Treks and Adventures
This was a scouting walk of a new trail. We had another day of nice weather and I wanted to take advantage of with an exploratory walk. This one got me down to the water, Maltnomah Channel in Scappoose. A chance to see water crafts, docks and house boats on one side and agriculture on the other. This was a five mile walk out and back.
An exploratory walk to find a route for doing Memorial Park and Boones Ferry Park.
A walk at the Salmon Creek Greenway with Lori and Jeanette. We started by walking around Klinrline Pond and then went East to see the pond on the other side of the freeway. We then went West through the wetlands to a trail junction and returned to the car. Afterwards we went to McHonely’s Public House for lunch.
This was a scouting of a new walk and it was a good thing I was scouting this as it had several surprises. The first came as the park I planned to park at was almost gone because of construction on the 205 bridge over the Willamette. I had a backup plan to park a Clackamas Park but I found the gate closed and my third backup spot was post with authorized vehicles only signs. I almost gave up but then I tried going to the top of the walk loop in Gladstone and had no problem finding parking in Cross Park. So I started off doing the loop in a different order then planned.
The loop follows along a paved trail along the Clackamas River. It connects through a series of small parks and green ways with some city street walking. The river was running high so I had to make some small deterrers around some spots that were flooded but over all it was good trail. I found the loop had a lot of interesting things to see and one I need to return to with a better camera to explore photographically. Of course the fog on the river help create a great visual atmosphere.
I did 4 miles in two hours. Lots stops for photos and to go explore side trails. I found the folks walking the trail this morning the friendliest I have experience on my walks.
We were prepared for rain but it turn out to be a dry day with mild temperature. We wanted to do something that was close by and this was one that Lori had not been to. For Jeanette this regular stomping grounds so she took the lead on this one. Not a regular for Sylvia but she had been there before. When I did my exploratory of the park the real winter wet season had not arrived. This time you could see why this is a wetland and the reason for all of the elevated pathways and bridges. We had some major wind and ice storms a week before but this forested area fair pretty well with just a couple of trees down. After our 4 mile walk we went to McMenamins Grand Lodge Lodge for lunch. We first had some concerns when we saw the menu but finally figured out by splitting a pizza and finding a good beer it was all affordable. After lunch we had fun exploring the lodge and finding the secret passage way.
