Widby Loop 1

A. F. Litt, November 5, 2022

Loop One is notoriously difficult to access, largely due to blackberries and overgrowth. Between 2013 and 2015, I tried to access it via the shoefly grade across from Bradley Park, only to be rejected by blackberries and at least a foot of boot-stealing mud, and from above, only to be driven away by an active logging road and not wanting to become bug goo on a truck's fender (later learning that the grade to reach Loop One below is too steep to safely defend).

My last plan was to climb up from the current highway. The grade of the loop is clearly visible during the winter months from modern US 30, but some major life stuff took me off this project for a number of years.

It was very frustrating, because all the aerials make it seem like a simple thing, but they lie! Finally, in 2019, some folks finally made it in there and got some pictures, and it has been visited fairly regularly ever since!

Sadly, I still haven't been up there yet, but that will happen this winter for sure, even if I have to hitchhike there and back again!

Past and Present Views Along the Columbia River Highway

Steve Hart, June 29, 2020:

I tried to find an easier way into Loop 1 at the Widby Loops. FAIL. I found a road on a satellite view that would lead me real close. It turned out to be an easy path to a point about 200 feet from the loops. (I was 200 feet straight above them). There was an impenetrable wall of blackberries and stinging nettles. Once I found a spot with less flora, I discovered that the plant life had been blocking me from killing myself on the impossibly steep slope. Neat place to see, but no route to the highway.

Past and Present Views Along the Columbia River Highway

Kirk J. Poole, September 4, 2019:

Today I concluded that the Widby Loops, also known as the Bugby Loops, are UNREACHABLE until Winter kills all the seasonal vegetation. I walked about 2 1/2 miles behind the highway and came out about 200 feet too high. I also spent 3 hours surveying the road from the present 1957 to present highway level and also concluded it's not possible for just 1 or 2 people to attempt to climb the hill during the vegetation season. Again, with all the dense, rain forest type vegetation the 1918-1957 road is rendered entirely unreachable in the present condition during the Summer growth months.

The hillside and it's ledges are very uneven and there are trees throughout the entire 'survey area' that range from 10 ft. to 100+ ft. tall. … As I briefly mentioned, I walked a timber company road which comes out behind and above the area of the curves and I couldn't see the ground from the ledge I was standing on. The ground there is very cluttered. I was at least 150+ ft. above the roadway sections which were completely obscured. This is the most challenging, most stinker section of road to attain in my 40+ years of road digging.

I usually park in the grassy area [remains of Loop 3] just below the state park on the west side of the modern road. It's right below where my next attempt to cut through the brush will be. Everywhere so far, the brush has been very thick and about 20 feet deep. In a couple weeks, I'm buying a 40V or 60V cordless weed eater and then I believe I can cut my way through by making a narrow trail through all the brush. The old loops sit about 40 feet above the current highway.

My hand machete wasn't quite enough power to cut all the blackberries. A weed eater should be enough power.

Stephen Kemper, September 17, 2019:

I've been studying it on google earth pro tonight because it has historical images. It only goes back to 1994. According to that, the loops on the left appear to have been logged sometime in 2005-2006. Did you walk along the powerlines just to the west and then down the logging road to try to get to down to the loops?

Kirk J. Poole, September 17, 2019:

I've tried from the front, where the machete didn't help much. And I also walked around to the back side using the timber company road and I came out too high and couldn't see the loops below me. I thought that was quite odd because I should have been right on top of them. … Also, from the highway side, using the street level image, I've spotted what looks like a deer trail going up at a 45 deg angle through the thicket of skinny, tall trees. And also what I see on the photos does seem to confirm that a section had been logged out not too long ago.

Stephen Kemper, September 17, 2019:

I've been looking at historicaerials.com looking for the eastern loops. It actually shows the view from 1951 and you can overlay the current map on old aerial. It looks like in 1981 you could still see where the road was, but the trees have completely covered any remaining roadway.

I really enjoy this type of research. I'm going to spend some more time on this one!

Kirk J. Poole, September 17, 2019:

I have it precisely located. In one spot, I can see the outer curb of the loop from the main highway. I plan on trying to walk it all the way towards Bradley Park, where the large modern road cut sliced the old road in two. I also spotted what looks like a temporary road at the top that makes sense with that odd 1974 map. I also want to get outside the fence on the park side and look for the fragment of road that gets cut off on the north side of the highway. All said, there's still 2,000+ feet of remnants to the left of the highway that I've measured. Also, there is remnants of asphalt on the cliff side of the road too that I found 20 years ago. I had to scratch through the grass back then, but it was asphalt and probably one of the 2 small loops going out of the south side. I want to unearth and photograph all that I can.

Stephen Kemper, January 8, 2020:

I just saw this older post again and realized how much we accomplished in just a few trips. I'm glad to be part of this group.

Past and Present Views Along the Columbia River Highway

Kirk J. Poole, October 7, 2019:

WE MADE IT!!! 10-06-2019! Please enjoy our pictures, as this was NOT ordinary: "Oooh, stop the car and get out type of viewpoint!"

We hustled our butts some 50-90 feet in the air to see this mystery spot in the Oregon Coast Range; known as Widby Loops, or aka Bugby Loops. I've wanted to get up here for as much as 20 years! Prior to the afternoon of the 6th, there was NO way a 1-man party could scale this hillside. Well, we arrived with 4 men, and it only took an hour or so to reach the road!

Originally graded by ODOH (Oregon Dept. of Highways 'back then') in 1914-1915, and completely paved from Astoria to Portland by 1918; Astoria was still a sea port that was as large as Portland's (for the era), so it was important enough to also warrant a paved highway. So, Columbia River Hwy. 2W was added to the Columbia River Highway in 1918, to put in place a national, coast to coast highway, just like US 80, 60, 50, 40, 20, 10, etc.

This piece was bypassed and mostly ruined in 1955 when a brand new highway was opened along the Columbia River. Most likely this section of US 30 in Oregon has not been paid attention to, or completely ignored, since perhaps the end of the 1950s?

Stephen Kemper, November 4, 2019:

Yesterday, Kirk J. Poole and myself met up at what is left of the Widby Loops. We parked right off the highway on all that is left of loop 3. We then walked up the highway to where we had cut a path last month, leading up to loop 1. We hiked in all the way around the first loop and continued until we reached a wall of blackberries. We got busy with the tools we brought and cut a path right through the blackberries and continued as far as we could up the loop until we reached the end of the road.

Past and Present Views Along the Columbia River Highway

Ed Johnson, October 8, 2019:

Hey, you're ON the Highway... be careful!

Stephen Kemper, October 8, 2019:

There wasn't any traffic on this section of the highway

Kirk J. Poole, October 8, 2019:

No worries here, it hasn't seen a truck in 65 years! LOL

Past and Present Views Along the Columbia River Highway

Kenn Lantz, August 21, 2020:

All four loops still exist with the second from the bottom, or east, being on the present road. Last time I was there some wood guardrail still existed at loop [one].

Kirk J. Poole, September 7, 2020:

YES, I have stood on all 4 loops multiple times in the last 2 years, plus walked W from Loop 1 to where the end of the Old Road starts buckling at the edge of the dynamite zone. 2, 3, and 4 are easy to access. I will have to cut a path to Loop 1 with my weedeater on my first trip back since January.

I walked the bottom to where it ended going under the 1954 road back in 2000. It's much nastier now. I need to walk Loop 4 still to the end of the road further down the hill. I also need a good measurement on that large masonry wall just to the east of Loop 4. I'm still trying to determine where the '43 feet wall' is. It's either at the cliff on Loop 2, or it's the edge of Loop 1 looking down upon the new road.

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