sacramento River Trail is and ideal hike for |
| along the path. Did they get all the gold here?GREAT | | | | studying bridge architecture. Classical arch bridges |
| DAMS. | | | | transport vehicular traffic across the Sacramento and |
| Shasta Dam opened in 1945 and flooded 35 miles of | | | | theDiestlehorst Bridge is a prototypical 19th century |
| the Sacramento River valley. One of the biggest | | | | pier and girder iron bridge. The Ribbon Bridge is the |
| dams ever conceived when construction began in | | | | first of its kind in the nation - a 13-foot wide, |
| 1938, the building of Shasta Dam established several | | | | 420-foot long concrete stess-ribbon structure. The |
| "world records." Among them was the Southern | | | | Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay is the first American |
| Pacific Railroad's double decker bridge that was the | | | | project for the celebrated Spanish bridge architect, |
| highest ever built and the construction of the world's | | | | Santiago Calatrava. The focal point of his design is a |
| longest conveyor belt system - 10.5 miles - to bring | | | | 218-foot curved tower on the north bank of the |
| sand and aggregate to the building site from Redding. | | | | river that doubles as support for the bridge's |
| The water spilling over Shasta Dam created the | | | | suspension cables and as the world's largest sundial. |
| largest artificial waterfall ever seen - three times as | | | | The bridge sports a glass decking that enhances the |
| high as the drop at Niagara Falls. The Trinity Dam, | | | | natural light and enables unobstructed views of the |
| rising 466 feet from bedrock, is one of the highest | | | | mountains at the horizon and the salmon at play |
| earth-filled dams in the world.HISTORIC BUILDINGS. | | | | below.VOLCANIC SOUVENIRS. |
| Fire has claimed many an old building in the West but | | | | This landscape was formed in many places by |
| there are still some significant wooden buildings left | | | | volcanic eruptions. The trail around Brown Mountain |
| standing in the wilderness. In Trinity Recreation Area | | | | provides dramatic glimpses of lava flow. At Black |
| stands the Bowerman Barn, painstakingly constructed | | | | Butte, a small group of inactive "plug dome" volcano |
| with hardwood pegs and one of the most | | | | craters dot the landscape. Plug domes have a type |
| representative 19th-century hand-crafted structures | | | | of lava flow that too thick and stiff to flow normally, |
| in California. Also in the park is the orignal log house | | | | but instead is squeezed out the top like crusty icing. |
| from the Stoddard homestead, just off the Stoddard | | | | All that remains of the mighty 12,000-foot volcano |
| Trail. In Ah-Di-Na Campground in Siskiyou County, | | | | that once dominated the southern Cascades are |
| canine hikers can study an historic cabin that was | | | | eight protruding peaks in the Mountain Lakes |
| restored by volunteers in 1990 using only traditional | | | | Wilderness. And there is the odd Oregon Desert, a |
| tools such as long axes and chisels.INTERESTING | | | | pumice-covered landscape in the Sky Lakes |
| TREES. | | | | Wilderness. Ash from Mount McLouhlin's last eruption |
| In TouVelle State Recreation Site is one of the | | | | sits fifty feet deepa across the area.WATERFALLS. |
| largest granary trees in southern Oregon. A granary | | | | This trail at McCloud Falls reveals three waterfalls in |
| tree is a special tree targeted by acorn woodpeckers | | | | little more than a mile: the Lower Falls (a powerful, |
| to store food. This ponderosa pine is estimated to | | | | ten-foot drop into a wide pool), the Middle Falls (a |
| have as many as 50,000 holes! On the Blue Canyon | | | | classically wide, 50-foot waterfall), and the Upper Falls |
| Trail you can see a tree where Judge John Waldo | | | | (a water spout squeezing through granite cliffs). Two |
| from Salem, Oregon and his party traced the route | | | | hikes in the town of Dunsmuir also find different |
| that is now the Pacific Crest Trail, becoming the first | | | | types of falls: Hedge Creek Falls cutting through |
| to cross the crest of the southern Cascades in | | | | basalt rock and Mossbrae Falls dripping through moss |
| 1888.LOFTY LOOKOUTS. | | | | and ferns.WRITER INSPIRATIONS. |
| Mountain trails often climax at Forest Service | | | | The best-selling Western writer of all time, Zane |
| lookouts with dramatic views. At Medicine Lake, | | | | Grey, used the Rogue River as the centerpiece of |
| Hoffman Lookout was built for fire surveillance in | | | | many of his stories. His cabin can still be seen on the |
| 1924 and started out as a tiny 8 sq.ft. cabin. The | | | | Rogue. Jack London wrote Valley of the Moon while |
| cabin is available for rent ((530) 964-2184) and is | | | | a guest at Wolf Creek Inn.I am the author of over |
| quite popular. Herd Peak Lookout sits eastward of | | | | 20 books, including 8 on hiking with your dog, including |
| the main Cascade fault line, overlooking a magnificent | | | | the |
| valley of hills created from pyroclastic lava flows off | | | | widely praised The Canine Hiker's Bible. As publisher |
| Mount Shasta. During fire season, the lookout is | | | | of Cruden Bay Books, we |
| manned from 9:30AM to 9PM, and the person in | | | | produce the innovative A Bark In The Park series of |
| charge will be sitting in the tower watching over the | | | | canine hiking books found at |
| valley, ready to report any sign of a fire to | | | | During the warm months I lead canine hikes as |
| firefighters by radio. The rustic Marble Valley Guard | | | | tour leader for tours, leading packs of dogs and |
| Station, completed in 1928 , is an early example of | | | | humans on |
| simple stations built by the Forest Service as fire | | | | day and overnight trips. |