In the Oregon Coast Range, most of the old growth forests are logged and gone. Here at Drift Creek, you can experience the largest remaining old growth stand. You will see old-growth Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock, and Sitka Spruce. Some of the biggest trees along the trail are 7+ feet in diameter!
This route crosses the wilderness area twice in a rim-to-rim-to-rim style run. Because both trailheads are up on ridges, this route includes a lot of climbing! The trails are maintained by the forest service and are in pretty good shape. Most of the trail sections are very runnable, although there are some very steep sections and areas with overgrown underbrush and downed trees. There is only one off-trail section that makes this into a real adventure route: the creek walk section! Old maps show the Harris Ranch and Horse Creek trails meeting at the river, but they don't meet up exactly anymore. In order to connect the two trails, you must wade down the creek for around 300 yards. Because of this, this route is not recommended during the rainy season. In the winter, the river level would likely be too high to cross. The best time of year to do this route is in mid-late summer (after trail crews have had a chance to clean up the trail and before the rains start again in the fall).
Because it's an out and back, you can start on either side. The two trailheads are the Harris Ranch trailhead and the Horse Creek North trailhead. There is a third trailhead (the Horse Creek South trailhead) that would include more bushwacking/creek walking to connect into this route. Maybe someone will include it in a future R2R2R2R route? This route was originally established starting at the Horse Creek North trailhead and then running to the Harris Ranch trailhead and back. The designated starting/turn-around points are the massive rocks (specifically the one that says Drift Creek Trail) on the North side and the hiker not biker vertical post sign on the South side (see pictures).
