Photos from the Garden Home to Raleigh Hills Walk

The start of our walk find us back in Garden Home

We get to walk past one of our favorite places to eat....Burgerville! So glad there are several in our area.

One of several hills we walk up today, although the ones today are not to bad.

Some of the pretty floweres we see. Love the color combinations!

Both of us thought this was very wimsical and such a cute idea. Birdhouses on the fence.

Where the sidewalk ends....

The turn around point. Time to head back.

What a cute little playhouse!

We can barely see the stream with all the trees.

Photos from the Tualatin Hills Nature Park Walk

The start of our walk is under a beautiful covered area

No fuzzy caterpillars but we did find a slug

Lots of greenery

When we walked this trail in last year, this sign was not here, the bridges are very slippery when wet

One of many wooden walkways

Love these!

our own little obstacle course along the trail

The Tualatin Hills Nature Park building

Monday, July 24th - Garden Home to Raleigh Hills

After our three week "vacation" we really needed to get back on track.  Katje, never one to ease into things slowly, chose a six mile walk with the word "hills" in it.  She's so ambitious!  We've already done the first part of this walk, taking the Fanno Creek Greenway Trail between Garden Home and Scholls Ferry Road.  On our previous walk we turned around and went back at the end of the trail, but today we continued on, winding our way through some really nice neighborhoods full of houses from the 1950's.  Eventually we came to McMillan Park, and while the walk in the "Portland City Walks" book would have taken us out to Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway and to lunch at a local restaurant, we'd come out early to try to beat the heat (didn't work) so we turned back at the park.

Back we went through the same neighborhoods, on different streets this time so we could critique even more houses.  Almost all of them are from the same era, but there's enough variety in form and decoration that it avoids the "cookie cutter" feel that many modern subdivisions have.  The large, well-established trees help a lot. At the top of the hill on Arrowwood Lane there is a sprawling house that seems to go on forever, set in a large, tree filled lot.  Our book tells us that this is a 54,000 square foot lot, which sounds impressive until you do the math and it turns out to be 1.24 acres.  Not that I did the math - I came home and found a converter online that did it for me.  Thank goodness for Google!

The trip back seemed a lot quicker than the walk out, and pretty soon we were back on the Greenway Trail, sweating our way back to the car. According to the weatherman this morning it wasn't supposed to get so hot so quickly, but I guarantee it was a lot warmer when we set out than the 59 degrees he said it was.  And way warmer than that by the time we got back.

We didn't go all the way to the restaurant off the end and skipped a side trip, but according to the new app Katje put on her phone we walked 5.3 miles in an hour and a half.  It's not the 15 minute mile Katje's working toward to put us on track for our eventual half marathon, but we'll work our way up to that.  Sometime before our marathon.  Really.

Most of June and July

Yes, it seems like forever since I actually blogged something - probably because it has been.  Believe it or not, though, I'm only behind by two (oops, three - I forgot July 10th). Fortunately Katje posted pictures to prove that we really hadn't been slacking, and June's walks I can sum up in just a few words.  Oaks Bottom: bland on the Springwater Corridor but lovely in the wildlife refuge.  Multnomah Village to Vermont Hills: hilly!  Very, very hilly.

Then we came to the We Have Other Things To Do portion of the summer.  The week of June 24th I was camping and whitewater rafting with my older Girl Scout troop.  We stayed at the campground at Deschutes State Recreation Area and hiked a few miles on the trails leading out of it, These "trails" are narrow tracks through the sagebrush and while they're not very well marked it's almost impossible to get lost since all you have to do is follow the Deschutes River back downstream to the campground.  On Wednesday we went whitewater rafting further up on the Deschutes.  If you haven't been whitewater rafting before I highly recommend it because it's just huge fun.  If you have been, I don't have to say anything because I know you're ready to go back at the first opportunity.  I certainly am!

The first week of July and beginning of the 2nd week Katje was in Idaho visiting family, but we did revisit the Tualatin Hills Nature Park the day after she got home.  It was much warmer this time and the bridges weren't at all slippery so I did not fall and hurt my tailbone again. A huge improvement over the last time.  We got a picture of a huge slug on the path, but Katje's having trouble loading those pictures, so you may not get to see it.  Trust me, though, it was big.

The week of July 15th we were busy with Girl Scout Day Camp.  We do crafts together all week, and while we spend most of the day on our feet we don't have time to get away from the shelter long enough to go for a walk.  And by the time we get home, we're exhausted!

So, a couple blogs I missed, a few walks we missed, and we're once again back on track.  Yay!

Photos from Springwater Corridor Walk 6/26/2013

With Julie gone white water rafting, the kids and I meet my Mom in Gresham at the Main City Park to walk 2 miles of the Springwater Corridor (the trail is a 40 mile loop)

The railway ran along this same route

One of the beautiful walkways along the trail

The kids stop to check it out the river

Noland running ahead to see how fast he can hit the 2 mile mark

We turn around at this point to start the trek back, very cool water way under the road

Photos from Multnomah Village to Vermont Hills

We decide to start the walk here and do the walk backwards from what the book says (weren't sure what parking lot to go to).

SW Community Center (all 3 of my kids have taken swim lessons here)

The first of many awful hills we encounter. After halfway up this one, we wonder why we are doing this in reverse...ugggh....

At the top we come to a really nice park with the water "towers" in them.

Okay, this one is more Tower like!

Oh goody!!! Another hill....my legs are very tired by this point...

I am going to try and convince my husband we should plant a pear tree in our yard, they really do grow here!

We both loved the flowers on this tree, so pretty we stopped to admire it for a bit (especially after all those hills!)

 The Multnomah Arts Center in Multnomah Village

We are not sure what the vine on the trees is but the way it criss crossed back and forth between the 2 trees was interesting.

Gabriel Park Community Garden

and Orchard

Never would have known that Gabriel Park had a wooded area unless we did the map in reverse

A cute little bridge to cross before heading back to the car