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 21st - 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 27th – 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 3rd – 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 10th in its own entry and then
I'll almost be caught up. Apart from June 17th, of
course. But I'm getting there!
