I completed the weekend’s obligations by late morning on Sunday and, on a whim, motored out to L.L. “Stub” Stewart State Park in the Coast Range foothills of Washington County. I have been here before in the winter and summer months and have never been much impressed by the park as a hiker's venue, but the lush verdancy of spring overcame me and I trolled along on a westside loop of the park delighting in the forest blooms, the solitude (I only encountered a couple of mountain bikers) and the sucking mud.
A
trail map can be accessed through the state park website, but brochures are readily available in the park itself. Most trails can also be used by mountain bikers and horses.
All hikers are supposed to begin at the Hilltop Day-use Area, and so I headed south on the Hare’s Canyon Trail, really a service road for most of its length, to Widow Maker Way and then Brooke Creek to take in the empty hike-in camp. From there, it was back down Hare’s Canyon to cross the paved Banks-Vernonia Trail to take an old railroad grade on the Williams Creek Trail and admire some relics before descending to Williams Creek itself. In the day’s drizzle, this bottomland was damp and muddy and the track overgrown with long grass. This must have been where I picked up a couple of ticks, one of which I only discovered . . . yesterday . . . crawling about on my wife’s side of the bed . . . just don’t tell . . .
I recrossed Banks-Vernonia, and headed up to Caddywhomper Viewpoint, now less of a viewpoint as the trees have grown up. Then it was back down to the B-V Trail to take another spur on Felling’s Wedge to the southern point of the mountain biker area where hikers are not allowed.
I went back up Hare’s Canyon, noticing a plethora of snails in all kinds of compromising positions. These sightings compensated for the disappointing lack of cougars and bears , which park brochures would have you believe are lurking around every corner. I made the Unfit Settlement View loop to the highest point in the park, the trail named after a 19th century surveyor’s assessment of homesteading potential in the area. I ended up on the Boomscooter Trail, but found its middle section closed because of trail reconstruction and decided to call it a day and head back to the car.
This loop was about 11 miles. It seemed like an ideal day to go: few visitors, muddy trails, a couple of bloodsucking arachnids, a bountiful mollusk population, forest floor wildflowers at their peak – what more could one ask?
