Exploring the Pacific Greenway: from Portland to the Coast

Cable Trail

“Portland Forest Walks” by Jim Thayer and published by Timber press will be released in the Spring of 2008. It will describe this trail in detail including professional maps, photos, comprehensive coverage of the fauna, flora and history of the area.

I have retained a brief summary of the walks on this site along with the my original maps, but would urge the interested hiker to purchase the book as it contains a much more in-depth coverage of directions and the context of each of the walks. Moreover there is much more in the book that will give more meaning to these walks than could possibly be conveyed by these funky GPS generated maps. The experience of finding, recording and understanding the significance of these walks brought me a whole new understanding of how important the wild outskirts of Portland are to our culture and to our heritage. And my hope is to acquaint you not only with some exquisite wilderness hikes, but perhaps also a new way to consider the importance of what lies on the outskirts of our fair city.

Us this site for easily down-loadable rudimentary maps, but consider investing in the book (it’s designed to fit in your pocket) for a detail description of the twists and turns of these remote forest trails. - Jim Thayer

Brief summary: This half-hidden trail through the Crabapple Creek area is a remote walk through young forest, some mature stands around Crabapple Creek as you approach Rocky Point Rd. Beautiful views on the way down into the basin, wide vistas across recently logged slopes and majestic views of the Columbia, Mt. Hood, Adams and St. Helens. The Crabapple Creek area is a vast tract of wooded/logged slopes between Logie Trail on the south, Rocky Point Road on the north, Skyline Boulevard on the west and US 30 to the East. The area is traversed by two year-round creeks: Crabapple Creek and Patterson Creek.