It was a cool, rainy, foggy weekend day in mid-January. I drove west to the parking area for the Banks–Vernonia State Trail, a rail-trail and linear state park.

To add adventure to the hike, I took some fairly new, but extremely muddy and steep trails to the east developed for mountain bikers – – – – Spur Line and Lokie’s Lollipop.

Thanks to the mostly fair-weather bicycle riders in the Portland area, I didn’t run into one other person on my hike. (On a nice summer day I would have seen hundreds of road and mountain bikers on the outing.)

My starting point was a rest area by the old Buxton Railroad Trestle, which is 600 feet long and 80 feet high.

I began by taking a short detour to the south so that I could enjoy walking across the planked trestle. Continuing north, I followed the paved rail-trail for several miles before entering the Stub Stewart Park.

Soon afterwards I took the Spur Trail took off to the northeast, eventually ending up on Lokie’s Lollipop Trail.

Upon returning to the trailhead I had covered over nine miles and looked like a drowned rat. But, and this is a secret to remember, I stayed warm. (Wool, good raincoat and fleece.)