Reed Canyon & Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens.

I feel the need to write about this walk because it's where I started out a month ago. Unemployed and sick of staying inside, I ventured out to take a walk around Reed Canyon and its surroundings, as described in the book Portland Hill Walks by Laura Foster. On the drive there, of course, it started raining, and by the time I got out of the car, it was coming down pretty good, and I ventured down the trail for approximately fifteen minutes before the mud had soaked through to my socks and I had risked the life of my camera by attempting a few shots. I turned around, deflated, and wet. The next week, when it was only drizzling a little bit, I headed out to the Columbia River Gorge and attempted a hike around Latourell Falls. Fully prepared with gloves, hat, and scarf, I hardly felt the rain and was walking along the trail confidently for twenty minutes or so when I came to an area in the trail which had been completely wiped out by a mini, rain-induced mudslide. After contemplating a way around it for ten minutes before deciding that it wasn't really worth my possible death, I turned around. I then started this journal, and was going to entitle the first real entry, 'Hiking in Oregon in winter is hard.'

Today I returned to Reed Canyon, and successfully completed the entire loop, and feel quite proud about it - not because it was particularly strenuous, but because of the fact that I returned to it at all. Generally, when I don't finish something, I'll say, "I'll come back to it and finish it later," and then of course, I rarely do. But I did! Now I just have to return to Latourell Falls and I'll be super duper proud of myself. (ETA over a year later: I eventually did!)

Although the Gorge hikes I've taken recently have been wonderful, full-of-nature hikes, there is something just as satisfying in taking a walk through your back yard. I also feel like not enough people take good, long walks through their own neighborhoods, which is probably why I felt more peace and quiet today at times than I did on the unquestionably popular Gorge trails.

Reed Canyon, in southeast Portland by 39th and Woodstock, along the edge of Reed College, is not really a canyon. Or if it is, it is a really, really wimpy one. Mainly, it is a marshland created by Crystal Springs Creek, which leads into Reed Lake. Wetlands are really pretty spectacular places: on top of being incredibly ecologically important, harboring huge amounts of wildlife and acting as efficient storm barriers, they are also, most of the time, just really pretty, and, well, neat. Uh, wow, nerd alert. I love swamps! Okay, moving on.

Leading off from the main trail were a series of boardwalks going over the marshiness, and for whatever reason, there is not much that makes me happier when taking a walk than a good boardwalk. So, for those keeping score so far: I love swamps! And I love boardwalks that go over swamps! It does not take much to make me happy!

This, by the way, is skunk cabbage. It smells like skunk. Yet, it was exciting to me because 1) it was really big and yellow, and I had no idea what it was, but then 2) I actually researched it afterwards to find out what it was. (I found out on this excellent resource.) This is really something of note, in a nerdy kind of way, because in all my years of loving the outdoors, I know very little actual names of plants and wildlife, and this has always bothered me on some level. I know your basic trees, your basic flowers, but I have always wanted to be that person who can walk through the woods and say, "You see that? That is a blahblahblah, oh and this, this is a soandso, and look at all of those thingamajigs over there!" (Yes, my dreams and ambitions ARE exciting.) In short: I learned something! Yay me!

What up, wildlife! I am pretty positive this is a beaver. It was kind of far away, so I quickly zoomed in with my camera and got this highly artistic shot. However, after some quick Googling, there is a debate in my mind as to whether this strange thing is a beaver or a nutria. (Nutria = one of the largest rodent species in the world.) After examining many pictures, I have determined that beavers and nutria look pretty much the same (except for the tail, which I did not really see/photograph), and since both exist in Reed Canyon, I have no idea what this is, except for knowing that it is more exciting regardless than any other wildlife I've seen on my forays so far (i.e., squirrels).

The marshy wetlands soon widened out to a pleasant walk along a remarkably calm Crystal Springs Creek. The water was full of fallen logs and ducks and geese, but other than that, was so completely still that it was one of the most peaceful moments I've had in weeks. I'd go back in a second.

After meandering my way out of Reed Canyon, I walked across the street to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens. I had to pay $3 to get in, but it was definitely worth the $3, which I think is saying something when most of the flowers aren't even in bloom yet. It was simply a really nicely designed garden, slightly reminding me of Boston's Public Gardens with the pretty bridge walking over the neatly manicured pond - filled with more ducks than I may have ever seen in one place before - accompanied by a dramatic weeping willow. Aside from the really impressive amount of ducks and the pretty little waterfalls along the trails, the really impressive part of this place was, of course, the rhododendrons.

There were quite a few bushes in full bloom - impressive in itself, being that it's only early, early March - whose prettiness was heightened by the recent rain and hence raindrops clinging to every petal. There were also daffodils blooming everywhere, as they seem to be blooming all over the city, along with some lily of the valley and a few other small flowers whose name I didn't know but which were quite nice. But there were so, so many bushes not yet in bloom that I could only imagine in my head what it would look like at the height of the season. Perhaps the reason I was so enchanted with it is because of a road in my hometown - the steep and curvy Shiny Mountain Road, to be exact, in Greentown, Pennsylvania - where, for just one or two weeks a year, the woods on both side of the road are absolutely covered in pink from all the rhododendron bushes. It is magical, I tell you. Accordingly, I can only imagine the gardens must be outstanding.

After leaving the gardens, the rest of the walk was mainly wandering around streets on or around the Reed College campus.

The one thing of note was one side street which was lined with an impressive row of elm trees. For some reason, I was under the impression that Dutch elm disease had pretty much done away with this species in North America, but I guess on the West Coast at least, there are a decent amount still hanging on, although each year still more have to be cut down. (Perhaps I was confusing elms with the plight of the American Chestnut.) Regardless, these are some big trees, which definitely gave the little street a kind of magical quality. Other streets around the Rhododendron Gardens and Reed were also lined with giant sequoias. I am still adjusting to this fact, that I can randomly see giant sequoias every day now without even looking for them.

Back at SE Woodstock, I finished off my long walk with lunch at the Laughing Planet, where I have found my favorite burrito since Anna's Taqueria in Boston. Although considering the Che Guevera burrito at the Laughing Planet contains barbeque sauce, plantains and sweet potatoes, it's not even really in the same category as the smooshed cheese and grease of my favorite Anna's dish, but since they both call themselves burritos, I'll compare them anyway. Then I hopped on the bus, and went home.

Info: The entrance to Reed Canyon where I started my walk is located off SE Reedway Street, near the intersection of 39th and Woodstock in SE Portland. Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens are located at 28th and Woodstock. Hours and fee vary according to the time of year; according to the Portland Parks & Recreation website, they only charge a fee on Thursday-Monday from March until Labor Day; the rest of the year, and the earlier days in the week, are free. Restrooms and water fountains available.

Post-hike chow-down: Laughing Planet Cafe has multiple locations in the Portland area along with one in Eugene; the location closest to this walk is near 39th and Woodstock. General prices for bowls, burritos, salads, and quesadillas generally run in the $5/$6 range. Beer, delicious smoothies, and dessert selections also available. Open seven days a week.

Hello.

Hello there! The first sentence of a new blog is hard. So I'll get right to it: I'd like to use this blog to document my hiking adventures in the Pacific Northwest.

There are a few reasons for this. I have been adjusting to a lot of change recently - new location, new job, deaths in my family, etc. Either in addition to or because of these things, I have struggled with increasing feelings of mid-twenties/post-college confusion and self-doubt as of late. To help improve my state of mind, I've been looking for something to distract myself from myself: a new hobby. I have always been interested in hiking, and my girlfriend Kathy and I were able to hit a few great spots when we had just arrived in Portland last fall: Tryon Creek State Park, Powell Butte, and of course, Mt. Tabor.

Since then, our first winter in the Northwest - which mainly consists of rain or grey skies all the time - along with slightly busier schedules have been keeping us inside. At the start of the new year, I quit my job, which prompted a three week period of unemployment until someone else finally hired me. Although the time off was certainly enjoyable in some ways, three weeks of sitting around the house also made me slightly depressed and stir crazy and really, really drove home the fact that I missed the great outdoors. Also during this time I read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, which, in the sad case you haven't read it, details his adventures while attempting to hike the Appalachian Trail. I've read almost all of Bryson's books and pretty much love the guy. He manages to be extremely informative while at the same time being constantly hilarious, interesting, and overall down to earth. He also really, really made me want to take a walk in the woods.

And so I figured, the heck with it. I'd start hiking again, even if it was winter. And I'd be serious about it, make goals.

Hiking, and making this blog, also fulfill two other motives I've been lacking in recently.
1) I am not a very healthy person lately. I eat too much - specifically, I often have an inexhaustible appetite for ice cream - and never exercise. I was part of a wonderful gym in Boston (where we lived prior to our move to Oregon) which really made going there almost like a treat, but all of the gyms I've looked into in Portland remind me of big metal boxes full of intimidating machines and they just don't inspire me much to leave the comfort of my cozy apartment. Hiking, though, does.
2) I need to write more. And by "more" I really mean write anything at all, but also write more about my surroundings, about the life and the world around me, not just the muddling conflicts of my own head.

I moved to Oregon of my own will, one of the most beautiful places in the country, but I already know I won't be here forever. Other forces - mainly, my desire to be closer to my family - will draw me back to the East Coast eventually. I want to be able to say that I really lived in Oregon, didn't just work here and inhabit an apartment here for awhile. So I'm starting my exploration of this wonderful state in two chunks: the Columbia River Gorge, and Forest Park. Hopefully my first few entries will revolve around them, with some other random wanderings in between.