June 2011

The Willapa Hills Trail is becoming worth the drive. It offers over fifty miles of rail-trail from South Bend on Willapa Bay to Chehalis on the I-5 freeway, with the Willapa Hills in the middle. Take a weekend and explore.

The TrailBear did, coming up the coastal route from surveys in Astoria and Ft. Stevens (“Ft. Skeeter”) and he was surprised at the improvements. The WHT is becoming a destination trail. He spent two days looking at and riding various portions of the trail.

The WHT has an image of a ribbon of brush-choked ballast in remote, fog-shrouded hills. If anyone has made the full traverse, the account is not readily available. That would make a nice mountain bike adventure. The reality is that the trail is being developed at both ends (paved), in the middle (slurry seal) and between Doty and Adna (excellent “soft” surface). The traverse over the hills remains for An Adventure.


@@@ THE WILLAPA HILLS TRAIL COMES IN FIVE SEGMENTS…

You need to pick your ride and portage between the segments. Trail surfaces and bridges missing from the 2007 Flood divide the trail into five segments. It is not yet possible to make a seamless ride from South Bend to Chehalis. A few million dollars for new bridges and who knows? Pe El perhaps. Stay tuned on this one.

The rides are…

South Bend to Raymond. Blacktop. Family and road bike friendly. Scenic.

Raymond over the hills to Pe El. Gravel and brushed. Some bridges out. Mountain bike adventure.

Around Pe El. Slurry seal. Family friendly for a ways.

Doty to the Chehalis crossing. Excellent “soft” surface, wide and open. The RR bridge to Adna lies in the Chehalis River below the crossing site. From Rainbow Falls State Park it is an 18 mile Out N Back. Scenic.

Adna to Chehalis. New trailheads at both ends and blacktop between. An enjoyable bucolic ride. Family and road bike friendly. Scenic.


@@@ SOUTH BEND TO RAYMOND – BLACKTOP, O.K. FOR ROADIES…

There is a scenic blacktop trail starting in South Bend and running up the Willapa River to the Raymond Riverfront Pier. The TrailLink map has been updated to show this segment. There are basically no facilities here. Bring water. The only restrooms at the Raymond pier are in two attractions – a carriage museum and a maritime museum. There is a portapotty in a small roadside rest above the trail on the bend in the highway, but there is no trail to it from the trail. You can thrash up the bank to reach it.

The best place to trailhead is at the Everybody’s Market complex. Find the McDonalds and turn in here. The trail runs past McDonalds, does a bit of street, ducks behind a church, then over the bridge to the Riverfront Pier complex. Heading toward South Bend it does a few blocks through an industrial area (with no industry), then back on the bike trail and off to South Bend.

What do you see? A nice ride along the river: marshes, tide flats and ruins, many ruins. All those rotted pilings once held up something – a pier, a cannery, booming ground stakes. Each piling stub marks an economic loss. There are a lot of them.

A century ago Raymond and South Bend were booming. Ships filled the river, waiting to load lumber. There were canneries. There was commerce. There were jobs. The exhibits at the pier explain how it was in the Good Old Days. Now things are rather slow and sleepy over here in the hills.


@@@ OVER THE HILLS – A MOUNTAIN BIKE TRAVERSE

The trail follows Highway 6 much of the way through the hills to Pe El. There are about eight miles up the valley, then into the hills. Here TrailBear did a series of soundings where road and trail were together. The photos are on the trail page and on the trail map. It’s not a complete picture of conditions, but better than what was available.

The surface is in gravel. It was ¾ minus at the points inspected. No 2-4” RR ballast was seen at these points. All were brushed and rideable. There are no facilities here. This is the Mountain Bike Adventure portion of the trail. Can you make it from Raymond to Pe El and live to write about it? (TB suggests a team of riders, radios and good sag wagon support.)

There are some bridges out. This is usually No Biggie. They are not big bridges. Just backtrack to the highway and make a small detour around the outage. There are numerous roads and drives which cross the trail to reach properties on the far side.

The interesting thing was the number of bridges up the valley that had been refurbished for bike/ped use, complete with guard rails and such. The smart move in developing this trail would be to work from the towns out into the boonies as funds permitted, and that appears to be what they are doing.


@@@ PE EL – FULL SERVICE TRAILHEAD AND PAVEMENT OF SORTS…

The first full service trailhead on the WHT is at Pe El. It has parking, water, flush toilets, an info kiosk and pavement of sorts on the trail there. How far it extends is ??? (unless you ride and tell), but there is something like a slurry seal on this portion of the trail.


@@@ DOWN IN THE VALLEY – DOTY TO CHEHALIS CROSSING – EXCELLENT SURFACE

The wonderment of this survey was the section from Doty along the valley to the displaced bridge by Adna. Put yourself at the junction of WA 6 and Stevens Rd. in the hamlet of Doty. On the left, coming down from Pe El is a section that is brushed but rough looking. Turn your head.

Across Stevens Rd. there is a wide track, fully brushed. The 12-15’ trail is topped with a 3/8” gravel and compacted. It is an excellent soft surface trail. TB has seen none better on any Western trail visited. It answers the question about Parks hardening the trail from Adna up to Rainbow Falls State Park. They have – and further – into Doty. Will they go on up to Pe El? Hope so. A seamless ride from Chehalis to Pe El would attract riders.

This soft surface trail extends from Doty down to the Chehalis crossing. The bridge is missing there. It can be found downstream a few hundred meters at 46.625798° -123.103017°. One assumes the Flood of 2007 swept it away. Getting something back will be an expensive exercise. You can walk out on the remains of the trestle and look around. Imagine the waters here over your head and hundreds of tons of steel bridge being swept downstream.

Rainbow Falls State Park is the place to trailhead for this section of trail. It’s a good place to camp if you are spending a few days exploring the whole trail. There is a spur trail from the park over to the WHT. The day use area features a modern restroom with water, flushies and showers.

From the park to the river and back is an 18 mile ride. Rather rural and scenic and remote. WA 6 is just over there – across the river. You can hear it. You can occasionally see it. You just can’t reach it. Beyond the park there are no facilities on the trail other than a gravel parking area at the Ceres Hill Crossing. Bring what you need. Cell phone coverage is spotty here.


@@@ ADNA TO CHEHALIS – NEW AND IMPROVED AND PAVED

The trail is now paved from Chehalis out to Adna. Good black top and rural scenery, including three old RR bridges. Check out the flood debris piled up against them. In December 2007 much of the valley was under water. A local rider pointed out the flood level on the local fire station – half way up the garage door windows. There was talk of cows found in trees. I-5 was submerged. Rainbow Falls State Park was a sheet of flowing water. The bridge there is still gone, as are a number of others.

The new Chehalis trailhead at the end of SW Hillburger Rd. (N46.64826 W122.97197) is not yet finished (6/2011). It still needs the blacktop. This is not in the best part of town. You might do better to stage out of Adna.

The trailhead at Adna, behind the high school (N46.63250 W123.06140), is finished but not yet open, according to a local rider. Restroom and gate are locked. There is a large gravel parking lot across the street that will serve. It’s next to the fire station. Remember – water half way up those windows.

There is a patch of gravel at the trail crossing at Stearns Rd. This one is giving them design problems as it is on a curve with reduced sight lines. They want you to slow down and cross with caution. Wonder if they will put in a bike/ped stop light – as seen on the Snohomish Centennial Trail.

The section beyond the Adna trailhead is done in that 3/8” gravel surface. The trestle missing the decking is slated to be done by the end of the year. That leaves the missing bridge at the river. This will take longer.

The Willapa Hills Trail is not there yet, but it certainly is in the process of Becoming. Take a ride on the wild side. Head for the hills and see what secrets they hold.

Ride on!

TrailBear
Wondering where the bridge went.















At the junction of US 101 and WA 6 by way of the pier, the rest of the trail starts heading up the valley and over the hills. It is paved out to Case Pond and follows Ellis Slough. Beyond that, for an unknown distance, it is topped with black ¾” gravel. A bit bouncy but you can ride it on a mountain bike.




Best to bring the mountain bike. There are three paved sections and one with an excellent “soft” surface and there is the rest.

It may be years before we can pedal from Chehalis to South Bend, but the ends are paved and here is some update and background information from the Lewis County Trails org...




"Trail: Chehalis to Adna section of the Willapa Hills Rail to Trail
Lenght: 5 Miles
Surface: Paved

Directions to Chehalis trailhead: From I-5 take exit 77. Left at light on Riverside Dr. Slight right on SE Newaukum Ave for .5 mile. Left on SW Sylvenus St. Right on SW Hillberger Rd. for .5 mi. to parking area.

Directions to Adna trailhead: From I-5 take exit 77. West on Hwy 6 for about 5 miles. Right on Bunker Creek Road exit. Contuinue past the expresso stand. Right on Dieckman Rd. through Adna to the parking area on the left. Crossing the Chehalis River

The abandoned rail line is a 56 mile Rail-to-Trail route that follows the Chehalis River to Pe Ell and beyond to South Bend on the Pacific coast. This section of the Willapa Hills State Park Rails-to-Trails starts in Chehalis at the Hillberger Road trailhead. The trail is a beautiful break from city life that starts just minutes from downtown Chehalis. On the way to Adna it crosses two century old trestles that cross the Newaukum and Chehalis Rivers. As it crosses Tune Rd, Shorey Rd and Hwy 603 it provides beautiful country scenes of farm land, dairy cows and a glimpse of Mt. Rainier away from the busy highways nearby. It parallels Hwy 6 for a short section before it crosses the highway at Stearns Road. The trail then goes past a private manmade lake that was used for barefoot waterskiing competitiions, then behind Adna High School to the Adna trailhead. The trail continues past the parking area for another 3/4 mile across Bunker Creek Road, past a sheep farm and ends at a 800' trestle for now until the trestle is redecked and rails added in the future. See trail photos:

Future plans include a grant application to RCO (Recreation and Conservation Office) next year that would provide for this trestle (bridge #5) to be decked and rails added. If this grant is approved it will open up a long stretch of trail beyond this point. Money has already been approved from this year’s RCO grant to harden the trail with compacted gravel for another 10 miles past the trestle which would extend to Rainbow Falls State Park. This is to be completed by June of 2011. The bridges taken our during the 2007 catastrophic flood in this area at Spooner and Dryad are scheduled to be replaced with FEMA funds in the next few years. They are now in the design phase.

A major hitch in the completion and official opening of this trail has been the Littell crossing at Hwy 6. There is poor sight distance where the trail crosses this major Highway. For the time being the paving will end a short distance in both directions of the trail and change to gravel to ensure slowing down at the crossing. The Parks Dept. will be asking the state at the next legislative session to provide assistance in designing and constructing a safe crossing.

Lewis County Community Trails, has been active in partnering with the Washington State Parks Department in helping to secure grants and has acted as a liaison between State and Congressman’s Baird’s office in helping to secure funding. LCCT has also given advice on the needs of the local area and useful improvements including signage along the trail. LCCT will aid the State with trail maintenance on the Chehalis to Adna portion once it is completed."

THIS TRAIL IS IN A DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE AND ONLY PARTS OF IT ARE PASSABLE BY BICYCLE.

I see that it is now mapped as a red trail and not green here. That is good because only portions are passable. I spoke with someone here in Washington State who is involved with the project and we all can expect ACCURATE and detailed information on the trail soon. There is far too much misinformation out there on the WEB that implies the trail is a completed and improved ride. It is not and the State of Washington is not responsible for the misleading information. Be well informed and be safe.

There was a bad flood in 2007 and one of the bridges was washed out. You can view it lying in the river west of Anda WA with the Google satellite imagery. I was planning to ride this trail this year and had camped at the beautiful Rainbow Falls State Park in the late summer of 2007 before the flood. Knowing the area made me look deeper into the details because I was all gun-ho to ride this trail. What were the conditions the full length? Had anyone ever rode the 56 miles?

Perhaps soon we can view a map that indicates the paved areas, the improved graveled area(s) and the not improved rail rock areas soon. I hope to provide a link to this information in the future (it is being compiled) so anyone making plans to ride on the trail this year will know what will be fun and what will be not. The paved areas at both ends are good to go and a smooth ride.

I urge all to support the further development of this trail. In the early 70’s I rode the Wisconsin Sparta-Elroy trail as a Boy Scout. It was the first converted rail grade trail in the USA (1967). One of the dads had connections at Schwinn and he provided the men with the rare and fast Schwinn Quintuplet for them to ride. What a sight that was and I wish I had taken a picture to preserve the memory to share. I have ridden many converted rail trails and look forward to the Willapa Hills Trail as it develops into the full and planned 56 mile route.

It will be a real Emerald some day.