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Happy Hiker!

Wow, what a hike.  Although the hike was within Portland, you would never know that by looking at most of the hiking trail. Portland is tough to match for natural beauty inside the city limits! After driving to downtown Portland, we cut northwest through the city to where it nestles up against the hills, and Upshur Road comes to its western end--right next to our apartment

This trailhead did give hints about being in the city limits.  Here, still continuing to move to the left from the parking lot, you see some signs about the Forest Park, a covered picnic table, and our balcony with the bridge in the background which allows Thurman Road to continue west into the hills.

Finally, we see the actual trail heading off, momentarily to the south. The bridge hangs low overhead, and a park with some sculptures can be seen in the distance.

Looking up at the bridge on its western end. We could hear what appeared to be spotted sandpiper cooing above us.

Looking south along the Lower Macleay Trail. Off to the left we are approaching Balch Creek. Much of the trail had bare trees, but every once in a while you could see a blooming rhododendron tree, and, of course, there were many green pines. 

There is a small waterfall early in the trail on Balch Creek. This creek is about 5.5 miles long, and empties into the Willamette River to the northeast of this point. The creek was named for Danford Balch, who was a huge landowner of the area early on in Portland's history. He had a large family, and due to a feud with the local Stump family, he ended up killing Mortimer Stump, the oldest Stump boy, after he ran off to Vancouver, across the river, with Balch's 16-year old daughter, to elope. As a result, Danford Balch was the very first man to be legally hanged in Portland. This Creek was the original water supply for the young city of Portland. It is a small stream, but it does flow year-round, and it even has a population of trout in it.

They are constantly working on improving the conditions of the wildlife habitats in Oregon, and inside the city limits the task is the most difficult. One of the reasons for the leash laws on this particular trail is that they don't want the dogs molesting the surrounding environment by digging or trampling the vegetation off the path.

The lush greenery surrounding Balch Creek was just gorgeous! We really enjoyed the sound of the running water, and all the vegetation that looked like it belonged anywhere but inside a city.

A little into the hike, the Lower Macleay Trail joins up with the nearly 30 mile long Wildwood Trail. The Lower Macleay Trail is fairly level, with only a gradual incline. It is a very easy hike. Once we crossed Cornell Road on the Wildwood Trail, things changed and it became a moderate hike as we started up the side of the fairly steep hill, using the Upper Macleay Trail for our ascent.

At the junction of the Lower Macleay and Wildwood trails, there stand the ruins of an old stone house, which was part of the Balch family homestead. The green moss is covering the old stone handrails, lining the stone steps where the Balch and Stump families played out their a la Romeo and Juliet drama back in the 19th century
 

The Wildwood Trail that we are walking goes 24 plus miles into very beautiful Forest Park.  The Hike from our apartment to the Max Station next to the Oregon Zoo was 6 up and down miles!


We had a picnic lunch in the Pittcock Mansion gardens overlooking entire downtown Portland with inevitable Mt. Hood.  Henry Pittock was the owner of the Oregonian newspaper from 1860, one year after Oregon became a state, until 1919 when he died. He was a very wealthy man, as is demonstrated by this mansion, which was completed only 5 years before he died at the age of 78. Both Henry and his wife Georgiana came across the Oregon trail in their youth with their respective families. The mansion was completed in 1914, and 3 generations of Pittocks lived here until 1958. Apparently at that time they just moved out (probably couldn't afford Uncle Sam's exorbitant rent charges) and left it at that time. The citizens of Portland saved it from demolition when they purchased it, restored it, and opened it to the public in 1965.
 

After Lunch we descended to catch a bus and take a shortcut back home-- The bus blew by us and left us standing on the side of the road, with the ominous night approaching.  We continued on the Wildwood trail, deciding that we could make it all the way to the Zoo, which we did (although Aleks knocked out on the way)