Ride to Scappoose, Oregon
And hike the Crown-Zellerbach Trail
50 mile round trip ride, and an approximately 34 mile round trip hike
done in segments that started on December 16, 2010
All rights reserved - may not be copied without permission The current 17 mile Crown-Zellerbach Trail will eventually link up with the Banks-Vernonia
Trail. That segment of this hike is fully documented
HERE
GPSr tracks are included here (for free) in TPX format. Enjoy!
Crown-Zellerbach Trail
approval, funding, construction and so forth has been an on-going process for
the past several years. I'll try to keep this web page up-to-date as progress
is made. This initiative started in 1993 due to a VERY forward thinking County
Commissioner. It's been a long road (pun intended) to get the project this far.
The CZ Logging Road began as the Portland-Southwestern Railroad in the early 1900s.
The railroad carried logs from Vernonia to Chapman Landing from around 1905 to 1945
when the railroad was discontinued. When Crown Zellerbach purchased the property, it
removed the tracks and ties and began transporting logs by truck. After Crown
Zellerbach sold the property to Hancock Timber, the logging road was no longer used
to transport logs, but Hancock maintained it as a company fire and access road.
Part of the plans for the trail include an emphasis on the logging industry. The
trail will provide interpretive opportunities which detail Oregon's historic logging
past as well as information on current logging practices. A portion of the property,
the Nehalem Divide Tunnel constructed in the early 1900s, is listed on the National
Registry of Historic Places.
The Crown-Zellerbach Trail "officially" starts at Chapman Landing,
at the end of Columbia Road, next to the Multnomah Channel, Scappoose, Oregon
Lat. 45 44.7059 Long. 122 50.4500 although there is no trailhead
or even parking here. There are plans to build a proper park at this location
at some future date. Time will tell....
The Columbia County Rider (bus service) may be an option for getting to/from trailheads
They offer FlexRoute service between Scappoose and Vernonia on Tuesdays and Thursdays
each week. That route runs 3 round trips each of those days. Contact CC Rider for details.
http://columbiacountyrider.com/index.html
The current trail runs very close to and parallel with the Scappoose-Vernonia
Highway. It begins at Chapman Landing in Scappoose and ends in Pittsburg where
the SV Hwy meets Route 47.
Returned to the Nehalem Divide Summit on December 31, 2010
Sunny day but 25 degrees and very cold.
It has been snowing and there are a few inches on the ground
but no problem to hike through.
Sections of the trail are overgrown with scotch broom
The creek water is deep and running very fast although the pictures don't really
show that very well.
Lots of animal tracks and scat. Looks like a coyote or a wolf has been through
here. Two HUGE elk ran right in front of me. I'm a city boy but these guys were B-I-G.
Bigger than a couple of tall horses. They zoomed through too quickly to get a picture of.
There was also some animal that had hooves like a small pony. Wondering what it was.
Some sort of a drainage lake.
The gates are locked so I'm guessing this was a Weyerhaeuser vehicle track.
Some nice views out here.
There were no signs but apparently the Crown-Zellerbach Trail ended prior to
reaching this point, which is about 17 miles from Chapman Landing. I am about 1/2
mile from Scaponia Park which is straight ahead.
You have to walk down the highway a few feet to get to this next gated logging
road segment. Do not take the gated trail that leads uphill, away from the highway.
I found this interesting box on the side of the trail. Wondering how old it is and
what it was used for.
The trail comes within a few yards of the highway at Scaponia County Park.
But it would be a difficult bushwhack to get to it directly across the highway.
Better to walk down the road a ways and enter at the logging road access point.
Scaponia County Park is a Columbia County park, not a State park.
The day use access fee is $3.
Continuing on....
There are several trails, mostly heading uphill, that could make interesting
side trips. They are all marked as being ok for non-motorized day use.
Here's another, right at the end (or beginning) of the old Camp 8 site.
Camp 8. The site where the railroad and logging workers and their families lived.
Possibly another Camp 8 artifact?
This foundation is all that's left of the building that must have stood here.
I plan to come back after the snow is gone to see what else there is to see here.
There's not much left of Camp 8 but it was quite a large camp. I'll add
more pictures depending on what I discover on future visits.
Here's a picture of what Camp 8 looked like in 1929
and a picture of the childrens school, held in a rail car.
And some 1920's pictures of shay locomotives and logging activity.
Below is a trail leading out of Camp 8 that could be a short-cut to Vernonia.
Getting close to the next trailhead.
The view up the hill from the Scappoose-Vernonia Highway trailhead parking lot.
I think this may be the Dog Creek area just South of Baker Point. It's only
4-5 miles to the center of Vernonia and a little less to Pittsburg as the crow flies.
This turn off is not marked but I am now about 21 miles from Chapman Landing and
about two miles up the hill from the Vernonia end of the Scappoose-Vernonia Highway.
This is a fairly large trailhead parking area turn-off but of course you want
to be careful not to block access to the gates.
This is the entrance to the last segment of this trail. This hasn't been the
"official" Crown-Zellerbach Trail for the past 4 miles or so, though. Many thanks
the the Weyerhaeuser Company for generously allowing access to these lovely old
logging roads. Please be respectful of the property owners and "leave no trace".
From this trailhead it's another two, not terribly interesting miles to Pittsburg,
which is the end of the current CZ Trail. You don't run into many people (but LOTS
of animals) on these last few miles. There are a number of spurs and side trails
in this area. I have explored pretty much all of them and found them to be
interesting but dead ends. There is no access to Vernonia or route 47 from any trail
that I checked out. If you like running into elk, deer, wolves, cougar and so on,
you may enjoy some of these side trips. But bring a GPS!!! Even with a GPS I
got myself dangerously almost lost several times.
Returned on January 6, 2011. This bridge at the trailhead looks like it
was originally a train tressel that was later converted for logging truck use.
You quickly come up to a three way fork that looks interesting.
The fork to the left is a trail to nowhere. The middle trail has a sign with a
"V" posted on it which I thought (incorrectly) might be a trail to Vernonia.
Turned out it was an interesting 2 1/2 mile spur that dead-ended close to Route 47.
Getting to the highway would involve some SERIOUS bushwhacking.
The correct trail is the wide trail straight ahead, a little to the right, that runs
parallel to the Scappoose-Vernonia Highway.
There are a lot of natural gas and other utility access roads if you go up the
middle trail. And another numbered birdhouse. Perhaps someone can tell me who's
putting these things up. They look fairly new and since they have numbers, that
implies that someone is keeping track of them.
The middle trail starts to get a little dicey 2 miles or so in. It eventually
dead ends. I did explore the one, very faint trail available that led to an abandoned very primitive campsite. Almost got lost, even with my GPS, trying to find my way
back to the main trail. Be advised...
Back on the main trail... the steep hillside is unstable here. Several rock slides.
The end of the line (or the beginning, depending on how you look at it).
The Pittsburg trailhead, such as it is. Some, but not much parking available.
The trail is about 23 miles end to end.. and no easy link up to the Banks Vernonia
trail that I can see. Vernonia is five miles up the highway. No trail, no sidewalk.
The Crown-Zellerbach trail could be a VERY nice hike *IF* the County has the will
and funds to make it so. Based on how slowly this project is moving forward, I'm
guessing this will not happen in my lifetime. Even "as is", it's a nice stroll that
you can take most any time of year. But there are certainly hazards and obsticles
that I have hopefully fully documented for you here. Please drop me a note with
comments, suggestions, trail condition updates and so on.
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