A refuge for thoughts on the trail
By Dave Powell
For the TODAY
I have returned again to one of my favorite thinking benches. It is near, but not on, the Oregon Coast Trail, and I needed a break.
Winter has again caused problems for people hiking the trail. A bridge is out at Oswald West. Trees fell during the winter closing the Cape Lookout north trail. And last week I discovered a major slide on the north Rain Forest Trail at Cascade Head.
And what is worse, I found out I was in the minority. Last year, I wrote about a hiker who was attempting the Oregon Coast Trail for the eighth time. She hadn’t completed it. She always quit somewhere around Pacific City or Lincoln City, with words to the effect of “too many roads.” Then, this week, someone else complained about the trail — “too much road and too much beach.” First of all, what would you expect with an ocean? And, second, the beach is my favorite part (especially the Oregon Dunes with miles of no road noise and plenty of surf ambience). Several of the detours new for this year are ways to walk less road and more beach.
•••
Hiking the Oregon Coast Trail from north to south, before reaching Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge the previous trail segments are a long road section from Pacific City to Winema. Several miles of beach are then followed by another road section (since the north Cascade Head trail has a slide and Fire Road 1861 closed about one and a half years ago).
After Cascade Head is another long section of road (will someone please connect Fraser Road to the Lincoln City Knoll Trail), followed by six miles of beach before another long section of Highway 101. I needed a break, and easily understood why the lady gave up. Too much/so much road. Of the 425 miles of the Oregon Coast Trail, more than 175 miles is road. Way too much has heavy traffic and unsafe, narrow shoulders.
Back to exiting the beach at Lincoln City: Heading south two and a half miles after joining Highway 101 at 51st Street, you cross the Siletz River and soon enter Siletz Bay National Wildlife Reserve to the east.
Established in 1991 as one of six wildlife reserves in Oregon, the Siletz Bay reserve was a major project to turn dairy pasture back to a salt marsh. Dikes were breached and removed, ditches were filled, and trees added to provide additional fish-sheltering areas. It wasn’t until 2017 before the roughly half-mile Alder Island Nature Trail opened. Of course, I walk a mile clockwise and counter-clockwise so I can do it the right way and the Powell way. In my previous walks I had seen eagles, herons, river otters, and last year finally black-tailed deer. My thinking bench is at the far end of the trail loop overlooking the Siletz.
I need to ponder.
Why didn’t I tell the eight-time hiker to do the Oregon Coast Trail in sections? Why don’t people like the quiet of the beaches? What I am really thinking about is why hasn’t the Oregon Coast Trail plan been finalized? What trails could be added to reduce road usage? Could a ferry system across the many rivers save dozens of miles? Oh well, perhaps my next bench think time will be better.