Jack-Ash Trail (Phase I)

The Siskiyou Upland Trails Association (SUTA) develops and maintains a non-motorized community trail system focused on the ridges between Jacksonville and Ashland--including Bald Mountain, Point Mountain, and Anderson Butte. The Jack-Ash (Jacksonville-Ashland) Trail will eventually connect existing trail systems between Jacksonville and Ashland, Oregon, including the Applegate Ridge Trail system. Phase 1 of the Jack-Ash (completed in 2017) connects both ends of the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail using new trails and existing dirt roads, all located on federal lands managed by the Medford Bureau of Land Management (BLM). You can hike this trail in either direction, but parking is easier if you start from the Little Applegate Recreation Site. From there, it's 4 miles uphill on the old dirt Rush Creek Road to a junction with gravel Anderson Butte Road (BLM Road 38-2-24) at Section Line Gap. Turn left (west) here and follow the wide gravel road for 2.3 miles to the signed Anderson Ridge Trailhead. On a clear day, you'll have excellent views out across the Little Applegate River Valley. Leave the road here and follow the singletrack trail for 3.2 miles around the west side of Anderson Butte and down through several switchbacks to the Greenstone Trailhead on the gravel Deming-Armstrong Road (BLM Road 39-2-8). Turn right (north) here and follow the gravel road for a mile to the Griffin Gap Trailhead. Leave the road here, and follow the singletrack trail down for 2.1 miles to the Grub Gulch Trailhead on BLM Road 38-2-26, where there's a kiosk and a gate. Pass the gate and follow the road (which is the upper end of the Grub Gulch Access Trail) down for 0.3 miles to a signed junction--the Jack-Ash goes right here and the Grub Gulch Access Trail goes left. Turn right and follow the dirt road down for 1 mile to where a singletrack trail goes up to the right (north). Follow the singletrack for 0.7 miles down, through private land, to the end of the trail on Griffin Lane.