Dave’s Detours: Kilchis Point
By Dave Powell
For the TODAY
I am sitting at home, looking at the new Oregon Coast Trail maps updated and released this spring. If you don’t take the ferry from Barview to Bayocean Spit, you have a long walk around Tillamook Bay.
With 12 miles of Highway 101 and another 6.5 miles of Bayocean Road, two breaks are warranted. The first is Kilchis Point at Bay City, the second at downtown Tillamook at Hoquarton Trail.
Kilchis Point Reserve is a 200-acre area at the southern end of Bay City held by the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum. Take Warren Street (Highway 101 at mile 60.7), going right/west about a tenth of a mile to Spruce Street and left to the Reserve main path. I was once told that mammals will go to the right roughly 80 to 85 percent of the time upon entering an area — and it works well at Kilchis Point. Prepare for a nice two-mile hiatus after suffering from noisy cars zipping at way more than 55 mph as you walked along the highway.
Kilchis Point was one of the largest permanent Native American villages on the Northern Oregon Coast. In 1851, Joe Champion arrived at Kilchis Point and was invited by Chief Kilchis to live in a tree stump until his house was built.
Remember to keep going right, (well, until the return from the birdwatching station). You first walk about a fifth of a mile to Convening Circle #1, and after another fifth of a mile you arrive at Convening Circle #2. Already along the way you will have noticed that there are plenty of benches to relax and enjoy nature. You then follow the Floral and Fauna Trail for about a third of a mile, take a sharp right at the Porta Potty and then continue half a mile on Pioneer Trail to the Caitlin Heusser Bird Watching Station. (Side note: the watching station was funded by the Mario & Alma Pastega Foundation. Last fall, my wife had knee replacement surgery and we stayed at the Mario Pastega House. It’s a small world after all).
Besides a view of Tillamook Bay you also can see Bayocean Road leading to Cape Meares and listen to the ocean. Notice I didn’t say see the ocean; it is blocked by the Bayocean spit. After spending time looking at the birds, you head back. On the way, you will need to take a left at the Porta Potty, retracing the Pioneer Trail, then stay right for the sixth of a mile Native American Way. Continue to the right to reach the overflow parking and, yes, a second left will lead you past the Autzen Foundation Mural to the main path. Although the two miles of trail can be done easily under an hour, if you read the plaques, spend time to listen to nature after too many cars on Highway 101, and watch wildlife at the estuary birdwatching station I give myself one and a half to two hours of relief.
•••
The second detour is shorter. After another four and a half miles on Highway 101 is the Hoquarton Interpretive Trail (or Hoquarton Landing).
Once the water route to Tillamook, Hoquarton Slough became an industrial stream, and later accumulated industrial waste and trash. Starting in the early 2000s, work to reclaim the slough began (already more than 16,000 hours-worth), with the trail opening event celebrated in May 2019.
It is located on the east side of Highway 101 just before the bridge leading to downtown Tillamook. Traffic noise is greatly reduced — probably something to do with the speed limit being reduced to only 20 mph.
It is a short detour of about a third of a mile. But after having walked past several sloughs in the five miles since Kilchis Point, it gives a break before the long walk on Highway 131 and Bayocean Road before the ascent and decent at Cape Meares.
Final Tally:
“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” Abraham Lincoln.
“In every walk with nature one receives far more than one seeks.” John Muir
The trails at Kilchis Reserve and Hoquarton are about two and a half miles when you include the walk on Warren and Spruce Streets. And as Lincoln and Muir are right — it is well worth it.