Portland and the Columbia Gorge.
I awoke having had another very nice dream about Bev, which are more frequent now for some reason. Bev and Marg were both in this dream, and when Bev appeared she was herself, in appearance, humor, manner, and personality. She had even thrown on my old motorcycle jacket to keep warm as she joined Marg and me in in the garden. It was great to see her and interact. 🧡
I’ll be heading out for the day soon, back toward the gorge, after first taking a walk around the Multnomah Village area. Drew has headed off for work and can’t join me, which is a shame – I keep forgetting that other people work, and this is the middle of the week. First though, I’m enjoying Drew’s small but really nice home he rents, and is a temporary living situation while he waits for his divorce to finalize. But, it’s a nice place, and it certainly makes me think about my own living situation, and whether I can, should, or want to continue living in a large house on my own, or in western Massachusetts or that climate for that matter. This place is a little small, and is a studio really, but as i continue to think about where to from here, a place like this, certainly a little bigger, is sort of attractive. Just more stuff to be thinking about as I continue my journey.
I took a walk around Multnomah Village before heading out toward the gorge, and it is a lovely little area, with a nice small “downtown” area (although very small) and well kept residential streets with some very nice houses, all in the medium to small range, which makes the streets even nicer I think.
It was a little cooler today, and so so it was sweatshirt over sweater for a while, until things started to warm up nicely, although it remained a little cooler than yesterday even later in the day. By the time I was on my way to the gorge, the sweater was off, and the rest of the day remained sometimes sweatshirt on, sometimes off. I actually started out for Eagle Creek, which Drew recommended, but it turns out there are two Eagle Creeks, and Drew really meant Eagle Creek Trailhead along the gorge, near Multnomah Falls, and not the town of Eagle Creek, where I went. But, I really enjoyed the drive, which took residential and back streets, rather than the freeways, and, of course, this is Oregon, so everything is lovely.
I figured this wasn’t the Eagle Creek Drew meant, although this Eagle Creek did have walking trails, but by the time I arrived I decided I would first re-visit the gorge, and try for some of the elusive photos I couldn’t take yesterday, and also visit Multnomah Falls for some photos, and maybe a hike, before returning to Eagle Creek on my way home.
I continued on these lovely side roads for maybe another 45 minutes until reaching route 84, and then headed east along the gorge back toward The Dalles, looking for some more dramatic views, as well as places to actually stop and take photos, but also didn’t want to head all the way to the city of Dalles, where the river is perhaps most dramatic, as it was almost 70 miles west. I did find a couple of spots to take some photos, at river level, but not really what I was hoping for.
So, continuing to look for the right spot, I actually got within 25 miles of The Dalles, until eventually turning onto historic route 30, the Rowena scenic byway, which snakes way up into the mountains on the Oregon side of the gorge and offers both a great drive and also some great overviews of the gorge. Another really lovely, and lightly trafficked, scenic amd hilly, drive into the mountainside.
This next photo, also of the gorge, was taken from the climb up to the summit of Multnomah Falls, which I visited and hiked a little, after I re-entered route 84, now going west back into Portland, from the Rowena byway. The Falls which I’ve seen before and took the exact hike, years ago, with Drew, in fact, as well as Russ (who I’ll be seeing in a few days), are not particularly powerfall, or wide, are nonetheless dramatic and lovely, with a long drop.
Multnomah Falls is a great place… like everything around here, actually. It’s beautifully set up for visitors, with a viewing bridge about quarter mile up, which is pretty easy for most people to get to.
There’s a sort of double waterfall, one big, one little, as the falls hit a plateau at some point and then fall again, creating a second, short final waterfall into a pond.
I took the hike, as did a number of other people, past the viewing bridge, up to the summit of the falls, which was a little over a 1¼ miles each way, although, needless to say, the hike down is much easier than the hike up. On my way down, one group on its way up asked me how much further, and when I said about another half mile, there was audible dismay. It’s certainly not a difficult hike up, but it’s 1¼ miles almost all uphill, with 11 switchbacks along the way, and a path visibly surrounded by poison oak, with plenty of posted warning signs.
Actually, after the summit of the trek up, the trail starts to go back downhill, to the hollow where the falls starts, and brings you to the middle of the woods and the steady stream that leads to the falls, and then view down from the top or start of the falls. Lovely.
I headed back down Multnomah Falls, picked up my car, which I was happy to see in the parking lot from way up there near the top of the falls, and drove back west on 84, to Eagle Creek in particular. Although I doubted I’d have any time to take an additional walk at Eagle Creek, soon turning of route 84, this was a nicer and more scenic way to eventually return to Drew’s, rather than driving through the city, and city rush hour traffic, as I had when I came in yesterday.
Sure enough, it was a lovely drive back, but no time for a walk as it was already past 5:30 when I got to Eagle Creek and perhaps another 45 minutes to Drew’s. The drive was relaxing, though. We went out to dinner, and that was that. Tomorrow, I’ll start down for Berkeley, stopping about half way down, a 5-hour drive, in Yreka for the night. On Friday, I’ll head to Forest Knolls, about 2 hours north of Berkeley, and spend time with Cynthia, and spend the night, and get to Berkeley on Saturday.