Took Me a River Walk, 1 1/2 Miles

At Alfred A. Loeb State Park, Brookings, OR

One would think that after Sunday I would not be up for another hike…but I was.  The Riverview Trail is a 3/4 mile hike from the campground to the Redwood Trail along the Chetco River.  The Chetco River is only 56 miles long…so I walked around 1/60th of the length of the river.  The river drops over 3,200 feet over those 56 miles, but thank goodness the drop is very slight for the Riverview Trail hike.  However, this trail is also NOT an ADA trail…so I would be by myself again.

The good thing is that I found the brochure on the Redwood Trail…at the start of the River Trail, and it covers both trails.  Unfortunately, of the 12 spots of interest, marked on the trail A through L, there were only four trail posts along the path…A, B, C and J…so the brochure did not help me much today.  And although it was a Tuesday, I saw three times the amount of people today than I did on Sunday doing the Redwood Trail…but 8-9 people is still not that many people.  And the noise level was only broken by a young child crying out for mom and dad until they found each other…and that was at the end of my hike.

Above is the start of the trail…the brochure was in a box on that larger sign to the left.  There is a small picnic area here, free to use for day use, along with parking very close by.  I walked to this point from the RV, and that was probably 1/10th of a mile extra…but we will just call it a 3/4 mile hike each way for a total of 1.5 miles.

   

The trail was very similar to the Redwood Trail, except for the lack of elevation change, it was only a slight change here and there.  Yes, I did sit on that bench, (picture right above) but not until I had finished the 1 1/2 mile hike (and yes, I did sit in other areas before I sat there, but no real huffing and puffing today.) Today was also much cooler, and…

…I remembered water….Arrowhead Sparkling Water, Triple Berry flavor.  We love this sparkling water…it has zero carbs, zero sodium, zero calories…and it tastes good, just a hint of berry, for this one, or orange, lemon, lime and cherry for other flavors we have.  You can see the water is 3/4 of the way gone, and I was headed back at this point…

   

    

The river walk trail is very pretty.  Very few great views of the river, but you see it through the trees much of the way.  My only trouble was going through this “hole” shown in the bottom right picture.  A tree is over the trail, so they dug a path under, and this big boy squeezed through… actually, I fit ok, but seeing down while walking and not hitting my head is hard with transition trifocals.

For some reason, the water was glistening with green in this area…especially along the far bank.  In other areas, the water was very clear…don’t know what is up with that.

Thought this was a bit strange along the pathway, but they needed to funnel water from one side of the road to the other, and this pipe did the trick, and the stairs, which go up, over, then back down, made a nice bench which I readily used on the way there, and the way back. 

When I got to this bridge, I wondered just how old it is compared to that downed tree which could also be used as a bridge…when I was much, much younger, like a teenager, I would have walked across the tree bridge…but I am slightly wiser now…just slightly.

Was happy to see this yellow sign up on the roadway…knew I was getting close to using the non-existent crosswalk across the roadway over to the start of the Redwood Trail…and a nice place to sit for a bit before I headed back.

Yep, I was right…and the lady and man I passed near that bridge I sat down on…they were wrong, telling me that I wasn’t even half way done yet.  I did not argue, but I knew I was pass the halfway point, and my estimation now is that I was over 2/3rds done.  Don’t know why she kept saying, “No even halfway yet!”, but she said it over and over.

Sat there long enough that all the cars left…maybe 10 minutes max.  Very discouraged seeing a older man, in his 70’s for sure…perhaps upper 70’s…coming down off the Redwood Trail.  “Did you make it the entire way?” I asked.  “Of course, why do you think I wouldn’t?” as he walked by and go in the car.  I just smiled, thinking to myself, “…because it nearly killed me two days ago….”   Anyway, today’s hike was 1.5 miles, the degree of difficulty was easy to moderate according to the brochure. (It says the Redwood Trail is Moderate to Steep…I think they should emphasize the word STEEP.)  All in all, I was back to the motorhome in 2/3rd of the time it took me on Sunday, and I was not tired out like I was on Sunday.  We paid for another 7 days here at the park…I might just hike this trail one more time…

For Nancy….

In answer to your question of the other day…here is a motorhome about your size with a truck much larger than your tow car…so YES, there are places you can park your rig here at Loeb.  In fact, a couple came by Monday night and could not get in, came by today and did find a place…they have a 40’ and a jeep, they fit just fine.