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Port Orford Oregon - summer 2015

Hiking Mount Humbug - Part 1

Our Crazy Post Retirement Wanderings Hiking and Triking


Hiking Mount Humbug - Part 1

Mount Humbug is just a couple of miles south of Port Orford on highway 101, and the trailhead is right along 101, with a nice trailhead parking lot. No toilets, but there are toilets at the next facility along highway 101 about a mile or less on down 101 south still in the state park if needed before or after your hike.

As you can see from the gps plot the trail goes up a ways and then forks to an east trail up to the summit and a west trail up to the summit. The slope is about a 8 percent grade, so although it's somewhat steep, there are certainly steeper trails out there to hike, so most anybody can do this trail. Even people with fear of hights might be able to do this trail since you are always surrounded by the tree canopy, and although there are some steep hillsides, there aren't any sheer cliffs or any death defying sections of trail.

Although trekking poles are useful on all mountain trails, and on this one, you will probably not get as much benefit from trekking poles on this trail as on other steeper trails with boulders or other obstructions in the trail. But it will reduce the stress on your knees to use poles on this trail.

The trailhead is big enough for about 20 cars, and that seems to be about the right size for most days.

The west trail has a few obstructions in the way of the trail in the form of fallen trees. These are easily bypassed, so no issues. You can see a few glimpses of the coastline in the distance in windows in the tree canopy, but overall the view is blocked, which is too bad, but it's still a good hike.

Because this mountain is covered with a rain forest, there are many very large trees. The trees are not as large as a few of the very largest specimens in existance, which can be found on the west coast of the Olympic peninsula or a couple of places of the coast of northern California, but there are several large specimens to be seen along the way.

There's a place to sit down on the ground just below the summit and have a snack or lunch depending on what you've brought. You may want to bring along a sweater and/or windshell to keep you from getting a chill if you do stop, because it can be quite cold with your evaporating perspiration in the context of a high windspeed windchill on a cool day.

There is a survey marker to identify the summit location at the summit, but not much of a view because of all the beautiful trees in the forest.

If you wish to see the east trail, then you take the east trail at the fork as you descend from the summit. The views are a little different from on the west side, but not whole lot different. There are a couple of view windows where you can see northest toward the coastal mountains in the national forest, but only a couple of glimpses.

I averaged a little over 1 MPH hiking up the mountain, and about 3 MPH hiking down the mountain, so it took most of the day, but I like to take a lot of pictures (about 250) and from time to time I stop and rest maybe 3 or 4 times on a hike this long for 5 minutes. I stopped on top for a snack and took quite a few pictures.

Pretty much the whole hike is in the woods, and pretty protected, with plenty of shade, which I appreciated. Being a rain forest, there is some humidity, but there's also a breeze so it's not overwhelming.

I recommend doing this trail on a sunny day in the summer, the views are not so good, but it's good exercise and the forest is pretty with lots of old growth trees. Probably a good idea to take lunch with you and make a day of it. Bring plenty of water, say 2 liters per person should be enough for most folks.

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