We hadn’t made plans for a hike over the weekend so we had to look for a quick option. Neither Val nor I ware super motivated for a hard hike so we even toyed with the idea of just going to the coast to hang out. While thinking about that, Fort Stevens came to mind. I recalled reading a bit about it in the hiking books but never making a point to go there as it’s a flat hike. Val hadn’t gone there either so in a split second decision, we grabbed small [packs with water, trail mix, a rain jacket and of we went. Fort Stevens is located at the mouth of the Columbia River into the Pacific Ocean. This is one of the forts that were built around the 1900 to protect the state, and possibly the country, from invaders coming by sea. These days, Fort Stevens is a State Park with some historic sites, a campground and some trails. Maps and guides of the area are not very clear but you can certainly find your way with a bit of common sense. From the Visitor’s Center, we started heading towards the ocean on what I think is therefore Stevens Trail (different sources show deferent names for the path). The path was mostly paved and easy to follow as it wondered thru deep and beautiful forests. In the distance we could hear the ocean so we knew we were close but didn’t know how close or when we would get to it. We got to a road and had to make a guess on how to continue but finally we took a connector trail that went straight to the beach. It didn’t get us there so there wasn’t a “walk by the beach” kind of thing. Instead, we followed parallel to the coast line but always behind a tree line. Nothing to see other than the coastal forest. Finally we got to a road that gave us two choices. First we went towards the ocean and finally got on the sand. It was a windy and cloudy day so there weren’t a lot of people there. We got to see one of the highlights of the trail, the wreck of the Peter Iredale. Only a small piece of this ship is still visible after about a century. From that point, we retraced our steps and continued inland until we took a small trail that lead us to Coffenbury Lake. We made a stop for lunch at a little camp table on a floating dock. Besides ducks on the water, we didn’t see another soul. We wanted to do some distance so instead of going back from there, we took a trail that goes around the lake. As any other, it was nice to walk around it and see ducks flying and moving around. There were several instances that we came around a bend just to scare some of them that would fly/swim towards the center of the lake scaring the crap out of us. On the South side of the lake we found a junction and not being sure, we guessed and took the wrong turn. That spur trail went into a more forested area on a less maintained path. We saw a private property sign and images of rednecks with guns started to appear on our minds. Towards the end we found a couple of big building that I think belongs to the girl scouts. We turned around and got back to the lake to continue going around. Once we got back to the point were we had stopped for lunch, we connected with the Battery Russell Trail going back to the parking lot. It was another quiet walk thru the empty forest. At one point we crossed paths with a lonely deer quietly exploring the area. Once we got back, the weather had improved a bit so we had a bit of blue ski and sun over us. WE took a short detour to explore the Battery Pratt and some of the other installations in the area before heading back to the car. It ended up being a day hike covering the distance that we normally do but without the elevation gain. Not bad for a no-hike day.
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