Bohemia Mountain Revisited

Few places in our part of the state conjure more mystery than the Bohemia Mining District Southeast of Cottage Grove. This area has a colorful history dating back to the discovery of gold in the 1860s, and the handful of long bearded miners who are still working active claims. As a teenage search and rescue volunteer I spent part of a summer in the district digging for a cold case murder victim in a collapsed mine. But that is a story for another time.

It has been a few years since our last adventure to Bohemia Mountain, a trip that you can read about here. Back then we were still exploring in my Honda Civic, I loved that car, but its ground clearance and front-wheel drive forced us to stick to well maintained gravel roads. Ever since I eliminated those limitations by getting the Tundra we have been itching to try out some of the rougher routes to Bohemia Mountain.

This is exactly what we were looking for. The sign was put here to turn people away, for us it served as an invitation to air down the Coopers and see how bad the road gets. After driving past Champion Creek Road (2473) for a many years in the Civic, it was quite satisfying to turn up it.

What we found was something special. The road did get quite narrow, and rough (enough to prompt us to switch into 4lo on a few occasions), but the emerald green canyon formed by Champion Creek was nothing short of stunning. If it wasn't already chilly we would have been tempted to jump in.

Bursts of fall color forced us to stop often. We found ourselves wishing for a better camera to capture the intensity of the foliage.

There were several abandoned or closed off mine shafts just off of the road on the way up, but this was the by far the largest operation that we stumbled upon on our way to Bohemia Mountain.

We got a little closterphobic just looking down this shaft.

This particular mine spews out toxic groundwater, a problem so significant that the Forest Service has built an elaborate series of filtration pools to clean the water before it heads down hill.

Color was everywhere.

We reached the Bohemia Mountain Trailhead without issue, after cruising over a rough section of road that almost wrecked the Civic years ago. Our hike to the top was slowed by the colds that we were recovering from, but otherwise wasn't too difficult. You can learn more about this hike and how to get there by reading our original Bohemia Mountain post.

On a clear day you can see most of the major Cascade peaks from the top of Bohemia Mountain, but on this one the low cloud cover only broke up enough to reveal the ghost town just below us, which would be our next destination.

In the past I had always hiked the last stretch of road to the ruins of Bohemia City, but this time we decided to give it a go with the truck... bad idea. I love the Tundra, it is an incredibly capable vehicle, with abundant power, and an extra large interior that makes long trips quite comfortable. Unfortunately for all of its benefits it also has limitations, mainly width. This particular stretch of road had us clenching our teeth as I carefully maneuvered through encroaching branches. Fortunately we made it through with only minor pinstriping, but if we ever return it will be in the 4Runner.

Even though there is not much left in Bohemia City it was still fun to poke around the area. Notable attractions are the mountain of mine tailings, and the remnants of an old general store/post office. There are a few poorly marked mine shafts in the area, so be sure to watch your step if you choose to explore it.

We determined that this would be a very cool place to camp on Halloween weekend, and may very well return with a group some day to do just that.

The mystery around Bohemia Mountain only grew a few days after our visit with a news story about a body being found in the area. I had marked that location on the map as worthy of exploring, so if we hadn't gone home early to let our young puppy out, we probably would have been the ones to discover it.