Catching up, May 21st - June 3rd

Yeah, it's confirmed, I pretty much suck at the whole blogging thing. We have been walking, though, every week so prepare yourself for a quick run-through of what we've been doing and then (hopefully) a few back-to-back posts as I try to catch up.

May 21^st - Last leg of the Fanno Creek Trail, Denney Road to Scholls Ferry. This was the last of the Fanno Creek Trail walks in our original two books (at last!) Believe it or not, we've never walked the trail north of Hall Blvd, so half of this was new territory...which looked pretty much like the old territory. The Fanno Creek Trail is a very nice walk and some day we're going to go the whole 13 miles at one go, but in the meantime there are more unfamiliar places to explore, such as:

May 27^th – Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. I've lived in Tigard for over 20 years now and am ashamed to say that I've never been to the refuge before, even though it's only about 10 minutes away. This is a great walk, almost perfectly flat, that winds its way through bird-filled meadows, bird-filled trees, bird-filled marshes and birdwatcher-filled viewing platforms. I wish I'd brought my binoculars just so we fit in. It's an easy 3.2 miles and if you haven't been you should go now while the baby bald eagle is still in its nest – just don't forget your binoculars.

June 3^rd – Neither of us really felt like walking that day but rather than making excuses and copping out we repeated the familiar walk from the water treatment plant, through Cook Park to Tualatin Park. We've done it several times before so this should have been a pretty boring walk but Mother Nature decided to make it more interesting, first by putting an enormous skunk on the path as we started out. It left the trail well before we ever got there and we walked quickly past its exit point, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. Then on our way back we saw a couple of bunnies next to the trail, totally not scared of us (I guess the non-threatening mojo was still in effect) and as we came through the Cook Park butterfly garden a nice bicyclist stopped to ask if we knew what type of raptors were circling above (we didn't), which drew our attention to a birds nest in a nearby pine tree. It was some type of long-neck water bird – crane? heron? egret? - that I always assumed nested next to the water, not in a tree. See how much we learn on these walks?

Okay, three is probably enough for now so I'll put June 10^th in its own entry and then I'll almost be caught up. Apart from June 17^th, of course. But I'm getting there!