Rave Run: Gale's Creek, Tillamook National Forest

After the race, I hung out in Portland for the day, watched a crazy costume/flying contraption race, ate sushi, visited Powell's books, and then headed West for a little camping in Tillamook National Forest.  I camped at Gales Creek campground overnight.  My original plan for Sunday was to do a bunch of hikes near the beach, but since I camped in the forest, woke up to such a glorious day, and was feeling pretty rested after my race, I decided to do a little trail running.

Ode to the trail runner:

With shoes that are muddy,

and legs feeling like putty,

I plunge into another gully.

A frolick in the forest,

a valley laid before us.

And the camelback all but empty.

I speed past the mountain bikers.

Narrowly miss the hikers.

And still avoid the poison ivy.

The dirt and root miles,

full of footing trials,

and still I love thee.

With the end of the path near.

I kick it into another gear.

And exit the trail with a finale. 

Sorry about the bad poetry.  Solitary adventure inspires my creative bones (or maybe my not so creative bones).  Anywho, Gales Creek Trail was listed in the Honorable Mention section of the coastal hiking book I had brought along.  Probably because it offers no view of the ocean, only scattered vista views of the forest hills, and would normally be infested with mountain bikers.  However, over the winter, the area experienced a ton of flooding that took out parts of the trail and the forest service actually closed the most of the section of Gale's Creek that is North from the campground for repairs and debris removal.  Other trails in the area were similarly affected (or so I would find out), likely keeping many a would be trail patron away.

No matter, I checked out the trail maps at the Trail Head for the South trail and it looked like I could make a pretty sweet trail loop by running up as far as I could go North on Gales Creek, catching the Storey Burn Trail to Gravelle Brothers and University Falls (the halfway point), circling around on River Wagon Road Trail to Nels Rogers and finishing by running back to the campground on the South Gale's Creek Trail.

I packed up the 2L camelback with water, camera, bright orange jacket (just in case I get lost, shot at, run over by ATVs... what could possibly go wrong?), first aid kit, hand-drawn map from the trail sign post (see below), Cola Clif Blox, a Mixed Nut Mojo Bar, and a Justin's Nut Butter Cinnamon Almond Butter and Marionberry Jelly Bagel Sandwich (a.k. J.N.B.C.A.B.& M.J.B.S.).  And I was off.

My awesomely incomplete map of the trail loop.

Gales Creek and Storey Burn were gorgeous.  I wound up through the creek-way, up and over several vistas.  There were breaks in the trees that afforded expansive hill-side views of the forest.  Sunlight dappled through the tress, creating a scene with every green color imaginable.  Imagine a 96 Crayola Crayon box with only green hues.  There were purple and red and yellow and pink flowers dotting the forest floor.  The footing was mostly pine needles and lomey dirt with the occasional rock or root.  I had to stop several times to take pictures it was so gorgeous.  And not a sole, nor a sound not made by me or nature.

How can you not love this trail?

I came out of the forest to cross HWY 6 and head along the Gravelle Brothers Trail.  And then there was a tiny problem.  Well, actually a big problem.  The trail was closed, but it looked as if another trail off to the left may have taken it's place and it headed in the general direction of University Falls.  I had only been running about 35 minutes at this point, so I figured, what could it hurt.  After all, according to my hand-made map, the falls were only half a finger away (half a finger corresponding to approximately 1.5 miles).

The trail started off nice enough, but soon became pretty technical with small logs and roots.  Clearly, enterprising mountain bikers wanting to make the loop had forged this trail.  I would have a had a difficult time riding it, much less the ankle-twisting, toe-stubing, high-stepping semblance of running that I was trying to accomplish.  Full on 30 minutes later I arrived at a sign that said "University Falls" with a hand-painted picture of a water fall.  But, at this point there were three trails that converged... and my awesome map only showed one trail.  I scratched my head for a few seconds, realized why the guide book had stated in no uncertain terms "consider taking a topographic map of the forest with you on any excursion", and finally decided that after a solid hour of running, I would simply back track along the trail-that-is-not-named and catch the Eliott Creek OTV trail to the tip of Nels Rogers.

I didn't at the time know what "OTV" stood for.  But, I found out... It stands for over-sized, tank-like vehicles.  No really, this trail was mostly fire road and double track.  As I was finishing up on it and crossing over HWY 6 and back to Gales Creek, it seemed like the entire population of Oregon that owns an ATV had convened at this trail head.

Needless to say, I was super glad to get back on the single track.  I chatted up a mountain biker on the trail about his ride and almost ran up on two other mountain bikers that had started descending the trail a few minutes before me (in their defense, it was a hugely technical downhill for the MTBers).  All-in-all, it was a 2:00:07 run not including the few stops along the way to take pics, chat, and consider taking a better map.  Before the summer is out, I'ld love to take my mountain bike and my trail shoes up here again and explore some of the other trails, including the River Wagon Trail that I didn't make it to.