Need help identifying a trailhead

[Excursionista]

My brother and I were heading back from the coast on Hwy 26 yesterday, and spotted what appeared to be a trailhead sign very close to the bridge over South Fork Quartz Creek. It's on the south side of the road, set back in a vehicle turn-out. We came around a bend and couldn't stop in time, and for various reasons kept on going.

Does anyone have any information about this? I haven't found anything online yet ("Quartz" is about as common a geographical name as salmon, eagle, lookout and lost...).

Thanks!

[Martell]

Do you think it might be this? Looks like a logging road from the map.

[Billc]

I found this on the Clatsop State Forest site.
http://www.oregon.gov/ODF/FIELD/ASTORIA ... ailMap.pdf
I have been by there hundreds of times and missed it, thanks for the heads up.
Bill

[AlexanderSupertramp]

I think you're right! I wound up doing that Bloom lake trail a couple of weeks back when the Saddle Mountain trail was closed. It's an ok little hike to a small lake.

Adam

[Jane]

I've driven by that hiker-trail sign hundreds of times as well (on the north side of the hwy. right?), just havn't checked it out yet. Besides the Bloom Lake trail, which is very pretty in the fall, another trail in the area is Soapstone Lake : http://portlandhikers.com/forums/thread/44927.aspx

[Excursionista]

Thanks for the replies - I'm pretty sure now that it's the trail to Bloom Lake. Highway 26 makes that big sunken grade just to the west of the spot I'm thinking of, and it appears that way on the maps. I've never heard of Bloom Lake, but I'll definitely check it out one of these days. Not as spectacular as the Gorge or the mountains, perhaps, but it seems like a great place to try a little fishing (probably not catching, in my case) or to picnic on the way to/from the coast, especially if you're traveling with "non-hikers."

And new places to explore are always fun, regardless!