I try to get out and walk quite a bit. It’s so much easier in the summer than the winter. The light and absence of rain makes it easy to get out most any time – though this summer we’ve been hit by a long hot streak. I don’t go out if it’s over 90.
Over the years I’ve slowly extended my range and I have a series of walks depending on how long I want to go and how strenuous a walk I want. After a hard day of work I’ll go a little longer than 2 miles on pretty flat terrain through the local high school and back through the neighborhood. When I really want to stretch myself I have a walk just shy of 6 miles with an elevation gain of just over 400 feet.
There are two parts of walking I don’t like: dogs and traffic. Barking dogs behind fences are annoying but I understand; it’s the dogs not on leash that give me pause. On the Memorial Day weekend of 2016 I was on one of my normal routes when I noticed a German Shepard hanging next to his owner who was cleaning out her car. Although he had a leash, it wasn’t connected to anything. As soon as I came near the house the dog rushed at me snapping and snarling; he got a nip at me as I turned away – just before the owner got him. He nipped my pants but didn’t get my skin – a close call. I gave the owner a loud and prolonged piece of my mind. “DO YOU KNOW HOW FRIGHTENING THAT IS!?”Now if I’m walking and see a dog not on a leash I’ll call out “DOG! DOG!” to the owner so s/he will get it in. I may get a funny or nasty look but I just don’t think I should have to deal with it.
Traffic is another consideration; one of my extended walks takes me along a feeder road – Brockman, for those in the area – that has a steady stream of traffic. Earlier this summer I was trying to listen to a baseball game (go Dodgers!) but the traffic roar drowned it out. I determined to find another route that parallels Brockman to get over to the Fanno Creek Trail. Eureka, Carr St runs just a couple of blocks north of Brockman and goes through a beautiful little neighborhood.
As I turned a corner to join back up with the pathway that leads to a bridge over Brockman/Greenway I saw an awesome site. Rather than completely cutting down a tree, someone carved a totem pole of sorts.
Only half a block from my normal route but I had completely missed it for years. What a nice little treat.
South Beaverton is supplied with ample walking trails enabling the walker to stay off the roadways. Being western Oregon we have plenty of little creeks that run through town; many of the walkways parallel the creeks. We even have Beavers in Beaverton. They are very industrious – we have a couple of the little creeks effectively dammed up. I’ll try to get a picture of one on a walk soon.
Out of all the greenery I came across a dead tree next to one of the creeks.
I wonder what happened to it; everything around it is nice and green.
Did I tell you about last spring when a big wind storm knocked down some sections of fences? Out on a walk a couple of days afterward I saw something on the other side of a broken fence. It wasn’t a dog; I couldn’t figure out what it was until I took a picture and blew it up a bit. It’s a PIG!
Someone’s going to be having barbecue this summer. Funny how we never really know what is going on in the houses we walk by.
And speaking of walking; tomorrow we will take part in our third Providence Bridge Pedal/Stride. We walk it. The city shuts down some of the bridges and roads in Portland allowing thousands of walkers and bikers to enjoy the views. You can read about our experiences in 2016 and 2015. This year we’ll walk over four bridges including both the I5/I405 bridges: the Marquam and the Fremont.
