Exploring the Pacific Greenway: from Portland to the Coast

The trails presented in Forest Hikes 2 are a continuation of the trail selections first compiled by James D. Thayer and published in the trail guidebook, Portland Forest Hikes, published by Timber press in the Spring of 2008.

That collection of 20 trails originated from my desire to explore what has often been referred to as the “wildlife corridor” that sustains the continuing bio-diversity of Forest Park. Starting from the northern end Forest Park I alternately rambled and bushwhacked my way north along the eastern flank of the Tualatin Range. That effort resulted in the discovery of 10 new trails that I explored and described in Portland Forest Hikes.

Once having crossed Rocky Point Road, I came to realize that I had arrived in an area that was no longer pinched by residential or industrial development, and that ahead of me lay miles of untrammeled forest lands. In short, I had arrived at the end of the “wildlife corridor” and from here on I was looking at the vast expanse of Northwestern Oregon forests - eventually merging into the coastal range. This then formed the northern terminus of my original project, and the original criteria for selecting trails - that they be within 30 minutes of downtown Portland, and located on that long rib of hills extending north from Forest Park along the Tualatin Range. As a result Rocky Point Road forms the northern boundary of the trails collected in Portland Forest Hikes. Only one trail extends north of Rocky Point Road, and that’s the Joy Creek Loop located near the bottom of the road. Otherwise, this Rocky Point Road which also marks the northern end of Skyline Boulevard, marked the completion of my initial project.

But by this time, I was hooked on exploring these vast forests and I wanted to follow the forests to wherever they led. That’s when I recalled the “Pacific Greenway” project that Keith Hay had proposed many years earlier. During the waning years of the 1980’s Keith proposed emulating the “Mountains to Sound” project that had succeeded in linking Seattle’s hinterlands to the coast. This gigantic effort had involved the establishment of a corridor of donated lands, easements and trails linking the slopes of the Cascades to the pristine beauty of Puget Sound. Keith had even secured funding from the Nature Conservancy to scope the magnitude of this proposed trail linkage between Portland and the Oregon Coast.

The organization is still listed in the National Environmental Directory as being headed up by Keith Hay. It is described as, “a far-sighted effort to create and preserve one or more important natural and recreational corridors between the Pacific Coast and the Portland Metropolitan region. Only motorized routes to the coast presently exist. The extension of Portland's present open-space system to the Pacific, east to Mount Hood and the Pacific Crest Trail, and south along the Willamette Greenway, is a goal of the Greenway project.

What had resulted from Keith’s original scoping study was a plan for a series of trails to connect Portland to the coast, much like the trails linking Seattle’s hinterlands to the coast. The results of the scoping project had produced a map that showed three routes to the coast. The first “Pacific Greenway” trail had linked the Portland area to the coast via the aquatic route along the Lower Columbia - the route that Lewis and Clark took. Keith eventually described this route in his book “Columbia River Water Trail”, also published by Timber Press. The picture attached provides a glimpse of the Clatsop villages what the water route would have come across.

The final two routes were shown as heading westward from the northern end of Forest Park, along the hills flanking the northern boundary of Washington County. One route was shown diverging southwards and passing through Gales Creek and into the Trask River valley and reaching the Oregon Coast at Tillamook. The northern of the two land routes in the scoping study was shown as paralleling US 26 and crossing the Nehalem River twice and passing near Saddle Mountain, finally reaching the coast near Seaside.

From 2005 when I completed the initial book, Portland Forest Hikes I adopted an ambitious new goal. And that was to walk the entire length of the two land routes to the coast - starting with the northern leg that paralleled US 26 , crossed Saddle Mountain and descended to Seaside, Oregon.

In most cases I sought the routes that went along the height of land, and wherever possible I choose roads that had little or no traffic, only using paved roads when passing through populated areas. The trails in this 2nd collection of forest hikes has been surveyed over the last three years, and represent a publicly accessible route using logging roads, trails and (only when unavoidable) paved roads that traverse the hills and mountains of Columbia, Clatsop and Tillamook Counties from Portland to Seaside.

As in the previous trails these trial descriptions include details instructions on the trail including my own maps, frequent color photos, and comprehensive coverage of the fauna, flora and history of the area.

Jim Thayer