Rich variety of hikes

Cottage Grove Lake, drawn down to winter level (Coast Fork Willamette River winding through)

Excuse me while I navigate around all of today’s elephants in the room. “Excuse me, pardon me, sorry”—ouch! I should have worn harder shoes.

We had a glorious sunny hike around the Cottage Grove Lake bed yesterday with our friends P & G. Wow! Nice big sky, and it’s got a much more interesting and varied topology and terrain than Fern Ridge Reservoir’s wintertime exposed bed, probably partly because a larger river curves its way through CGL—the Coast Fork Willamette. The little Long Tom runs through Fern Ridge, in a mostly straight line.

Driving to Cottage Grove was our longest trip out of town since we visited the Oregon coast (Yachats) last August. Our third longest drive in recent memory was in early November to Horse Rock Ridge out past Marcola on Shotgun Creek Road. Yeah, we don’t get out much—it’s true. But luckily for us homebodies there is a rich variety of hikes in and very close to town: Buford/Mount Pisgah, Arlie, Wild Iris Ridge, Thurston Hills, Dorris Ranch, the aforementioned Fern Ridge Wildlife Area, various Ridgeline Trail hikes, and more.

Looks like after many days of being socked in under low overcast and foggy conditions, we’ll have lots of sun for the next week or two! It’s going to be cold, but hey it’s winter!