Cheesman Park Monday, May 18, 2009

The pavilion in Denver's Cheesman Park was built with money donated by the widow of Denver pioneer Walter Cheesman about 100 years ago.

I was in Colorado on business last weekend, with jobs Friday evening, Saturday morning and Sunday morning. That left a fair bit of time in between to explore Denver and the Front Range (as the area is known). I love exploring new places, so there was lots to see.

If you've never been to the Mile High City (like me, before Friday), the geography is pretty strange: the city itself is very flat. But immediately west of the city, WHAM! Mountains, with a capital M.

From the pavilion in Cheesman Park (in central Denver), apparently you can see mountains 150 miles away. I've lived near mountains since I came to the United States seven years ago, first in Nevada and now here in Oregon. But the Colorado mountains are a lot different than those where I've lived. In northern Nevada, the mountains are described as "basin and range," with wide flat valleys between long ranges of mountains. Here in Oregon, the Cascade range is a series of large, widely-spaced volcanic peaks amongst a series of lower hills. In Colorado, though, the mountains are a seemingly continuous field of rugged snowcapped crags packed in as densely as possible. But for photos from up in the mountains you'll have to wait until the next post.

Coldwater Lake Tuesday, April 14, 2009

My brother Stuart came out here to visit over the Easter weekend (he works for the federal government in Canada, so it was a four-day weekend for him), so we did a bunch of touring around. The weather wasn't particularly cooperative—sometimes dry, but almost continuously overcast—but I tried to show him some of the best sights anyway.

[left] Some 40 feet (713 m) long and 370 feet (113 m) above its namesake stream, the Hoffstadt Creek Bridge is the highest and longest of the 14 bridges on Washington State Route 504, better known as the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway. The bridge was built in 1991.

The "big ticket" point on the itinerary was Saturday's trip to the Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. It is still a bit early in the season, but at least it was pretty quiet. The last seven miles of the highway and the two visitor centers closest to the mountain were closed. But we were able to park at Coldwater Lake and hike around there. Still, even though we were just 7 miles from the rim of the crater, we barely got a glimpse of the mountain through the low cloud cover.

[right] Perrie poses at a viewpoint near the southwest end of Coldwater Lake. [below] Coldwater Lake was formed by the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens when a landslide dammed Coldwater Creek. The hillsides around the lake are covered in the stumps of trees killed when the mountain exploded. Much of the timber in the blast zone was recovered by logging crews shortly after the event.















[right] Standing on a tree stump, Stuart photographs the scene inside the blast zone.

As we started our walk, we found a sign warning that there had been reports of a mountain lion in the area. It didn't take long for us to find evidence of our own (below). It was readily apparent why a mountain lion would be present, as plenty of elk clearly were as well. (below right). Soon enough, we had direct evidence of both creatures coming in contact with each other right beside the trail.



[left] Perrie and Stuart capture a nearly-complete elk skeleton found beside the Coldwater Lake trail. Almost all of the major bones were there, and the carcass was fresh enough that some cartilage and colour remained on the bones. [below] Perrie studies the animal's anatomy. [below left] The skull was missing, but the jaws remained.





















[left] I believe this is a mark left by an elk rubbing his antlers against the tree. If you click on the picture for a closer look, you can see hairs trapped in the bark and sap.

(On the way back to I-5, we saw a herd of more than a dozen elk grazing on a hillside high above the highway. Too far away for a decent photo without my telephoto lens.)

Cherry blossoms Monday, April 06, 2009

Sunday, the temperature in Portland hit 70°F (21°C) for the first time this year—on a weekend, no less—and everybody was out to enjoy the weather. Walking, jogging, cycling, scootering, sitting, rollerblading, playing soccer, basketball, football ... just about any outdoor activity you can imagine.

After a picnic and some Frisbee at Blue Lake Park, Perrie and I wandered around the bustling Portland Saturday Market (which is open Sundays too) and then walked along the Willamette in Tom McCall Waterfront Park with seemingly half of Portland.

At the north end of the park, the rows of akebono cherry trees in full bloom were gorgeous.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Monday, March 23, 2009

On Sunday afternoon, Perrie and I braved the rain to check out Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, in Washington about 25 miles north of downtown Portland.

We were fortunate that it stayed basically dry for our whole visit, even verging on sunshine at one point, although we did get caught in a brief downpour on the way back to the car.

The refuge is a 5,150-acre preserve in a swampy stretch of land in the floodplain of the Columbia River. We visited the "Carty unit" because it is the only one with a year-round trail. (The "River-S unit" has a driving loop and seasonal trail; the other three units are not open to the public.)

Birds and other wildlife abound, particularly during migration seasons. However, neither my lens nor my patience were long enough to get any particularly good wildlife shots, so you'll have to trust my description.

In the refuge we saw bald eagles, owls, several different types of ducks, a great blue heron and various sparrows and thrushes, as well as the standard robins, scrub jays (below right), crows, and hundreds of Canada geese (right).

The highlight, though, were the Trumpeter Swans. Apart from a cluster in the Yellowstone area, this is about as far south as these huge birds (up to 72" from tip to tail) venture. They summer in Alaska and the Yukon, and their winter range is mostly along the coast of British Columbia. We found a flock of a couple dozen of the big white birds idling in a shallow pond just north of the refuge boundary. They seemed very shy, staying mostly out of sight behind a hummock, and never venturing within a couple hundred yards of our position.

The trail is nominally a two-mile loop, but there are numerous side-trails and bypasses. I think we walked all of them on Sunday afternoon. It's generally well-marked.

There are numerous plaques along the way identifying trees and plants (including Poison Oak), but it was often hard to figure out which piece of vegetation the labels refered to. We didn't touch any of them.

The only bad thing about the refuge, from a people-perspective at least, is that the trail (which barely enters the park at all) is almost right next to the main rail line between Seattle and Portland. In our brief visit, the pleasant stillness of the forest was routinely interrupted by the heavy rumble of freight and passenger trains. Not much you can do about that, I suppose, but it was rather a distraction. Still, I look forward to a return visit in the summer when the weather is nicer.

Another chilly Sunday, another cool park Saturday, January 17, 2009

Perrie O'Tierney walks under trees covered with Methuselah's Beard moss Jan. 11 at Tualatin Hills Nature Park in Beaverton, Ore.

Last Sunday Perrie and I drove out to Beaverton to check out Tualatin Hills Nature Park. It was a pretty arbitrary choice—I picked it because it was the biggest park on the west side of Portland. It turned out to be the perfect place for a morning walk.

The 222-acre greenspace is right in the middle of Beaverton, with a convenient MAX (light rail) stop at the northern edge of the park. It is well-developed, with about 1-½ miles of paved and 3 miles of unpaved trails, all well-signed. The park contains a variety of forests, ponds and a large trail-less wildlife preserve area.

It also has an interpretive center with interactive exhibits and a classroom that, I suspect, is well-used by the local schools during the week.

I didn't bring my camera with me, but Perrie had her point-and-shoot so we took turns with it. These photos are a mix of hers (e.g. at right) and mine (e.g. above).

All around the park are signs warning visitors not to step on—or even touch—the newts. Since it was somewhat less than 50°F we didn't expect to see any, but sure enough we found one on the trail just before we got back to the interpretive center. It was moving ... very ... slowly, trying to eat a tiny worm (that's what appears to be a cigar in the second picture). Eventually the salamander won.

[left] Matthew works his magic on some hapless individual.

Rough-skinned newts are a type of North American salamander with particularly poisonous skin. They are probably not toxic to the touch, but certainly would be if ingested. I suspect that is why dogs are not allowed in the park. You can read more about the newts and their poison here.

Kelley Point Park Sunday, January 04, 2009

This morning was cold and grey—but dry—so Perrie and I went for a walk around Kelley Point Park in North Portland. The park is named for the point which, in turn, is named for Hall Jackson Kelley (1790-1874), a New Englander who visited Oregon in 1834 and advocated for the settlement of the territory in the early 1800s. Read more about it here.

It is located right at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. The main trail is paved and very flat, so it was easy walking.

Winter comes to Portland Sunday, December 14, 2008

A couple walks through the South Park Blocks in downtown Portland, Ore., Sunday afternoon as a snowstorm dumped more than 3" of the white stuff on the Rose City. Weather forecasters expect area temperatures to remain below freezing throughout the week.

A severe winter storm slammed into the Northwest Sunday morning, dropping temperatures well below freezing and dumping inches of snow on the area, even down to the valley floors. Additional snow is expected Sunday night, and again on Wednesday or Thursday.

Travel is treacherous as roads across the region are snow-covered and icy. Several sections of major highways and freeways have been closed at different times throughout the day, and ODOT is requiring drivers to use chains or traction tires on all state highways in the Portland area until at least Monday morning.

Most schools in the area will be closed on Monday, and many other events have been postponed or canceled.




The streets of downtown Portland were unusually quiet Sunday afternoon. There were shoppers in the malls, but not as many as one might expect on the next-to-last weekend before Christmas.

[below] The snow does make the holly look good.

Playing the tour guide again Thursday, September 04, 2008

Peter and Alison Ginn read stories of the pioneers Sept. 1 at the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Oregon City. The center teaches visitors about the six-month journey that tens of thousands of immigrants made from Missouri between 1843 and the 1870s.

After a couple weeks touring around Crater Lake, Redwoods National Park and the Oregon coast, my parents stopped back here for a couple more days in and around Portland.

We kept busy, filling both days with as many touristy things as we could.

Since Monday was Labor Day, we decided to postpone our trip to the Columbia Gorge until Tuesday, hoping that the crowds would be smaller.

Instead, we spent the morning at the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Oregon City. It looks like they get a lot of school field trips through there, with plenty of hands-on activities for the kids. For the most part though, I found it a bit disappointing considering that it represents such an important part of American history. There were some artifacts there, but the exhibits were really text-heavy.

After we left the Interpretive Center, we found three geocaches near the center. I'll write more on geocaching in another post in the near future.

After lunch and a quick stop at home, it was off to the Portland Japanese Garden. That was definitely worth the price of admission.

Like most of the places I took my parents, this was the first time I'd been to the Japanese Garden. Before going, I guess I thought of Japanese gardens as those flat expanses of combed white sand.

That, of course, was there, but the five-and-a-half acre property has five distinct garden styles. And looking at them, you realize that they each look like Japanese gardens you've seen in a movie or on TV.

The Japanese Garden was designed by Professor Takuma Tono in 1963. According to the garden's brochure, a former ambassador of Japan to the United States described it as "the most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden in the world outside of Japan." The gardens use stone, water and plants to "realize a sense of peace, harmony, and tranquility."

The garden was pretty busy in there; not surprising, I suppose, for a pleasant holiday afternoon. Even so, the sense of tranquility was clearly evident. It would be a great place to go for some quiet contemplation on a weekday afternoon.

Once we'd seen enough of the garden, we wandered around the area looking for more geocaches. We found all three on our list, including one in the International Rose Test Garden, which is right next to the Japanese Garden.

I was impressed with the rose garden, considering that we were about two months past its peak season (June). Here's one of my dad's pictures of the roses.

Campbell Memorial Thursday, June 26, 2008

Portland Firefighter of the Year Tony Snook rings a bell June 26 as the roll is called at the 97th Campbell Memorial Ceremony, which honors firefighters killed in action.Recent research led to the addition of four names to the roll in 2008, bringing the total to 36 who died between 1881 and 1977.

The annual Campbell Memorial Ceremony is named for Chief David Campbell, who was killed when a burning building collapsed June 26, 1911. Every year, Portland firefighters gather at Portland Firefighters Park to honor him and other local firefighters killed in action.

The park sits on a small wedge of land on West Burnside between 18th and 19th streets. The monument was built in the 1920s.

Dignitaries on hand for this year's ceremony included new City Commissioner Nick Fish and Police Chief Rosie Sizer, as well as descendants of some of the firefighters on the roll.

[right] Peter Linsky, President of the David Campbell Memorial, addresses the audience June 26. [below] A couple dozen uniformed firefighters were on hand for the ceremony, along with a handful of police officers and other participants.

MacLeay Park Sunday, June 08, 2008

Ben and Jeremy hike along a trail in Portland's MacLeay Park June 7, 2008.

Late yesterday afternoon, my buddy Ben called me up and said he and Jeremy were going for a hike in Forest Park, did I want to come? I wasn't really up to anything, so I said sure.

It was a cool, grey day, but not raining. Ben picked me and Jeremy up, and drove us about a mile to a trail head for the Lower MacLeay trail at about 29th and Upshur Street.

(MacLeay Park is one section of the 5,100-acre Forest Park in Northwest Portland.)

In spite of its proximity to my apartment, I'd never been to that part of the park. As you hike along Balch Creek you can hardly even tell you're in the city.

The creek is named for Danford Balch, the original settler in the area. Balch, who would become the first person in Portland to be tried and hanged (for the murder of his son-in-law), acquired the 640 acre spread through a Donation Land Claim in 1850. His story reads like something out of Shakespeare—read it here.

The Stone House sits along the Lower MacLeay trail about three-quarters of a mile up Balch Creek. It is often, incorrectly, thought to be the remnants of the Balch family homestead. In fact, it was a public restroom built in the Great Depression but eventually abandoned due to excessive vandalism.

Shortly after we passed the Stone House the trail started climbing steeply. Suddenly we came to a small clearing right next to Cornell Rd., with a trail map and a parking lot. Since we had plenty of energy and daylight left, we decided to press on toward Pittock Mansion.

We crossed the road and found the continuation of the trail, which climbed even more steeply than before. We kept following the trail until it suddenly dumped us out on NW MacLeay Blvd.: way up in the West Hills, but not where we'd expected to be. We must have missed an intersection at some point. Oh well. We headed back down another loop that took us back to Cornell Rd., then back down to Balch Creek and the car.

Balch Creek is one of two year-round streams in Forest Park. It has a native population of trout.

The Nehalem Experience (Part 5) Saturday, April 26, 2008

[left] Sunday morning, Pierce Henley was back in the kitchen again. [below] Joe and Kate Mitchoff enjoy breakfast in the sunshine.














On the way home, Ben, Todd and I stopped at Oswald West State Park (right), just up the coast from Manzanita. It's another nice place to camp (more primitive than Nehalem) and the beach is popular with surfers.

I don't know why the "west" is in the name—there isn't any "Oswald East State Park."

And we were back in town around 3, just in time for Ben and Todd to head off to Footy training.

The Nehalem Experience (Part 4)

Back to the Nehalem saga (see also parts 1, 2, and 3):

After dinner on Saturday night, many of us headed down to the beach to see the sunset. The weather was relatively good (i.e. neither snowing nor raining) but the sunset was pretty blah. Nevertheless, it did seem to put people in a contemplative mood ...


















And then it was back to the meeting hall where a couple of the DJs in the group kept the tunes pumping well into the night.

The Nehalem Experience (Part 3)—Paella! Friday, April 25, 2008

Pierce and Kate sautee onions and tomatoes for Saturday night's paella.

The highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly Saturday night's paella feed. As they do every year, Pierce Henley and Kate Mitchoff cooked up a huge amount of rice, shrimp, scallops, crab legs, vegetables and—new for 2008—chicken and sausage, into a gargantuan feast for everybody. There were about 24 of us at the table, but food enough for 50!

[right] Pierce demonstrates how not to add the rice.

With the precision, coordination, and urgency of a cardio-thoracic surgical team—and a little help from a couple of sous-chefs—Pierce and Kate sauteed, steamed, boiled and baked the concoction to perfection in a pair of garbage can-sized paella pans. The heat was provided by a pair of Pierce's homemade grills.


[right] The chef tests his product. [below] Pierce and Kate check for "socarrat," the caramelization of the bottom layer of rice that is indicative of a perfectly cooked paella.














[left] Monique pulls steaming crab legs out of the pot. [below] Kate and Pierce show off the final product (the crab was added to each plate).











Sorry, no pictures of the crowd enjoying the results—my hands were full of crab!