Two Kinds of Rakes Keep Forest Park Walkable From NW Thurman

About 200 feet inside Lower Macleay Park, under the Thurman Street Bridge and west of the parking lot at NW 30th and Upshur, a steel structure stands in Balch Creek. Its job is to catch what the creek brings down from the steep forest above: sediment, large logs and other woody debris. It stops that material before the water drops into the storm sewer pipe that runs to the Willamette River. Portland Environmental Services calls it the Balch Creek Trash Rack.

Just up the road, at the Leif Erikson trailhead on NW Thurman, a different rake shows up on Saturday, Nov. 14. This one is a garden tool, and volunteers drag it across the trail.

Both rakes fight the same problem. The Forest Park entrances closest to Nob Hill and the NW 23rd blocks wear out from water, and the work that keeps them usable through a Portland winter gets done in the fall.

The rake in the creek

The trash rack at Lower Macleay is fairly new. The city finished a new structure in 2022. Then large storms in 2025 piled debris against it, and the pileup eroded the streambank and the streambed. Environmental Services says the repair will help prevent flooding and erosion and protect city infrastructure.

The city's plan had crews arriving the first week of June and the work taking six to eight weeks. The schedule included setting a new steel pre-rack the week of July 14, then clean-up and restoration through the rest of July. The city said it would keep the Lower Macleay Trail open throughout, with flaggers at the spots where equipment crossed.

The heavy work was scheduled to wrap up this summer, and the project has one more step. The city's schedule says crews will come back in winter 2026/27 to put in plantings during the planting season. If you walk up the creek from Upshur this winter, new plants on the repaired bank will be the last sign of that summer's work.

The Oregon Encyclopedia's entry on Macleay Park notes that the lower part of Balch Creek supports a small population of native cutthroat trout. The same entry explains the Stone House a little farther up the trail. It is what's left of a public restroom that federal relief workers built in the mid-1930s. Park workers partly took it apart in the 1960s after vandalism and storm damage. The best-known ruin in the park started as a restroom, and storms helped wreck it decades before the 2025 storms damaged the trash rack below.

The rake on the trail

Forest Park Conservancy rakes all 47 miles of Forest Park's narrow hiking trails every year. On its Why We Rake Trails page, the Conservancy says people often ask why, since leaves are part of a forest.

Its answer comes down to the soil. Steep, wet trails like these need a durable top layer with a lot of angular stone in it, so they can shed water and hold together under heavy use and long rainy winters. Leaves left on the trail trap water. Once water pools, Forest Park's soil gets saturated and unstable, especially under heavy foot traffic. That leads to erosion, mud holes and very slippery footing. Raking regularly through the fall is part of the maintenance mix, along with adding crushed stone and reshaping the trail surface.

The Nov. 14 event listing puts it more simply. Leaves left on a trail "hold water, hide tripping hazards, and create mud."

So the trash rack and the leaf rake do the same job at different scales. The trash rack keeps logs and silt from choking the creek where it goes underground. The leaf rake keeps wet leaves from turning a trail into mud. In both cases, the trouble is debris that holds water where it does damage.

Fall raking also picks up where the summer's work stopped. Forest Park Conservancy reported on Aug. 21, 2026 that summer volunteers held 29 events, filled 652 shifts and brushed back 51.17 miles of trail across Forest Park and Marquam Nature Park. Summer crews cut back the plants pushing in from the trail edges. In fall, the work moves to the trail surface.

Nov. 14 at Leif Erikson and Thurman

The Conservancy's Rake-A-Thon runs at three sites on Saturday, Nov. 14: Springville Road Trailhead, Marquam Nature Park Shelter, and Leif Erikson at Thurman. For anyone living between NW 21st and the hills, the Thurman site is closest. The event is listed at 4040 NW Thurman St.

According to the Leif Erikson at Thurman listing:

• Hours: 9 a.m. to noon
• Parking: limited, so carpooling is encouraged. A portable restroom will be on site
• The work: raking leaves off the trail, which can mean hiking up to 3 miles on uneven ground and up to 2.5 hours of physical work
• Required: long pants, long socks, and sturdy closed-toe tennis shoes or hiking boots with good traction
• Bring: a water bottle and any allergy medication you may need. Long sleeves, layers and a small backpack are recommended
• Provided: training, tools, snacks, coffee and work gloves

The Thurman gate is also the zero mile marker for Leif Erikson Drive. A Portland Monthly transit trip story published this year describes the road as packed rock. The city's Leif Erikson trail profile calls it firm rock and gravel with gentle grades, and lists cycling and horseback riding as allowed uses. That profile comes from a 2023 assessment. It's a different kind of surface from the 47 miles of narrow hiking trail the Conservancy rakes by hand.

The rest of November in the park

If Nov. 14 doesn't fit your weekend, the fall calendar has other dates. Most are on the park's upper edges, a drive or a long bus ride from NW 23rd, and the first one is the day after this post goes up.

Each site has its own details. At Fire Lane 1, the last quarter mile to the trailhead is an unpaved gravel road with potholes, and parking is tight. At Thundercrest, the Conservancy asks volunteers to park across Skyline Boulevard on NW Mears Dr. or NW Devoto Ln. and walk across. The Newton Road work party goes beyond raking. The jobs include laying gravel on wet, muddy stretches, clearing drains and benching sections of trail. Gravel and drains go after the same water problem the leaf rakes do.

What's closed going into the wet season

Portland Parks & Recreation's Trail Closures and Delays page was last updated Sept. 28, 2026. It lists no closures at Lower Macleay or at the Thurman end of Leif Erikson. It does list two closures elsewhere in the park:

• Ridge Trail parking area on NW Bridge Avenue: closed indefinitely because of falling-rock risk and too little room for pedestrians along NW Bridge Avenue between the lot and the trailhead. The city suggests arriving by bus, bike or on foot, or parking across the St. Johns Bridge and walking over.
• Wildwood Trail bridge at mile 15.2: closed, with a stepped bypass. The city says not to use the bridge.

The same page points to the bureau's Inclement Weather Policy, which can close more of the park in extreme weather. Forest Park Conservancy's winter safety tips recommend checking the forecast and current trail conditions before heading out, since winter weather can damage trails and create hazards. If you're planning a loop from Lower Macleay up to Wildwood, our Northwest Portland neighborhood guide and a walkable day in Northwest Portland cover the streets between your door and the trailhead.

A lot of what makes Northwest Portland special is how close Forest Park is, and I'm always glad to talk about the blocks and buildings that put you a few minutes from Lower Macleay or the Thurman gate. If you'd like to know what's on the market near those entrances, Erika Wrenn would be happy to talk it through. Let's Connect.