Crown Zellerback Summit to Vernonia

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bcostley
Posts: 184
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm

Crown Zellerback Summit to Vernonia

Post by bcostley » January 29th, 2015, 9:02 pm

Easyrider has a nice trip report of the Crown Zellerback trail: http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/vie ... f=8&t=6776

He also has a nice website with reports on it though my ISP (Frontier) is apparently banned from it now.

I've put some photos and maps on my Facebook page for the Summit to Vernonia.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 2dc4267026

The Crown Zellerback Trail started as a logging railroad complete with a (very rare for a logging railroad) tunnel. The railroad was abandoned quite some time ago and replace with a logging road. The logging road does not completely follow the old railroad grade, not just at the tunnel approach but also on other parts of the trail. Several years ago Columbia County acquired the rights to the logging road and it is now a trail from Scappoose to near Vernonia. It is probably best for mountain biking and seems to be mostly used for that, though use is very low at this point. The County is not yet publicizing the trail. It is fairly well marked, and generally in good condition. The summit and side trails to the tunnel is probably the most interesting area for hikers.

There is ample parking at the summit and at Elk creek. Access can be had at Scaponia Park (closed in Winter) and at some small pull outs near Scaponia (though parking is iffy and very limited at those pullouts). There is also room to park at the end of Knott St. in Vernonia.

The 1/2 mile or so nearest to Vernonia is fairly steep, muddy, and rough. The rest is a pretty easy grade and obviously was an old graveled road. There are numerous places where you'll see other roads of varying states of overgrowth, but the main path is easy to follow. Nearer to Vernonia there is a intersection where you turn off the old road, though this is well marked. The county is looking into acquiring the extension of the road at that intersection for a better approach to Vernonia and a connection to the Banks-Vernonia Trail.

Scenery is typical of what you might expect for a logging road through second/third/fourth growth in northwest Oregon. You'll see lots of elk, deer, and coyote scat on the trail.

Anyone interested in Topo! file or gpx tracks can PM their email to me.

pablo
Posts: 1451
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: Crown Zellerback Summit to Vernonia

Post by pablo » January 29th, 2015, 9:46 pm

That's neat, liked the photos, tunnels scare me I don't think I'd go there. I was able to get to EasyRider's web page and read his reports there - really interesting stuff (and where did my evening go?) - and one of his companions did the tunnel. He has one shot of him standing in the tunnel which seems to be really quite large - hard to tell the scale without a human nearby. I have Frontier FIOS and had no problem getting there.

http://easyrider.easyrider.com/Crown-Zellerback.htm

Thx,

--Paul
The future's uncertain and the end is always near.

bcostley
Posts: 184
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm

Re: Crown Zellerback Summit to Vernonia

Post by bcostley » January 29th, 2015, 9:51 pm

pablo wrote: have Frontier FIOS and had no problem getting there.
That's good to know. Frontier DSL in Vernonia is, uh, quirky. :) It'll probably work again for me tomorrow.

bcostley
Posts: 184
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm

Re: Crown Zellerback Summit to Vernonia

Post by bcostley » January 30th, 2015, 12:23 am

bcostley wrote:
pablo wrote: have Frontier FIOS and had no problem getting there.
That's good to know. Frontier DSL in Vernonia is, uh, quirky. :) It'll probably work again for me tomorrow.
And now, after all of my internet went totally down, a 30 minute call to Frontier, and a full reset on my modem, I can get to easyrider's website again. Thanks Frontier. :)

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bobcat
Posts: 2764
Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Re: Crown Zellerback Summit to Vernonia

Post by bobcat » January 30th, 2015, 2:09 pm

Thanks. Nice to see another post about this trail. I thought (via easyrider) that the trail stopped five miles before Vernonia. Is it signed out of Vernonia now?

bcostley
Posts: 184
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm

Re: Crown Zellerback Summit to Vernonia

Post by bcostley » January 30th, 2015, 3:46 pm

bobcat wrote:Thanks. Nice to see another post about this trail. I thought (via easyrider) that the trail stopped five miles before Vernonia. Is it signed out of Vernonia now?
The trail now officially goes to the end of Knott St in Vernonia which is about 2 miles from downtown Vernonia. At one point, the end of the trail officially went to Pittsburg, which is about 5 miles from downtown Vernonia. I think the county still has rights to that trail. As I noted above, the Vernonia end may possibly change once more. If they work this out, it will end right across from Vernonia Lake. The hope is to build a footbridge over the Nehalem river to connect to the trail around the lake. That trail already has a connection to the Banks Vernonia trail. If that happens, it'd be a 40+ mile non motorized trail system, about 1/2 paved (BV) and 1/2 gravel (CZ).

bcostley
Posts: 184
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm

Re: Crown Zellerback Summit to Vernonia

Post by bcostley » January 30th, 2015, 3:58 pm

Blue is the old end. Red is the current end. Green is the proposed end.
czalts.jpg

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