With more clear weather between storms, I filled in another piece of the
Eugene to Crest Trail by wandering around Elijah Bristow State Park. I got there about 6:45, before the posted opening time of 7AM, but the gates were open so I drove on in and back to the main parking area at the end of the road. Here a piece of the River Trail heads east from the end of the parking loop - like the other
trails in the park, this one is actually a network of interconnected and criss-crossing trails. The trail map seems to be reasonably accurate, though with a lack of useful signage and plenty of use trails it's tough to be sure. Hard to go far wrong though, with the park broadly trapped between the Middle Fork of the Willamette River and fenced-off private land.
The first piece of trail I hit was well-packed gravel wide enough for easy horse riding - which, from the equestrian parking and the number of hoofprints, is a popular activity here. After a bit this turned into singletrack with backwaters and sloughs and small lakes scattered around. This park clearly took a lot of damage in the January ice storm. The trails have been cleared, but there are heaps of debris along much of the trailside.
- Storm debris piled up at trailside
About that signage - though the state managed to put up posts with arrows and icons at some of the trail intersections, many others were unsigned. And even the signed ones would have benefited from little touches like trail names and mileage markers. Maybe they ran out of budget. The fish icon is for the Angler's Trails. The river-and-trees one is for the River Trail, except where it isn't.
- I'm sure this was useful to someone.
A mile or so in the trail gets to a very swampy area. There's a sign proclaiming a trail closure due to storm damage, but the blowdowns had been cleared and there were plenty of prints from other people ignoring the sign, so I kept on going too. By "very swampy" I mean that the center of the trail is 6-12" deep in stagnant water for 50 yards or so; later there are other deep mud holes and one stream crossing that was close to my knees. It was a good morning for wool socks.
- Swamp ahoy
After a while the trail crosses into the Dexter State Recreation Site, though the boundary isn't marked. All of the signage vanishes here. The end of the trail is at a dirt road on Corps of Engineers land, in the shadow of the Dexter Dam.
- Dexter Reservoir end of the River Trail
Walking north up this road takes you to the dam itself. This would be a great place to cross over to the next segment of the Eugene to Crest Trail, were it not for the barbed wire fencing blocking off dam access at both ends. If one were sufficiently dedicated you could packraft or perhaps swim across the river further down. I'm not personally that stu, er, dedicated.
- Coming up on Dexter Dam
At the dam end of the road there's a pit toilet that is actually pretty clean and untrashed. A laminated piece of paper on the floor of the toilet building announces this as South Short Park. From here, after admiring the dam for a bit, I took the trail back along the river side of the recreation area. Like the other riverside trails, this one is less-traveled and the footing is mostly annoying-sized rocks with grass around them.
- Walking along the river
I turned off and took the Angler's Trail when I got back that far. This was in pretty bad shape, and I got off trail a couple of times while I hunted around past brushy spots. This trail also features some pretty overgrown poison ivy sections (along with the overgrown berry sections that are scattered throughout the park).
- Along the Angler 's Trail
On the other hand, there was plenty of river view (though with fancypants houses on much of the opposite bank) as well as plant life to enjoy.
- Corkscrew or Tree?
- Horsetails
The end of the Angler's Trail put me back on the main horse trail, and back on near-paved quality. I followed this around to the Elk Trail(s), and eventually worked my way back to the parking area, for a total of 8 1/2 miles or thereabouts.
Between the wide trails and the lack of any elevation change to speak of, much of this hike was more of a stroll. There are a few patches of substantial trees, but most of this area is either swamp, backwaters, or ex-farmland that may some day be reclaimed into forest but currently has a long ways to go. So it's probably not a hike I'll repeat - unless I decide I'm in the mood for birds, which this park has in abundance. Along with miscellaneous small birds, I spotted one great blue heron, a couple of Steller's jays, and a whole mess of ducks and geese. On a Friday morning there were a few other people around, but not many - I only saw 4 other people and 3 dogs, all within half a mile of the parking area.
