Portland Interlude
Fantastic place, Portland; I got a chance to visit during the fall to visit family and explore the parks in the area.
In mid-September, my wife and I took a trip out to Portland, Oregon for a week, for a vacation. Besides getting the wonderful opportunity to spend some time with family up there, we took the opportunity to do a little hiking around the Portland area. The three hikes we took during that week are the Lower Maple Trail Loop in Forest Park, the Oak Island Trail on Sauvie Island, and Horsetail Falls along the Columbia River Gorge.
According to Portland Parks & Recreation, Forest Park is the largest forested natural area within city limits in the country, and includes miles of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding. We opted for the Lower Maple trail, which starts just east of the St. John’s Bridge, across the Willamette River. As we were staying in St. John’s Village, it was close and it seemed to have just about the right length for a morning hike, about 3 miles, or so. This loop incorporates parts of the Maple Trail, the Quarry Trail, and the Leif Erikson Trail. The environment, as one would expect, is quite different from the environments in the South, with more fir-type evergreens covered with moss than the pines and oaks of Georgia and South Carolina. The hike itself was relatively moderate, with a couple of elevation changes to get the heart rate going. At one point, there was a detour, due to a bridge being out along the last leg of the Maple trail. This detour was a bit steeper than expected, joining the Leif Erikson and Maple trails by way of a Firelane trail, but not bad.
Sauvie Island is just 10 miles north of Portland, and is mostly farmland and wildlife refuge. The trails out on the island are much less wooded, with open sky, grasses, and lakes. We took the Oak Island Trail (sort of). Unfortunately, the trail wasn’t as well marked, as I would have liked it to be. We followed what we assumed was the trail, by the map, and we were correct, to a point. However, once we reached Sturgeon Lake, we didn’t easily find the trail that would have led along the western edge of the lake, through blackberry thickets. Instead, we wound up walking along the water’s edge, which alternated between half-dry muddy areas and brambly woods. We forged ahead, however, moving back and forth between the edge and the woods, and made it through with a minimum of fuss, until we finally found where to get back to the trail. Looking back along the trail we missed, however, it might have been rather prickly to get through, with dense blackberry thorns, so I’m still not sure which was the easier path. The trail finished up through wide grassy areas, dotted with groves of trees and blackberries. It was considerably hotter and less shady than Forest Park, but still a nice walk.
Our final hike for the week was a short one, in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, to see Horsetail Falls, both the upper and the lower. The lower falls were were easy to get to, being just off of Highway 30, not far from the popular Multnomah Falls. But, the upper falls were at the end of a half-mile hike up a bunch of switchbacks to where the falls shoot out of the cliffs. And the trail goes behind the falls, beneath a mass of rock jutting out from the cliffs. We went behind the falls, looking beyond them to the gorge. Very pretty, and a quick but invigorating hike.
Portland was a wonderful place to visit, and I hope to go back again someday, and see more of the many trails in Forest Park, the Columbia River Gorge, and beyond.
