This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
Since its inception more than half a century ago, a hiking trail connecting Corvallis with the central Oregon coast faced a nagging obstacle — the lack of ready permission from the dozen or so private property owners whose land the trail absolutely relied on to complete its 60-mile-long journey.
Now, the formally named Corvallis-to-the-Sea Trail is facing just such a threat. A land-ownership change this year prompted new owners to post “No Trespassing” signs blocking a critical, one-mile stretch of the trail five miles inland from its Ona Beach terminus north of Seal Rock.
Both sides say discussions are ongoing, but an easy resolution doesn’t appear in the offing, especially given the complexity rerouting the trail would require.
“We only learned about the closure a couple of weeks ago,” Steve McLay, president of the C2C Trail’s board, told the Lincoln Chronicle. “Right now we are really up in the air and dealing with a lot of moving parts.”
McLay said he has been talking with representatives of the new landowners, who have remained adamant about not wanting a hiking trail passing through their rural property. Ideally, he said, a new configuration routing hikers around the closed area can be identified and built by next spring.
“But what we want people to know right now,” McLay added, “is that they could be subject to trespassing charges if they ignore the closure signs. And nobody involved wants to see that happen.”
McLay didn’t identify the new landowner, indicating that discussions are ongoing and that, besides, trail supporters have long been appreciative that a public trail across private property is likely to be controversial or even highly objectionable to some owners.
“They have been gracious in trying to accommodate options through and near their property and we have to respect that,” he said. “It’s not been antagonistic at all. It just doesn’t fit with their idea of why they bought the property.”
Take a hike
A topographic map on C2C’s website shows exactly where the closure signs have been posted. Lincoln County assessor’s office records show that the new landowner is Charles P. Wilson, who has a Seal Rock post office box and lives on the property where the signs have gone up.
Wilson, reached by phone, first explained his discomfort with the trail crossing his land.
“We live out in the country and don’t want people walking around out here,” he said. “We could get sued or who knows what? Tree-huggers are a pain in the ass to me and it’s something we just didn’t want.”
He continued.
“I’ll tell you what, I’m a Trump guy and I’m hard core about it. What I see around me is this country destroying my grandchildren’s future.”
Then, Wilson stopped for a moment and added, “I sound worse than I am. If people want a trail through their property let them do that.”
Wilson said he remains open to some sort of compromise, especially if it ends up moving the trail’s path just off his land and onto that of an adjacent property owner.
“What’s 20 feet farther over on someone else’s property?” he said. “But they have to do all the work. I’m not going to do that. We’ll just have to see where it goes from here.”
Trail mix
It remains to be seen whether ongoing talks can help resolve the impasse. But it’s clear that the trail is very popular with both users and backers.
Roughly 1,000 people have trekked the C2C Trail so far this year, based on registration cards hikers are asked to fill out and leave in the various boxes at access points along the route, McLay said. That’s up from 884 in 2024.
He estimated that about 250 “through hikers” this year traveled the length of the trail, taking an average of four days to complete the trek.
“Which is really a perfect length,” said McLay, an avid hiker. “For most people, four days out with a pack is all they want to do. Five days in and I’m looking for a car.”
McLay said his organization’s mailing list consists of about 1,000 supporters. Of those, about 200 consistently do at least some trail-building work. The hard-core maintenance crews who venture out two to three times a month to bush whack and keep the trail’s surface in good shape number about 50.
“It’s hard work,” he said. “We’re talking 60 miles of trails. That’s a lot of hours of maintenance.”
The closure signs, he said, amounted to a “gut punch for a lot of folks. People love that trail.”
Trail and error
Planning for a trail connecting Corvallis with the Oregon coast stretches back at least to 1972. But it should be noted that the C2C Trail is located within the traditional homelands of the Ampineflu or Marys River Band of Kalapuya, Wusi’n or Alsea People, and the Yaqo’n or Yaquina People, according to the organization’s website. Today, living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians.
A flurry of activity, involving multiple government and other entities, including Oregon State University, ended with a future route around 1975. A staff report, however, included an ominous note: “The tortuous progress of this project raises serious doubts about whether recreation and timber harvest can ever be entirely compatible.”
That so-called “First Attempt” ended without further action in 1980.
Continued land-use disputes and dwindling funding killed another run at the trail’s completion in 1997.
A turning point finally came in 2003, when the Siuslaw National Forest and the federal Bureau of Land Management, among others, completed what was called at the time a “fine-tuning” of the trail from Corvallis to Ona Beach.
In July 2015, the U.S. Forest Service approved an agreement for five miles of Forest Service lands on the eastern portion of the route. The entire eastern end was completed in 2017, with the remainder – the western portion – becoming a reality in 2020.
Good versus perfect
Then, as now, one problem loomed larger than all others.
“We never could get all the private landowners on board,” said Corvallis native Gary Chapman, 87, who was a driving force behind the trail for years and who remains on the C2C Trail board. “We had handshake deals with some folks, but a few others just said never.”
Key federal agencies ended up taking their cues from landowner hesitancy, he said, pushing back funding and needed permits for years.
“That snag was always a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads,” Chapman said. “But we always felt that a trail that can work is better than a perfect trail.”
Still, he said, all of the work and support that’s gone into the C2C Trail over the decades leaves him confident that something can still be worked out to overcome the current impasse.
“I’m optimistic,” he said. “If we weren’t optimistic, we probably would never have gotten involved in this project to begin with.”
- Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at DanaTims24@gmail.com