Title: September 29, 2024 - Washington Park, Portland
Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's : Flowers and Plants
Type: Hiking : Car
Trail head: Veterans Memorial Parking Lot, Washington Park, Portland
Trail: Maple Trail,Wildwood Trail, Rose Garden, Redwood Deck
Destination: Loop
Distance: 2.93 miles 1
Elevation Rise: 1,060 '
Descent: 1,060‘
Maximum Elevation: 860'
1No GPS. The data above is from tracking on Google Earth.Drive Time: 2hrs 20 minutes
I got up at 7:20, but had woken up about an hour earlier than yesterday, just laying in bed. I am the first one up. Sherri has not been able to get into Facebook on this trip. Every password I have for her does not match what her memory says. So I check to see if there is anything I can do to help.
By about 9, everybody is up. We go to the Sassy Onion. I splurge, at least as far as my blood sugars, and get the chocolate chip pancakes. While the pancakes themselves are sort of bland, I am savoring the chocolate covering with the whipped cream. The rest get bountiful helpings of peachy stuffed French toast, apple cinnamon swirl and a spicy biscuit. All are content.
 |
| Examining a tree |
 |
| Sherri and Andrea in the Rose Garden |
We left the parking area, crossed a road and walked on a paved path for a short way. The Park has their trees identified as to their variety. So we are going to constantly look from the tag to see if our guesses are right. Most of the time, mine are not. After a short time on the paved path, we transition to the Maple Trail which is graveled over. Looks like on this park’s trails we will “never walk alone” as the gospel song says. There are many dogs with their people. Some of which we recognize later on.
 |
| Rose and Autumn |
We descend down to the archery range where we find shooters practicing. Also there is a small group of people who have swords and shields just standing around. It would have been interesting to see them play their weapons, but we travel on.
We continue to follow the trail further on. We then get to the Rose Garden. Sherri, Lawrence and Andrea browse through all the flowers. I am content to do a token browse and then observe the three. The garden is divided up into several sections, some with names others with more function. And of course each needs to be explored. As expected from a test garden, there are all kinds of roses. One particular fascinating one was a black rose. Then again, there was a very large purple bloom which caught our attention. Even though we spent about an hour exploring, we only did about half of the garden.
Before
moving on out of the garden, we saw a cat
statue.
Lawrence and Andrea posed by it. Like San Francisco’s hearts, They
are modeled after Neil
Gaiman’s Caraline
book’s cat-it maybe the movie. Portland has these scattered
throughout the city. Only a few are not downtown.
Lawrence, Andrea and the Cat
Now, it is time to head out. We go south, towards the tea garden, but circle to the west of it. This takes us back onto the Wildwood Trail. You know all of the downhill we just did getting to the Rose Garden? It is time to start climbing again. This may be part of the magic of this park. We are walking within 50 yards of a busy road, but it seems like we are in our own private world here. Only a few people do we meet. We know there are people around as when we get to the top of one of the climbs. There are houses to the left of us. They seem like an intrusion into this world. But then later, looking at a map, I see how close we are to the city on both sides of us. Still, it is a marvelous trail.
 |
| Redwoods |
We crossed a couple of roads and made our way to the Redwood Observation Deck. Now we get people. Apparently this is a big thing. We find ourselves a couple of benches and eat our lunch. While the City’s web site does not explicitly say this, I suspect these redwoods were probably planted. Still they look like they are doing pretty well. With the warming we are having, maybe this will be the new native area for redwoods.
After lunch we take a swing around and continue our trek back to the car. We get on Bray Lane and walk that for a ways. Interestingly, out in the middle of no place is a working outhouse. I will just leave it at that. At the end of Bray Lane is an interesting meadow-maybe part of Hoyt Arboretum. We do not go in there, but find the parking lot for Hoyt. Then cross FairView Blvd.
 |
| Area around Hoyt |
We find another path which leads us back to the Wildwood Trail. After crossing Knights Blvd, again, we are faced with some steep stairs, without railings. So down we go, one step at a time. Andrea and Lawrence wait for us at the bottom. From here, it is just a short walk to some blessed relief: the car.
IKEA
After
a few minutes, we get the car loaded and then take off for IKEA
with
Lawrence driving. It is not far. We wander through the warehouse.
Sherri's interest at the moment is organizing our pantry. But I do
not think she sees anything which looks magical to her. After our
wandering, Andrea and Lawrence make their purchase-I think the
Washington Park adventure was just a disguise to use our vehicle.
They are buying a kitchen island. When it comes out, we struggle to
get it inside the car, but manage to do so.
Left Behind Stuff
Then
Lawrence drives us back to Salem. Then another good dinner is cooked
and we are content. Sherri and I get our stuff together for
tomorrow’s trip. Lawrence and Andrea will be going to work in the
morning. So no late night games. Except,
Lawrence decides to put together the scooter we got for Andrea. Of
course, being a good engineer, you have to make sure it is put
together well and he gives it a test spin. Just
a normal bedtime for me. Sherri follows shortly afterwards.
Extra Photo's
 |
| Lawrence, Sherri, and Andrea climbing out of Rose Garden |
 |
| Andrea and Sherri |
 |
| Sherri and Andrea examining roses |
 |
| Lawrence and Andrea coming down the trail |
 |
| Trees of the park |
Flowers and Plants
No comments:
Post a Comment