New Stretch of Step Creek Trail

[aiwetir]

First post, so forgive me if this is totally wrong

There's a new(er) bit of trail on the Step Creek Trail in the Tillamook State Forest.

http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org ... Creek_Hike

Since I'm a contributor to Open Street Map, I've added the trail there and moved and edited the existing trail to a more accurate location. I'm guessing it'll take a day or so for the changes to show up.

[bobcat]

Thank you aiwetir - this is much appreciated! I think they worked on this in 2013.

I've updated the Field Guide page and linked to your report.

May I use your topo map showing the new alignment on the Field Guide page? Also, if you have a couple of stats on the new loop (total distance, elevation gain), I'd like to correct those as well.

[aiwetir]

The new segment from where it splits off the old trail is approx 0.9 miles long with 289 ft of ascent and 160 ft of descent while going clockwise.

The spur road that connects to Rice Road is approx 0.3 miles and has 103 ft. of elevation gain.

The whole new section is well marked and goes through second-growth timber like the rest of the hike. There is one bridge over a creek and overall the new section is a nice addition to the older part.

I accidentally paused my GPS so my hike was 5.5 miles but as far as I can determine it was 5.8 miles in the end without accounting for GPS jitter (meaning that it is 5.8 miles at the most)

I don't have a nice set of National Geographic topos, but I've created a map close to your original map without the useful information in the margins of the map and you are welcome to use that on the Field Guide page. I zoomed the map out a bit since the information in the margins is missing.

I forgot to commit my changes to OSM, so it looks a bit of a mess in there right now but should be better in a few days.



I also have 18 photos from the trip which can be seen here. Feel free to use any, all, or none of them on the Field Guide page too.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0qzrkyvhrzm7 ... eSP9a?dl=0

[BrianEdwards]

Nice to see new trail being constructed in 2014.

Wonder how long it'll be til someone scrambles down the creek to cut off the rest of the new trail.

Looking at the topo, it makes sense of the routing.

[aiwetir]

There are a couple more spur roads visible on aerial photos. I penciled them in in orange in the attached map. It'd be a short easy bushwhack to loop the trail back to the south side of the creek, but I think it would be better to avoid the roads either way or finish the trail on the north side of the creek.

There are definitely some old roads in there that you can't see on the aerials either. Lots of roads, but still a pretty nice hike.

I don't recall the spur roads being blocked in any way so they are drivable if you don't mind brush.

[bobcat]

Thank you for all the information, aiwetir! I'm now calling it the Step Creek Loop Hike.

I've added mileage to yours because I'm still including the stretch along the Nehalem from Reehers Camp. I don't see captions on any of your pictures: is there one that shows a segment of the new trail section?

[aiwetir]

Oh, sorry I got so used to looking at my end of things, I didn't realize that there's no easy way to see the geotags.

The strip of thumbnails are the 4 photos from the new segment. So the photo of the sign is looking south from the road that the trail terminates on. Would you prefer if I just attach the photos here?

I re-did my map with the start are Reeher.

[bobcat]

Many thanks, aiwetir! I've replaced a couple of my pictures with two of yours: http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org ... _Loop_Hike

[aiwetir]

One last thing I though the page could maybe use. Maybe these will become more common with technology.

[bobcat]

Thanks! I have added it now: http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org ... _Loop_Hike