I've been doing a bit of research on the Clackamas River Trail (including field research, as in hiking the restored/rebuilt segment from Fish Creek to Indian Henry this spring), and am wondering if any of the Advocates have attempted to follow the abandoned sections from the South Fork (or even the MHNF boundary) to Armstrong Campground, or south of Indian Henry? Based on a recent report from an off-trail explorer who descended Helion Creek, then hiked back to Carter Bridge, there's no obvious trace left in that area -- but he wasn't looking for one, either. I also ran across this intriguing comment in an older edition of Sullivan's "100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon":

An even more convenient, 5-mile segment of the Clackamas River Trail is scheduled to be built by 1995 beetween the bridge at Memaloose Road (9-miles south of Estacada) and Armostrong Campground, 14 miles from Estacada.

So, I assume this project fell to budget cuts, but my recollection is that the Fish Creek to Indian Henry segment was only reopened in 1999 -- is that right? Or was the original alignment still usable, and simply rebuilt in 1999? Another piece of history I'm interested in is the fire that burned the section of trail just east of Fish Creek. I've found web references to 2003, but no specific media reports on the fire. That matches my recollection, but would love to have that confirmed by an Advocate. Thanks for any info you can provide! Tom

The fire was called the Bowl Fire I believe.   As for the other stuff, all lost plans. Most to do with a Pipe Dream called Urban-Link. Funded a lot of intent but no action. That is to say, follow up funding.   That dab of trail that shows south was I believe an accident. That was I was told the first revision under a teamwork plan with USGS and FS. Notice that it has the Rho Ridge trail number. I believe Rho Ridge recovery was part of Urban Link but not sure.   Donovan

Thanks, Donovan. "Bowl Fire" took me right to it: September 2002, 339 acres (USFS source). By dab of trail, do you mean the entire USGS segment from Indian Henry to the Collawash bridge (near Raab CG)..? Seems like an ambitious and creative map error! Yet, I don't see anything on the old topos that suggests a route anywhere on that side of the river -- everything seems to fall under the modern highway corridor.

Yes that would be the dab trail. A proposal that accidently became fact on paper. The only trail on that side would have been the east/west Cold Springs, on the section line near Big Creek that crossed around Riverside I think or near the old hatchery site.   D.

Interesting... based on seeing that line on the map, my son and I were out there, poking around south of Indian Henry to see if we could find that trail. We did, indeed, find two trails heading south from the campground, one along the river to the rock, one that headed more up behind the ridgeline above the river. The one at water level seemed to peter out into a clump of poison oak, so I'm guessing it doesn't continue. The one up above the ridgeline, however, looked to follow an old grade, and have a decent track. We lost it in a massive blowdown, however, which we did not attempt to get past due to the late hour at that point. So, I was surprised to read this forum and discover that, perhaps, there never was a trail in that location. Did we just find the remains of an old logging road grade, then, rather than a trail? Would be a great place for a trail. How could we make that happen?

Campgrounds tend to develop user trails. Such as from camp to river, firewood gathering, pee spot, etc.