Fence blocking ‘unofficial’ portion of 804 Trail highlights property rights and scramble for long-term solution

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

When Mike Ruane extended his fence Thursday to prevent walkers on the 804 Trail from crossing his property just south of the Adobe Motel, he simply wanted to keep people away from him and his house.

That happened.

But he also ignited a firestorm of outrage from the hundreds of people who walk one of the most popular and accessible trails on the Oregon coast.

After three days of backlash, some support and people hanging over the edge to get around the fence, Ruane took it down Sunday afternoon.

“This (extending the fence) is just not going to work,” he told YachatsNews. “Someone’s going to get hurt. I just took the freaking thing down until I figure out what to do.”

The three-day saga also brought out some key issues that few walkers know, especially visitors or people new to Yachats :

• The former County Road 804 from the north edge of the Adobe to a fenced trail access three lots to the south – was returned from Lincoln County or “vacated” to the property owners more than 30 years ago.
• Although people walk along the mostly unmarked and dirt path between the north and south segments of the official 804 Trail, it is not part of the official state trail.
• As such, people can use it with the permission of the property owners. But abuse or misuse can lead to what happened Thursday.

“Permission to pass has always been at the will of the property owner,” Mayor John Moore said Monday, four days after arguing – there’s a disagreement on how heated it was — with Ruane as he was erecting the fence. “It’s a reminder that people need to respect private property.”

Three years ago Ruane built a split-rail fence from his house west to within 10 feet of the ocean bluff, leaving room for walkers. He said it was an attempt to stop people from taking short cuts over his lawn to or from Aqua Vista Loop. He was also tired of unleashed dogs, people setting up lawn chairs on his grass or walking by to peer into his house.

There was an initial outcry, which died down after city and Yachats Trails Committee members explained to people that Ruane’s and the neighboring land was not part of the 804 Trail and that their property extended over the edge of the ocean bluff.

The Adobe’s owners, once resistant to the trail just outside their dining room windows, have now embraced it as boost to tourism.

But Ruane says a few people – visitors and locals — still cut through his and the broad, open lawns of his two neighbors to the south.

That’s acerbated by a second, 10-foot-wide easement that has a sign but no markers in the grass leading from Aqua Vista Loop to the trail. That access was established in the 1960s when the Aqua Vista subdivision was platted.

The last straw for Ruane was the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, with government and health officials asking people to maintain “social distancing” of at least six feet.

“I just want people away from me,” Ruane said Sunday. “Why can’t I sit on the edge of my property and be able to enjoy it? People who walk by here just don’t get it.”

City searches for solution

Now that the firestorm has died down, the city of Yachats wants to work with Ruane and his neighbors to see if there is a way to avoid the problem in the future.

As part of the county’s long-running turnover of Ocean View Drive to Yachats, the city planned to contact Ruane and his neighbors to more permanently resolve any access issues. That hadn’t happened, but now will, said City Manager Shannon Beaucaire.

“It seems like a good opportunity to clean things up and we’ll work with homeowners to see if there’s anything we can do,” Beaucaire said.

That could range from paying for a fence along the trail, or fencing off their big lawns. Or it could be as simple as driftwood logs that better define the trail’s edges.

A more expensive and complicated solution would be spending some of the money left in an 804 Trail settlement agreement to purchase pedestrian easements from the Adobe and three other landowners.

“I wouldn’t take any option off the table,” Beaucaire said.

Ruane said Sunday – as he calmed down from the tension of the past three days – he’s open to finding a longer-term solution.

“I just want people to know that this is private property and they need to respect that,” he said.

Love it? Then support it

And that’s what longtime Yachats trails advocate Joanne Kittel wants residents and visitors to understand. Private property means just that – people need to respect using it and help out when there is a need or issue.

That’s the approach she takes when advocating for the Amanda Trail, which starts at her property south of Yachats before climbing Cape Perpetua.

“I try to increase ownership,” Kittel said, of involving individuals, private groups, state and federal agencies in developing, protecting and enhancing the Amanda Trail. “Be a steward. This is your trail too.”

Kittel says the 804 Trail is by far the most widely used trail in the area because it is flat, accessible and has wonderful views of the ocean. But it needs more attention from the state, which manages the north section. And the city and local organizations will need to step up to develop the trail overlooking the Yachats River once the county completes the transfer of Ocean View Drive to the city.

“If you want this trail you have to be a steward – and not just get up in arms when something bad happens,” Kittel said. “You can’t take it for granted.

“If you love it, then you have to support it.”