CHEHALIS — It only took a few years in the late 19th century to build a 56-mile railroad between Chehalis and South Bend.
It’s taking much longer to convert the route into a path for walkers and bicycle riders, because work depends on intermittent public funds, as they become available.
The eastern 5 1/2 miles of the Willapa Hills Trail starting in Chehalis were paved last year. That part of the trail, along with a gravel-surfaced, 11-mile section of trail farther west, both make good family excursions within about an hour’s drive of the Longview-Kelso area.
The paved part “gets a lot of use, from mothers with strollers to people walking dogs to bicyclists,” said Robert Ellingson, a board member of the Lewis County Community Trails organization.
The walkers and pedalers follow the route of a Northern Pacific rail line built around 1892 to serve busy sawmills and communities like Dryad and Doty that back in the day had many more residents than live there now.
The last freight train ran in 1992, and the state parks department acquired the right-of-way the following year.
Work soon began to convert the rail line to a recreational path. Though a central part of the trail opened in 2001, it was broken up when two bridges were washed away by the Chehalis River’s raging waters in 2007.
“It’s such a big project, and there’s only so much money out there,” said Michael Hankinson, a state parks planner.
A good place to start exploring the trail is the shorter stretch closest to I-5.
The parking lot on Hillberger Road hasn’t been paved, but it’s usable. After a few hundred yards, the trail crosses the Newaukum River on a rusty but still-solid bridge decked with wood.
The former railroad grade is pretty much a straight shot for 5 1/2 miles. You cruise past farm fields with cows, sheep and goats. Sparrows chirp in the brush and crows peck in the fields.
After 1 mile comes an oddity: the bike path crosses a railroad track now used by the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad, which runs tourist excursions with steam locomotive-driven trains. The trains run only occasionally and presumably have loud whistles to warn bikers.
The Willapa Trail has stop signs where it crosses several county roads that don’t have heavy traffic.
It crosses another trestle, this time over the Chehalis River, then parallels Highway 6 for a stretch.
At 3 1/2 miles, the paving ends — for a reason. The trail crosses Highway 6, a major state highway, at a spot where visibility is limited. Trail users need to look carefully before crossing here. Hankinson said the trail near this crossing was deliberately left unpaved so cyclists would slow down, and this might be a good place to turn around if you have young children.
Plans call for building a walker/biker bridge over the highway, he said.
Past Highway 6, trail paving resumes and the path continues past an artificial lake used for water skiing. The trail skirts Adna High School and reaches a spacious parking lot.
A half mile farther, the trail reaches a 1,000-foot long trestle crossing the Chehalis. The trestle deck consists of railroad ties with gaps in between, and there aren’t any guardrails on the sides, so for now, this is the end of the line for this part of the trail.
There are plans for that trestle, known as No. 5, to be replanked with local donated labor and materials, Ellingson said.
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The central part of the Willapa Hills Trail recently was surfaced with compacted gravel, which is suitable for bikes with wide tires. “It’s not ideal for road bikes,” Hankinson said. However, the gravel is an improvement on a previous paving material that was a mix of gravel and recycled tires, he said.
The gravelled surface extends for about 11 miles between washed-out bridges at Spooner Road and Dryad.
This part of the trail can be accessed from Ceres Road and Rainbow Falls State Park.
Federal money is available to replace the bridges, Hankinson said. “It’s an ongoing project, now in the design phase.”
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Another trail access point is in the town of Pe Ell. East of there, the trail is usable but not recently graveled. It’s not recommended for bicycles.
West of Pe Ell, the trail climbs though hills for 30 miles. It’s the original 1890s rounded gravel rail ballast, which Hankinson described as “nearly impossible to do by bike.” A few intrepid hikers have reportedly done this section, though farmers have reportedly erected fences across the state parks property in places.
At its western end, the trail is again paved for a 5-mile stretch from the along the Willapa River and Ellis Slough from the city of Raymond.
Eventually, the entire route will be paved.
“We’ll have a portal from the metropolitan areas to the ocean,” Hankinson said. “In the next 20 years we’re going to have something very special here.”How to get there
To reach the Chehalis trailhead of the Willapa Hills Trail, take Exit 77 from I-5 and go west. Turn left at the light on Riverside Drive, and go slightly right on SE Newaukum Avenue for .5 mile. Turn left on SW Sylvenus Street and right on SW Hillberger Road for .5 miles to the parking area.
A good place to access the central, gravel-surface part of the trail is from Ceres Hill Road. From I-5, drive on Highway 6 west for about 12 miles, turn right on Ceres Hill Road and go about 2 miles to the trailhead. Another access point is at Rainbow Falls State Park, which is also on Highway 6, 18 miles from I-5.
For more information and a map, see the Lewis County Community Trails website, www.lewiscountytrails.org.
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