Enter your zip code. Expect some mud, and a creek to ford, before your paved road return. Tall cottonwoods line the pebbled bank, filling the air with honeyed fragrance. Great blue herons wade the riffles.
Mallards start up from oxbow sloughs.
Trailside alders show the toothmarks of beaver. The 40-mile Middle Fork Willamette Trail follows the river from Hills Creek Reservoir to the river's source at Timpanogas Lake. The loop recommended here traces the first, lowest section and returns along paved Road 21. The trail is open to motorcycles and horses but they seldom use it, perhaps because of the narrow footbridges over side creeks. From the lower trailhead on Road 21 the path starts out between a horse loading area and some gravel piles.