A Tale Of Tioga Bridge
A bridge has a simple job, straightforward even, span a body of water, bank to bank, allowing humans to cross to the other side without getting wet.
It’s a bridge, so what?
If you’ve seen one bridge, you’ve seen them all right?
Not this bridge, not for us!
You see, we have a history with Tioga Bridge and this was far from our first visit. We go way back.
If you’ve never heard of it before, here’s a little back story on the bridge itself.
Back in 2012, the Tioga Bridge was built on the existing piers of what had once been the Young Bay Bridge which washed out in the great Christmas flood of 1964. Forty Eight years is a long time to be without a bridge!
The newly constructed footpath would “bridge” the gap (see what I did there?) serving as a much needed connection point from Highway 138 to the 79-mile long North Umpqua Trail. By opening this additional access to the trail it would split the nearly 16-mile long Tioga Segment of the trail into two more manageable day hike sections.
Beauty and brains.
This stop was just one of many on this section on the trip down to California in our Four Wheel Camper that we’ve affectionately dubbed the “RamHawk” and seeing it again after all these years felt a little like reuniting with an old friend.
Let’s rewind to the summer of 2016 which marks our first visit to this beautiful bridge.
Atlas was the teeniest tiniest thing, barely a year old and so unsteady on his feet since he had only just begun walking a few days before.
With a couple of adventure ready Grandparents in tow, we had set out on our weekly adventure in search of freedom.
After stopping at Colliding Rivers earlier in the day, our final destination was Susan Creek Falls which was a short mile and a half out and back hike to a 60 foot waterfall along the Umpqua River.
But our ultimate objective was finding a place to take our weekly Atlas and Hobbes picture.
If you know, you know. But if you’re new here, then please allow me to elaborate.
When I was pregnant with Atlas, my amazing Mother-in-law gave us the brilliant idea of weekly photo shoots to mark how much our baby grew in his first year. She had a friend that had done it with a giant penguin and thought it was a really cool idea. We agreed! All we needed to do was decide on a “buddy” that would sit with Atlas for each one of his weekly pictures.
By chance, at my baby shower some months later, I was gifted a tiger stuffed animal that looked very much like Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes (thanks Kristen!) and the “The Indispensable Atlas and Hobbes” was born.
At first, all our photo shoots were done in our beloved rocking chair in our living room every Saturday because that was the day Atlas was born, but as we grew braver as new parents, we started to go out on adventures with our then 7 month old son.
But because of work, we only had weekends available and out of necessity, we started taking our weekly picture of Atlas and Hobbes wherever we happened to be that weekend.
Which brings us back to Susan Creek Falls where we planned to take our Week 55 picture somewhere along the trail.
Ultimately, the waterfall ended up being a dud because everybody and their cousin had decided to visit it on the same day as us. That’s the thing about summer and destinations that involve water. It was hot out and the small creek and distant waterfall were absolutely jam packed with tourists trying to stay cool in the heat of the sunny August day.
Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t get close enough to waterfall and even if we could have, the idea of strangers frolicking half naked in their tiny bathing suits with an abundance of butt cheeks as the back drop to our baby’s weekly photo wasn’t exactly our idea of a good picture.
Enter Tioga Bridge.
Returning to the Susan Creek Day Use Area we took the Emerald Trail, a short 0.75 miles hike downstream which would end at Tioga Bridge where we could cross the mighty North Umpqua River before looping back to the car for our return trek home.
We had passed the bridge on the drive down highway 138 but seeing it up close was something else entirely. I had never thought a bridge could be beautiful, but there it was in all its wooden glory, shining like a beacon in the bright afternoon sun.
We knew immediately that we had chosen our backup picture location wisely, bridges over butt cheeks any day! Especially this bridge.
Actually getting Atlas’ weekly picture was another adventure of its own, they always are. Behind every successful picture there are hundreds of fails and I do mean that literally. Little kids, toddlers especially, are always predictably unpredictable and our tiny one year old was no exception.
They say it takes a village and we were thankful we had ours with us in the form of two doting Grandparents who were always on alert, ready to catch an unstable baby and his unwieldy legs. Between the four adults, we alternated between trying to get the picture and catching Atlas as he teetered this way and that before those unstable legs inevitably gave way and eventually got this iconic shot.
Not only was it Atlas’s first weekly picture truly standing on his own two feet, it was also the first picture since he had began walking just days before.
Plus, that backdrop!
Beauty!
Mission accomplished!
Fast forward three years and we found ourselves back at Tioga Bridge once more, this time with our second son Fenix.
We had continued taking weekly pictures with Atlas who was on week 227 by that point and when Fenix was born it was only natural to continue the tradition with him too.
But different kiddo, different buddy. Atlas had Hobbes, Fenix got Chewbacca and the story of their adventures became “The Saga of Fenix and the Wookiee”.
Fenix was born on a Friday so we just rolled both of their weekly pictures onto the same Saturday which presented its own sets of challenges. Two kids, two buddies, two different photo shoots on the same day, sounds easy enough right?
Wrong!
It’s complicated and frustrating and sometimes downright maddening, often times ending with someone in tears. But the memories we make in the process, not to mention the pictures themselves are absolutely priceless and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.
Officially speaking, Atlas and Fenix are 172 weeks apart so there were age challenges that had to be taken into consideration each week. What worked for Atlas, didn’t work for Fenix in the early days so we found ourselves having to get creative to make each picture uniquely their own.
Except when we didn’t.
For some of the weeks we went out of our way to deliberately re-create a picture we had taken with Atlas when he was the same age that Fenix was currently.
For example, when Atlas was on week 31, we took his picture in a Bi-Mart shopping cart in the Bi-Mart parking lot in Florence.
So when Fenix was on week 31, we drove all the way out to Florence back to the same parking lot, put him into the same shopping cart, wearing the same clothes (a problem in its own right because Fenix was HUGE compared to Atlas at the same age) to, quite literally, recreate that exact picture with Fenix and Chewie.
Then we re-created the same picture for Atlas at his then current week 203.
Keeping with tradition, when Fenix was on his week 203, we went back and re-created it again, adding yet another re-creation for Atlas at month 86 in the process.
Eventually, in a couple years when Fenix is on his month 86, we’ll go back and do it all over again.
See? Complicated!
But just look at that finished result!
WORTH IT!
And now we were back at Tioga Bridge to do another re-creation, sans Grandparents this time.
Our mission was to try and recreate the iconic week 55 Tioga Bridge photo with Fenix and Chewie and once again it would prove to be no easy feat.
The exact opposite of Atlas, Fenix is stubborn, defiant and absolutely fearless. Even at just a year old, if it wasn’t his idea, he didn’t want anything to do with it and he made certain we knew it.
It was late November so it was cold and Tioga Bridge was frozen solid solid, its wooden planks transformed into a natural ice skating rink of sorts, set above frigid water that roared down below.
The difference a few years make!
At first we attempted to take Fenix’s picture on the same side of the bridge that we had taken Atlas’s three years before, but that was the shaded side of the bridge and even more treacherous than the sunny side with its frosty boards sparkling despite the afternoon sun. A warning of just how dangerous it would be if you didn’t choose your steps with care.
Sunny side it was.
Remember when I said Fenix didn’t do anything willingly unless it was his idea? Well, the Tioga Bridge photo shoot was definitely NOT his idea.
When you added in the fact that Fenix had been walking, nay, RUNNING for months now it made for a rather terrifying photo prospect indeed.
Trying to stage a picture with a frustrated and fearless toddler who insists on running everywhere he goes coupled with an icy bridge, what could possibly go wrong?
I honestly can’t think of anything more stressful.
In the end, patience won out and we got the shot, we just wont talk about all the grey hairs that sprouted as a result of the effort.
At 4 years old, Atlas was much more reasonable and listened when we cautioned him about how slippery the board walk could be.
After carefully making our way to the shaded side of the bridge, in true first born fashion, Atlas posed for his week 227 picture perfectly.
Two kids, two buddies, two pictures, one bridge, three years later.
Mission accomplished.
Fast forward two years and we find ourselves back at Tioga Bridge once more, this time on our way down to California.
It felt a little meant to be as we unconsciously retraced the exact route that we had taken so many years before. So much had changed and we hardly felt like the same people anymore.
Even our boys were changed. Gone were the babies of years past, before us now stood a 7 year old wielding a GoPro and a 3 year old who still wasn’t feeling a pit stop at Tioga Bridge.
As our feet stepped onto the wooden boards once more, we couldn’t help but be transported back to a time when things seemed simpler, easier even. Though, at the time it certainly didn’t feel that way. It’s funny how perspective changes over the years, so quiet and subtle that you don’t notice until you’re looking back.
How could a simple wooden structure hold such memory?
In what felt like the blink of an eye, both boys had grown so much bigger, they were more curious, braver, and more mature, though no less defiant, (I’m looking at you Fenix). A pair of bold little explorers who were so excited for where the road would be taking us in the coming weeks.
So yeah, its not just a bridge, not to us.
Anything can be reduced to the sum of its parts if you break it down far enough.
In its simplest form, it’s a pile of deceased trees arranged into a wooden pathway that spans a body of water, bank to bank.
But it’s also so much more than that.
It bridges the gap between two worlds, civilization and nature.
It represents options, freedom and choice.
It’s a connection between lifetimes, past, present and future.
A collection of memories, good and bad, frustrating and beautiful.
Why did we cross the bridge? To get to the other side.
