Rediscovering Oregon’s lost Skyline Trail

A dad and daughter are retracing a century-old hiking route that predates the Pacific Crest Trail — one step at a time
Bob Koscik gets onto his hands and knees and crawls under a fallen tree. He turns and watches as his daughter, Eva Berk, scrambles onto a log and then leaps down onto the back of another downed log. “This is what we call the dance of the Skyline,” Bob jokes.

Bob’s eyes scan the bark of the old-growth trees. “There’s a sign over there,” he says, pointing to the trunk of a thick fir tree. “That’s probably from the mid-’20s.”

“Wow, crazy,” says Eva, as she comes up to the small piece of metal, twisted and half-swallowed by the tree where it had been nailed a century ago. It was once white with green lettering but is now mostly rusted. The only word visible is “line.”

Bob and Eva know that the sign once read “Skyline.” They can tell the general direction the sign points, and that farther into the Mt. Hood National Forest there should be more signs like this. What they don’t know is how many are left, and if they can connect them all.

“No one’s heard of the Skyline Trail,” Bob said. “There’s this forgotten link that was so important a hundred years ago. Nobody knows it’s even there.”