Category: Urban Hike

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Vancouver Waterfront with Tom

Lori put together another Tom Walk, this time over in Vancouver, WA. Lori, Marilyn, Barbara, Wendy, Tom and I met at the Pearson Air Museum at Fort Vancouver. From there we preceded on our normal route of going pass Fort Vancouver, over the Confluence Bridge, under the I5 bridge to walk along the Vancouver Waterfront Trail. At the end of the is a group of picnic tables and we stopped there for a bit to eat. After our stop we headed to to Esther Short Park and over the Evergreen St. Bridge back to Fort Vancouver. Our last bit was to walk along Officers Row and back to our cars. This was about a 4.5 mile walk.

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Exploring the Ch’ak Ch’ak Trail

I found this trail on a map several months ago and got time to check it out. They are doing a formal opening of the Ch’ak Ch’ak Trail next month but is was finished in June. It is a bike and pedestrian in the Troutdale industrial area and is on top the dike along the Sandy River. I did an 8.25 mile out and back and had Chinook Landing Marine Park as my turn around spot.

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Visit to Vedanta

An exploration of The Vedanta Retreat. This Ashrama has been a spiritual site since the land was acquired by Vedanta Society of Portland in 1936. It is open to the general public but has rules that must be followed. It is a lovely quit setting for a peaceful walk but is also filled with 16 shrines and a number of meditation site. We went to see the shrines and to enjoy several view spot in the retreat.

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Exploring new trails in Forest Park

The middle section of Forest Park has a maze of trails and firelanes. I have not fully explored this section of the Park so I started today with my first hike to discover what is here. I started at the, never visited before, Springville parking lot. I head down Firelane 7 to the Trillion Trail. The Trillion Trail is a short steep rugged that drop quickly down to the Wildwood Trail. I headed South down the Wildwood trail to Saltzman Rd. I saw several bike riders heading up Saltzman Rd. as I was heading down. Where Saltzman meets Leif Erikson Dr. I headed down Quarry Trail, a little used and brushy trail that took me to the Maple trail and my lowest elevation point. I took the Maple Trail back up to meet the Leif Erikson Dr. and on over to Firelane 7a. The last stretch was Firelane 7a to Firelane 7 and back to my car.

I hike 7.5 miles with 450 ft. elevation gain.

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Wildwood Trail North

It was going to be a hot day so Lori, Jeanette and I decide to make this outing short and easy. We started from Newberry Rd. trailhead and did about a 4 mile out and back on the Wildwood Trail. The north end of Forest Park has more of feel that you are out in the woods. Afterwards we went for lunch at Rock Creek Tavern and enjoyed sitting out on the patio having drinks and food.