Wolf Creek Trestle Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Cochran Trailhead
- End point: Wolf Creek Flats
- Trail log:
- Hike Type: In and out
- Distance: 10.0 miles
- Elevation gain: 740 feet
- High Point: 1830 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Hike Description
The Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad, a successor to Southern Pacific, was 88 miles long, with 60 trestles, large and small. When in operation, the railroad allowed hikers to use the section between the Salmonberry/Nehalem confluence and Cochran. Now, after the 2007 winter storms, the railroad is in disrepair and the line will probably never be used by trains again. The tracks are becoming overgrown with baby alders, but this section is till eminently hikeable at our own risk. In parts, tracks are suspended in mid-air above slides, but these sections are easily negotiable. As of 2013, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and other groups are working to make this a biking/hiking route for the entire length of the line. You should bring a decent headlamp or flashlight to get through the tunnels. Maintenance here is voluntary and sporadic, so you may have to clamber over blown down trees.
From Cochran crossing, walk down along the tracks along a jeep track. Pennoyer Creek runs to the right under alders and Douglas-firs. The track is getting overgrown here with Scots broom and baby alders. There are a number of beaver dams along the creek and on the south side of the tracks. Pass Cochran Pond, with the remains of the old mill complex across it, now pockmarked with bullet holes. There’s a gully down to the right under shady cedars and Douglas-firs below the mill pond dam. Cross over a washout on the tracks: the fiber optic cables once buried here are now exposed. Pass another alder bottom on the right. There’s a sinkhole under the tracks as you reach the 801 marker. Pass an abandoned ballast regulator parked on a small siding, the Tunnel 24 Spur, and then reach Tunnel 24. Soon, down to the right, you can see small waterfalls on Pennoyer Creek.
On the other side of the tunnel is the old permit box, a place where hikers would sign a disclaimer when the track was active. Now you are above the Salmonberry River. There is a small waterfall gushing down on the left. On the right, there’s a viewpoint down into the canyon. Walk over three short trestles as the railroad passes along rock faces. Reach a rusting water tank, tagged by graffiti artists, and cross the Big Baldwin Trestle. This is about 165’ high and 520’ in length, the largest trestle on the line. There are wide wooden walkways on both sides fo the tracks and wooden railings. Take in a view down the forested Salmonberry valley. You also look straight down the steel girders to Baldwin Creek below. Pass a second water tank on the west side of the trestle.
A hose runs along the tracks from this water tank as far as the Wolf Creek Trestle. To the right is a grassy area with a memorial plaque to seven railroad workers killed in the 1930s when the Little Baldwin Trestle collapsed. Pass the 803 marker in secondary Douglas-fir, cedar, and hemlock woods. The track turns into the Wolf Creek Canyon in a long horseshoe bend. A larger section of the tracks are in suspension over a huge slide. One can see the railroad suspended on the other side of the creek as well. Pass through Tunnel 25, which is dripping and darker than the previous one. Then walk along the Wolf Creek Trestle on steel gratings and get great views of the creek below.
I continue along the creek and pass by the suspended tracks I saw from above. I can look across at the big slide. I walk over a section of tracks buried by a slide below a cascading stream. Now I come to a huge slide over which the tracks are suspended. Across the canyon and below me is another section of the railroad suspended. I pass the 804 sign. Then I come to a landslide at a cascading stream. Maintainers have logged out a trail over the slide. I get a view down into the creek. The tracks turn to the left and soon I’m above the Salmonberry again, which is shaded by big-leaf maples and alders. I pass over another big slide and then another one with a small waterfall. I reach the marker 805 above Wolf Creek Flats, an alder-rimmed open area down by the Salmonberry.
- The railroad was acquired by the Port in 1991, with an infusion of state lottery funding, after Southern Pacific deemed it too expensive to maintain.
- Storms in 1992, 1996, and finally 2007 wiped out sections of the line.
- The Port never turned a profit on the line, but was able to get federal funds to repair it after the 1996 storms. It was primarily used to transport lumber, but only one mill in the Tillamook area used it. At times, other goods, such as cattle feed, were transported and there were also tourist excursions.
- Increased logging in adjacent areas of the Tillamook State Forest contributed to the disaster damage. Also, the Port was never able to keep up with the extensive routine maintenance needed in such rugged, unstable country. At times when the railroad was operational, train speed was restricted to 10 mph because of the shaky condition of the tracks.
- There are mile markers still standing along the line. Cochran, at the high point of the route (1,830'), is at 800; I turned around at 805.
- Is this a rails to trails option? I don’t know: It would require extensive upkeep even for a foot trail and the liability issues would have to be resolved. Tunnels farther down the line are deteriorating and there are numerous slides, so many sections would have to be rerouted. And then there’s the question of dealing with the ongoing decay of the big trestles.
- As the alder thickets grow up on and around the tracks, summer and fall become less appealing seasons to hike the railroad as in many sections you would get no views whatsoever when these young trees are leafed out. Eventually, passage at all seasons will become a tedious machete-swinging ordeal unless there is active maintenance.
Hike down an old road bed from the trailhead and then along the course of the Nehalem River shaded by Douglas-fir, red alder, and western red-cedar with an understory of sword fern, Oregon grape, and salmonberry. Soon enough, the trail rises to the Nehalem River bridge on Cochran Road. The Gales Creek-Triple C Trail Junction is across the road. Cross the bridge and pick up the Gales Creek Trail where it rises off a blocked-off logging road to the left.
Head downstream above the Nehalem and then cross a footbridge over an unnamed creek. The trail rises on a slope of Douglas-fir, Oregon grape, mossy vine maples, and salal. You will see some larger Douglas-firs just before you cross the tracks of the abandoned Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad. Wind up from the tracks, dip, and then rise to the Gales Creek-Step Creek Trail Junction.
Keep right here and take an undulating trail into dense forest, switchbacking up and then winding along a bench to cross a logging road. Head up through a thinned stand of Douglas-fir and hemlock and pass an alder bottom before traversing up a gentle slope to the Gales Creek Trail-Round Top Road Junction.
Cross Round Top Road and keep rising in Douglas-fir/western hemlock woods with an Oregon grape, sword fern, salal carpet. Cross an old road bed and, hiking now on a steeper grade, make three switchbacks up this north-facing slope. After the third switchback, which is near a clearcut, start looking through the trees to your left for glimpses of Mount Rainier, Mount Saint Helens, and Mount Adams. The trail drops a little, rises, and then switchbacks again. Wind up on a gentler slope above a bench before crossing an abandoned logging road and traversing up a steep slope. Switchback and make a long traverse above a gushing spring shaded by vine maples. Reach a road and cross it. It’s a short distance through a salal carpet to Bell Camp Road and the Bell Camp Road Trailhead.
It’s mostly downhill from here to the Gales Creek Campground; the route is described in the Gales Creek Hike.
Maps
- State of Oregon, Department of Forestry: Tillamook State Forest
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Bring a headlamp or flashlight for the tunnels.
- Take care at eroded sections of the track; stability is never guaranteed!
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Wolf Creek Trestle Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Wolf Creek Trestle Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
Afoot & Afield: Portland/Vancouver by Douglas Lorain
More Links
Contributors
- bobcat (creator)