
Retired forester John Barns walks along an abandoned railroad line that would serve as the route for the proposed Salmonberry Trail in the Oregon Coast Range.
Rob Manning/OPB News
The Northwest has no shortage of wilderness trails -- from little-traveled backcountry routes to the famous Timberline, Wonderland and Pacific Crest trails.
But with its vast and varied terrain, trail advocates are promoting two new routes in Oregon -- one through the lush forests of the state's Coast Range in the northwest, and another that takes trekkers through 800 miles of high desert in the southeast.
OPB News reporters David Nogueras and Rob Manning visited both proposed trails for these two reports:
800 Miles Of Juniper And Jack Rabbits: First Hiker Completes Oregon Desert Trail
A 33-year-old hiker has just become the first person to hike a proposed trail that spans roughly 800 miles across Oregon’s high desert.
The trail runs from Bend to the Owyhee Canyonlands near the Idaho border. The Oregon Desert Trail — as it’s being called — connects many wilderness areas and proposed wilderness areas.
This entire trail — all 800 plus miles of it — is on public lands. Some of it’s suitable for beginners, but other parts are for more experienced hikers. Sometimes there’s an actual trail, but on other sections hikers would need to trek cross country by following GPS points.
Follow these points and you’d see dry-cracked earth of the Alvord Desert. You’d climb high above the aspen stands that line Steens Mountain and descend into the Owyhee Canyonlands, where the rock walls tower 1500 feet above your head.
Brent Fenty is the executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association, a conservation group based in Bend.
“I think a lot of people do identify Oregon as a forest state and the reality is over half the state is desert,” Fenty says.
The idea for this trail came to him three years ago on what turned out to be a long sleepless night. ...Continue to the full report, including photos and a map, on OPB News.
Replacing The Echoes Of Freight Trains With A Trail To The Coast
Freight trains once ran through the lush green forests of the Coast Range on a route from Tillamook to western Washington County.
But five years ago, torrential rains soaked the Salmonberry River canyon, and the river flooded, mangling hundreds of feet of rail line.
John Barnes, a retired forester, stands in a tunnel on the abandoned rail line.
“We are on the historic route of Pacific Rail and Navigation Company railroad. We are in tunnel number 30. We’re about seven miles from the Coast Range summit,” Barnes says.
Barnes says the rail line’s owner — the Port of Tillamook Bay — couldn’t manage even a fraction of the $50 million repair cost.
“They tried to work something out, over a four-year period, and could not come up with a solution of where the money was going to come from,” Barnes says.
Port officials have joined a coalition aiming to turn the 80-mile route into “the Salmonberry Trail.” Barnes says they thought of other names.
“Banks to Tillamook corridor — but none of them kind of rings a bell like saying the ‘Salmonberry!’”
Barnes says the Salmonberry canyon is the trail's most iconic leg. ...Continue to the full report, including photos and a video, on OPB News.