tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43984354692006362082023-11-15T23:11:45.481-08:00Portland Walks & Urban HikesExploring Portland on Foot with Laura FosterLaura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-43534539241064625332013-01-09T13:54:00.000-08:002013-01-14T11:51:56.657-08:00Fanno Creek Trail closes its gaps<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDzPNp3mHhtRNhittCSjThWVcib2ubvOrOCKsZK-s8kJ6x2IlOJT8UoFzgmKudYFyLpfbWMinAL_zIKMF5xPwpQrkUJStYM0x5V5XyqwBm__Cde5dfih1Vwp79RBHAa55xXbLGyiJcQfY/s1600/DSC_0306.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDzPNp3mHhtRNhittCSjThWVcib2ubvOrOCKsZK-s8kJ6x2IlOJT8UoFzgmKudYFyLpfbWMinAL_zIKMF5xPwpQrkUJStYM0x5V5XyqwBm__Cde5dfih1Vwp79RBHAa55xXbLGyiJcQfY/s320/DSC_0306.JPG" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fanno Creek</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<em><span style="color: #0c343d;">I wrote this article which appeared September 7, 2012 on the newsline page of </span></em><a href="http://news.oregonmetro.gov/1/post.cfm/fanno-creek-trail-a-true-community-connector"><em><span style="color: #0c343d;">Metro</span></em></a><em><span style="color: #0c343d;">, the Portland-area regional government. I'm the biker referred to in the last paragraph and I can attest that riding the length of the Fanno Creek Trail (including unfinished portions), from the Garden Home Recreation Center to the Tualatin River in Tualatin, is a wonderful bike ride. Flat, both directions! Such a treat for us Portlanders.</span></em><br />
<br />
A rutted footpath once followed a creek through the Tualatin Valley, guiding
generations of native peoples on migrations between the falls of the Willamette
River and the Oregon Coast. In 1847, immigrant Augustus Fanno followed this
path. Finding rich soils along the unnamed creek, Fanno claimed the land. Later,
railroad builders chose this time-tested route for a new kind of transportation
corridor. By the 1970s, much of the rail line went unused – but the ancient
pathway was not forgotten by the generations that followed.
<br />
<br />
A vision was born: a 15-mile walking and biking greenway to connect Portland
to the cities on its southwestern flanks. Today the Fanno Creek Trail, despite
some remaining gaps, does exactly that. Creating it has been like assembling a
five-city jigsaw puzzle.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK2mjlMsIzTUUgcVvVD8pZhQaODsuZJ_C-oykEJuirM5ttu30vo5B5hEou8sCqZPPYRRkgXEYD9u83a61TXzBp_8S_gVjmeB53lGZZEHJ_QHyOPgIAXBrFyoD56LbbOywn_k4aPK-g9GQ/s1600/DSC_0194.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK2mjlMsIzTUUgcVvVD8pZhQaODsuZJ_C-oykEJuirM5ttu30vo5B5hEou8sCqZPPYRRkgXEYD9u83a61TXzBp_8S_gVjmeB53lGZZEHJ_QHyOPgIAXBrFyoD56LbbOywn_k4aPK-g9GQ/s200/DSC_0194.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some homes back right up, <br />
sans fences, along the trail</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"The Fanno Creek Trail is much greater than the sum of its parts," says
Kathleen Brennan-Hunter, Metro's Natural Areas Program director. "So many
different organizations and agencies have brought pieces of it to the
table."<br />
<br />
The plan started in 1975: a trail from the Willamette River in Portland to
Fanno Creek's confluence with the Tualatin River in Tualatin. During the next
quarter century, major sections were built in Beaverton and Tigard. Besides
running across or near land owned by scores of public and private interests, the
trail passes through five cities, two counties and many neighborhoods, across
busy roads, and along a floodplain vital to the health of wildlife and water
quality.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix9TZSLYJcVDQRLEPytTQyoGzm7_dteO44E2TY05Sz885vGRbZBP7JonEO5_RvEgWObwej8KubMJlWGRqlWgwjzF_bvVn6HYUZLK4Gim5YEak0uAd0vTPhMMQnc4_KN00CGx6Obaho6G8/s1600/DSC_0200.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix9TZSLYJcVDQRLEPytTQyoGzm7_dteO44E2TY05Sz885vGRbZBP7JonEO5_RvEgWObwej8KubMJlWGRqlWgwjzF_bvVn6HYUZLK4Gim5YEak0uAd0vTPhMMQnc4_KN00CGx6Obaho6G8/s200/DSC_0200.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Oregon white oak along the trail<br />
near a open-in-2012 section in Beaverton,<br />
adjacent to the old Greenwood Inn site.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Since 1995, Metro has taken the lead in trail planning, land purchases and
procurement of easements, using funds from two voter-approved bond measures. The
cities of Beaverton, Durham, Portland, Tigard and Tualatin have secured
permitting and funding, and designed and built trail segments; Clean Water
Services has planted thousands of trees and restored sections of floodplain to a
more natural hydrology. Other significant players include Washington County,
Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District plus other public agencies,
private landowners, neighborhood groups, conservation organizations and resident
volunteers.<br />
<br />
The result: a trail used by an increasing number of commuters and
recreational walkers and bicyclists.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhb3jBeZI27ZVJ7gs3J42_TUuVMffHsV7Et5lZpXdfSWlhbkD-A_gWb8g6-McsQEo3AxLMPAqfwMbhvjeq2f1pc-juL4E6EOgWIMmdifj7beVYONf3uHUrkuyzDsMiUf4hyphenhyphengMfwNkMA5I/s1600/DSC_0345.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhb3jBeZI27ZVJ7gs3J42_TUuVMffHsV7Et5lZpXdfSWlhbkD-A_gWb8g6-McsQEo3AxLMPAqfwMbhvjeq2f1pc-juL4E6EOgWIMmdifj7beVYONf3uHUrkuyzDsMiUf4hyphenhyphengMfwNkMA5I/s200/DSC_0345.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw53WZnmRQxBtA4DFscs1DgWG5ydScLXIGiP1tCFQ35P11QLu3zuko5VGfNzt4B3c-hzf5F0XR_aSsgA8m6wQvflrsboNUEAANBA7iaIe5jBtrxJfqHAM2FeTU7KNZcVoANVeH66CdaBQ/s1600/DSC_0350.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw53WZnmRQxBtA4DFscs1DgWG5ydScLXIGiP1tCFQ35P11QLu3zuko5VGfNzt4B3c-hzf5F0XR_aSsgA8m6wQvflrsboNUEAANBA7iaIe5jBtrxJfqHAM2FeTU7KNZcVoANVeH66CdaBQ/s200/DSC_0350.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
One July morning, Susan Frost stopped along the trail to join two fellow
walkers peering into summer-shallow Fanno Creek. "I've seen eagles, herons, a
white egret, coyotes and even a honeybee swarm in an old oak," she said. "I feel
energized by the beauty on the trail. Every day I see something new."<br />
<br />
<h3>
Closing gaps in the trail benefits water, wildlife and people</h3>
A regional trail isn't truly regional until enough discrete segments have
been connected. In 2012, the Fanno Creek Trail is reaching this benchmark,
thanks to the commitment of local partners and community volunteers.<br />
<br />
In January, a 0.6-mile segment opened in Beaverton, between Scholls Ferry and
Denney roads. With two short on-road connections at either end, this segment
closed a gap between Garden Home and the trail's longest contiguous stretch: 3.8
miles from Denney Road in Beaverton to Woodard Park in Tigard. This segment,
said Wendy Kroger, was 18 years in the making. Until 2011, she was the head of
THPRD Trails Advisory Committee and one of the trail's most vocal advocates.<br />
<br />
"I was a cheerleader, a visionary, a polite prodder," Kroger said.
"Some advocated that this segment should run along Allen Boulevard. But we
lobbied hard to have it run through the natural area, writing letters,
testifying, speaking on behalf of permitting and funding requests." That meant a
lot more property acquisitions and restoration work. But the result is stunning:
an urban oasis with a trail winding artfully around native plants and creek
bends under a canopy of tall firs.<br />
<br />
In Tigard, two trail gaps are getting closer to construction and a new
acquisition will offer a large piece of parkland along the trail. When new
sections open, walkers and bikers will be off the streets and next to the
creek.<br />
<br />
Trail work is not all about closing gaps, Brennan-Hunter said – it's also
improving Washington County's water quality. Since 2006, Clean Water Services
has converted 800 feet of once-straightened stream channel in Beaverton's
Greenway Park to 1,200 feet of meanders and floodplain, and planted 80,000
native plants.<br />
<br />
This focus on water quality and wildlife habitat was not a primary goal of
trail planners, who in the 1980s and 1990s developed trailside parklands in the
style of traditional urban parks, with playgrounds, ball fields and picnic
shelters. Joe Blowers is a middle school teacher and president of the Tualatin
Hills Park & Recreation District's board of directors. He and his students
have been working on Fanno Creek tributaries since 1994. Blowers called out
Englewood Park in Tigard as a place where growing knowledge about riparian
habitat has changed greenway design.<br />
<br />
"When it first opened, the park was grassy, with lawns mowed right up to the
creek," Blowers said. "Today about 11 acres, especially in wet areas, are left
unmown and have been replanted in native plants – swaths of marshy grassland,
Ponderosa pines and willows."<br />
<br />
The trail's newest section in Beaverton highlights state-of-the-art trail
building and streamside restoration. As it returns to its more primeval roots,
the greenway, once a near-monoculture of invasives, again offers mammals,
amphibians and fish a refuge in an otherwise intensely urban setting.<br />
<h4>
Play, commute, connect</h4>
One trail element still missing is signage, making it a bit challenging to
find some trail segments. Way-finding signs scheduled to be installed next year
along the entire trail length will help bicyclists and walkers navigate,
particularly in the gaps.<br />
<br />
"We're really close to completing the acquisitions, but there are still gaps
over big streets." Brennan-Hunter said. <br />
<br />
Most of the trail's street crossings have pedestrian-activated or painted
crosswalks. But one of the busiest crossings still to address is at Hall
Boulevard in Beaverton. There, a tunnel and bridge were rejected as too costly.
People must leave the trail, walk to a stoplight and then return. The solution,
due in 2013, will be a mid-block crossing, with a pedestrian-activated crosswalk
that triggers a red light for cars.<br />
<br />
It may take 10 more years to build out remaining gaps in the entire 15 miles
of the trail, from the Willamette River to Tualatin. Even so, the trail is
already a busy regional corridor that offers places to play, a beautiful
commute, and connections to downtowns, neighborhoods and shopping.<br />
<br />
As one cyclist pedaled the nearly flat length of the trail on a warm July
day, she drafted off a dragonfly, heard freight trains wailing in the distance,
nodded to countless other bikers and walkers, and tasted a few early berries
along the way. The Fanno Creek Trail – a regional gem created by the vision and
persistence of hundreds of people over nearly 40 years – combines community
involvement, urban planning and Oregon beauty.Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-61482047183468263222012-04-04T09:14:00.001-07:002013-01-17T17:03:08.190-08:00Trails updates to walks in the books<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8o9bMRLYS-8isDszxpVPJT4jAk_beUuq3lZc_7XwhHUdnqLguH4d8i-Y9JZeusx9882VeplMNNRIJ3M4DhMWavdyQoecs5QaphK4CrStrdS-tIs9i0Hvy6DaGOgbhxW4XthyhR3sKrh0/s1600/copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" nda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8o9bMRLYS-8isDszxpVPJT4jAk_beUuq3lZc_7XwhHUdnqLguH4d8i-Y9JZeusx9882VeplMNNRIJ3M4DhMWavdyQoecs5QaphK4CrStrdS-tIs9i0Hvy6DaGOgbhxW4XthyhR3sKrh0/s320/copy.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steps from SW Broadway Drive to Hoffman</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The revised edition of Portland Hill Walks is coming out March 2013 with five new walks, some of the long--6 to 7 miles. All were revised and one walk was cut. The new book will have 24 walks. </span><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Portland Hill Walks</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Walk 9 Willamette Park to Terwilliger Loop</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The trail at point 7 on the map is closed due to construction on I-5. Suggested change: at point 6, don't descend the trail in George Himes Park; instead, return to point 3 by using the map or retracing your route. It will be a few more years, I think, until the construction is over and the trail under I-5 through George Himes is rebuilt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Walk 12 Dunthorpe Gardens</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Berry Botanic Gardens is permanently closed. But the Bishops Close is still worth a visit. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Walk 13 Sellwood</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The trail up the bluff between point 2 and 3 is washed out, permanently. A new trail has been built. From point 2 in Oaks Bottom, veer southeast toward the bluff and you'll find the new trail. It climbs the bluff and ends at the same place, point 3, on the map, so the detour is slight.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Portland Stairs Book</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">p. 87 Outer Southwest Peaks and Valleys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This uses the same George Himes Trail mentioned above, so instead of crossing under I-5 via that trail, cross over I-5 on SW Brier Place (it's on the map).</span>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-27759494799359842072011-08-29T14:15:00.000-07:002011-08-29T14:15:09.160-07:00A Jolly Good Sidewalk<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Until around 1904, most Portland sidewalks were wood. In that year, a city ordinance declared no wooden sidewalks <br />
<br />
<blockquote>"shall be built or constructed hereafter upon any street (in Portland in certain districts); [it is] the duty of the property owners to construct sidewalks of artificial stone, vitrified or repressed paving brick or asphalt.”</blockquote><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXbrg0ZqRLFp14cu1lDlQdui1y7O96K4or1RxRgRzlDcYbt_Qst5go-oIoKFAY1TELQ9Ofc6t6m9brBBsu9qd8zL9VYmma9eEf8AaDr9ZnMOwVQXRX9xzoBeH9TJ1qI2ts0abSL4pxJEg/s1600/Centennial015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXbrg0ZqRLFp14cu1lDlQdui1y7O96K4or1RxRgRzlDcYbt_Qst5go-oIoKFAY1TELQ9Ofc6t6m9brBBsu9qd8zL9VYmma9eEf8AaDr9ZnMOwVQXRX9xzoBeH9TJ1qI2ts0abSL4pxJEg/s200/Centennial015.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">So one era ended and in this decade, </div>most of our “artificial stone” sidewalks are turning the century mark. <br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>One Portlander couldn’t let the moment pass unnoticed when her sidewalk, in historic South Portland, turned 100 this year. Katie Urey, a GIS professional and board member of the <a href="http://www.wpcwalks.org/">Willamette Pedestrian Coalition</a>, threw her sidewalk a party in August and I was delighted to have been invited.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu99YnvVQZmRPl1S_xAIjJ8pNcqw94i7fSZdtyoSM32nxNG3yxPKIpshfOpNZAklvt5Fs-zdTOMuLty5yMPL8g7Dz3lHVecLwYMb3w_Mf0NQQpRy0HxUQzMZZTwwulLsGiLSdAuQEE7l0/s1600/Centennial013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu99YnvVQZmRPl1S_xAIjJ8pNcqw94i7fSZdtyoSM32nxNG3yxPKIpshfOpNZAklvt5Fs-zdTOMuLty5yMPL8g7Dz3lHVecLwYMb3w_Mf0NQQpRy0HxUQzMZZTwwulLsGiLSdAuQEE7l0/s320/Centennial013.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Katie lured in pedestrians with neighborhood stories like that of boys at a South Portland </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">orphanage who ran away to find the place where the sun sets.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW2fV2dIY8Z_fP9eECLgt8OJsu0MRmAn0YWeu_9eQUXkypBdvR3lKA1rwrPFR75j_mo5HByVu7VxyAoYJxq1Og1REFwLlbuEUIeTKUg3-r5xdQn02fEVC_IdFtKrtQOOZwVu7PP-bDkTk/s1600/Centennial011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW2fV2dIY8Z_fP9eECLgt8OJsu0MRmAn0YWeu_9eQUXkypBdvR3lKA1rwrPFR75j_mo5HByVu7VxyAoYJxq1Og1REFwLlbuEUIeTKUg3-r5xdQn02fEVC_IdFtKrtQOOZwVu7PP-bDkTk/s320/Centennial011.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Around the corner, a display of old news articles brought the stories back to life.</span> </td></tr>
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</div>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-41292673036752326062011-03-25T15:02:00.000-07:002011-04-11T15:19:18.661-07:00Hiking the Wildwood: 3 days at 2 miles per hour<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7GJ6kT8B-uF4gR3rCB_QSBNfd0ANnqnn6XDBxsefqluYr6ijsST-d0AG0HEJFT4jcdF8ESdUCKGa7WjDHnMYsq68Z28V4Z51cvThIq-a2I0lRPRT5880Qae_QCJp2mghNBX-NXbGjUQU/s1600/Wildwood+Hike+March+2011+78.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7GJ6kT8B-uF4gR3rCB_QSBNfd0ANnqnn6XDBxsefqluYr6ijsST-d0AG0HEJFT4jcdF8ESdUCKGa7WjDHnMYsq68Z28V4Z51cvThIq-a2I0lRPRT5880Qae_QCJp2mghNBX-NXbGjUQU/s320/Wildwood+Hike+March+2011+78.JPG" width="235" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We love mile markers: a blue blaze and quarter-<br />
mile increments were trail highlights. <br />
The dog joined us on Day 3. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>It’s the longest hiking trail within a U.S. city’s limits. Portland, Oregon’s <a href="http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?PropertyID=127&action=ViewPark">Forest Park</a> invites you to travel deep into its 5,000 wooded acres via a 30-mile-long wilderness trail, the Wildwood Trail. At about the 800 foot elevation line hidden in the folds of this rugged landscape, the Wildwood carries you into and out of deep ravines, through mature forests of Douglas fir, cedar and hemlock, and across countless streams. All the while, you never leave Portland city limits. At times, views of Mt. St. Helens or Mt. Rainier peak through. In places, clangs, booms and whistles of docks, tugboats and trains pierce the cathedral-like calm. Pileated woodpeckers laugh maniacally, bald eagles soar silently above the fir tops and songbirds welcome you with outbursts of joy as you pass through their world.<br />
<br />
Eight year old Eleanor wanted to claim the Wildwood. So this spring break, with mornings in the 30s and grey skies occasionally gracing us with showers, we hiked its length, plus 6 extra miles. The route brought us off the Wildwood the first night, down a mudslide of a firelane, to a motel on the highway below the park. The second night brought us to some friends’ home in a quiet dead-end above the park, and the last day, we walked to our house just beyond the park’s north end. <br />
<br />
Most people hike the Wildwood in segments, looping onto it from firelanes and side trails that carry you down to the trail from streets above or up from the neighborhoods or highway below. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCxGnz0qPieAkyWv2fB_mutC336o358XlHnCeccKNCr02DTKWF2ibGBh2wVZi5nYu8EemJBm3gbzAzV9dQohoTzHtNjcvpzXIhbbAS8U-GwJL_HrruC5GXbCtjIpGpcoPY8vuEs45DoQ/s1600/Wildwood+Hike+March+2011+47.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCxGnz0qPieAkyWv2fB_mutC336o358XlHnCeccKNCr02DTKWF2ibGBh2wVZi5nYu8EemJBm3gbzAzV9dQohoTzHtNjcvpzXIhbbAS8U-GwJL_HrruC5GXbCtjIpGpcoPY8vuEs45DoQ/s320/Wildwood+Hike+March+2011+47.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stumps of trees cut a century ago nurture new life.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>But a one-way excursion heightens the sense of adventure, of discovery and of awe at the length and wilderness that the Wildwood traverses. It's a landscape that has been logged, yes, but is in robust recovery, as wild-seeming in places as some of the more remote areas of the Olympic peninsula. <br />
<br />
A one-way excursion on the Wildwood like mine is possible, even if you don’t have friends living up on Skyline Boulevard. <br />
<br />
Start at Mile 0, at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington Park. Pass through the Arboretum and below homes perched on hills; climb to the Pittock Mansion, and vow to come back another day when your feet are not caked in mud; descend trails cut by Mr. Pittock to Cornell Road and the Audubon’s sanctuaries. That’s at mile 5, and visiting the birds who live there adds a nice educational component. We ate lunch watching a spotted owl preen, crouch and swivel on the arm of a volunteer. From there, it’s down to Balch Creek, then up and out of the canyon, then traveling above the Willamette Heights neighborhood. After a bit, the neighborhood peters out and it’s just you, a few dogs and their owners and miles of trail. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD0Bb9JhhMfF3kFIqkVcdYIxBeb_gzjlx-fjwNb_MPd8AR6khlaMBOxuY_mZUV8jynE9du6t476Ye9qhfaHQl2dLuAg-4jzv1749EDHoEUzAOE9XSooca45nwPhKti46i9v3tTFSLZgoE/s1600/Wildwood+Hike+March+2011+44.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD0Bb9JhhMfF3kFIqkVcdYIxBeb_gzjlx-fjwNb_MPd8AR6khlaMBOxuY_mZUV8jynE9du6t476Ye9qhfaHQl2dLuAg-4jzv1749EDHoEUzAOE9XSooca45nwPhKti46i9v3tTFSLZgoE/s320/Wildwood+Hike+March+2011+44.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oxalis, one of countless shades of green in the park.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>We stopped at Mile 11 at about 4 p.m. and hiked down the very steep Firelane 1 to its start at St. Helens Road and Yeon Avenue, where <a href="http://www.lq.com/lq/properties/propertyProfile.do?propId=465">La Quinta Inn</a> provided just the sort of oddball juxtaposition I like on a walk. A swim in the pool, pizza delivered by <a href="http://www.bellagiospizza.com/">Bellagios</a>, two hours of fluff tv, and snuggling in a big clean bed made for a perfect day’s end. <br />
<br />
There are no other motels next to the trail, so the 11 mile mark is the best place to descend if you want to spend the night in a warm bed other than your own. (Camping is not allowed in the park.)<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJL3feFSc8ovBAnbuIGQ7o7RL16UuhbJWECSgNNnuOf6vEatZpTwAQgsoBIkLUpmijtxhefT5PlHhm8nNuLvHk4Bbt3JhEdtIfJfPW_5oLeARG15Ftn_Mis86EOW-ud1vtPy9AxFtYBEo/s1600/Wildwood+Hike+March+2011+48.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJL3feFSc8ovBAnbuIGQ7o7RL16UuhbJWECSgNNnuOf6vEatZpTwAQgsoBIkLUpmijtxhefT5PlHhm8nNuLvHk4Bbt3JhEdtIfJfPW_5oLeARG15Ftn_Mis86EOW-ud1vtPy9AxFtYBEo/s200/Wildwood+Hike+March+2011+48.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A true friend shares the last of her frozen <br />
peaches with some tired hikers.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Day Two took us back up the firelane, about 1.8 miles of mud alternating with wash outs. Views of trains and tank farms below offer disturbing but interesting juxtapositions with the firelane’s wild, tumbling streams and beautiful stands of Oregon white oak and madrona (relatively rare in Forest Park; seen along the lower elevations above Highway 30). Once back on the Wildwood, we walked to our friends’ home for a day’s distance of 14 miles. The next day we hiked to the Wildwood’s end at Newberry Road, and three more miles to our house. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzymKjpo1Tk_9vBH1NHrNoAe6CNggTNtECWBxTx_5yIduHHMKfSOraAzcQqmjf9sMbkx45InSPTMB28UarmG55wY_TSWusOseWHBBv2_siKiNHnnOTF2nc2KzBVxcg1279WEn1cnyQGc0/s1600/Wildwood+Hike+March+2011+82.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzymKjpo1Tk_9vBH1NHrNoAe6CNggTNtECWBxTx_5yIduHHMKfSOraAzcQqmjf9sMbkx45InSPTMB28UarmG55wY_TSWusOseWHBBv2_siKiNHnnOTF2nc2KzBVxcg1279WEn1cnyQGc0/s320/Wildwood+Hike+March+2011+82.JPG" width="261" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The end of the trail.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
But if you care to walk faster than our two-mile-per hour pace, you could make Day 2 as long as you want, even making it to Newberry Road, at the end of the Wildwood. There, you can walk downhill on Newberry (about 1.5 miles) to Highway 30 and a <a href="http://www.trimet.org/">TriMet</a> bus stop where you can pick the mud out of your boots while you wait for the ride back to town. For a shorter walk, bail off the Wildwood at many places between the 20 and 28 mile marks, heading downhill on firelanes or trails. You’ll end up at or near a TriMet bus stop on the highway.<br />
<br />
The Wildwood’s a great walk for kids: level, runnable and so, so close to Portland neighborhoods. If you go, Marcy Houle’s book <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780870715884">One City’s Wilderness</a> is an indispensable guide. In print since the 1980s, it’s been updated in 2010 with new maps, full color photos of the birds and plants you’ll see, and great stories that explain the landscape you’ll pass through. The <a href="http://forestparkconservancy.org/">Forest Park Conservancy</a>, a nonprofit advocacy group, leads frequent walks into the park, and offers interpretation, opportunities to help remove invasives or maintain trails, and a wealth of other information about the park.Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-69108155491498652502011-02-17T13:36:00.000-08:002011-02-17T13:36:32.990-08:00Portland's Riches: Its Citizen Activists<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><em>This post first appeared on <a href="http://www.powells.com/blog/?author=82">Powell's Books blog</a> in December 2010.</em></span><br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoSftYP9t-kCOc5bJXAF9doN3lHSN1a6mpqxnXv6Ic3275tkv8oZ-NlXWFSFqWT9e3hS-SaXb184qMW5Sj5SsN-YqwCc8vhyiifZsw33XT7hGBP409zVm_poqEZ32mKxBvCDPHVvC0-Mo/s1600/Ivy+Pullers+at+Marquam+Nature+Park.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoSftYP9t-kCOc5bJXAF9doN3lHSN1a6mpqxnXv6Ic3275tkv8oZ-NlXWFSFqWT9e3hS-SaXb184qMW5Sj5SsN-YqwCc8vhyiifZsw33XT7hGBP409zVm_poqEZ32mKxBvCDPHVvC0-Mo/s320/Ivy+Pullers+at+Marquam+Nature+Park.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Ivy Pullers at Marquam Nature Park on a wet November morning</span></strong></td></tr>
</tbody></table> I've been writing about Portland for years. <br />
<br />
Without gushing, let's just say <span style="color: #274e13; font-size: large;"><em>Portland is one gorgeous setting in which to wake up each morning.</em></span><br />
<br />
While I give props to volcanic eruptions, the Missoula Floods, and damp marine air for the riches they left behind here, overlaying these natural assets is something perhaps more intriguing: individual citizens whose passions and tenacity have shaped the city — fighting back proposed freeways, mucking garbage out of urban streams, righting toppled headstones in forgotten cemeteries...<br />
<br />
<br />
They started with no more background or skill than many of us, and simply adopted a corner of town — and over the years, incrementally, have created urban treasures. I've met many of these people in my research and they are, I think, some of our most shining urban assets.<br />
<br />
A citizen, the American Heritage Dictionary says, is "a person owing loyalty to and entitled by birth or naturalization to the protection of a state or nation."<br />
<br />
Robin Jensen is a Portland citizen who hasn't just enjoyed the entitlements and joys of living in this beautiful corner of the country, but who has put a citizen's loyalty into actions that have resulted in two Portland places now celebrated by guidebook writers and meetup groups.<br />
<br />
Robin's adopted nook in the city is a steep, deeply forested gulch in the West Hills called <a href="http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?PropertyID=251&action=ViewPark">Marquam Nature Park</a>. She got involved 18 years ago because of a neighbor, a then-82-year-old who in the 1970s had helped prevent the canyon's hillsides from being developed into a 600-unit apartment complex. She and other citizen activists had formed a nonprofit, the <a href="http://www.fmnp.org/">Friends of Marquam Park</a>, knocked on doors for donations, and written grants to purchase the land. They raised $1 million ($4.9 million today), purchased about 120 acres, and gave the land to the City of Portland. It's the city's third-largest park (now at 176 acres), and the only park purchased by citizens and given to the city. <br />
<br />
"I was just really impressed this was all citizen-led," Robin says. She didn't admire from afar, however, and right away began attending meetings of the <a href="http://www.fmnp.org/">Friends of Marquam Park</a>. She laughs, "I soon found myself on the board. You start going to meetings, you're automatically a board member." She is now the board president.<br />
<br />
Marquam Nature Park is not just a neighborhood greenspace but a regional treasure. <a href="http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/index.cfm?a=93732&c=39872">Click here for a map.</a> While it's a forest oasis in itself, its trails connect to Council Crest, the highest point in town, link to other trails ending at Willamette River beaches, and to the Wildwood Trail on which you can hike 30 miles into the hinterlands of Multnomah County. <br />
<br />
The land's wild yet proximate beauty is part of what motivates Robin. "I love the park, because it's so close to downtown; to be able to get out into a secluded forest, safe, beautiful, home to a lot of wildlife... People's mental and physical health benefits from being in nature, and because the park is so close to the city, it provides these benefits for a lot of people."<br />
<br />
Acquisition of land is the first but not last task of stewardship. And that's where citizens like you and I can contribute. At first, the Friends focused on trail maintenance, but in the last decade, the need for removal of invasive species like English ivy has <span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;">brought</span> in work crews from Hands-On Portland, AmeriCorps, and informal groups such as Trail Mix, a group of hiking friends started by Portlander Debbie Asakawa. <br />
<br />
Debbie has recruited her group four times in the last several months to pull ivy. As a regular ivy puller on my own land, and one of Debbie's crewmembers, I recommend regular ivy pulling as satisfying on many levels: <br />
<br />
<ul><li><span style="color: #7f6000; font-family: inherit;">Physical</span>: computer-puny arms get a workout</li>
<li><span style="color: #783f04;">Social:</span> you get to laugh and chat with friends without consuming calories</li>
<li><span style="color: #783f04;">Spiritual:</span> helping a forest fend back an invasive species feels so tangibly right... so much of our work is, how shall I say, not driven by need but by desires. Yet our forests are beautiful places that truly need help from people; it feels good to give them a hand, lifting off a burden they are not meant to be carrying</li>
<li><span style="color: #783f04;">Civic:</span> if you're like me, you probably love your city, and it just feels good to give something back</li>
</ul><br />
In every city, some people see problems and shrug them away. Others see them and do something. Cities aren't inanimate collections of static places. They do change for the better with our attention; and for the worse with our apathy. It's not enough to be a resident of a city. We must be its citizens. <br />
<br />
So bring a plastic bag and pick up trash each time you take a walk, sign up for some mornings of community service in your favorite park, join the board of a group whose work you care about, and revel in being a good citizen.Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-39344426324692057282011-01-03T10:44:00.000-08:002011-02-24T13:04:56.277-08:00Poetry on the Block: Literary Posts Abound in Portland<em>This blog post and others I wrote in December 2010 first appeared on the <a href="http://www.powells.com/blog/?author=82">Powell's Books Blog</a></em><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM76MidgOLs5tGthEPa544xHDMS3PWu8Z2L_1F90xObAzGGu1q5YFiBsPqcePDSqOTnr-l5BHLqgd9atylonPTlfBMo6OPCvLzMBh7-B8jwdxuqHdW4mVilCQoFQ6PqfIxpYjVPC2y-T8/s1600/Poetry+post+NW+23rd+and+Kearney+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM76MidgOLs5tGthEPa544xHDMS3PWu8Z2L_1F90xObAzGGu1q5YFiBsPqcePDSqOTnr-l5BHLqgd9atylonPTlfBMo6OPCvLzMBh7-B8jwdxuqHdW4mVilCQoFQ6PqfIxpYjVPC2y-T8/s320/Poetry+post+NW+23rd+and+Kearney+1.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong>Mike Ryerson, not letting a bit of rain get between himself and some poetry</strong></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table> When stressed by money, people or deadlines, I take my feet into a Portland neighborhood and start walking. Soren Kierkegaard wrote, “Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness.” So true. I have Portlanders to thank for my relatively good mental health. I live in the forest just beyond the city’s limits, and many afternoons I leave my computer and kitchen to climb around in our woods, pruning saw in hand, cutting back dead limbs and toppling small trees shaded into death by our growing firs. I come back tired and peaceful. But walking in the city’s neighborhoods makes me laugh and come home optimistic and enthusiastic. At an observer’s pace, the small displays of human creativity seen on an urban walk stand up to make you smile: a chimney turned into a climbing wall, a tile lizard inviting you to sit and rest in a homeowner’s parking strip, and the poetry posts that are proliferating in yards around town—<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpwKEbnXxyC9TgJa-Ycyhv3vLHf1a2Vc4283ofWyFAjpZ_-kimiQLv2M6ngBQQg25MFdHVGfnCoFYGTcHoR1bX-EyKMV7MFfIDcGq2YQNdNkILG70cDtHcSMbrnjxvvDinILHVFaYrZw/s1600/Rain+poem+on+rain+soaked+paper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpwKEbnXxyC9TgJa-Ycyhv3vLHf1a2Vc4283ofWyFAjpZ_-kimiQLv2M6ngBQQg25MFdHVGfnCoFYGTcHoR1bX-EyKMV7MFfIDcGq2YQNdNkILG70cDtHcSMbrnjxvvDinILHVFaYrZw/s320/Rain+poem+on+rain+soaked+paper.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A poem about rain, on rain-soaked paper</span></strong></td></tr>
</tbody></table>A few weeks ago Portland author Gabriel Boehmer emailed me about Portland’s poetry posts. Gabe wrote a book called <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780978585402-4">City of Readers: The Book Lover's Guide to Portland</a> and is tuned into Oregon poets and writers the same way I tune in to manhole covers and urban staircases. <br />
<br />
A poetry post (or poetry pole or poetry box) is a wooden pole, usually, mounted on private property, so that it faces pedestrians. On top of the pole is a box, with a glass or clear face and a lid. Inside the box is a sheet of paper containing a poem (or, sometimes, prose or a photograph). Sometimes the pole is absent, the box mounted to a tree. That’s it. <br />
<br />
Gabe and I went on a poetry post tour of his <a href="http://grantpark-na.org/aboutgpna/map.html">Grant Park neighborhood</a> and passed a poem on NE 36th Avenue. “My daughter and I pass this post every day on our way to Grant Park. She wants to stop and read the poem so we always do.” She’s four; she’s reading poetry in a stranger’s yard with her dad. A magical memory, one she can pull from the depths when, at 49 or 54, she’s unable to sleep one night, wondering how to pay the college tuition bill and pondering other exigencies that cause a middle-aged person to reflect on life and choices. A memory to smooth the coming bumps.<br />
<br />
After hearing about that post, Gabe’s wife Jennifer had a poetry post built in their yard as a birthday gift for him. <br />
<br />
As we walked back to Gabe’s house, his neighbor Frank raked sodden leaves away from the curb. “I’m enjoying your poetry,” he told Gabe as his puppy attacked the rake. “Are you typing them on a typewriter?” <br />
<br />
Gabe admitted he was, and then Frank revealed he and his wife had put the very first poem in, while Gabe was away on a trip. They had seen the new poetry post, still empty, and typed up the poem, “A Man is a Success,” that had been on the back of Frank’s dad’s funeral card. Someone had swiped the poem out of the box soon after, and both Gabe and Frank agreed that taking a poem from a poetry box was a fine thing. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEJxt1K897hi6H2DSuGuY0bu8gSY9OF0zQX4THxYJnyBrX6ZHLoIYO1WX7u1QxeQi_JlZyZ_kXNP_Iks4P2zXcVGTKUsFzTIBR0mLWc_-BY7p4rPlT3S3XAWIoML0sV650xh1jDz_QXU/s1600/image+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEJxt1K897hi6H2DSuGuY0bu8gSY9OF0zQX4THxYJnyBrX6ZHLoIYO1WX7u1QxeQi_JlZyZ_kXNP_Iks4P2zXcVGTKUsFzTIBR0mLWc_-BY7p4rPlT3S3XAWIoML0sV650xh1jDz_QXU/s320/image+1.JPG" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong>Gabriel Boehmer placing a new poem in his poetry post</strong></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table> <br />
That’s the civilizing effect of poetry posts that Portlander Tony Pfannenstiel appreciates. His poetry box is located in Southwest Portland, atop a steep hill. I called Tony to ask why he installed a poetry box after reading his comments on the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/PortlandPoetryBox/topics">Google Group, “Portland Poetry Box.”</a> <br />
<br />
I caught him while he was out walking his pug dog in the South Park Blocks. Tony was happy to talk, and I was delighted to hear his poetry box had a connection to my book <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780881926927-2">Portland Hill Walks</a>, which features a 152-step staircase next to his home. The success of that book has brought a lot of people, Tony says, up those stairs, where he installed the poetry box at the top to “offer people a chance to catch their breath and read something beautiful.” He talks of small gestures by citizens as a way for any of us to offer strangers a moment’s respite, free of charge, as a way to soften our rather harsh world. “It’s gratifying when I see seven or eight people holding your book, huddled around the tree, reading the poem aloud. It warms my heart!” <br />
<br />
Tony changes the poems every few weeks and, like Gabe, focuses on Portland and Oregon poets with his own poems added to the mix at times. <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHPiMqM2OkvT6xBXs3Qgvof-LuqNRlRYAaw3rPnCRxqWNT-s1_vJ65x-Fq8yAkC5xlKqIdN99fS7PTykkZjWuyvvDNK2CxmmBdf-0gw-nWf3P685Ah7b2RBwGFoVgyP-xotxubyEwH0M8/s1600/image+2+alt.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHPiMqM2OkvT6xBXs3Qgvof-LuqNRlRYAaw3rPnCRxqWNT-s1_vJ65x-Fq8yAkC5xlKqIdN99fS7PTykkZjWuyvvDNK2CxmmBdf-0gw-nWf3P685Ah7b2RBwGFoVgyP-xotxubyEwH0M8/s320/image+2+alt.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong>Tony Pfannenstiel’s poetry box offers climbers of one of Portland’s most grueling staircases a reward for their exertions</strong></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The posts have a couple of nuclei: one in Northeast Portland, around Grant Park, and another in Southeast, on Mount Tabor. Matt Blair, a Portland programmer, is close to finishing an <a href="http://elsewisestrategic.com/2010/09/apps-for-urban-rambling/">iPhone app that reveals the location of many Portland poetry posts.</a> The app is being developed in response to the City of Portland’s <a href="http://www.civicapps.org/">Civic Apps for Greater Portland</a> contest to use public data to create user-friendly content. Matt’s <a href="http://pdxtrees.org/">Heritage Tree app</a> won a Civic Apps award; it’s available free in the iTunes store. <br />
The poetry post app will be interactive, so walkers encountering an unmapped post can photograph it and add its image and address to the universe of posts. Matt was approached by fellow Portlander Sue Gemmell, whose interest in mobile technology, communities and culture inspired her to start the Portland Poetry Box Google Group as a virtual gathering place for people to share ideas about poetry posts. Before Sue talked to Matt about her idea for a poetry post app, he says, "I hadn't even seen one; I didn’t even know it was a phenomenon that existed in Portland.” But he must have been the right man for the job, because even while talking on the phone about what he loves about the posts, Matt crafts little nuggets of distilled imagery. <br />
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“Poetry posts,” he says, “take poetry out of rarified places and into the places where people walk their dogs.” At a post he passes often, just east of NW 23rd Avenue on Kearney Street, Matt says, “I stop, then someone sees me reading it and stops. I leave and turn back and someone else has stopped. The posts create whirlpools of attention.” <br />
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Some posts are built by the homeowners but two Portlanders will build them to suit: <a href="http://www.poetrypostspdx.com/">Doug Trotter</a> and <a href="mailto:poprobin7@msn.com">John Milliken</a>. Click <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/jmilliken07pdx/PDXPoetryPoles#5261185082439456690">here</a> for a gallery of his posts.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo58f6uNfyTufKaIynnJ5iwGZigqP9I1eNjQ3ieWwA6p1ivKtyF0k2HTrlSIzfzfXlRs3H_AvvAKIbioCZIfZGwxKg4L8s1jdJG82cC4fgYbNl6edzY_2L0kqPMzNpl_ZFkpWueJFC6MA/s1600/image+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo58f6uNfyTufKaIynnJ5iwGZigqP9I1eNjQ3ieWwA6p1ivKtyF0k2HTrlSIzfzfXlRs3H_AvvAKIbioCZIfZGwxKg4L8s1jdJG82cC4fgYbNl6edzY_2L0kqPMzNpl_ZFkpWueJFC6MA/s320/image+3.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong>A note left in a NE Portland poetry post</strong></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-40028342066562692192010-12-03T06:43:00.000-08:002010-12-03T08:42:17.996-08:00Graham Oaks: Take a walk in our newest park<strong>THEN</strong><br />
A women’s prison or a National Guard vehicle maintenance facility: these were two options considered for what is now the 250-acre Graham Oaks Nature Park in Wilsonville. The land was once managed by native peoples with fire to create an open, rolling oak savanna. It's a habitat rare today in the Willamette Valley. With settlement, the land, like most of the valley, was farmed. A wetland was tiled and drained to create more aerable land. <br />
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<strong>NOW</strong><br />
After acquisition by Metro, the land saw extensive restoration work such as:<br />
<br />
<div></div>• Water courses were restored, returning some of the acreage to its native wetland habitat. <br />
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• Six years worth of ivy removal has allowed an old growth Douglas fir forest soar again, unencumbered by this nasty hanger-on. <br />
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• One hundred million wild flower and grass seeds have been sown.<br />
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• One hundred fifty thousand oaks, pines, firs and native shrubs have been planted.<br />
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<strong>TO COME</strong><br />
Seeing this work in progress, of a land healing from monoculture and degradation, can be a little puzzling--there aren't a lot of spectacular oaks yet...but what is intriguing is the story of the place--what it was, how it was shaped, how it was damaged, and how it is being repaired. The next chapters are to be written, but visiting Graham Oaks now, and again in a few years, will be one of those walking experiences, I believe, in which optimism, hope for an improved future, will be what walkers take away.<br />
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Below the photos are links to a self-guided walking tour of Graham Oaks. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEeZl_hT1NyeABYMLZr9hACRprvPjMLwVQCYCKCRNc7raCzCsIi5b1u1kohxsFpPML7y6nkOff0RbmnG35978ajjx-_mrS_1o6XX9LCrCW2w8sIp4sqryhw760kwkGd52yLxblx12LFOg/s1600/GO+elder+oak+and+cell+tower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="162" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEeZl_hT1NyeABYMLZr9hACRprvPjMLwVQCYCKCRNc7raCzCsIi5b1u1kohxsFpPML7y6nkOff0RbmnG35978ajjx-_mrS_1o6XX9LCrCW2w8sIp4sqryhw760kwkGd52yLxblx12LFOg/s200/GO+elder+oak+and+cell+tower.jpg" style="cursor: move;" unselectable="on" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>The Elder Oak and a newcomer to the neighborhoood</strong></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_tl0dPL4fhhH4-by2sY7QTmImYoeepqolTtlODOq-eAtt7s0tz7UAeD33HG6eXEcCdjWgv9zYy8U2O9n7PVsUU0axckYSrKVMnaU7YbmG5a0W9S5RsvbB8K4VrgLHgem0vAoZTGBD4Yg/s1600/GO+rosehips.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="185" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_tl0dPL4fhhH4-by2sY7QTmImYoeepqolTtlODOq-eAtt7s0tz7UAeD33HG6eXEcCdjWgv9zYy8U2O9n7PVsUU0axckYSrKVMnaU7YbmG5a0W9S5RsvbB8K4VrgLHgem0vAoZTGBD4Yg/s200/GO+rosehips.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Rose hips in October; </span></strong><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">wild rose's thickety growth </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">makes great cover for small animals</span></strong></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUTGT80HCzrCasHVqij8lk1HSokgp4y0oxD1yYezhDLRko2R86jmccBseuCzP2jFWOl9D6QanbAmWTFMu9Qkj6hLFgkbLJ3Mpjp2Qa6SROsO9WXoxXWohqZ0IwXAYDntf6XAhDPT5VSxs/s1600/GO+snowberry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUTGT80HCzrCasHVqij8lk1HSokgp4y0oxD1yYezhDLRko2R86jmccBseuCzP2jFWOl9D6QanbAmWTFMu9Qkj6hLFgkbLJ3Mpjp2Qa6SROsO9WXoxXWohqZ0IwXAYDntf6XAhDPT5VSxs/s200/GO+snowberry.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>Snowberry, native; in the honeysuckle family. </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>Birds like the fruit but it's </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>considered poisonous to humans.</strong></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBjCmHxynFPfzizOSTa2qpoxwl62aABvVK5W1SZrfhZbbJLem2HTU3YLZlgqIyx-nUvmVMIp4cw7C2jGeJjVZ6o2C_uxEZe0CTw2LaPmXqpYtD52vqRxMcTtsWsDj6HJGIvwKIRg_IC7k/s1600/GO+Villebois+houses+on+mini+park.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBjCmHxynFPfzizOSTa2qpoxwl62aABvVK5W1SZrfhZbbJLem2HTU3YLZlgqIyx-nUvmVMIp4cw7C2jGeJjVZ6o2C_uxEZe0CTw2LaPmXqpYtD52vqRxMcTtsWsDj6HJGIvwKIRg_IC7k/s200/GO+Villebois+houses+on+mini+park.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>Villebois: where cars are meant not to be seen or heard. </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>These houses hide the garages behind; they front on a large common green space, a shared front yard, with no street</strong></span> </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjniEjr3iiTzw8LdWeUKKnApMkjiE56y72RZjdGkNTyEXpsOct8UfeAr2Z2KiKRHh-rSbvNTTu6Cx4bg5JFwYNp-pCzzg3bS_ytt4B-2-gbg__1tSa565Stdhd7ofb1riMqmJsFwK918ZI/s1600/GO+Basalt+acorn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="173" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjniEjr3iiTzw8LdWeUKKnApMkjiE56y72RZjdGkNTyEXpsOct8UfeAr2Z2KiKRHh-rSbvNTTu6Cx4bg5JFwYNp-pCzzg3bS_ytt4B-2-gbg__1tSa565Stdhd7ofb1riMqmJsFwK918ZI/s200/GO+Basalt+acorn.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>5,000 pound basalt acorn reminds </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>visitors what it's all about at Graham Oaks</strong></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPp-YhRsJ6itcSyluWs1rXcsFOOFpL5vRe9IBB3Bg9LXDf5KCG5SGDidNBqPZlxW9vNJ0ZBo8VwLcA4mt8x-6tRr8yGitClnK5lGteQPCU0IBZyU5eD1K6IDvkqDx1vpilBjKdVTwZtzg/s1600/GO+conifer+forest+and+stonework.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="128" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPp-YhRsJ6itcSyluWs1rXcsFOOFpL5vRe9IBB3Bg9LXDf5KCG5SGDidNBqPZlxW9vNJ0ZBo8VwLcA4mt8x-6tRr8yGitClnK5lGteQPCU0IBZyU5eD1K6IDvkqDx1vpilBjKdVTwZtzg/s200/GO+conifer+forest+and+stonework.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>In the old growth forest; native basalt rockwork</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>like this </strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>harks back to the Cascadian style stonework </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>seen at Timberline, the Columbia River Highway </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>and sites where the WPA built roads, tunnels and bridges.</strong></span></td></tr>
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The land is dominated by one enormous lone oak, estimated at about 200 years, preserved by native peoples and left intact by farmers. Our grandchildren will have a harder time finding it, amid the thousands of trees that are beginning now to grow up around it.<br />
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Some land at Graham Oaks is being managed to return to oak savanna; other areas, more densely planted, will enlarge the existing oak woodland at one end of the park. Two areas I love on the site are the wetlands in the east; even in the dryest part of July, cool water created an oasis of deep green; another oasis of a different sort is in the southwest corner, where the cathedral of Douglas fir is a welcome sanctuary after the open savanna. <br />
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North of Graham Oaks and visible in the aerial shot, was Dammasch State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital from 1961 to 1996. Its grounds, <a href="http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/state/control/pics/dammaschaerial.htm">seen in a 1960 aerial photo</a>, are now the intriguing Villebois planned residential community, the largest in Oregon. <a href="http://www.villebois.net/photo-gallery.php?show=community">Visit its website to see images of how dramatically the site has changed</a>. <br />
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I wrote and narrated the audio tour for Metro, the Portland-area regional government that manages Graham Oaks. Download the 10 MP3 audio files of the audio tour to your computer or smart phone, and/or the <a href="http://library.oregonmetro.gov/files//walk_there_graham_oaks_audio_tour_script.pdf">printed script</a>, along with a <a href="http://library.oregonmetro.gov/files//11089_graham_oaks_walk_there_flyer_web.pdf">wonderful map</a> by Metro <a href="http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=35196">at Metro's website</a>, where you can also find info on other great natural areas acquired by voter-approved bond measures. <br />
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If you like the tour, <a href="mailto:katie.edlin@oregonmetro.gov">let Metro know</a>! This audio tour is a bit of an experiment; if there’s positive feedback, perhaps more will follow.<br />
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<div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><img height="77" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEeZl_hT1NyeABYMLZr9hACRprvPjMLwVQCYCKCRNc7raCzCsIi5b1u1kohxsFpPML7y6nkOff0RbmnG35978ajjx-_mrS_1o6XX9LCrCW2w8sIp4sqryhw760kwkGd52yLxblx12LFOg/s200/GO+elder+oak+and+cell+tower.jpg" style="filter: alpha(opacity=30); left: 118px; mozopacity: 0.3; opacity: 0.3; position: absolute; top: 492px; visibility: hidden;" width="96" /> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg08fIdjXGz7aEAeLna0rRh5kz2eZDeEcKvb7zdvN8jORMgYt-fWD1TunGeFS1tFbFTjEz83D-mXrmg5cyZgnp9RXbbwObEeJ9HHYU457B0XRF6Gt_iPUCziPM_63IU9I3YAWncOGhhAY8/s1600/GO+aerial+before+park.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg08fIdjXGz7aEAeLna0rRh5kz2eZDeEcKvb7zdvN8jORMgYt-fWD1TunGeFS1tFbFTjEz83D-mXrmg5cyZgnp9RXbbwObEeJ9HHYU457B0XRF6Gt_iPUCziPM_63IU9I3YAWncOGhhAY8/s1600/GO+aerial+before+park.jpg" style="cursor: move;" unselectable="on" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>Aerial view of Graham Oaks: lone oak in center left; filbert orchard bottom right is now the park entrance.</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong> At the top, north of the lone oak, is the Dammasch site, pre-Villebois.</strong></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-30735298133491732482010-11-27T07:29:00.000-08:002010-11-27T07:57:58.032-08:00Walking Old Roads<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Old roads can live thousands of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>years. The Via Appia, or Appian Way, heading south from Rome, was built 2000 years ago. It is still is trod and even driven in parts. Portland has its own roads—ancient by our standards-- that are still in use. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">SE Stark Street was platted in the 1850s; it was then called Baseline Road, running along an east-west baseline (the Willamette Baseline) that, along with the north-south Willamette Meridian formed the basis for mapping and measuring all real property in Oregon and Washington. The legal description on your home’s deed or mortgage describes where your property lies in relation to these two lines. The baseline and meridian were mapped in 1851. They cross in Portland in the West Hills at <a href="http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_246.php">Willamette Stone State Park</a>. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">For a steep walk up to the Willamette Stone State Park, see <a href="http://portlandwalking.blogspot.com/search/label/Hillside%20neighborhood">this link to a tough climb through forest and neighborhoods, with a killer stair climb to boot. </a> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Stark was the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>main route into town from the east; along its length you can still find old stone mile markers (P2, P4) that indicate the number of miles from “P”—Portland’s Multnomah County Courthouse, according to http://starkstreetmarkers.blogspot.com/. The Courthouse, now known as the Pioneer Courthouse was built between 1869 and 1875. The stones, it is thought, date from the 1870s. <a href="http://starkstreetmarkers.blogspot.com/">A fellow lover of Portland trivia has created a great little blog about them. </a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQyim0tWKfu3BzIlitlIrOaQj_pWgp4dk2UE4nHIXbWyl35jnwMCh0alrE8XD5IpQWy3o3AgX8J1YEcGJYsfrkhW8kPo383jKIMVVWayUeU4Xgb0nhocbkd4-Z9Bkdp7hQ9h45scpTS64/s1600/02+P2+marker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQyim0tWKfu3BzIlitlIrOaQj_pWgp4dk2UE4nHIXbWyl35jnwMCh0alrE8XD5IpQWy3o3AgX8J1YEcGJYsfrkhW8kPo383jKIMVVWayUeU4Xgb0nhocbkd4-Z9Bkdp7hQ9h45scpTS64/s200/02+P2+marker.jpg" width="150" /></a>The Stark Street Ferry was the final leg that brought travelers in to Portland. In the 1850s, it was just a few blocks along the Willamette. It was on the ferry landing in 1858 that Danford Balch shot his brand-new son-in-law, Mortimer Stump, because he had eloped with Anna Balch. Danford fled the scene, hid out in the woods along Balch Creek (now Forest Park) and was caught and hanged in 1859 at the site of today’s Salmon Street Springs. Balch Creek is named for him; he and his wife and children homesteaded along it. </div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>The P2 marker in the wall of Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland</strong></span><br />
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Sandy Boulevard is another ancient-by-local-standards road. It dates from the mid 1850 s and was laid out as a market road into Portland, used by farmers along the rich Columbia River bottomlands. Its diagonal line cuts across the grid of streets that was later imposed over what is now Northeast Portland. </div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Old can also be near-forgotten, at least by most travelers. Some of my favorite roads are “Olds”—Old Germantown, Old Cornelius Pass, Old Highway 47. They aren’t nearly as tidily straight as their newer versions. They hug the land higher up the hillsides, they have steeper grades, and less traffic. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re not as built up or wide, and on them, your car or your bike returns to a less frenetic pace, where the journey is just as interesting as the destination.</div><div style="mso-element: comment-list;"></div>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-2742941376941813202010-11-18T10:44:00.001-08:002010-11-18T10:56:18.850-08:00Stairs to Love<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioblV3zIv9CQr0fDYZc4TVF-tzw2wUNTifv6Rib2oI1mGAlieY7hdeOVpllWZ9fLb_hG7NgC1gGBcaLy0vlZaVdCZbRJnn0CqW5Rl9lfaCFJw2xo9udTxUuow-BhfLSdHEG8dMgfbvBWk/s1600/Portland+City+Hall03.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 214px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540963539060228066" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioblV3zIv9CQr0fDYZc4TVF-tzw2wUNTifv6Rib2oI1mGAlieY7hdeOVpllWZ9fLb_hG7NgC1gGBcaLy0vlZaVdCZbRJnn0CqW5Rl9lfaCFJw2xo9udTxUuow-BhfLSdHEG8dMgfbvBWk/s320/Portland+City+Hall03.JPG" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDH4zqBZRd3rsgXJL7aZ6p0gW_LLxGKjMKjrP-RCnVaOeeQLB2sMvkDLaJHy5JL5sjWDsVEZ3SLVbGGskLmAWe-Lsk6cf4sRv5sZMoKPg3LTv-3sKIky1taAtoYaMnirFKIIy6FF5EBKw/s1600/Pioneer+Courthouse14.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 214px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540963528388169250" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDH4zqBZRd3rsgXJL7aZ6p0gW_LLxGKjMKjrP-RCnVaOeeQLB2sMvkDLaJHy5JL5sjWDsVEZ3SLVbGGskLmAWe-Lsk6cf4sRv5sZMoKPg3LTv-3sKIky1taAtoYaMnirFKIIy6FF5EBKw/s320/Pioneer+Courthouse14.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />It's raining so it's a good day to walk. Why? Because chances are it's going to stop soon and it'll be you, the mist, the trees and maybe a rainbow. But if you hate cold and damp, there are still good places to explore. These are four of my favorite Portland indoor public places, clockwise from top left:<br /><br />Portland City Hall<br />The Pioneer Courthouse's cupola<br />Multnomah County Library's Central Library<br />The Portland Armory, now home to Portland Center Stage.<br /><br />I write about them in <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781604690699-0">The Portland Stairs Book</a>. Yes, you have to walk outside to get to all of them, but that's what food carts and coffee shops are for. Enjoy November.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlaEiaKnKhjBwlWTBWqSsiAoWklsKnE-7Eh9tDMFH_LsmCdLSGCv8nDdNuvd32XpjX5-CpP-EwmXlLdDdRLJl51lK4QXLzDKRfmUL4_Z9JwHnsfJY3XqdVCNx8IBChoD1gONx83-J2og/s1600/Multnomah+County+Library+10.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540963240027061842" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlaEiaKnKhjBwlWTBWqSsiAoWklsKnE-7Eh9tDMFH_LsmCdLSGCv8nDdNuvd32XpjX5-CpP-EwmXlLdDdRLJl51lK4QXLzDKRfmUL4_Z9JwHnsfJY3XqdVCNx8IBChoD1gONx83-J2og/s320/Multnomah+County+Library+10.JPG" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq2KJT7O9YN8aTs81CscwbX9C9r-KzwZVMyJrg8XHD8AdsuWyMEbkwlBl7JjoKfpuT_MDKdKvNoSg3Z3_oB4tvpJCaGgHVaMSd4Nvks3bnxxsatztkD3nOTVYlN8u17MxELbgnUNWfJEE/s1600/Armory+steps01.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 214px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540962831948182418" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq2KJT7O9YN8aTs81CscwbX9C9r-KzwZVMyJrg8XHD8AdsuWyMEbkwlBl7JjoKfpuT_MDKdKvNoSg3Z3_oB4tvpJCaGgHVaMSd4Nvks3bnxxsatztkD3nOTVYlN8u17MxELbgnUNWfJEE/s320/Armory+steps01.JPG" /></a>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-55989810084753014832010-11-10T10:45:00.000-08:002010-11-10T10:53:03.077-08:00Swan Island Beaches<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nyS4zIfPtGAsU_GC4NOYc3mJSdXJA7_20ORUyriEBAtXubbe8MPrlruKQvbX-VRQfoBRAo9YRoVwDN-dBlA5gXH8zCE3RCNlCTY6sl2loYsx9Jbns7YsDKBqTuaNl6B_haRUVIynJlc/s1600/Swan+Island+beach+scene.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537994560717110994" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nyS4zIfPtGAsU_GC4NOYc3mJSdXJA7_20ORUyriEBAtXubbe8MPrlruKQvbX-VRQfoBRAo9YRoVwDN-dBlA5gXH8zCE3RCNlCTY6sl2loYsx9Jbns7YsDKBqTuaNl6B_haRUVIynJlc/s320/Swan+Island+beach+scene.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:180%;color:#000099;">An Urban River Walk</span></div><div><span style="font-size:180%;color:#000099;"></span></div><div>When I tell people I like to walk on Swan Island’s beaches they usually think I’m talking about Sauvie Island and the conversation gets a little convoluted when I start talking about factories and Forest Park views…but then we get straightened out and they’re intrigued. You will be too if you appreciate a marginal place, one steeped in local history. A beach walk on Swan Island takes you along that thin urban margin, that permeable border between water and land, industry and nature, beauty and abuse.<br /><br />Best place to access the beach is just beyond the vast sea of parking next to Daimler’s headquarters (formerly signed as Freightliner). Don’t park there; it’s a private lot. A bus (the 72 or 85) will drop you off or you can bike downhill to Swan Island via Failing Street.<br /><br />Along the way, last week we found: half dozen fisherman fishing for sturgeon, a sandy beach, rocks to hop on, enormous driftwood trees to tightrope on, plenty of intriguing garbage and flotsam (bring a big plastic bag to pack some out and make a treasure hunt out of the walk), big views across the river of Forest Park and downtown. There’s a nice walkway on the bank above the beach; it’s clean and paved, and is part of the npGREENWAY, an envisioned pathway between the St. Johns Bridge and the Steel Bridge.<br /><br />Best time to go is when water levels are low, but it was still walkable last week. We came home with two tennis balls, shells, pretty driftwood (my 8 year old was along) and two Douglas fir disks, cut about 3 inches thick, perfect for some future project. We dropped a huge bag of surprisingly light trash in the garbage (Styrofoam, mostly) and had a splendid time.<br /><br />If you want to learn more about Swan Island's history and take a longer walk linking up to the very cool Kenton downtown, see my book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Portland-City-Walks-Twenty-Explorations/dp/0881928852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1289414602&sr=8-1">Portland City Walks</a>. </div><div></div>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-35233563640586381422010-05-18T12:22:00.000-07:002010-05-22T07:16:08.086-07:00MAX Exploration No. 2: Historic Gresham<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1E_oao1WI3k7QZ-zXZItmDP8v8q16SRmUEMKuMm-T6xqJbwt6OMOIObBGDr57ZrBFC5J6HspMTO1sNet5hhQuYuBpjGs6xMSWwb14_zPFCjvl9s-SS4NMUCZXpHtVxc2X1ZjgB07tTL4/s1600/High+school+doors+interior.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 214px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472704382740500226" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1E_oao1WI3k7QZ-zXZItmDP8v8q16SRmUEMKuMm-T6xqJbwt6OMOIObBGDr57ZrBFC5J6HspMTO1sNet5hhQuYuBpjGs6xMSWwb14_zPFCjvl9s-SS4NMUCZXpHtVxc2X1ZjgB07tTL4/s320/High+school+doors+interior.JPG" /></a> Looking for a mini-exploration? Take the MAX to <a href="http://greshamoregon.gov/">downtown Gresham. </a> Here's what you'll find in this former agricultural center, now Oregon's fourth largest town: <br /><br />• a compact, charming urban center that’s fun to explore<br />• an art deco high school with a Timberline Lodge connection<br />• a bookstore, toy store, coffee shops, restaurants including a branch of Nicholas restaurant (of Portland fame)<br />• an old Carnegie library (now the <a href="http://community.gorge.net/ghs/">Gresham History Museum</a>) that looks like Cromwell could’ve studied there<br />• a brand new, blocksize Arts Plaza, which makes a great place to relax in a quiet setting<br />• a living link in Oregon’s agricultural history; plan a visit when the <a href="http://www.greshamfarmersmarket.com/index.html">Gresham Farmers Market </a>is operating May through October on Saturdays; it's at 3rd and Miller downtown.<br /><br /><strong>Details:<br />> </strong>Get there via the <a href="http://trimet.org/schedules/maxblueline.htm">Blue Line MAX </a><br /><strong>> </strong>Bring money for food, drink, shopping<br /><strong>> </strong>The walk is flat, on sidewalks<br /><strong>> </strong>Bring your bike aboard MAX and bike the 16 miles back to downtown Portland on the <a href="http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?&propertyid=679&action=ViewPark">Springwater Trail </a><br /><br /><strong>Directions:<br /></strong>Take the MAX Blue Line to the stop at Gresham City Hall. In the complex north of the MAX tracks just about everything official in Gresham takes place from fire to schools to arts. Across the tracks a large shopping mall occupies the former site of a mill and log pond.</p><p><br />Walk east across Eastman Parkway on a marked crosswalk north of the MAX tracks. It leads to a path that ends at 12th Avenue and Victoria Street. Walk a few shaded blocks; pretty homes date generally from the 1920s.<br /><br />At N. Main Avenue is the Art Deco Gresham High School, built in 1940, near the end of the Great Depression. Go over for a closer look. Ironwork at the doors (and visible inside the auditorium if you peer through the doors) is the work of O. B. Dawson, who was responsible for the spectacular ironwork at Timberline Lodge. An interior view is at the head of this blog post. Dawson also did the work at <a href="http://www.mcmenamins.com/system/uploads/assets/History_PDFs/history.chapel06.pdf">McMenamin’s Chapel Pub </a>(once a mortuary) on NE Killingsworth Street in Portland.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeBOfTRhXx1oz_5anRVrDHbi3qPp1-DBBtC6bkut5qfV_luMhQIwPmlW4M1a2_yDrJ-7wgV5-lW0sKhiEjV9qS4mWIAZsUqKNOCmXltXfBOXpfQa8lymqmWMjDvWxM06goSvBur8yN4Sc/s1600/Baseball+players.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 130px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472705710393974146" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeBOfTRhXx1oz_5anRVrDHbi3qPp1-DBBtC6bkut5qfV_luMhQIwPmlW4M1a2_yDrJ-7wgV5-lW0sKhiEjV9qS4mWIAZsUqKNOCmXltXfBOXpfQa8lymqmWMjDvWxM06goSvBur8yN4Sc/s200/Baseball+players.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedAyyJl27UclpfeleXc02-Av7P5SlsX0WsP_6XPFNbjdwYWMX0UhO0ODYULjzIsxvLQGHQMMIXDR3GThbVLKdSApLJO0nItN5BHXJ9-0iIO8cHD5X9PZEhrkNRks8Nm6A4jDCDkMIjhQ/s1600/Football+players.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 114px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472705413776668850" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedAyyJl27UclpfeleXc02-Av7P5SlsX0WsP_6XPFNbjdwYWMX0UhO0ODYULjzIsxvLQGHQMMIXDR3GThbVLKdSApLJO0nItN5BHXJ9-0iIO8cHD5X9PZEhrkNRks8Nm6A4jDCDkMIjhQ/s200/Football+players.JPG" /></a> </p><p></p><p>Fun to study are the bas-relief sculptures of athletes above the gymnasium entrance. Also beautiful are the two large gingko trees at the front entrance. Gingko trees are either male or female. While the female's fruits are edible (and grown commercially in China), they're encased in an incredibly smelly little package. These trees likely would not have reached their advanced age if they had been females. Gresham keeps track of its significant trees; find their locations on the <a href="http://greshamoregon.gov/city/city-departments/planning-services/development-planning/template.aspx?id=9936">City's website</a>. </p><p>About 1700 students are enrolled at Gresham High; this school is one of three high schools in the Gresham Barlow School District. I assume the "Gresham Union High School" sign refers to its incorporation of outlying, smaller schools into this one building at the time of construction.</p><p><br /><strong>Gresham’s Train History</strong><br />From the school, walk south on Main. Cross the MAX tracks. Here ran an interurban line starting in 1908 from Portland’s Montavilla area to Gresham and beyond, ending at the confluence of the Bull Run and Sandy rivers. A connecting line ran north to Troutdale. With the line to Portland, a six hour horse and buggy trip was reduced to a 50 minute trolley ride. Students rode the trolley from east county farms to high school in Gresham. Portlanders would use the line to head out to fish along the Bull Run River.<br /><br />The tracks from Gresham to Bull Run were pulled up in 1930. The rail line, after it ceased carrying commuters, carried freight until the 1980s.<br /><br />(The Springwater rail line—now the Springwater Corridor, is 25 miles of car free biking; it intersects Main’s dead-end, about six or so blocks south of here.)<br /><br /><strong>Berry era</strong><br />Gresham was known once as the “Raspberry Capital of the World.” Around 1915, a new commercial crop was introduced to east county farmers: raspberries. Along much of the current light rail line through downtown, storage buildings date from Gresham’s fruit processing heyday, the 1920s to the 1960s. Along 8th Street farmers unloaded boxes of berries picked by children, housewives, students, and delivered them for processing at the Gresham Berry Growers Cannery. It was run by the Gresham Co-op, which at one time numbered over 500 growers. There were other processing plants too. Processed berries were shipped to markets in Portland and beyond via rail car. Over the years, the cannery and processing plants expanded into beans, broccoli, corn and cauliflower. By 1960, 18 million pounds of produce were processed here. In 1965, times were changing: there were issues with sewage and waste disposal with the city, and encroaching suburbia was transforming former berry lands. Also, some growers were transitioning into higher-value nursery stock. By 1965, the co-op merged with what became Stayton Canning Company, packing under the Flav-R-Pac label and moved out of the area. (It is now part of NORPAC, founded in 1924 as North Pacific Canners and Packers.)<br /><br /><strong>Old Downtown Gresham & the Multnomah County Fairgrounds</strong><br />Keep walking south on Main past old houses, now businesses on Main’s east side. At 5th and Main, a line of trees marks the former main entrance to the Multnomah County Fairgrounds, here from 1908 to 1969. The fairgrounds extended west from Main. In 1976 the 50 acres were sold to the Foursquare Church which built the building at 701 N. Main Avenue. In 1985, the church sold 35 acres; the land is now the Gresham Town Fair, a shopping center, with acres of ground swathed in asphalt.<br /><br />Pass the 1928 Zion Evangelical Church, now a store.<br /><br />Across 4th from it is the Tudor-style Gresham Library, built in 1913, one of over 2,500 libraries worldwide funded by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg44RcolhxBbannpwWk1rtmF2hHopvjBkMyd1Wvz6wTiwHDk1rxbbuo9q5Tp_TFklFnwZXiS42XjlR7sjft4FVymxUMMvpj3NdlOcgQDaOZDEaQITjiyXooQThgRbiGicJ2X7tmODoJUCk/s1600/Old+Gresham+LIbrary.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472707600546974850" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg44RcolhxBbannpwWk1rtmF2hHopvjBkMyd1Wvz6wTiwHDk1rxbbuo9q5Tp_TFklFnwZXiS42XjlR7sjft4FVymxUMMvpj3NdlOcgQDaOZDEaQITjiyXooQThgRbiGicJ2X7tmODoJUCk/s320/Old+Gresham+LIbrary.JPG" /></a><br />It’s faced in a beautiful burned brick. The architect is Folger Johnson of Portland; one of his most notable buildings is the Town Club, a private women’s club on SW Salmon Street in Portland. He also designed some of Portland’s Carnegie libraries, such as the one in Lair Hill (now owned by Portland Parks).<br /><br />Look for its series of leaded glass colophon windows. In book publishing, the colophon is a note about the typeface. A less frequent use of the term is for a printer's mark or logotype. In Renaissance-era printing shops, a title page would feature the printer's mark (colophon) near the bottom of the page, usually above the printer's name and city. These marks are what are seen here.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHF-nR3UTzf4rsKF8563iqpYNr-NKmn_-6aPFtjQW13eVuDSMEADEYAxb1tc3wWqeCpY1SUuKuwufeHp7YSP_Wzs3htbL8vkN_RAVo2auQ3swaxkP1Jfj8-cIwrSnydhYRZO_auEG1GNg/s1600/Colophon+owl.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 196px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472698763485686770" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHF-nR3UTzf4rsKF8563iqpYNr-NKmn_-6aPFtjQW13eVuDSMEADEYAxb1tc3wWqeCpY1SUuKuwufeHp7YSP_Wzs3htbL8vkN_RAVo2auQ3swaxkP1Jfj8-cIwrSnydhYRZO_auEG1GNg/s200/Colophon+owl.JPG" /></a><br />The library was replaced in 1990 by a new library at 3rd and Miller. Now this lovely building is the Gresham History Museum, open 12 to 4 p.m., Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Inside, above the door is a WPA-era sculpture similar to those on the high school exterior but made of plaster of Paris and horse hair, on a steel frame.<br /><br />Keep walking south on Main and enjoy the many shops and places to nosh. Buildings date from 1909 (323 N. Main) to 1926 (336 N. Main) to 1930 (229 S. Main). Detour right at 2nd to Dakota Books if you want to browse. It’s at 30 NW 2nd.<br /><br /><strong>Powell and Main: The Heart of Old Gresham</strong><br />Wander further down Main to Powell Boulevard, the core of Gresham’s history, where two pioneer paths intersected:<br /><br />• The north-south Damascus Road (now Main Avenue) ran between Fairview to Damascus and Oregon City.<br />• The east-west Powell’s Valley Road (now Powell Boulevard) ran between Sandy and Portland.<br /><br />The two roads crossed in a blocklong union near <a href="http://www.jcwc.org/johnsonCreek/creek.htm">Johnson Creek </a>(the creek is just south of this intersection in Main City Park); that crossing became the center of the village.<br /><br />There was once a fountain in the middle of this intersection, with a statue of liberty atop it. Similar to downtown Portland’s elk statue at SW Main between 3rd and 4th Avenues (installed 1900), this one served to water thirsty horses. In 1920s, when the road was being paved for cars, the fountain was deemed a hazard and torn out. Ironically, that sort of traffic calming device is now installed at intersections to make roads safer.<br /><br />Businesses once lined the south side of Powell. They were set on pilings, because the land was a floodplain. Beyond Johnson Creek is <a href="http://library.oregonmetro.gov/files/greshamsaddletrail.pdf">Gresham Butte</a>, an 840-foot high Boring lava dome. Metro acquired 140 acres on it to preserve as a greenspace. Click the link for a hike on the butte.<br /><br />At this intersection don’t miss a <a href="http://www.murdock-supersecur.com/">Murdock Manufacturing </a>drinking fountain. It’s the rare solid metal object still made in the U.S.A., in Cincinnati by the same family that has been making fountains for five generations. Enjoy some cool Bull Run water, not far from the source.<br /><br />From Main and Powell, walk one block east to Roberts Avenue; turn left and then right on 2nd.<br />At 108 NE 2nd is Dr. Corine Trullinger Chamberlin’s office, built in 1942. Dr. Chamberlin tried to attend the University of Oregon’s medical school but it admitted few if any women. She went instead to the Women’s Medical College in Pennsylvania, returning to Oregon to purchase a retiring doctor’s practice in 1937. Dr. Chamberlin was beloved for her concern not only for the physical health of her patients but for their mental and spiritual health too (her husband was a pastor of the Pleasant Home United Methodist Church). As many as 25 patients would wait at any given time to see her. She delivered more than 5,000 babies. She died in 1981.<br /><br />Walking east, <a href="http://www.selmasbakeryanddeli.com/">Selma’s Bakery and Deli</a>, at 184 NE 2nd, looks good, but I didn’t try it.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Dmj0PNHXC6MJsFMjAR5o36mEXGKqvmRJaa0cbVUOJaWTfB-b6igUAgcRTgghsttC-uVP7DBe5ApCpSUZbOJJ004t-a4GBOsTpmL-Q1CyOQzkMxhzgj1tSUkRU0212V_LdUVpOOPpCEc/s1600/Arts+Plaza.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472708896617350690" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Dmj0PNHXC6MJsFMjAR5o36mEXGKqvmRJaa0cbVUOJaWTfB-b6igUAgcRTgghsttC-uVP7DBe5ApCpSUZbOJJ004t-a4GBOsTpmL-Q1CyOQzkMxhzgj1tSUkRU0212V_LdUVpOOPpCEc/s320/Arts+Plaza.JPG" /></a> At SE Hood, enter the Center for the Arts Plaza, a park new in summer 2009. This outdoor living room, a la Pioneer Courthouse Square, is broad and open, the former site of a bus parking facility. A lone Ponderosa pine predates this latest incarnation of the landscape. An arts building is planned for the plaza's east side. Summer 2010 events include Monday noontime brownbag concerts and more. See the <a href="http://www.gcfta.org/">Gresham Center for the Arts</a> for events.<br /><br />To end the walk, walk north on Hood Avenue to the Gresham Central Transit Center and board a train to head home or ride your bike south on Main to Gresham Main City Park where you can jump on the <a href="http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?&propertyid=679&action=ViewPark">Springwater Trail </a>and head west to Portland.<br /><p></p>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-86989826834262697232010-04-01T12:01:00.000-07:002010-04-09T14:22:18.237-07:00MAX and the Mountain: Riding the MAX Green Line to a Mt. Talbert Hike<div align="left"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVfPGi5351A6k8C_c5T4AQ8yE32gvK-21HGa1wwoaX1cAlKlEhbyxvCBpKpMw6wRnuPwCJjqgY4dOS8fZn19wXVqhLcEWV6yBhyphenhyphenWA8oStvZi625s5h1OmWRepZomVbAjAotRFwws5QrL4/s1600/Cedar+and+firs+Mt.+Talbert.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455262099254769570" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVfPGi5351A6k8C_c5T4AQ8yE32gvK-21HGa1wwoaX1cAlKlEhbyxvCBpKpMw6wRnuPwCJjqgY4dOS8fZn19wXVqhLcEWV6yBhyphenhyphenWA8oStvZi625s5h1OmWRepZomVbAjAotRFwws5QrL4/s400/Cedar+and+firs+Mt.+Talbert.JPG" /></a>In my years of exploring so many great places in the Portland area I've discovered it's easy to scratch the explorer’s itch without a long drive. </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">This hike is green in more ways than one: leave your car behind, and hop on your bike or MAX to get to 200 forested, mountainous acres. You’ll very likely be amazed at the beauty that exists just a yodel away from Clackamas Town Center.<br /><br />This hike takes you from transit stop to wilderness in a surprisingly short time. It illustrates beautifully the benefits of preserving close-in greenspaces.</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><br /><br /></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"><em></em> </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><em></em></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><strong>Details</strong></div><ul><li><div align="left">Find a map at <a href="http://library.oregonmetro.gov/files/talbert_map_web.pdf">http://library.oregonmetro.gov/files/talbert_map_web.pdf</a>. Another map link, slightly different, is at the end of the post.</div></li></ul><div align="left"></div><ul><li><div align="left">Restrooms are in Clackamas Town Center at the walk's start/end and on Mt. Talbert at the Mather trailhead (south side). </div></li></ul><div align="left"></div><ul><li><div align="left">Elevation gain is about 550 feet: 200 feet at the end of the MAX Green Line, and 750 feet at the top of Mount Talbert. Route length varies depending on how much of Mt. Talbert you explore. It's one mile from the Green Line to the entrance to Mt. Talbert. </div></li></ul><div align="left"></div><ul><li><div align="left">Eating and drinking places abound at Clackamas Town Center. </div></li></ul><div align="left"></div><ul><li><div align="left">The hike is muddy in winter and spring; I recommend keeping your shoes clean by doing it barefoot.<br /><br /><strong>Directions</strong><br />Start anywhere MAX runs <insert>and get yourself to the MAX Green Line. <a href="http://trimet.org/maxgreenline/routemap.htm">http://trimet.org/maxgreenline/routemap.htm</a>. The I-205 Bike Path runs along the Green Line's route, so you could bike to the start of this hike instead of taking MAX. The 11-mile I-205 bike path is maintained by ODOT, and was built in the 1980s. It’s the antithesis of scenic, but it’s flat and gets you out there efficiently. The Green Line ends at Clackamas Town Center, right on the I-205 bike path. More on CTC at the end of the trek.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gCh_BNvkqv75XB4ETYeNXQvTD6TP5LQcfDi7efu9fLlqQH2g_c3UkN9xc2o2ykCiPawHvMZZEXIRTL3gCmNw1MKZSN3A7UfLNUxF1JhecZAKG7dyjFq1qDshzmGqrQX2GAr3aYULyso/s1600/MAX+and+205+path.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 214px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455264081923808834" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gCh_BNvkqv75XB4ETYeNXQvTD6TP5LQcfDi7efu9fLlqQH2g_c3UkN9xc2o2ykCiPawHvMZZEXIRTL3gCmNw1MKZSN3A7UfLNUxF1JhecZAKG7dyjFq1qDshzmGqrQX2GAr3aYULyso/s320/MAX+and+205+path.JPG" /></a>From the Clackamas Town Center MAX stop, it’s one mile to the entrance to Mt. Talbert. Walk or bike south on the bike path. Cross Sunnyside Road at the crosswalk and continue south on the path. Cross Sunnybrook Road and turn left on it (east). Cross over I-205. Turn right at 97th and left at the first left, Talbert Street. Go to its dead-end, an entrance into the Mt. Talbert forest. <enter><br /><br />Before you enter the park, scrape your feet on the boot scraper: this is one of the most ivy-free places around, and helping keep seeds out (which can ride in the cracks of shoe soles) will keep it free of ivy and other invasives.<br /><br />From this entrance, one of several, follow the trails to the summit. At each intersection they’re marked. One trail seen on the maps, the North Loop Trail, is closed because when the land was surveyed and trails laid out, parts of this trail were mistakenly thought to be within the park. Metro and the North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District are working to acquire more land to bring this trail totally within the park. It is signed now as "Closed." <insert><br /><br /><em>Seen and heard on a rainy but balmy February day:<br /></em><br />On the West Ridge Trail: this trail is noisy, being the closest to I-205. Hundreds of slender young Douglas fir trees rise above a green groundcover of lacy sword fern, reminding me of the 7-year old legs of my classmates and me, rising skinny and straight above our fringed white anklets in our First Holy Communion photo. The area was last logged in the 1950s.</div></li></ul><div align="left"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAyUzJj2uFh8GFsszV1JFZB41RZtYykkEIG9VwdjnkSTGtLJIuNVEx6sA7rvaMRyr76eW2bYpTP-g_3FszKZ9_xYJ849-R1c7MKTo8hPRrQCQJutTOu3PahP4Jlnx9r2Nky92i6_cEW3o/s1600/Russian+miner%27s+lettuce+mid+Feb.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 189px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455267130239322226" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAyUzJj2uFh8GFsszV1JFZB41RZtYykkEIG9VwdjnkSTGtLJIuNVEx6sA7rvaMRyr76eW2bYpTP-g_3FszKZ9_xYJ849-R1c7MKTo8hPRrQCQJutTOu3PahP4Jlnx9r2Nky92i6_cEW3o/s200/Russian+miner%27s+lettuce+mid+Feb.JPG" /> <p align="center"></a><em>Siberian miner’s lettuce, a food reputedly consumed by starving goldminers in California.</em> </p><p align="left">Soft paths, ideal for running barefoot. I’ve run barefoot this winter in temps as low as the 40s, on trails in the West Hills. Try it! Until things dry out, the fir cones are squishy, little branches in the path saturated, and the muddy trails allow your toes to dig in and grab a bit of the earth. It’s one way to strip it down and be a child again. But beware: I didn't see it in February but poison oak is rampant, according to Tonia Burns, Natural Resources Coordinator with North Clackamas Parks and Recreation. She says they cut it back regularly but...if you're worried, the barefoot idea/with shorts may be best saved for a place without the poison.<br /><br />Girdled Douglas firs. Girdling (cutting through the cambium layer) kills select trees so the slower-growing Oregon white oak can thrive here. Native <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gAulUXTjCzv34WLoDVUY_G4D3mY8lBxpaduAxde3tlXuTfZ0tqHa-Ak2VCqPjl5kdjtXfn5TbYY7XM_a1M97jsWyEpfirQYTFQzEaXzeN5FU_C4awRqvrkhyfqY-PL0QWP6pf35SsSs/s1600/Douglas+fir+girdled+and+oak+in+back.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 327px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455264364038463810" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gAulUXTjCzv34WLoDVUY_G4D3mY8lBxpaduAxde3tlXuTfZ0tqHa-Ak2VCqPjl5kdjtXfn5TbYY7XM_a1M97jsWyEpfirQYTFQzEaXzeN5FU_C4awRqvrkhyfqY-PL0QWP6pf35SsSs/s320/Douglas+fir+girdled+and+oak+in+back.JPG" /></a><br />Americans managed many of the Willamette Valley forests similarly, but by burning the firs, creating vast savannahs of oak and grass.<br /><br />A bridge over Mt. Scott Creek. It flows into Kellogg Creek just below North Clackamas Park. Kellogg Creek flows into the Willamette at downtown Milwaukie. For photos of Mt. Scott Creek's headwaters and confluence with Phillips Creek, see <a href="http://www.ncuwc.org/content/mt-scott">http://www.ncuwc.org/content/mt-scott</a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqXEygxJzzvzBuyaZrc4c7qsIHkeEKtR6RouHQw2u035QEGZN-2gqZaO3ULKm5LCCfQZQWWVh5MpauhoFiNkkHPgP_nC9bdl18ooHcashV6yUowRffNmgClhyq5Zpms4isR8ummN-jnL4/s1600/Mt.+Scott+Crek.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455266475292954050" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqXEygxJzzvzBuyaZrc4c7qsIHkeEKtR6RouHQw2u035QEGZN-2gqZaO3ULKm5LCCfQZQWWVh5MpauhoFiNkkHPgP_nC9bdl18ooHcashV6yUowRffNmgClhyq5Zpms4isR8ummN-jnL4/s200/Mt.+Scott+Crek.JPG" /></a><a href="http://www.ncuwc.org/content/mt-scott-creek-sub-watershed-photo-gallery">-creek-sub-watershed-photo-gallery</a> </p><p></p><p></p><p>Visit the park again with Metro naturalist and Portland author James Davis <insert>on Saturday May 15 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. He’ll talk about the songbirds of Mount Talbert (chestnut-backed chickadee, pileated woodpecker, olive-sided flycatcher, red-breasted sapsuckers and more). Register at North Clackamas Parks and Recreation <insert>or call 503.794.8092. James says about the park, “It is awesome for mushrooms in the fall. Another fungus fan here at work and I have a list of about 75 different species so far.” For more info on James's hike, see <a href="http://www.oregonmetro.gov/greenscene">http://www.oregonmetro.gov/greenscene</a>. Metro has another link, of a map and text for a Mt. Talbert exploration at <a href="http://library.oregonmetro.gov/files/mounttalbert.pdf">http://library.oregonmetro.gov/files/mounttalbert.pdf</a><br /><br />Come down off the mountain and back to suburbia at Clackamas Town Center. See <a href="http://www.clackamastowncenter.com/dining-entertainment">http://www.clackamastowncenter.com/dining-entertainment</a> for restaurants in and around the mall. Clackamas Town Center opened in 1981 with an ice rink where Tonya Harding practiced on her trajectory toward the 1991 World Figure Skating Championship, at age 21, and her later debacle at the 1994 Olympics, a night which ranks as one of the most memorable evenings I have ever spent in front of the television. <insert>The rink closed in 2003.<br /></p>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-38543736779320321422010-02-27T02:43:00.000-08:002010-03-01T04:34:20.128-08:00Forest, Bridge and Lunch Hike: Springville Road, St. Johns Bridge and St. Johns<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-IxsATtrtyKtZ-QD0OiC1aZJCFEWldri387ZIu1E7Ccq5hxfeSCfwfOKrDmaYushBdVN3xzRqy-n42qQqoHQzv0GPtzsn1Z9LJ9QyXBv2LNwci0rXSlLE5x43GLWKDutcpP8XiXvxxeE/s1600-h/Leif+between+Ridge+and+Hardesty.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 134px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442891025037339506" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-IxsATtrtyKtZ-QD0OiC1aZJCFEWldri387ZIu1E7Ccq5hxfeSCfwfOKrDmaYushBdVN3xzRqy-n42qQqoHQzv0GPtzsn1Z9LJ9QyXBv2LNwci0rXSlLE5x43GLWKDutcpP8XiXvxxeE/s200/Leif+between+Ridge+and+Hardesty.JPG" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQYHtGcZIkdzucKqhPNBq9jViuTvu0RhuvIJXO22bq3rlt3uxxIFquhJGKZukrE7As21FcNACHnHHjEY1LvxC-TsBrkdiPdkpfQC0GenUkIHFFg5ZiCM_S1CN3ALtuUj8qYiuZlH81Z9Y/s1600-h/Boat+on+Springville+Road.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442890331150181794" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQYHtGcZIkdzucKqhPNBq9jViuTvu0RhuvIJXO22bq3rlt3uxxIFquhJGKZukrE7As21FcNACHnHHjEY1LvxC-TsBrkdiPdkpfQC0GenUkIHFFg5ZiCM_S1CN3ALtuUj8qYiuZlH81Z9Y/s200/Boat+on+Springville+Road.JPG" /></a> A walk that combines deep woods, a hidden neighborhood, a stroll along one of the state’s most beautiful river bridges, and good coffee and food: could a person’s day get any better? This walk in and out of Forest Park has all that, plus (there’s always a catch!) significant elevation gain for an urban walk: a bit under 1000 feet. I've led this walk with a group of 15 or so; with a stop for coffee in St. Johns it took 4 hours; it's 0.5 miles one way across the bridge. I estimate total mileage at about 4 miles. For excellent trail maps of the park, contact the Forest Park Conservancy: <a href="http://forestparkconservancy.org/">http://forestparkconservancy.org/</a><br /><br />Start in Forest Park at the trailhead for Springville Road just off Skyline Boulevard, at elevation 1100 feet. Walk through the gate, and stay left at the fork (that’s Firelane 7 on the right) to stay on Springville, probably an ancient footpath built up in 1846 and used thereafter as a market road. On it, Tualatin Valley farmers hauled produce and drove cattle to riverside docks and the Willamette River ferry landing at the foot of the hill. Now this portion of Springville Road is a hiking/biking and equestrian trail. (On another adventure, you can drive other segments of Springville Road: at Skyline, the road’s alignment jogs a bit to the south; follow the road as it drops into the northern edge of the Tualatin River Valley. The West Side Stage line ran along part of this valley-side alignment from the 1870s to 1904. Its route ran along Cornell through Cedar Mill, then up Kaiser to Bethany, along Springville Road to West Union, up Cornelius Pass to Phillips Road then west to Helvetia, Lenox and Glencoe and ending in Hillsboro.)<br /><br />Descend Springville. Note the manhole cover in it, for Bell telephones; the park is crossed here and in many other places by phone, gas and electric pipes and lines. Cross the Wildwood and Leif Erikson trails. Leif is an 11 mile road built in 1914; subdivisions were platted along it and lots sold, but the road soon failed, a victim of its geology. Portland Hills Silt mantles the steep hillsides here. When it gets saturated it slides. (The forest photo at the beginning of the blog is on Leif Erikson.)<br /><br />Road maintenance soon became financially unfeasible; plans to develop along the road were abandoned; homeowners walked away from their properties, and the City acquired much of the land, which in 1949 was added to Forest Park at its inception. Why “Leif”? The road was originally called Hillside Drive, but in the 1930s the Sons of Norway, a fraternal group, petitioned the City to have it renamed. So there are precedents for Rosa Parks Way, Cesar E Chavez Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard! Leif runs from the end of NW Thurman Street to Germantown Road.<br /><br />Shortly beyond Leif Erikson, pass a gate. On the right, at 9510 NW Springville Road, is a private home surrounded by Forest Park. Lucky people. Pass the Whitwood Tank, a submerged water tank which holds Bull Run Water for residents downhill. Note the permeable driveway leading to it, designed to keep rain runoff from traveling down Springville Road and creating erosion channels. Beyond the tank, enter Whitwood Court, an old subdivision that’s part of the Linnton neighborhood.<br /><br />Whitwood Court is part city, part wilderness, and a treat to explore, with intriguing homes, wonderful views and a feeling that you've wandered into some other world. I recommend sauntering up and down every one of its streets. But for now, turn off Springville onto Wood Street. Veer left onto Midway Avenue.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5mS2zTr5j-iHT_DZ1A20kKJCwYoSdpTaboA6ga5VK88y6AZXMPjqt63kD9RP8WJ5ppxatjJEb1cLlZJQxtbOXDO_zmvcCCwdz5R6RmiB7I-KOIK4NvKHMxZ9oLTG8qozNa-cJ3smmm1A/s1600-h/Whitwood+Court+homes+and+scenes07.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442884476086337522" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5mS2zTr5j-iHT_DZ1A20kKJCwYoSdpTaboA6ga5VK88y6AZXMPjqt63kD9RP8WJ5ppxatjJEb1cLlZJQxtbOXDO_zmvcCCwdz5R6RmiB7I-KOIK4NvKHMxZ9oLTG8qozNa-cJ3smmm1A/s200/Whitwood+Court+homes+and+scenes07.JPG" /></a> <strong><span style="font-size:85%;">Views of the St. Johns Bridge </span></strong><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>from Whitwood Court</strong><br /></span><br />Stay left at the fork at Shepherd and enjoy the stunning bridge and sky views (especially nice on stormy fall and winter days). At Midway and Mills, stay left; at Midway and Bailey, stay right on Midway until the street emerges onto Springville Road.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPBvXKgtosLNAW7dcU8OwSdQmqscAGioDJtsf22ZU8sAFTZqPX7KBqAEdKFcfYVUIL76LGjVZaa4aSBA921eZE5tl7HPhswp1DaRHyH1xcRIxQmU75xwUzlR5tOhUdI1EQEAeh_-siE5M/s1600-h/Whitwood+Court+homes+and+scenes11.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442882995903810834" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPBvXKgtosLNAW7dcU8OwSdQmqscAGioDJtsf22ZU8sAFTZqPX7KBqAEdKFcfYVUIL76LGjVZaa4aSBA921eZE5tl7HPhswp1DaRHyH1xcRIxQmU75xwUzlR5tOhUdI1EQEAeh_-siE5M/s200/Whitwood+Court+homes+and+scenes11.JPG" /></a> <strong>A Whitwood Court garage</strong><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><div align="left"></div><br /><br /><br /><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">Turn right and follow Springville downhill to Bridge Avenue. Watch for the boat in the road.<br /></div><br /><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"></div><p>Here, cross carefully to the sidewalk on the other side, and turn right (east). On the left, a moss-drenched staircase leads to a private home, built when the ferry connected St. Johns to Highway 30 and Bridge Avenue did not exist. After investigating the steps, stay on Bridge Avenue and cross the St. Johns Bridge. On a foggy October morning, its spires disappeared in the mist and the river was only a soft grey suggestion below. This bridge is one of those man-made sights that lift your spirits, and walking its length offers views you can’t find anywhere else in town. Once over the river, Cathedral Park is below.<br /><br />Here’s a bit of oral history from the Center for Columbia River History <a href="http://www.ccrh.org/comm/slough/oral/holmes.php">http://www.ccrh.org/comm/slough/oral/holmes.php</a> <http:>about the sites on the river banks below: “Swift Packing Plant was built in Kenton in 1905. The Webster ferried livestock from Whitwood Court to the ferry slip at the foot of Burlington Street [in St. Johns, just east of the bridge]. The long drive of the hurrying animals started up the steep hill, through St. Johns on down Oswego Street and Swift Blvd. to the stock yards in Kenton.”<br /><br />After the bridge ends, cross a few streets until you come to N Lombard, St. Johns’ commercial heart. Eat at John Street Café, Proper Eats Market and Café <a href="http://www.propereats.org/">http://www.propereats.org/</a>, or The Ladybug Café <a href="http://theladybugcafe.com/">http://theladybugcafe.com/</a>, three St. Johns restaurants with good food and coffee.<br /><br />After sauntering around St. Johns, head back over the bridge, this time on the other side. At 7214 N Philadelphia is the St. Johns City Hall, built in 1905 when this was a separate town. This link at the Oregon History Project has a great photo of it cloaked in ivy, with some good historical info. <a href="http://ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=000D01E3-3DC1-1E8B-891B80B0527200A7">http://ohs.org/education/oregonhistory/historical_records/dspDocument.cfm?doc_ID=000D01E3-3DC1-1E8B-891B80B0527200A7</a><br /><br />From the bridge, look down at the riverside Water Pollution Control Laboratory, built in 1997 as a model of sustainable development. <a href="http://www.portlandonline.com/bes/index.cfm?c=34103&a=221340">http://www.portlandonline.com/bes/index.cfm?c=34103&a=221340</a> It’s worth a visit sometime to see its award-winning green design and landscaping. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWGjT1yTZsa0G_C-fV4y9ccLAesonT52Z2NJpG71DcsF-9WGeFExp-y3EJAAkFIpO0I-bTsGaWP-45PAOCc6q9RMwWArIcNxLzW-OrkYkEgYqzalECKZfZPzH46QuwUBdS0JgitHOAqoc/s1600-h/St.+Johns+Bridge+floating+walk2.JPG"><img style="WIDTH: 200px; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442889211799843650" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWGjT1yTZsa0G_C-fV4y9ccLAesonT52Z2NJpG71DcsF-9WGeFExp-y3EJAAkFIpO0I-bTsGaWP-45PAOCc6q9RMwWArIcNxLzW-OrkYkEgYqzalECKZfZPzH46QuwUBdS0JgitHOAqoc/s200/St.+Johns+Bridge+floating+walk2.JPG" /></a><br /><strong>Under the St. Johns Bridge<br />looking at Forest Park.Whitwood<br />Court is on far left.</strong><br /><br />The riverside trail alongside the lab is part of the Willamette Greenway Trail. Activists at npGREENWAY hope someday this trail will be part of a continuous route along the east bank of the Willamette, from Cathedral Park to the Steel Bridge. <a href="http://www.npgreenway.org/">http://www.npgreenway.org/</a> Right now, pieces exist. One great section is on Swan Island...a future blog post.<br /><br />Once over the bridge, cross Bridge Avenue at the light. Turn left, and walk a bit to a staircase that leads to the Ridge Trail. </p><p><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKGRDUve7EynloGYCdcJx6AWPzhqex6lwou60Dx407hhwEcghfgJsMQwNQc20-YUizXigxuv_Hzn3Re7cCpumlcWjfEyj-PgcxdP8xYrk_93rKjAR7LWdwNnCkLxMFa3T7nbiIcTE5e8w/s1600-h/Ridge+Trail+spur+with+old+homesite+remnants3.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442891599117800610" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKGRDUve7EynloGYCdcJx6AWPzhqex6lwou60Dx407hhwEcghfgJsMQwNQc20-YUizXigxuv_Hzn3Re7cCpumlcWjfEyj-PgcxdP8xYrk_93rKjAR7LWdwNnCkLxMFa3T7nbiIcTE5e8w/s200/Ridge+Trail+spur+with+old+homesite+remnants3.JPG" /></a><br /><br /></p><p align="left"><strong></strong></p><p align="left"><strong></strong></p><p align="left"><strong>On a Ridge Trail spur: the trail passes over an old kitchen floor</strong><br /><br />Here you’re at about the 150 foot elevation mark. Take the stairs up to the trail; at a junction, keep left. To see the kitchen floor turn right at the spur. Note the river cobbles in the path. Overlaying the Columbia River Basalts in places along the east side of the Tualatin Mountains, this is the Troutdale Formation, river rock ferried here from the Rocky Mountains during epic flood events two to ten million years ago. I'm always intrigued to see this rock, worn smooth and round from tumbling along ancient river bottoms, at elevations hundreds of feet above any existing river.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaMEgdUTUOzKRZKCh9VV8P-NX4VxXYG3Q43wMhF8wosy8b7wb9uyl36A4_RFyZSyG1Z3VicuV80oVYm3RXiGejygejQl9zuPUFbJa2LUmu044-3q684AfErX3Y8Jax-c9cJXacJgMkHDI/s1600-h/Troutdale+Formation2.JPG"><img style="WIDTH: 134px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442888823387324930" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaMEgdUTUOzKRZKCh9VV8P-NX4VxXYG3Q43wMhF8wosy8b7wb9uyl36A4_RFyZSyG1Z3VicuV80oVYm3RXiGejygejQl9zuPUFbJa2LUmu044-3q684AfErX3Y8Jax-c9cJXacJgMkHDI/s200/Troutdale+Formation2.JPG" /></a><br /><strong>The Troutdale Formation</strong><br /><br />The Ridge Trail ascends through a forested temple: vine maples reach with sinuous elegance through the understory and living columns of mature Douglas fir rise from a floor of Oregon grape.<br /><br />Come to the Leif Erikson Trail and turn left for a few feet, keeping watch for the Ridge Trail as it continues uphill on the right. Take it; and come to the Wildwood Trail. Turn right on it, for a break from the climbing. Walk the Wildwood a half mile or so, traversing the hillside at about the 850 foot level.<br /><br />Come to the downhill intersection of the Hardesty Trail. Stay left (on the Wildwood) and in a few feet, turn left on to the Hardesty Trail as it heads steeply uphill. This trail was built in the 1940s by the Mazamas, Boy Scouts, and Trails Club members, who also planted thousands of trees along it. At the top of the trail, go right to Firelane 7 and return to the starting point. </p></div>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-8847303881425230092010-01-27T09:29:00.000-08:002010-01-28T09:21:21.952-08:00Cob, Glass Mosaic and Southeast Portland<div align="left">This one-way, 2.5 mile walk in Portland’s Sunnyside and Buckman neighborhoods visits several of what City Repair calls place-making sites. City Repair is an organized group action to inspire communities and people to transform the places where they live by helping them create place-making projects. Place-making, City Repair says on its website, is “the creative reclamation of public space…to create community-oriented places [that] empower our communities and nurture our local culture.” Find a map of these sites at <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9HSziZM3dpGRwM6DAM1VvxDefNg8izW2Sqj4NfGJPDPELY61U2bpgoqhfAMCAsy45ALiuc5DSOIELcglgShWVTtXvFA8a9BaPwe5Zi5x9QxycXTqsmX37TPp91LopsMqBBAyTOm0NT7g/s1600-h/DSC_0428.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 271px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431477493937151570" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9HSziZM3dpGRwM6DAM1VvxDefNg8izW2Sqj4NfGJPDPELY61U2bpgoqhfAMCAsy45ALiuc5DSOIELcglgShWVTtXvFA8a9BaPwe5Zi5x9QxycXTqsmX37TPp91LopsMqBBAyTOm0NT7g/s400/DSC_0428.JPG" /></a><a href="http://cityrepair.org/how-to/neighborhood-sites/">http://cityrepair.org/how-to/neighborhood-sites/</a>.<br /><br />Many City Repair sites have structures built of cob, a material used since humans began constructing shelters for themselves. Clay, straw, water and sand are the ingredients. A lot of sites have green roofs, which complement the cob beautifully.<br /><br />Well, after observing these place-making sites over the last decade, I’ve had mixed reactions: often delight at the inventiveness, but sometimes a bit of disappointment at their dirtiness and seeming neglect. It’s kind of I feel in the aftermath of a household pet acquisition, after one of my kids has successfully pitched us to get a dog, a cat, or chickens. Her initial enthusiasm is overwhelming, the first weeks of care stellar, but soon neglect ensues: poop piles up in the coop, the dog’s water bowl is dry, the cat is meowing for food. Mom and dad step in to care for the animals. In some of these City Repair projects, it looks like a mom or dad is needed to provide the ongoing care these installations require. What do I mean? Well, message/community boards with yellowing and outdated notices over a year old behind dirty glass doors; a lending library with no books; painted barrels whose plants are flattened and lifeless and whose paint is peeling and mud-spattered.<br /><br />I started walking at SE Stark Street and Peacock Lane (just east of 39th Avenue) because I wanted to see how Peacock Lane, seen by most Portlanders in the flattering glow of Christmas lights and good cheer, looks in the cold light of day. (<a href="http://www.peacocklane.net/">http://www.peacocklane.net/</a> )<br /><br />Walk south on Peacock Lane to Belmont; turn left on Belmont, right onto 40th, and right at Yamhill, a nice block here. Cross 39th. (Go one block north to Belmont if you don’t want to cross 39th without a light.)<br /><br />Walking west on Yamhill, turn left on 37th. At Taylor is the first City Repair site: the Memorial Lighthouse. This memorial to a bicyclist hit by a car here in 1998 has a cob column with a living roof and a glass mosaic bench with recycled bike parts worked into the installation. It’s lovely and in good shape.<br /><br />From Yamhill and 37th, walk south on 37th and right (west) on Main. At 35th and Main are the offices of Southeast Uplift, an umbrella organization that supports the citizens and neighborhood associations of Southeast Portland in their work to create livable, safe and socially diverse communities. (<a href="http://www.southeastuplift.org/">http://www.southeastuplift.org/</a><a href="http://www.southeastuplift.org/">t.org/</a>) Here are some cob benches in front of the building.<br /><br />From 35th and Main, walk north on 35th then left (west) on Salmon. In this block is the old Sunnyside School, now an environmentally focused public school. (<a href="http://www.sesptsa.com/">http://www.sesptsa.com/</a>. In 1994 my oldest daughter attended this school (it was the Family Co-op then) and we parents wanted to install raised beds on what was a large lawn in the front. The school district was against the idea, saying it would be harder to maintain than grass, but ultimately it allowed us two beds, no more. Things have changed a lot: in place of the lawn grow organic grains, cover crops, medicinal herbs, culinary herbs, Oregon native plants, and even chickens. Only a few non-natives remain—a couple of old camellias from BEE (Before the Environmental Era). The school looks great; in the gardens is a cob bench with a green roof. It’s a nice, lively scene on a weekday morning. I sat on the bench for a bit, watching moms walk their kids into the building, overhearing snippets about head lice and after-school playdates.<br /><br />From Salmon at 34th, walk one block west on Salmon to 33rd, turn right; walk one block to 33rd and Yamhill. Here is Sunnyside Piazza, the second City Repair project, created in 2000. An enormous painted sunflower spans the entire intersection (it’s partly worn away but scheduled for repainting on June 6, 2010.) When freshly painted, it’s stunning. Wooden barrels with plants anchor the four corners, and trellises span each corner’s sidewalk, the best of which is a Fibonacci spiral dome. A kiosk is in the northeast corner; inset in it are numbers to puzzle over and solve.<br /><br />From the piazza, walk north on 33rd. At 913-915 is an 1892 Queen Anne home restored by Jerry Bosco and Ben Milligan, whose collection of architectural treasures became Portland’s Bosco-Milligan Foundation. (<a href="http://www.visitahc.org/">http://www.visitahc.org/</a>). Turn left at Belmont; the Pied Cow, in an 1893 Queen Anne, was Bosco and Milligan’s store where they sold antiques.<br /><br />From 32nd and Belmont, turn south on 32nd and follow it to Hawthorne (it jogs at Salmon onto a pedestrian-only path). From 32nd, turn right on Hawthorne. Between 31st and 30th is Hostelling International’s Portland Hawthorne Hostel (<a href="http://www.portlandhostel.org/">http://www.portlandhostel.org/</a>). A cob kiosk sits in the corner, another City Repair Project. The hostel itself has a green roof—nothing unique these days—but where else have you seen a green wall? Beautiful. Above it, metal fish leap through the air; behind them, water funnels off the home’s rain gutters into the pipe; looks like water would sheet down behind the fish during a rainstorm.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqHd4JQW0l1ZIjChBMOM8P6N50F_0gjQ_epCKa89KOmU9sXgIzAAO-lMFezZ_GELcE1PL25M0yAuSS5fk7dFP7sw9uih9Nhs4O2c-xQYzTVHCLOqtiwWQw8Ndw9UBMVw9frcqdvi8Pdo/s1600-h/DSC_0433.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 289px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431840255671914194" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCqHd4JQW0l1ZIjChBMOM8P6N50F_0gjQ_epCKa89KOmU9sXgIzAAO-lMFezZ_GELcE1PL25M0yAuSS5fk7dFP7sw9uih9Nhs4O2c-xQYzTVHCLOqtiwWQw8Ndw9UBMVw9frcqdvi8Pdo/s320/DSC_0433.JPG" /></a></div><p align="left"></p><p align="left">The Living Wall, a Bureau of Environmental Services project<br /><br /></p><p align="left">Walk west on Hawthorne, have some coffee. Turn right on 22nd, then left on Madison. At 2111 SE Madison is the best place-making site of the walk, in my opinion. It’s a couple of benches (one of which is a voluptuous bejeweled mermaid) to relax on, and a bulletin board. Cob, of course.<br /><br />From Madison, turn right on 20th, left on Taylor (passing the Colonel Summers Community Garden), and angle through the park to get to 19th. Walk north on 19th to Alder. Just past it, at 617 SE 19th is a mosaic bench and cob kiosk. Beyond them is the intersection of 19th and Washington, where the Buckman Maze Intersection Repair is supposedly located. I could barely discern a maze painted on the pavement; perhaps someone decided that people walking a contemplative maze in the middle of an intersection was not such a great community-building idea.<br /><br />From 19th and Washington, walk west on Washington to 16th and turn right. At 16th and Stark, I looked for the Buckman School Bench, listed on City Repair’s site, but didn’t find it. But the tile mosaic wall along Buckman School is gorgeous, and made a fine exclamation point to this tour of outdoor, community-built art. </p>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-4241316603340241552009-12-10T05:01:00.000-08:002011-02-24T13:10:07.076-08:00A New Walk: Goose Hollow to Top of Skyline<div align="left"><br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">Quick Details: </span></div><ul><li><div align="left">A long and challenging walk (for an urban outing), about 1000 feet elevation, about 4.5 hours duration, about 7 miles. </div></li>
<li>Bring a backpack and some cash: you may want to buy a few gifts or books at the Audubon Society of Portland's store, which you’ll encounter both on the way out and way back. </li>
<li><div align="left">Restrooms at Audubon, which you'll pass on the way out and way back. </div></li>
<li><div align="left">Audubon's Sanctuaries and their trails are at <a href="mhtml:%7B7C019964-FE46-4B1D-8126-7F058957BE43%7Dmid://00002148/!x-usc:http://www.audubonportland.org/sanctuaries/visiting/trailmap/trailmap">http://www.audubonportla</a><a href="mhtml:%7B7C019964-FE46-4B1D-8126-7F058957BE43%7Dmid://00002148/!x-usc:http://www.audubonportland.org/sanctuaries/visiting/trailmap/trailmap">nd.org/sanctuaries/visiting/trailmap/trailmap</a><br />
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Here’s a really interesting city trek with all the elements of a good urban outing as you climb stairs, walk elegant streets, hike forested paths, cross several streams and gain views of four Cascade peaks.<br />
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I led this one on Dec 8, 2009 for the Multnomah Athletic Club’s walking group. Last week, I’d scouted the route; streams were running, mushrooms sprouted photogenically on fallen trees and clumps of maple leaves, and the ferns were lush and languid. Yesterday, with temps in the teens, the landscape in the woods looked pinched and barren. The mushrooms were freeze dried, the creeks iced into silence, the ferns stunned and curled into crippled shapes. But the views of Mts Hood, Adams, St. Helens, and Rainier were crystal clear, in a sky that looked like it had been imported from Colorado.<br />
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Here are directions. Hope you enjoy! My directions here are not as detailed in my books, but that’s what maps are for. You can get free walking maps from the City of Portland. A digital version of the area covered by this walk is at:<br />
<a href="mhtml:%7B7C019964-FE46-4B1D-8126-7F058957BE43%7Dmid://00002148/!x-usc:http://www.portlandonline.com/Transportation/index.cfm?c=50000&a=237332">http://www.portlandonline.com/Transportation/index.cfm?c=50000&a=237332</a><br />
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And if you want more info on the work <a href="http://oregonmetro.gov/">Metro’s </a>doing to rehabilitate the Collins Sanctuary, which the walk traverses, check this out: on Feb 6, 2010: 10 to 11 a.m.: a walk with Metro Council President David Bragdon along with Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder and Portland Commissioner Nick Fish. They and conservationists will speak about restoration in Collins Sanctuary and Metro's further plans to protect this land. Registration required: 503.797.1650, option 2.<br />
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Starting at the MAC (SW 18th and Salmon) or anywhere in the vicinity, find your way over to NW 23rd and Westover (Westover is just a bit north of Burnside on 23rd). Walk uphill on Westover, enjoying fine old homes as you climb steeply. Follow it as it twists higher and higher. At the intersection of NW Cumberland and Fairfax, walk to a staircase in the southwest corner of this intersection. It heads up alongside a black home with a river rock chimney. This staircase, one of the prettiest in town, has a fabulous Japanese maple near the base. Here’s a photo, which may be a cover image candidate for my new stair book.<br />
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</ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVUNMxuRUKvR8dDyJYGj9VgwwgdjPgKPSu86y9ICMvO9XgUqBuSioG48WVpfK1CUtizksFnN1Bqny2ceSXSXBPyOfnCI49Dp0hcZcl5v4QczCikln0rKjLAJwyeyGxXxsS6yrCPuuobKI/s1600-h/aaa+Fairfax+steps+for+blog.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413593244803182770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVUNMxuRUKvR8dDyJYGj9VgwwgdjPgKPSu86y9ICMvO9XgUqBuSioG48WVpfK1CUtizksFnN1Bqny2ceSXSXBPyOfnCI49Dp0hcZcl5v4QczCikln0rKjLAJwyeyGxXxsS6yrCPuuobKI/s320/aaa+Fairfax+steps+for+blog.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 224px;" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVUNMxuRUKvR8dDyJYGj9VgwwgdjPgKPSu86y9ICMvO9XgUqBuSioG48WVpfK1CUtizksFnN1Bqny2ceSXSXBPyOfnCI49Dp0hcZcl5v4QczCikln0rKjLAJwyeyGxXxsS6yrCPuuobKI/s1600-h/aaa+Fairfax+steps+for+blog.jpg"></a><br />
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<div align="left">Steps from Westover/Cumberland/Fairfax<br />
up to Cumberland.<br />
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At the top of the stairs, turn right. You’re on NW Cumberland Road. Follow it to its dead-end, passing great homes along the way including the home of Clarissa Inman, inventor of the electric curling iron (it’s the grandest one; you can’t miss it). And isn't the name Clarissa just right for the inventor of a beauty product?<br />
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From the dead end of Cumberland: enter the forest; at a fork where the Tunnel Trail goes right, ignore it; stay left on the Cumberland Trail. At the second fork, the Wildwood Trail is on the right; take it. The views as you hike along the 550 foot contour line (more or less!) are neat: looking down on Cornell Road, you can see how it spans several canyons; you can’t see this when you’re driving it. Big Douglas fir here.<br />
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The Wildwood comes to a pedestrian crossing of Cornell. Watch out for the drivers who won’t acknowledge you and cross carefully. Follow a trail leading west toward the Audubon Center. It runs behind the Macleay monument and some old restrooms.<br />
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At Audubon is a great place to shop for gifts, use the restroom, see some rescued birds and peruse their great selection of books. A purchase here is not enriching a corporate bottom line but adds to the funds Portland Audubon uses to provide this wonderful natural sanctuary so close in to Portland neighborhoods. See <a href="mhtml:%7B7C019964-FE46-4B1D-8126-7F058957BE43%7Dmid://00002148/!x-usc:http://www.audubonportland.org/">www.audubonportland.org</a>.<br />
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Exit the Audubon Center, re-cross Cornell and walk west on its south side, on a narrow shoulder, about .1 mile to a parking area for the Collins Trailhead.<br />
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Here is the base of the Collins Sanctuary (86 acres), land given to the Oregon Parks Foundation in 1976, a legacy of the Collins Family Foundation. This acreage is the birthplace of the Audubon Society of Portland’s work to restore the natural landscape around it and provide wildlife habitat.<br />
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Of the three Audubon sanctuaries (we'll see one other), it has less mature Douglas fir, hemlock and Western redcedar and is dominated by an alder forest. Over the years, English ivy and other invasive plants powered their way into this forest. To the rescue came Metro <a href="mhtml:%7B7C019964-FE46-4B1D-8126-7F058957BE43%7Dmid://00002148/!x-usc:http://oregonmetro.gov/">http://oregonmetro.gov</a> which purchased the land from the Oregon Parks Foundation in 2008. (With money from the 2006 bond measure).<br />
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Since then, Metro and Audubon have removed invasives (piles of ivy and dead-hanging ivy are evident). Also targeted were laurel, clematis and holly. The forest now has an open, clear aspect that makes for a lovely walk.<br />
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During its 2009-10 planting season Friends of Trees invites Gift Trees donors and recipients to plant trees that will one day become an old-growth forest here. Unlike typical Green Space Initiative plantings, special Gift Tree plantings are not open to the public. Gift tree givers or recipients are invited to attend, with space capped at 100 volunteers. One Gift Tree planting was December 6. The next is March 28. To be eligible for the March planting, donate a gift tree or a grove between now and the end of February.<br />
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See: <a href="mhtml:%7B7C019964-FE46-4B1D-8126-7F058957BE43%7Dmid://00002148/!x-usc:http://friendsoftrees.org/blog/2009/11/23/gift-trees-to-restore-collins-sanctuary">http://friendsoftrees.org/blog/2009/11/23/gift-trees-to-restore-collins-sanctuary</a> for donation information.<br />
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Keep left where the trail forks to stay on the South Collins Trail (it’s a loop). Continue on it as it curves right. At a sign for the trail loop, leave the loop and go left on a faint, unmarked trail (it becomes clearer) that heads uphill. It’s an old road and leads up to a series of roads off of NW Skyline Boulevard.<br />
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New trees planted in December 2009 each sport a colored flag, so at one point you feel you are walking through a small woodland festival.<br />
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The woods end at a street. Go left, walking around a chain link fence. Then take a right on Dover, left on Winston and left on Royal Boulevard (in other words just keep climbing).<br />
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Eventually you leave the older streets and come to a new development, Meridian Ridge, where lots have not yet been built on. Ahead is one of the most wonderful staircase views in town. 167 steps take you there. Turn around often to see the great mountain views from up here.</div><br />
<div align="center"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5413593857607615634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKGLxfoN6jP1328t5x1P-JWD560_LQWtEFzILXwxEjU3UP8ba7NUDVyA733MQuprBXiM5KWanZgIx1xW7rh1KQUh76KoEG1dA4hkfudkAKvXrwh4Fvg1uJjtz9Z5jQj_1vg_-j9cd-nFM/s320/Meridian+Ridge+off+Skyline+for+Eve.jpg" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 214px;" />The Meridian Ridge Steps on an October morning<br />
with no mountains in sight! Great clouds though. </div><div align="left"><br />
At the top of the stairs, turn left on Skyline, walking a fairly narrow shoulder, but with good sight lines. Cross Skyline carefully and enter Willamette Stone State Park.<br />
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Here’s a bit of background. You know how when you buy property or mortgage it, the documents have a legal description of the land? That description, if you’re anywhere in Washington or Oregon, is based on your property's location relative to this very spot, the Point of Beginning of the Willamette Meridian. It’s one of 37 Principal Meridians in the United States, each of which is named, that define the United States' rectangular survey system.<br />
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With the exception of portions of the eastern United States and Texas, the United States is divided into a grid of six-mile squares called Townships and Ranges, known as the rectangular survey system. The Willamette Meridian was established in 1851, before Oregon’s statehood. Surveys completed from this location promoted settlement of the Northwest and began the transfer of land from government ownership to private ownership.<br />
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The vertical line is the meridian; the horizontal line is the baseline. They meet here; all land descriptions describe any given property’s location to this spot.The first marker, a red cedar stake, was placed on the site on June 4, 1851, by John B. Preston, the first Surveyor General of the Oregon Territory. The location was chosen such that the base line would not cross the Columbia River and the meridian would lie west of Vancouver Lake. The grid system was an extension of the system used in the Northwest Territory proposed by Thomas Jefferson. The Willamette Stone marked the location of the first townships and ranges north and south of the marker.<br />
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In Portland, SE Stark Street is on the baseline. In Beaverton and points west, Baseline Road is on the baseline. In Clackamas County, Meridian Road overlays the meridian.<br />
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Division Street in Portland and Section Line Road in East Multnomah County follow the division between the first and second rows of square-mile sections south of the Willamette Baseline.<br />
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<a href="mhtml:%7B7C019964-FE46-4B1D-8126-7F058957BE43%7Dmid://00002148/!x-usc:http://www.wikipedia.org/">http://www.wikipedia.org/</a> is the source of some of this info.<br />
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From the park, continue south (right) on Skyline a very short way, then turn left down Royal Boulevard, then right on Manor and keep descending to the fence you first passed by; reenter the forest at the same trailhead you exited earlier.<br />
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In the forest, you’ll re-walk the unmarked path through the new trees, and then come back to the Collins Trail. Turn right on it and when you come to the Founders Trail, turn right on it. This trail on steep hillsides traverses small creeks,tributaries of Balch Creek. The trail dates from 1982. It traverses the Uhtoff Sanctuary: a 34 acre parcel purchased in 1982 and named for Mike Uhtoff, Portland Audubon’s first director, from 1976-1985. He helped acquire this land for Audubon; it was renamed for him in 2004. Watch and listen for the raucous cries of pileated woodpeckers in here.<br />
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Balch Creek and its tributaries support a resident population of cutthroat trout of up to about 7 inches (18 cm). In 2005, Balch Creek was the only major water body in Portland that met state water quality standards for bacteria, temperature and dissolved oxygen.<br />
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The trail passes Audubon’s plant nursery and then comes to Cornell Road. Cross it, and retrace your steps back to the Wildwood Trail, Cumberland Trail, and Cumberland Road.<br />
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From there, I’d recommend eating. Lots of options on and around NW 23rd Avenue.<br />
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Hope to see you out there!<br />
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Laura<br />
<a href="mhtml:%7B7C019964-FE46-4B1D-8126-7F058957BE43%7Dmid://00002148/!x-usc:http://www.portlandhillwalks.com/">http://www.portlandhillwalks.com</a></div>Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4398435469200636208.post-83198043147584292352009-11-29T04:51:00.000-08:002009-12-14T05:21:23.553-08:00Getting StartedBlog Entry 1 Nov 29 2009<br /><br />This blog will give you ideas and inspiration, I hope, to get out and explore. I'll write about my weekly urban wanderings and include some history, architecture, geology, and a lot more opinion than seemed prudent in my published books.<br /><br />For now, some random thoughts on this past year of walks...<br /><br />This year, in between writing 2 books (one on Lake Oswego and another on Portland's public stairways) I led about 25 walks for Metro, the City of Portland and the Multnomah County Library system. They ranged from about 6 people on a 95 degree Sunday afternoon in old Orenco to 200 on a golden fall Saturday exploring Beverly Cleary's Hollywood/Grant Park neighborhoods. We explored college campuses, neighborhoods on the National Register of Historic Places, old streetcar lines, still thriving with small local businesses, a sewage treatment facility, urban streams, parks and rivers. And more. <br /><br />Walking with groups has its own dynamic--it's a social thing and the area walked through is a backdrop for socializing. Walking is great for that. Try walking with your teenager or partner. Conversation flows with your footsteps in a way that face to face, across the restaurant table talk just often can't replicate. And there's a never-ending parade of architecture and gardening styles to critique, admire and inspire.<br /><br />But if you really want to <em>see</em> and hear a neighborhood,walk alone. You'll chat more with the leaf blowing crews (who despite their noisy equipment, have almost always the good manners to turn it off when a pedestrian approaches), the garden putterers, the fellow walkers, the people waiting at a bus stop or using a public staircase, and the old people who always have more time to visit than the rest of us.<br /><br />Some parts of town are friendlier than others. Portland is a hip town, in an "I'm not trying; just can't help it" kind of way. In some neighborhoods (and I won't name names; but they're in SE) you won't get a lot of friendly eye contact and passing pleasantries. Or maybe you will if you're under 30 and wearing items from Goodwill. I am over 30, way over it, and perhaps look a bit too eager for these folks.<br /><br />Some of the friendliest vibes I've gotten in my years of walking around the region are in Forest Grove, Oregon City, Piedmont and Concordia.<br /><br />I just finished a book on exploring Portland's many urban staircases. There are 200 or so and I climbed them all in the space of a few weeks. Saw lots of cats, one rat, many dogs, countless IPods, stunning views, sweaty grimaces from people running up and down staircases repeatedly, mushroooms growing on risers, not much trash, lots of leaf litter which made some stairs feel like they'd been waxed, evidence of significant use (moss only on the sides of stairs) and no-use (a lush moss carpet on the treads).<br /><br />More next week.Laura O. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18440650843608026122noreply@blogger.com7