TRAILHEAD NW Germantown Road and Fire Lane 9, near the end of Leif Erikson Drive
DISTANCE 2 miles round trip
DURATION Two hours
ELEVATION A total change of 578 feet, with a low point of 90 feet and a high point of 668 feet
CONDITIONS This is fairly steep terrain, with a small portion of the hike traveling through Linnton and along Highway 30.
FROM DOWNTOWN This hike begins 8.5 miles from West Burnside and Interstate 405. Driving north on Highway 30 (also called St. Helens Road), continue past NW Saltzman Road and beneath the St. Johns Bridge. Turn left at the traffic light immediately after the bridge. This puts you on NW Bridge Avenue (the access road to the bridge). Take the first right, onto NW Germantown Road, and follow it to the northern terminus of Leif Erikson Drive and the associated parking area. Park alongside the cars on the south side of the road near the Leif Erikson trailhead or on the north shoulder of the road near the entrance to fire lanes 9 and 10.
TriMet: From downtown, take bus 17 (NW 21st Avenue/St. Helens Road). Disembark at the 9900 block of St. Helens Road (stop 5354). This stop is located at the base of the hike. Proceed from waypoint 6 through to the end, and return on Fire Lane 9 using the directions given for waypoints 1–5.
This trail starts just opposite one of Forest Park’s most popular hikes, and yet I rarely see anyone on it. Why? Because it’s steep. I consider the grade well worth the trouble, however, since it assures that my walk is not constantly interrupted by convoys of runners for whom I must stand aside. Most importantly, this trail passes through some of the finest older-growth forest in the whole park.
If you parked near the terminus of Leif Erikson Drive, cross the road and locate the lower of two fire lanes that intersect with Germantown Road. The trailhead you’re seeking is gated and marked as Fire Lane 9. Proceed on Fire Lane 9 straight down into the forest for a little more than half a mile. The trail quickly gets steeper—you will soon understand why it’s preferable to descend rather than ascend it.
The higher portions of this descent run along a ridgeline that affords nice northward views across Linnton to the Willamette River.
Especially along the crest of this ridge, you will find that the trail is bordered by red alders (Alnus rubra) and big leaf maples (Acer macrophyllum). Fire Lane 9 is a prime area to see songbirds in the spring when they are feasting on the seeds and catkins produced by these trees. It is not uncommon to see western tanagers (Piranga ludoviciana), evening grosbeaks (Coccothraustes vespertinus), and warbling vireos (Vireo gilvus) all twittering away in the branches at once.
The Tualatin Mountains once supported gigantic trees, but double and even triple cutting have reduced most of the timber except in a few special groves.
Western tanagers are the most easily identifiable birds in the forest. The males can be recognized by their bright yellow body and red head, while the females are yellowish but lack the ostentatious red marking. They mostly subsist off insects but will welcome fruits and seeds in early summer. Flocks of western tanagers are often found in conifer forests, especially if the forest also includes some deciduous trees. Because these birds live in the upper canopy of the forest, the first clue to their presence is often their familiar call of “pid-a-dik” or “pad-ick.”
Evening grosbeaks are unmistakable with their enormous heads and parrotlike bills. Flying in flocks, the males are black and yellow, while the females are a more muted gray-greenish yellow. They are noisy, like most herd-oriented creatures, and can be heard crying “pteer” as they fly overhead or devour seeds and fruits on the trees or off the ground. They are typically seen in spring and by summertime have migrated to the mountains, where they subsist off wild fruits.
As you descend further you will encounter a small stream and, near the bottom, a ruined water reservoir that once served the Linnton community. Just beyond, you will debouch onto MacKay Avenue, which you will follow down to Wilark Avenue.
Turn left onto Wilark and follow it to its end. Now you are walking through the Waldemere and Glen Harbor neighborhoods of Linnton.
Linnton is a feisty town that time has treated shabbily. It was founded in 1843 by entrepreneur Peter Burnett and General Morton McCarver, a veteran of the Indian Wars, at what they thought was the head of ship navigation on the Willamette River. The town was named after Senator Lewis Linn, who in 1843 initiated the Oregon bill that provided land donations and grants to settlers. In Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer (1880), Burnett wrote of that time,
We performed a considerable amount of labor there, most of which was expended in opening a wagon-road [Springville Road] thence to the Tualatin Plains, over a mountain, and through a dense forest of fir, cedar, maple, and other timber. When finished, the road was barely passable with wagons. Our town speculation was a small loss to us, the receipts from the sale of lots not being equal to the expenses.
In the 1890s Linnton saw the establishment of its first production plant: a cannery that packed horse meat from eastern Oregon for shipment to England. But dredging the Willamette soon established Portland as the area’s center of commerce, and Linnton became a gritty mill town whose surging population of immigrant workers labored at its many plywood mills. John Marinelli, Linnton’s longtime barber, described the town just after the turn of the twentieth century: “The town was wild. There were several saloons in it, men from the mills would come in and end up fighting. You know we had our own jail, police and curfew!”
Portland annexed Linnton in 1915, but during Prohibition, Linnton gained a new industry. As another longtime resident reported, “There was nothing but bootlegging from here to St. Helens. People had to try and keep from selling it to each other.” Many credit the tangle of hillside roads in Linnton as an intentional defense against surprise raids by the police. Throughout the area you can still find fruit trees deep in the forest—remnants of moonshining.
As late as 1926, windjammers still called on Linnton’s wharves to pick up lumber destined for faraway Australia. But the rest of the twentieth century brought Linnton little relief, beginning with the Depression, which cut deeply into employment at the mills. The cruelest blow came in the 1960s when the Oregon Department of Transportation decided to widen Highway 30. In so doing they wiped out half of Linnton’s commercial establishments, leaving only the oldest buildings, including Linnton’s famous Feed and Seed, which was originally built as a hotel in 1895.
In 2006, citywide industrial interests opposed a local effort to revitalize the area around the Linnton Plywood Mill and convert it into residential development. We haven’t heard the last of Linnton, however: this scrappy little town seems to be set on continuing to press for a brighter future.
You can get a feeling for Linnton’s struggles as you walk through its modest neighborhoods. Even nature has been hard on this community: deep ravines cut off one neighborhood from another, and Highway 30 and the railroad isolate these hillside homes from the riverfront.
At the northern end of Wilark Avenue, turn right and walk down the stairs to the sidewalk running along the west side of Highway 30. Turn left and walk to the Linnton bus turnout.
There you will find the Linnton Trail, which follows this deep ravine up to where it meets Fire Lane 10. Unfortunately, this part of the forest is choked with ivy, which has substantially diminished the quality of the wildlife habitat and even retarded the growth of new trees. Thankfully, increasing awareness of the problem is helping to allocate resources to combat the infestation. It will be a long struggle, but that’s nothing new for Linnton.
As you ascend the many switchbacks of this steep trail, keep an eye open for the telltale soft reddish purple bark of the Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia) growing among western hemlock and Douglas fir. This uncommon tree is much prized for the cancer-fighting chemical (taxol) found in its bark and needles.
If you think you hear an infant crying off to the right as you climb the 0.4 mile to Fire Lane 10, fear not: it’s the pygmy goats that belong to the farm on the next ridge to the north.
Upon reaching Fire Lane 10, turn left and follow it 0.6 mile to its junction with Germantown Road. As you stroll down and then up this last leg of the hike, take a moment to peer down the slope into the beautiful vistas of deeply forested hillsides and old Douglas firs growing alongside the trail. In summer this last segment of the walk is often cool and refreshing, especially in the late afternoon when the rest of Portland is baking.
Upon reaching Germantown Road you’ll emerge about 100 feet above the entrance to Fire Lane 9, and below that is the parking lot for access to Leif Erikson Drive.
