WARNING: there is stinging nettle near ground zero. Wear long pants and tall socks.
The name of this cache, Nemamooks, is the Chinook Jargon word for river otter. Since I live in Scappoose (the Chinook word for gravelly plain), I thought it would be fun to name my caches in Chinook. This is my 9th hide, celebrating my 90th find.
The Crown Zellerbach trail was once a logging road and before that, a logging railroad. Today it is a linear county park. It is a rails to trails project that is progressing very slowly in my opinion, but it is a very welcome project. The park runs along a lot of private property, so be respectful, and stay on the trail. This is especially important when choosing your parking space. I've given parking coordinates which should keep you out of trouble.
When I first placed this cache, this bit of the trail had no proper crossing for the creek. Hikers had to traverse a pair of fallen logs which was quite treacherous in the winter, but in the spring of 2012, a proper bridge was placed across the trail. The county did a fine job, too.
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New bridge installed Spring 2012
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former crossing
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I doubt if any river otter live here in Alder Creek, but I really like river otters and creeks.