September 25, 2011 - Hike 11

Saltzman Road Section of Wildwood Trial - A little over 5 miles


You can hook up to the Wildwood Trail at about mile 12 from Saltzman Road. Turn onto Saltzman Road from Skyline Blvd. Drive approximately 1/4mile to a gate. Walk through the gate that is more toward the right (Not Fire lane 5). You will begin hiking down an old road for approximately 1 mile before coming to where the Wildwood Trail intersects the road. We took the trail to the right. This took us up hill to the treeline. It was a beautiful area to hike on a rainy day. As the wind blew we could hear water dripping from leaf to leaf in the trees. It was very quiet and peaceful on this day. We only crossed paths with a couple of other people during our hike..

On Saturday we had been to a talk sponsored by Oregon Humanities at Cooper Mtn. Park. Matt McCormick (an independent film maker) spoke about photographing the beauty in nature. He talked about looking down, under things, and getting a perspective that is different that what you normally would see. My hiking partner, Ken, and I had fun snapping pictures on the trail. Below are a few of the beautiful things we found by changing our perspective.

Moss covered tree

Mold growing on an old tree

Fern

September 24th - Hike 10

Tyron Creek State Park - Approximately 4 miles

Who needs to hug a tree when you can become one with the tree! Once inside the tree, you can look up and see the sky. It was amazing.

Tyron Creek State Park is a 645 acre park in Southwest Portland between Boones Ferry Road and Terwilliger Blvd. This area was heavily logged in the late 1800s but has since returned as a beautiful natural area with big alders, doug firs, red cedars and big leaf maples. The big trees are great habitat for many species of birds.

This is a great park for people with little kids. If you visit the visitor's center, they have back packs for the kids to use in the park. Inside the back pack there are fun nature activities, a book about nature, flash cards about what they can see in the park, etc. All you need to do is leave a deposit, which I think is only $2.

I loved seeing all the toddlers running through the park with their parents. They are so cute, arms flying about as they run and squeal with delight. I actually tried it out myself. No really! I did. The picture below proves it. I felt like Phoebe in Friends when she took up running in Central Park.

Well, that makes 10 hikes, 40 to go!

September 17, 2011 - Hike 9

Lower Macleay Park - Approximately 3 miles





















Our first hike in the rain was done at Lower Macleay Park. To get to the park in NW Portland go up Thurman Ave. Turn right on NW 28th, then an immediate left onto Upshur. The park is 3 blocks up at the end of Upshur. 

This is a lovely 3 mile round trip hike from Lower Macleay Park to Upper Macleay Park. The trail follows a picturesque creek for most of the trip. It is amazing that you are minutes from the city but quickly leave all of that behind. The trail was fairly well sheltered from the rain. It did not get muddy on this first rainy day of September.

Once you arrive at Upper Macleay Park, you can take a trail to the Audubon Society. There are more hiking trails that we will probably hike some weekday evening. There is a good sized gift shop and an area where they take care of injured birds. Interestingly, there were a couple of American Kestrels that now have a home at the Society. A sign on the side asked for donations stating that it costs $4,600 per year per bird to keep at the Society. Can you believe that! $9,200 for the pair.

On the way back to Lower Macleay Park, we found a cute caterpiller that reminded me of my kids when they were little. They loved to collect these in the hope that they would make a cocoon and turn into a butterfly.  Fun memories and a very nice rainy Saturday hike.

September 11, 2011 - Hike 8

Fernhill Wetlands, Hillsboro Approximately 2 miles














The grounds of Fernhill Wetlands were sculpted for water storage. They have dams, islands, snags and bird boxes. The wetland restoration included many native plants. The ponds are very rectangular in shape so they do not really look naural. The picture above was taken strategically to make it look more natural. The hiking trail is really a gravel road and on this day was very exposed to the sun. It was about 82 degrees while we were hiking at about 11 am.

This wetland area was not nearly as nice as Jackson Bottoms. There were many birds though. Mostly mallards, geese and blue herons. We did see a couple of killdeer here as well. At one point I saw one of the blue heron with a big fish and watched it swallow it whole. Amazing that such a narrow throat can hold such a big fish.

Blue Heron in Pond

Blue Heron Taking off

Overall not such an interesting hike. Though, it would be interesting to visit during bird migration season. I read that Peregrin falcons and bald eagles were sighted in years past.

September 11, 2011 - Hike 7

Jackson Bottom Wetland Preserve
Approximately 2.5 miles













Jackson Bottom Wetland Preserve is a 650- acre wildlife preserve in Hillsboro. The trail has interpretive information and it appears that there are summer programs for kids. Jackson Bottom is a very expansive wetland that includes open waters, wet meadows and forested wetlands.

Near the eastern boundary there is a blue heron colony. The signs near the colony stated that they nest in the the upper branches of the Douglas Fir trees but even with binoculars we did not see any nests. We did see many blue heron along with white egrets, mallards, killdeer, red winged blackbirds, canadian geese and many, many nutria.

Blue Heron

We also passed a beautiful apple tree with very tart delicious apples. The hiking was not so great, but the bird watching was fantastic.

Bird Box

August 3, 2011 - Hike 6

Ramona Falls - Mt Hood
Approximately 7 mile loop.













This was an exciting hike. It is the only time I have ever been evacuated from a trail. We started at the lower parking lot at a short riverside path that takes you about 1.2 miles to the Ramona Falls Trail. The day was sunny and clear with a little haze. The trail is usually traversed counter clockwise but after looking through our guide book decided to do it clockwise. This turned out to be a good idea. because the eastern part of the trail follows a creek upstream. By going upstream you get to see the many smaller waterfalls in the creek.

It was cool and the air felt fresh in the thick lodgepole pine forest. By following the east side of the loop trail to get to the falls, you will follow the mossy bank of Ramona Creek until you reach Ramona Falls. It is probably about 3.6 miles from the lower parking lot to the Falls.

My hiking partner hanging out by Ramona Creek

Ramona Falls is one of the prettiest falls I have seen. It has a very lacy look to it which is caused by the specific geology of the area. The basalt cooled slowly enough that when it fractures, it creates hexagonal columnar forms. When they eroded to form the falls, they created a stairstep pattern that the water flows over. Water seems to flow down similar to a marble galton board. You probably have seen the galton boards but may not know the name of it, it looks like the image below:

Just like the galton board, the water seems to bounce around until reaching the pool at the bottom of the falls.

See how it looks similar to the galton board above :)



 After we left the falls to return on the west side of the loop, the shadows in the forest started to change. It seemed as if it were nearly sunset. I had my hiking partner check his watch and it really was only noon. When we entered a clearing, we saw that the sun was being obscured by a huge cloud of smoke. We were also noticing ash falling from the sky.

Soon our noses and eyes began to burn. Luckily we were only about a mile and a half from the parking lot. When we were within 1/2 mile from the parking lot, a ranger came to evacuate the trail. The smoke and ash from the fires near Mt. Hood were being carried in a different direction than expected that morning. Once at the car, we noticed it was covered in ash. On the way out of the hiking area we saw that they had blocked the entrance with caution tape and had rangers and a fire patrol truck preventing anyone from entering the area.

Overall, this was a good hike but extremely popular. That meant more people than I usually like around when I hike. The falls were very beautiful though and the trail was relatively flat. And now I can add the experience of being evacuated on my list of memories.

September 2, 2011 - Hike 5

Cape Falcon - Oswald West State Park - 5 mile round trip.

My friend suggested this hike and after looking it up, I knew I had to do it. I love the beach and hiking so being able to do both in one day was fantastic.

Start at the Cape Falcon trailhead which is a bit past the 39 mile marker on Highway 101. There seemed to be plenty of parking but our hike was on a Friday so the weekends it might fill up early. The early part of the hike is in a forested area filled with huge spruce trees. At first you can hear the highway noise from 101 but about 1/4 mile in it is replaced by the sounds of the forest.

At about 1/2 mile in you will come to a junction that will take you to the beach to the left and to Cape Falcon to the right. At this point you get a good view of Smuggler Cove. By the looks of all the people in the water with boards, this must be a pretty good place to surf. We counted about 38 surfers in the water at one point.

At about the midway point, 1-1/4 miles in, there appears to be an ancient landslide. You can see the bedding layers of sand and some mud. The land has been pushed up tectonically so the beds are sloping at about a 35 degree angle. For those interested, it is worth spending a few minutes looking for the unconformity. I did not get a good picture of it, but below is a picture from the web of the same type of unconformity.
Sediments are generally deposited horizontally so when you see this type of feature it indicates something tectonically happened between the two periods of deposition. Geology folks thinks this is pretty cool.

As you near Cape Falcon, you will come to a place where there is a side trail to the left to an overlook of the ocean with nice views to the south. After the view point, the main trail crosses a small stream, and makes the final ascent to Cape Falcon.

The junction to Cape Falcon is to the left and the trail to the cape was almost completely covered with Salal making it hard to see. It appeared to be a just a break in the salal but upon further inspection it was the trail. Other hikers before us thought the trail ended. But if you keep going past the what appears to be trails end you will find the break in the salal. I would suppose that we just happened to hike when the salal has been left for a while. It appears that someone must come through and cut the salal every now and then to maintain a way to the point. As you continue through the salal you will come to a point where you have to duck very low to get under the tree branches but it is well worth the work. When you get to the point of the cape it is fantastic. We were all alone and all we could see was ocean, rocks, birds and a sea lion. The sounds of the waves crashing was incredible. We took a seat and within a few minutes I almost fell asleep because it was so peaceful and relaxing. We stayed for about 45 minutes before returning the way we came. 

Overall, I would rate this as one of my favorite hikes I have done in Oregon so far. It is a relatively easy hike with very little elevation change. The guide book rates it as a moderate hike with about a 300 foot elevation gain.

My hiking partner.

August 31, 2011 - Hike 4

Cooper Mountain Nature Park - 3 mile hike after work.












Having a beautiful park to go hiking afterwork is such a wonderful part of living in Oregon. Cooper Mountain Nature Park in Beaverton is a very special park surrounded by both old and new neighborhoods. The 230 acre park is at the edge of Beaverton at the top of Kemmer Road. The park overlooks the Tualatin Valley.

GRASS PRARIE



What I especially like about this park is that it has a variety of environments. As you can see from the picture above that I took at the edge of the park, there is a beautiful grass prarie. Within 1/2 mile from the parking lot, you enter into a conifer forest.

 CONIFER FOREST

Once you go through the forest, you will find yourself in oak woodlands. Some evenings, if you are lucky you may see deer or even a coyote. There has even been a bobcat spoted and photographed in the park.





OAK WOODLAND

There were very few people at the park on this Wednesday night. It was a pleasant place to process the days work and relax before returning home.