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Past Activity

Champoeg State Park

  • Start date: 10/28/2021

  • Start time: 12:00 AM

  • End date: 10/28/2021

  • End time: 11:59 PM

Description:

A long, but flat hike through an area rich with Oregon history. We'll do the eight mile Heritage loop at Champoeg State Park. The first provisional government of Oregon was formed in here in 1843 and it was the site of a small, but once-thriving town that was washed away during the great flood of 1861. What remains is a beautiful park along the Willamette River that's listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Part of the time we'll be on a flat bike trail that will take us past Oregon's oldest continuing operating store in Butteville.
Optional side trip after the hike to Aurora, 8 miles away. Aurora was a founded as a religious colony in the mid-1800's. It thrived - then collapsed 20 years later. Aurora's now a charming town that's home to the Aurora Colony Museum, bakeries, and antique stores.

  • Event Leader: Gould Whitney

  • Assistant Leader: Lindstrom Lana

  • Event category: Trips

  • Area Type:

  • Departure Location: Office Depot parking lot, Chad drive, Across from Costco

  • Rating: Moderate

  • Roundtrip total drive miles: 170

  • Season: 2021

  • Permits Required:

  • Event Status: Passed

  • Supplies and Equipment Required: Champoeg is a state park; the entrance fee is $5 per vehicle if you don't have an annual State pass. Lunch, water, layers of clothes. An umbrella if rain is a possibility.

  • participant prerequisites:

  • Conditions:

  • Total Distance: 9.86

  • Member Fees: 1

  • Elevation Gain: 272

  • Non-Member Fees: 5

  • Committee: Trips

  • Junior member fees: —

Trip Report

Rain threatened, but spared our small band of hikers as we traversed Champoeg State Park from end to end. What was billed as an 8.2 mile hike turned out to be more like 10 due to a side trip to see a grave marker, a slight wrong turn, and an extra 1/4 mile to get to the Historic Butteville Store. The oldest continually operating store in Oregon was closed when we arrived. Turns out, it's no longer a store, but a place to buy drinks and ice cream in the summer months. The proprietor and his dog, Charlie, welcomed us anyway and, perhaps sensing our disappointment, gave us tastes of a new flavor. We finished our journey with a stop at the interactive Champoeg museum which provided an entertaining history of the early fur-trapping industry and the contentious effort to establish Oregon's first provisional government back in the mid 1800's.

Members & Guests signed-up & waitlisted

  • Number of spots on trip: 10
  • Number of spots available: 6
No. Status Full name Phone Transportation Needed? Trip Fee # Can Take?
1 Signed-Up Gould, Whitney 510-368-8941 N 1
2 Signed-Up Lindstrom, Lana 541-683-1409 N 1
3 Signed-Up Jones, Jerrie 503-432-5317 N 5
4 Signed-Up Krentz, Holger 541-868-7792 N 1