Motel fund, nonprofit, state parks and Yachats volunteers combine to fix rain-damaged sections of popular 804 Trail

By GARRET JAROS/Lincoln Chronicle

YACHATS – The sounds of shovels scooping gravel mingled with crashing surf along Yachats most popular trail this week as volunteers pitched in to patch and repair sections damaged by decades of rain and runoff.

The 804 Trail follows the contour of the coastline from Ocean View Drive where it meets U.S. Highway 101 and then north to where it connects with a 7-mile stretch of sandy beach that spans the distance between Yachats and Waldport.

But it is the wild section that winds along bluffs above Yachats’ rocky shoreline – passing through wind sculpted shore pines, arboreal tunnels, expansive ocean views and pocket beaches framed by tidepool-pocked basalt – from Smelt Sands State Park to the beach that leaves an indelible impression.

And it is there where Yachats Trails volunteers, under the guidance of Oregon Parks and Recreation Department staff, are working to repair two sections by adding gravel and honeycomb-like cells to stabilize and improve drainage while also leveling the surface for better access for people with mobility issues.

Work along a 200-foot section at the north end of the trail where it meets the beach is expected to be finished Friday, said Doug Sestrich, the central coast parks district beach ranger overseeing the project. Work on the other 400-foot section just north of the Overleaf Lodge will begin next week – weather willing.

“I’m not sure how long that will take,” Sestrich said. “This first section is more of an experiment to get it figured out. Once we do that, with all these awesome volunteers here, we can bust things out.”

The trail is complicated because water comes from all directions. The goal is to keep the water from gathering on the surface, he said, which means trying a new technique.

The surface of the trail will angle slightly to one side where an underground channel of rock wrapped in permeable fabric to protect it from mud and debris – “a burrito-wrap type of French drain” – will transport water off and away from the trail.

The fabric is also laid on the surface of the existing trail before new rock is added and tamped down in preparation for placing a “geocell” ground grid atop that.

“And what the geocell, the honeycomb does, is hold the rock in place so if water does come washing down the trail, it won’t wash it out,” Sestrich said. “It stays in place. We did this same thing almost 10 years ago and it’s held up really nice on this section.”

Unique funding

The project is a collaboration between volunteers, including state parks, under the umbrella and administration of View the Future, the  Yachats-based nonprofit land trust that uses funds donated by guests of the Fireside Motel.

All funding for the project, including costs for archeological site evaluations and materials, comes from something called the Fireside 804 Dollar Opt Out Fund, which adds $1 to each night guests stay at the motel unless they choose to opt out of the charge.

“The scope of the fund is for new or rehabilitation projects of the 804 north and south,” said VtF’s co-chair Joanne Kittel, who estimates this project will cost  between $10,000 and $12,000. “Not as bad as I thought because we were concerned with how much the archeology was going to cost. But it would be much more expensive, more than double, if we didn’t have state parks using their staff time along with all the Yachats Trail volunteers.”

Drew Roslund is the managing general partner the Fireside and Overleaf Lodge. He began collecting the extra dollar from Fireside guests and donating to the trail fund in 2020. The quarterly payments from the Fireside, which View the Future keeps in a restricted account, now totals about $45,000, he said.

“Other than the ocean, the 804 Trail is arguably one of our greatest amenities for both the Fireside and Overleaf,” Roslund said. “People use that, they love walking along the trail to the beach or wherever. So we started collecting that fund to enhance or protect the guest experience along that trail – to make it better and more accessible.”

The trail will never be ADA accessible because it is too steep in sections, he added, but the goal is to make it as accessible as possible.

The Overleaf also has a $1 opt out program, which Roslund said collects even more money because more rooms are rented, that goes to the Cape Perpetua Collaborative.

804 Trail history

The trail was initially a critical travel corridor for the indigenous Alsea peoples who used it to travel from villages to traditional fishing and gathering grounds.

With the arrival of white settlers, it eventually transitioned to County Road 804 – the number a likely reference to the distance of about 8.04 miles between Yachats and Waldport.

Kittel said the road was eventually illegally decommissioned and was then encroached on by private landowners until 10 Yachats-area retirees banded together to use it as a public trail as part of the Oregon Coast Trail.

“And they ended up having a 10-year legal fight,” Kittel said. “It went all the way up to the state Court of Appeals and was finally won in 1990 when they built the trail.”

Storms in 1995 and 1996 basically “wiped out the trail,” before rehabilitation efforts brought it back to life, she added.

“What they are doing now is really important and by golly they are doing a superlative job,” Kittel said. “When it’s all finished, I don’t think this trail will have looked this good – not since it was initially created in 1990.”

• Garret Jaros covers the communities of Yachats, Waldport, south Lincoln County and natural resources issues for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]