Scapoose Fire Access Rd near McNamee

Today my friend introduced me to a beautiful hike near Scapoose on McNamee Rd.  Heading out of Portland it's the last left before Cornelius Pass onto McNamee, then take the first left after the trussle and park at the gate.  This is approx a 5 mile loop which follows the old access road the whole way.  There is quite a bit of elevation change but tended to be pretty steady so it wasn't too much of a butt-kicker.  There's an informational sign nearish the entrance that tells the hiker about the old growth forest in the area and the nesting area for bald eagles.  The path that goes off the road into the forest is closed January through August to protect these nesting sights.  Sadly we didn't see any eagles but I took a photo of the giant tree where they live.  It was a beautiful hike with a phenomenal view of the industrial areas of Linnton.  Okay, there were phenomenal views of the river and a nice shot of the beginning of the gorge, but yes, there is a lot of industry in that area that sort of bogged up the view a little.   

There weren't too many awesome birds to speak of but we could hear birdsong the entire way.  We ran into (and also accidentally killed a few) a lot of slugs and a few cool snails.  I found one slug that was the tiniest, itty bittiest slug I've ever seen which leads me to think I was stomping around on them for a while not noticing.  So that's gross but couldn't be helped.  There were a lot of deer droppings but unfortunately we didn't spot any deer.  I recommend this hike very much to people that want a little bit more of a workout and a nicer view for their efforts.  It's was very serene, quiet, and peaceful.  We only ran into one other person the entire two hours we were there.  And I still had cell phone reception the entire way, which is imperative if you are as accident prone as I am!

We were right next to the train wreck that happened on Wednesday so I took a few pictures of that too.  A logging train derailed and ran into a tanker train which then caught on fire.  Luckily no one was hurt and it didn't engulf the entire area, which was a very real possibility.  They were working on cleaning it up so I'm posting those shots just because.