One of the reasons I love
Portland is for all of the little bits of wild in among all the
domesticated. These include Tryon Creek, Forest Park, Oaks Bottom
(it's on our to-do list) and Powell Butte. Powell Butte is one of
the easy ones to find – just go out Powell Blvd to 162nd
and hang a right. Assuming that the parking lot isn't closed for
construction. In that case, try to use the map in the 'Easy Day
Hikes' book to find another way in, discover that ONCE AGAIN the maps
are just close enough to accurate that you end up having to make a
long unnecessary loop back to the car and declare a do-over. Park on
162nd just off of Powell and just walk up to the dang
place.
Of course, the walk up to the
(closed) parking lot is a killer. If we'd been a month or so later we
could have driven up and saved ourselves a lot of climbing, but when
have we ever done things the easy way? At the top of the hill
there's only one path you can take and it's not the one in the book,
but having made it up there was no way we were quitting and having to
come back another day. A nice worker helped us cross the path of
destruction - construction, I mean – and we set off up yet another
hill. A sign told us we were on the Wildhorse Trail, which is
nowhere near where the map shows it to be, but considering how torn
up everything is, that's not too surprising. In fact, nothing on the
map is where it's supposed to be and the walk as it's laid out in the
book doesn't work because it ends up on the other side of the
(closed) parking lot with no way to get back across. We found a nice
clearly marked loop and decided to take that way (we like loops –
they almost always end up exactly where they started).
We didn't get to explore much of
the park, but the parts we walked were full of grassy fields and old
orchards, a small wetlands and FUZZY CATERPILLARS! This is one of
Katje's missions in life, to save as many fuzzy caterpillars as she
can. I don't know how many she rescued off various paths last year,
but she got a good strong start to the season on this walk and the
caterpillar population can rest safe in the knowledge that if they
cross a path in front of her they will always arrive safely at their
destination. My job is to point, hers is to save.
The best part of today's walk was
the people. Every single person we met said good morning. Every one
of them. A couple even stopped to chat for a minute or two. After
last week's uber-unfriendly riverside walk, it was a nice change to
be met with nothing but friendly faces. The second best part of
today's walk is that it's one more to cross out of the 'Easy Day
Hikes' book. Only two more in town, two on Sauvie Island and the
rest are far enough away that we won't have to feel guilty putting
them off for a while. We are so ready to be done with this book!
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