Planting trees at Stub Stewart and Snow in the Tillamook State Forest!!

Several brave souls made it out to L.L. Stub Stewart State Park on Saturday March 29, 2008 for a tree planting event hosted by the Tualatin River Watershed Council (TRWC) and Oregon State Parks. Stub Stewart is Oregon's first full service state park to be constructed in 35 years! And, integral to the creation of this park is a trails plan that incorporates mountain bike specific trails. The ground work for this plan has been placed in part due to the efforts of PUMP members Roger Louton and Ric Balfour (who has moved to New Zealand). After a period of planning and some negotiations on behalf of parks with previous land owners and agricultural rights owners, the park is open!

Saturday was my first opportunity to get up to Stub Stewart and what better way to first see the park than to plant a few trees to help it on its way :) Of course I brought my bike too! The efforts of about 10-15 folks allowed for about 100 trees to be planted near the park entrance on Hwy 47. As you enter the park, you will notice an old road grade to the right headed across a creek. This is the remnants of a logging road that has been removed, along with a culvert that was a barrier to fish passage. TRWC helped to raise funds for this work through grant efforts and is now helping to revegetate the hillside. Throughout the 4 hours of volunteer work we were met with snow, light rain, and several periods of bright sun!

Following the work party, I was interested in getting a ride in. Looking around at the dusting of snow, I thought I might try my luck on the Wilson River Trail (WRT) in the Tillamook State Forest (TSF) instead. I loaded my gear back up and decided on taking the Timber Road to Highway 6. Upon exiting Highway 26, I was met with heavy snowfall along the Timber Road! The entrance road to Gales Creek Campground, Brown's Camp, and the Summit Viewpoint all had about 6 inches of snow. I saw several folks sledding on the entrance service roads, and nobody else with a bike. I drove past Elk Creek Campground and King's Mountain to the Tillamook Forestry Center (TFC). All of these parking areas, including the TFC were also "snowed in", with about 3-4 inches of snow.

At the TFC, I did a short tour of the forestry history - gotta love the museum aspect of the center - and also took a few photos of the bridge and the Wilson River with snow. Beautiful! For those folks that are scheduling their August mountain bike rides already, I did a little bit of fact finding on room rentals of TSF facilities. Hopefully, I will be able to secure a room for the Tour de Tillamook post ride gathering - stay tuned to the email list/forums/calendar for more info on that BIG event. I noted that the gates across the bridge close at 4pm, and being that it was 3:30pm, I decided I would drive down to the Footbridge Trailhead to access the WRT.

Footbridge is at about 4-500 feet of elevation, and I was still met with about 3 inches of snow in the trailhead parking lot and on the trail. I managed to ride about 1/8th of a mile before turning around due to the slippery nature of the snow and the fact that I didn't adequately pack my cold weather riding gear with me in the morning.

I'm hoping that the Wilson River Trail is open soon - maybe after this near 60 degree weather we have been having this week it is?

Here are a few photos from the day: