Approximately 40 miles west of Portland lies the 364,000 acre Tillamook State Forest. The Tillamook State Forest provides over 50 miles of multi-use and MTB-specific trails open to riding in lush and somewhat dense Douglas-fir groves. Most trails can be ridden year-round with minimal trail impact, which is quite impressive as the Tillamook State Forest gets over 100 inches (2,540 mm) of rainfall annually.
History
Once home to an extensive logging industry at the turn of the 20th century the region was largely abandoned after a series of large forest fires, known as the Tillamook Burn, ravaged the area periodically from the early 1930s to the 1950s, the largest of which occurred on August 14th, 1933. Throughout the Tillamook Burn period, more than 554 square miles (355,000 acres) of the forest was caught in the flame and decimated. This was followed by one of the largest attempted reforestation projects that saw the planting of over 72 million seedlings and over a billion Douglas-fir seeds dropped by helicopter from 1950 to 1972. In June 1973 the area was officially named the Tillamook State Forest by then-governor Tom McCall.
More information on Tillamook State Forest trails and history can be found at Tillamook Forest Center, Oregon Department of Forestry Non-Motorized Recreation, and Tillamook Forest Blog.
Contact
Nathan Frechen – [email protected]
