Monday, January 7^{th -} Lake Oswego Old River Road Trail 

This is a great trail right off of State Street in Lake Oswego, fully paved (a plus when it's been raining all night) and with only a very small uphill slant. We got enough hillclimbing in last week and my vote is to stick to relatively flat ground for a while, so this was perfect. The trail starts in George Rogers City Park and runs up through a woodsy area with lovely views of the river (and the big expensive houses on the other side), passes a small waterfall and then a house which we know must be historically significant because it has a plaque – the Tug Master's House, apparently, which was built in 1905. There's a big cement building across from it on the other side of the trail, also historic I'm sure but I have no clue what it is. We were more curious as to why the Tug Master would need a garage at the bottom of his hill with no access except for a footbridge. Maybe there was a driveway there once or maybe it was used as a halfway point between whatever the cement building was and the house. If you know, leave a comment and share! 

The trail comes out of the woods and runs alongside Old River Road, which has more lovely views of the river and the big expensive houses on this side. We walked until we ran out of sidewalk in a residential neighborhood, then turned around and headed back to the park. On the way back we saw a ripple in the river which appeared to be moving, so we stopped to watch and concluded that it was probably a sea lion or maybe a seal. Wildlife payoff! It disappeared after a few minutes and we couldn't find where it resurfaced, so we moved on. Back in George Rogers Park we walked around the big furnace stack and read all about the old Oregon Iron Works operation that used to be down there. I'm starting to suspect that there's a lot I don't know about the Portland area because I had no clue Lake Oswego was once industrial. They're just so fancy now! Katje took some pictures of the furnace and surrounding park which I'm sure she'll post later, once we've figured out how to upload pictures to our blog. It can't be too terribly difficult, right?

The “Walk There” book says this is 1.3 miles each way (assuming we were supposed to stop where the sidewalk ended), so 2.6 miles out and back. On a 'getting there' note, the book shows that parking is at the end of Green Street but doesn't say that there's no left turn at the intersection, so we had to find a place up the road to turn around and come back. Next time we'll know to turn left at one of the earlier streets (Wilbur or maybe Ladd) then take a right onto Furnace Street, which drops directly into the park - much easier than our roundabout way.

All in all, this was a very nice easy walk that could easily become a favorite. Mostly flat, pretty, interesting – and paved, so there's no need for boots. Quite a contrast from last week!