As a result of this expansion, the monument/preserve boundary has been pushed to the tops of the surrounding ridges and now includes the Bigelow Lakes, Mt. Elijah (both of them), and Lake Mtn.
Last February, we had explored this new part of the monument by hiking in from the E via the Sturgis Fk TH (Sturgis Fk TR). While you can also hike into this area from the visitor center to the W, doing so involves a long drive around the mountains to Cave Junction and then up to the caves. A little hiking research found that a hike in from the W was possible - with much less driving - by using the more readily accessible Elk Ck trail (USFS #1230). So the plan was to use this trail to visit Mt. Elijah (again), checkout the old lookout site atop Lake Mtn, and hike another short stretch of the Boundary Trail (USFS #1207). Unfortunately, the LovedOne's knee was acting up again, so this was a solo hike (
).There was actually a sign at the TH (!) and the trail itself was in pretty good condition.
It climbed steadily, but relentlessly, toward the divide, passing Healy Spring - a local favorite not shown on most maps - enroute. Even late in the season and after 2+ years of drought, this spring was still producing enough water to fill a water bottle in short order.
Up on the divide, I came to Sparlin Camp (an old hunting camp used for generations by locals) at the intersection of the Elk Ck trail, the Boundary Trail, and a shortcut trail to Mt. Elijah and the Bigelow Lakes (this is the "motorcycle route" shown for Hike #70 in Sullivan's Southern Oregon guide; but not shown on most other maps).
I took the shortcut through the camp,
up across one of the large meadows that dot this range - with a view of Preston Peak (p) - the high point in the Siskiyou Wilderness (X) - in the distance,
to the saddle between Elijah and Lake, for a view down the Bigelow Lakes basin toward the Oregon Caves.
I collect old hiking guides and one of these, the Lowe's 1969 guide to hikes in Oregon, tipped me to the former LO site atop Lake Mtn (LO).
The LO blew down in 1953 but the Lowe's reported that the trail from the saddle to the LO was still mostly intact as of 1969. I was pleased to find that this is still the case - first a pretty good trail to within about 0.25 mi of the summit,
then a brief bushwhack up to and along the rocky ridge to the LO site, which looked like this back in the day,
but has come to this.
But the view - be still my beating heart! Even with a cloud deck, I had a full 360, with Elijah (e) below and Preston (p) beyond,
Shasta to the SE,
and Preston to the S (OK, these are "art shots").
It was windy and "crisp" on Lake's summit, so I scurried back to the saddle and up to Elijah for a quick lunch, with a view of Lake Mtn in the background.
Then, to make a quasi-loop, I descended the #1206 trail (officially the Mt Elijah trail (USFS)) back to the Boundary Trail (#1207), took that back to Sparlin Camp, and descended the Elk Ck trail to the TH - passing an unusal species of soft tree fungus along the way.
A short (8.7 mi, 2200' EG) but interesting hike that let me explore some unmapped local features and some of the history of this newest piece of the Oregon Caves monument.
