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Trillium Wilderness Retreat

98%
·
22 reviews
· Jacksonville, Jackson, Oregon
80 acres hosted by Jeremy K.
2 lodging sites
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Trillium is a former wilderness community and retreat center tucked into a vast valley of the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon. From ridge-top to riverside, guest are immersed in pristine nature, breathtakingly fertile and rugged landscape. Over the past 40 years, Trillium has been a multi-faceted community, education & birthing center. The history of this place is vast, rich and honored. TRILLIUM’S FIRST COMMUNITY Trillium was home to a community since the 1970’s. This community was unique in that it sustained on its own functioning without a “guru,” which was popular of that time. Trillium birthed many babies along the hippie trail, as well as many entrepreneurial ventures. Most notable of these ventures was Unicorn Domes, now known as Pacific Domes located in neighboring Ashland, OR. GRANDMA’S TROUT FARM Chant, a founder of the Trillium’s first community, tells the story of coming upon the land while out on a camping trip. The story flows like a fairytale, having a sense of awe and deep resonance of home in this place. At that time, the land was home to a trout farm, and thus many holding ponds and water features were created in Birch Creek, meandering south through the valley to feed the Little Applegate River. Our office, Cedar Barn, was filled with tanks of small trout, while the waterwheel containing them still remains on the old barn you’ll see as you enter the parking lot. APPLE ORCHARD While we don’t know much about it, there is a story of 2 sisters and their apple orchard. As we continue to explore and rehabilitate the valley, we have discovered a variety of old legacy apple trees in unexpected places. These trees were likely displaced during one of the old floods through the valley, but have held on (sometimes to the edge of a slope) and continue to produce fruit…an inspiring example of the resilience of this land. NATIVES, CHINESE IMMIGRANTS & MINERS This part of the world is gold-mining land, and there are even still claims upriver today! As with any monetary venture, there is ingenuity as well as tests of integrity. The peaceful natives of this land, the Dakubetedes were all but obliterated, while Chinese immigrants were exploited for their engineering genius and labor to construct the 26.5 mile Sterling Mine Ditch. This ditch had a “clean out” that emptied through our valley, thus named “Muddy Gulch.” It’s deep ruts are still quite evident, both physically and energetically. We seek to learn and heal these parts of our history on this land.This description of the history, lightly touching on these atrocities, can be found on the BLM website: “Long before the appearance of European settlers, Sterling Creek and the Little Applegate River area were traditional homelands of the Dakubetede people. This group was also known as the Applegate Creek Indians and was part of the Rogue River Indians, a name applied to the people of the Upper Rogue River and its tributaries. The Dakubetedes utilized an abundance of berries, seeds, roots, fish, and game throughout the year to maintain a diverse diet. The Dakubetedes spoke a dialect of the Athabascan language group, unusual for the tribes in interior southwest Oregon. The Dakubetedes took part in the Rogue River Indian Treaties of 1853 and 1854 that resulted in their removal from their homelands to the Grand Ronde and Siletz Indian Reservations in northwest Oregon. When gold was discovered in 1854 on Sterling Creek, prospectors poured into the area. At first, they panned for gold along the creek, but this proved to be inefficient in extracting the gold that was buried under layers of rock and soil. Hydraulic mining, using a powerful jet of water, promised better returns for large scale mining; they just needed more water. In 1877 miners built the Sterling Mine Ditch to redirect water from the upper reaches of the Little Applegate River to the Sterling Creek Mine. The ditch followed the contours of the rugged slopes of Anderson Butte and lost only 200 feet in elevation over its 26.5 mile length. Using hand tools, up to 400 workers, most of them probably Chinese, completed the ditch in just 6 months, at a cost of $70,000. The ditch carried water to the mine, and the trail alongside it provided access for ditch maintenance. During peak operation, hydraulic mining on Sterling Creek blasted away up to 800 cubic yards of soil and rock each day. Impacts to fisheries and water quality were immense, and generations would pass before the hydrologic balance and fish habitat in Sterling Creek would recover. The mine discontinued operations in the 1930s, and the ditch and trail became overgrown with brush and trees. The Sterling Mine Ditch Trail (SMDT) is a marvel of late nineteenth century engineering. Be sure to see the tunnel, dug as a shortcut through the ridge at the top of the Tunnel Ridge access trail! You can also see old flume remnants while hiking along sections of the trail. As you drive along Sterling Creek Road, you can see piles of stones and boulders along the creek that were left by hydraulic mining as soil was washed away in the search for gold. In addition to gold, the layers of soil and rock also yielded bones and tusks of elephants and other ancient inhabitants of the area.” GLACIERS AND BIODIVERSITY The biodiversity of the natural world is immense in our PNW pocket, and especially at Trillium. This description, and more info, can be found on the World Wildlife website under ecoregion, “Klamath-Siskiyou.” “Biological DistinctivenessThe Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion is considered a global center of biodiversity (Wallace 1982), an IUCN Area of Global Botanical Significance (1 of 7 in North America), and is proposed as a World Heritage Site and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (Vance-Borland et al. 1995). The biodiversity of these rugged coastal mountains of northwestern California and southwestern Oregon has garnered this acclaim because the region harbors one of the four richest temperate coniferous forests in the world (along with the Southeastern Conifer forests of North America, forests of Sichuan, China, and the forests of the Primorye region of the Russian Far East), with complex biogeographic patterns, high endemism, and unusual community assemblages. A variety of factors contribute to the region’s extraordinary living wealth. The region escaped extensive glaciation during recent ice ages, providing both a refuge for numerous taxa and long periods of relatively favorable conditions for species to adapt to specialized conditions. Shifts in climate over time have helped make this ecoregion a junction and transition zone for several major biotas, namely those of the Great Basin, the Oregon Coast Range, the Cascades Range, the Sierra Nevada, the California Central Valley, and Coastal Province of Northern California. Elements from all of these zones are currently present in the ecoregion’s communities. Temperate conifer tree species richness reaches a global maximum in the Klamath-Siskiyous with 30 species, including 7 endemics, and alpha diversity (single-site) measured at 17 species within a single square mile (2.59 km2) at one locality (Vance-Borland et al. 1995). Overall, around 3,500 plant species are known from the region, with many habitat specialists (including 90 serpentine specialists) and local endemics. The great heterogeneity of the region’s biodiversity is due to the area’s rugged terrain, very complex geology and soils (giving the region the name "the Klamath Knot"), and strong gradients in moisture decreasing away from the coast (e.g., more than300 cm (120in)/annum to less than 50 cm (20 in)/annum). Habitats are varied and range from wet coastal temperate rainforests to moist inland forests dominated by Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), Pinus ponderosa, and P. lambertiana mixed with a variety of other conifers and hardwoods (e.g., Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, Lithocarpus densiflora, Taxus brevifolia, and Quercus chrysolepis); drier oak forests and savannas with Quercus garryana and Q. kelloggii; serpentine formations with well-developed sclerophyllous shrubs; higher elevation forests with Douglas fir, Tsuga mertensiana, Abies concolor and A. magnifica; alpine grasslands on the higher peaks; and cranberry and pitcher plant bogs. Many species and communities have adapted to very narrow bands of environmental conditions or to very specific soils such as serpentine outcrops. Local endemism is quite pronounced with numerous species restricted to single mountains, watersheds, or even single habitat patches, tributary streambanks, or springs (e.g., herbaceous plants, salamanders, carabid beetles, land snails, see Olson 1991). Such fine-grained and complex distribution patterns means that any losses of native forests or habitats in this ecoregion can significantly contribute to species extinction. Several of the only known localities for endemic harvestman, spiders, land snails, and other invertebrates have been heavily altered or lost through logging within the last decade, and the current status of these species is unknown (Olson 1991). Unfortunately, many invertebrate species with distribution patterns and habitat preferences that make them prone to extinction, such as old growth specialist species, are rarely recognized or listed as federal endangered species. Indeed, 83 species of Pacific Northwest freshwater mussels and land snails with extensive documentation of their endangerment were denied federal listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1994 (J. Belsky, pers. comm. 1994).Rivers and streams of the Klamath-Siskiyou region support a distinctive fish fauna, including nine species of native salmonids (salmon and trout), and several endemic or near-endemic species such as the tui chub (Gila bicolor), the Klamath small-scale sucker (Catostomus rimiculus), and the coastrange sculpin (Cottus aleuticus). Many unusual aquatic invertebrates are also occur in the region.”
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Lodging

2 sites

Trillium Octagonal Schoolhouse

100% (1)
Vacation rental · Sleeps 8
Trillium Schoolhouse is a 2 story octagon nestled in the valley. It was originally built as a Montessori schoolhouse, and serves as a great spot for small educational retreats. This well-insulated off-grid glamping cabin sleeps up to 6 people in beds, with 3 rooms on the second story (Master : Queen; Creekside: Double ; Meadowside : no bed) and a pullout double couch on the first floor. Full jack n jill bathroom with SunMar composting toilet; and kitchen with propane stove. Please BYO cooler & ice. A fridge in the community kitchen can be made available if needed. This cabin is adjacent to a meadow, perfect if your group has additional people who would like to camp. We can even set up our canvas bell tent for you!  Queen air mattress available if needed. Our 80 acres sits peacefully amid BLM woodlands, with the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail system on our west and northern borders. Our neighbors on the eastern border are out of sight on their own vast acreage. This is one of those places where you wave to everyone as you pass by driving, because we are all neighbors out here. The drive to get here pass farmlands and vistas along the entire route from Grants Pass or Jacksonville (depending on your direction). At the conclusion, there is 4 miles of well-maintained dirt road. TO DO: We are located within an hour's drive of a variety of fun adventures and sites. Local gatherings are common here in our Applegate Valley, including harvest festivals, plays, workshops, Buncom Day etc… Hiking is in our backyard, with trails linking up to the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail system. Further out you’ll find wineries ranging from casual to fancy, many kid-friendly. In Ruch is Cantrell Buckley Park, a grocery store, restaurant and bar. Applegate and Squaw Lakes are gorgeous spots for swimming, kayaking, SUP and boating. Heading towards Grants Pass you’ll find the Lindsey Lodge (aka Applegate Lodge) and many more wineries, farm stores, restaurants, white-water rafting on the Rogue River and even zip-lining! Heading in the other direction is the historic gold-mining town of Jacksonville (30-35 min), where you can enjoy the Britt Music Festival as well as restaurants, bars, shopping, and hiking trails. Major shopping & the airport is located in Medford (45 min.) Ashland (45-50 min) you’ll find the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Southern Oregon University, Lithia Park, shopping, galleries and restaurants as well as mountain biking and snowsports at Mt. Ashland. Other notable sites include the Oregon Caves, Klamath National Forest, Crater Lake, Table Rock and Mt. McLoughlin. This entire area is filled with farms of all kinds and abundant outdoor activities. It is Oregon, after all. ECOSYSTEM: The land encompasses a variety of ecosystems, from the mossy riverside, willow-bordered ponds, cedar forests, maple-lined meadows, massive evergreens rising up towards ridges of oaks and manzanita. The wild plant medicine & food on this land is vast, clean and abundant. You will very likely see deer, turkeys, a myriad of birds, our local duck family and the Western Pond Turtle, a threatened species that love our Farmhouse Pond. This land is home to a variety of other less cozy species, such as cougar, bear, fox, coyote, raccoon, bobcat and a rare rattlesnake. These critters hide out and won’t bother you if you don’t bother them.

 CLIMATE: Trillium boasts a variety of microclimates. Spring-time is precious here, with blooming apple & wild plum trees in April, mild temps and a good time for campfires in the chilly nights. In the heat of the summer, the river is a refreshing spot. Autumn is a vibrant show of color, with more modest temperatures. Rains run October - April approximately.

 RIVER &WATERWAYS: Prior to the 70's, the land was home to a trout farm, and thus many ponds were created in Birch Creek, meandering through the valley to feed the Little Applegate River. Birch Creek is seasonal, and is also our watershed. Please do not swim in the creek. There is a larger pebbled beach area at the end of Burdock Lane (the trail to the Little Applegate River), where you will find a kid-sized rock waterslide, and a deep area for a good dunk in the pristine, and cold, mountain water. Please mind our neighbor’s privacy upriver. The river smooths out the stones, which can make for some slippery walking. Please do be careful and keep an eye on all children near the waterways.

 FIRES: While we do have several designated campfire sites, Oregon Department of Forestry updates us daily during fire season as to what days are ok/not for various fire-related activities. Because of this constantly changing status, Hipcamp fires are not allowed during fire season. Cooking stoves are allowed in designated safe areas on the kitchen deck ONLY.  No cook stoves or fires of any kind are allowed outside of these designated areas when fire ban is in effect.  We love our forest, and our campers, and don't want to see either of you burnt to a crisp. WATER: While we do have potable water and hot showers, our county has declared a water shortage. Due to this, we ask that if you can bring your own potable water, please do. Please be mindful of shower/sink water usage. Feel free to bathe in the river with environmentally friendly soaps. LEAVE NO TRACE: We ask you to practice radical self-reliance and bring everything that you need with you, and be prepared to pack it out with you as well. Keep your food and garbage packed tight so as not to attract wild animals or insects. WIFI/CELL SERVICE: There is no cell service on the property. The intersection of Upper Applegate Rd and Little Applegate Rd is the last cell service before the property. Phones with wifi compatability will work via our wifi. In emergencies, you are welcome to use our land-line in the Cedar Barn office.

No campfires
Toilet
Potable water
No pets
Showers
Picnic table
from
$114
/ night
for NaN guests

Maple Grove

Booked 1 time
Cabin · Sleeps 2
Maple Grove is a skylit studio nestled amid the maples of the valley meadows. It is centrally located on the property, near the Community Kitchen, camping meadows and Mother Garden. Maple Grove has electricity, full kitchen, bath tub and queen futon bed. Composting toilet is a standalone structure located just outside of the house. Heating is via Jotul wood stove. Wifi is available just a short walk away in the main parking area. Pets are discouraged due to the impact on wildlife. If you bring a pet, please add the extra "Pet Deposit" fee. Pets must be on leash outside for their safety (predators, local gun laws) and for our comfort regarding poison oak potentially coming into the house and affecting not only you, but future hipcampers. All poop must be picked up immediately (byo poop bags) and taken with you upon departure. If there is no noted impact of your pet either in the house or by residents on the land, your deposit will be happily refunded. Our 80 acres sits peacefully amid BLM woodlands, with the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail system on our west and northern borders. Our neighbors on the eastern border are out of sight on their own vast acreage. This is one of those places where you wave to everyone as you pass by driving, because we are all neighbors out here. The drive to get here pass farmlands and vistas along the entire route from Grants Pass or Jacksonville (depending on your direction). At the conclusion, there is 4 miles of well-maintained dirt road. TO DO: We are located within an hour's drive of a variety of fun adventures and sites. Local gatherings are common here in our Applegate Valley, including harvest festivals, plays, workshops, Buncom Day etc… Hiking is in our backyard, with trails linking up to the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail system. Further out you’ll find wineries ranging from casual to fancy, many kid-friendly. In Ruch is Cantrell Buckley Park, a grocery store, restaurant and bar. Applegate and Squaw Lakes are gorgeous spots for swimming, kayaking, SUP and boating. Heading towards Grants Pass you’ll find the Lindsey Lodge (aka Applegate Lodge) and many more wineries, farm stores, restaurants, white-water rafting on the Rogue River and even zip-lining! Heading in the other direction is the historic gold-mining town of Jacksonville (30-35 min), where you can enjoy the Britt Music Festival as well as restaurants, bars, shopping, and hiking trails. Major shopping & the airport is located in Medford (45 min.) Ashland (45-50 min) you’ll find the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Southern Oregon University, Lithia Park, shopping, galleries and restaurants as well as mountain biking and snowsports at Mt. Ashland. Other notable sites include the Oregon Caves, Klamath National Forest, Crater Lake, Table Rock and Mt. McLoughlin. This entire area is filled with farms of all kinds and abundant outdoor activities. It is Oregon, after all. ECOSYSTEM: The land encompasses a variety of ecosystems, from the mossy riverside, willow-bordered ponds, cedar forests, maple-lined meadows, massive evergreens rising up towards ridges of oaks and manzanita. The wild plant medicine & food on this land is vast, clean and abundant. You will very likely see deer, turkeys, a myriad of birds, our local duck family and the Western Pond Turtle, a threatened species that love our Farmhouse Pond. This land is home to a variety of other less cozy species, such as cougar, bear, fox, coyote, raccoon, bobcat and a rare rattlesnake. These critters hide out and won’t bother you if you don’t bother them.

 CLIMATE: Trillium boasts a variety of microclimates. Spring-time is precious here, with blooming apple & wild plum trees in April, mild temps and a good time for campfires in the chilly nights. In the heat of the summer, the river is a refreshing spot. Autumn is a vibrant show of color, with more modest temperatures. Rains run October - April approximately.

 RIVER &WATERWAYS: Prior to the 70's, the land was home to a trout farm, and thus many ponds were created in Birch Creek, meandering through the valley to feed the Little Applegate River. Birch Creek is seasonal, and is also our watershed. Please do not swim in the creek. There is a larger pebbled beach area at the end of Burdock Lane (the trail to the Little Applegate River), where you will find a kid-sized rock waterslide, and a deep area for a good dunk in the pristine, and cold, mountain water. Please mind our neighbor’s privacy upriver. The river smooths out the stones, which can make for some slippery walking. Please do be careful and keep an eye on all children near the waterways.

 FIRES: While we do have several designated campfire sites, Oregon Department of Forestry updates us daily during fire season as to what days are ok/not for various fire-related activities. Because of this constantly changing status, Hipcamp fires are not allowed during fire season. Cooking stoves are allowed in designated safe areas on the kitchen deck ONLY.  No cook stoves or fires of any kind are allowed outside of these designated areas when fire ban is in effect.  We love our forest, and our campers, and don't want to see either of you burnt to a crisp. WATER: While we do have potable water and hot showers, our county has declared a water shortage. Due to this, we ask that if you can bring your own potable water, please do. Please be mindful of shower/sink water usage. Feel free to bathe in the river with environmentally friendly soaps. LEAVE NO TRACE: We ask you to practice radical self-reliance and bring everything that you need with you, and be prepared to pack it out with you as well. Keep your food and garbage packed tight so as not to attract wild animals or insects. WIFI/CELL SERVICE: There is no cell service on the property. The intersection of Upper Applegate Rd and Little Applegate Rd is the last cell service before the property. Phones with wifi compatability will work via our wifi. In emergencies, you are welcome to use our land-line in the Cedar Barn office.

No campfires
Toilet
Potable water
Pets allowed
Showers
No picnic table
from
$85
/ night
for NaN guests

Reviews

98% Recommend24 ratings · 22 reviews

Location

Jacksonville, Jackson, Oregon, United StatesTo respect the Host's privacy, the precise address of this land will be provided after booking
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Hosted by Jeremy K.

Joined in April 2021
Response rate: 80%Response time: Within 7 hours

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