AUF WIEDERSEHEN PORTLAND

July, 2021

We’ve enjoyed visiting the Columbia River Gorge and City of Portland far more than we had ever expected. Being able to spend so much time with Jack and Chris – THE McGibbon Tour Guide Company – made this part of our journey started so long ago very, very special.

Other friends who had lived here for a good portion of their lives couldn’t dissuade our elation and enthusiasm for the area with their reminder that there is an extended rainy season with daily rain (deluge?), a motivation in the citizenry to find sunshine in other locales (or a new coffee house!), and an overabundance of seasonal affective disorder. We ignored all of that squawk – the weather had stayed consistently sunny and warm.

Unfortunately, it is time to bid farewell and mosey on. However, there are a few more stops of interest and perhaps peculiarity, a hike or 2, and a trip north into Washington to take a look at a rather famous mountain before our departure.

Established in 1974, The Portland Saturday Market is the largest continuously operated outdoor market in the United States. On any given Saturday there are over 300 booths offering all manner of arts and crafts, food, herbal healing, assorted curiosities and goods suitable for all ages.

Pioneer Courthouse Square, also known as Portland’s living room, is a public space occupying a full 40,000-square-foot city block in the center of downtown. We had the good fortune to be there for Portland’s “maybe the pandemic is over and we think it’s safe enough” outdoor re-invigoration. Two things are for sure for such an event – food trucks and beverage carts will abound, and free music will be played. For the event, the City’s own Pink Martini lead the assembled in an extended sing-along of Americana classics as well as performing a broad brush of more modern tunes including their own compositions.

Close to Pioneer Courthouse Square is Portland’s Chinatown Gate…

Brian is a baseball fan and Barbara has learned to appreciate a trip to the ballpark – she loves to keep the box score. So it was perfectly natural for us to attend a Portland Pickles (!) game with Jack and Chris. The Pickles are a collegiate wood bat (!) baseball team playing in the South Division of the West Coast League.

There are an amazing number of waterfall classifications, including Punchbowl, Plunge, Multi-step, Horsetail, Fan, Block, Chute, Cascade and Cataract Waterfalls. And we guessed that combinations certainly existed…

Proxy Falls are 2 cascade and plunge waterfalls; the lower falls notable for its 226 foot drop. Lower and upper Proxy Falls can be reached after an easy mile or so hike in from the trailhead.

On the way back to our campsite in Troutdale we came across Lost Lake Campground, located on the west shore of shallow (you guessed it!) Lost Lake. The water level of the lake fluctuates seasonally and is quite low (if it exists at all) in the dry summer season. Lost Lake perpetually drains into a sinkhole and is dependent on the aforementioned rainy season for replenishing its waters. Due to the extremely dry conditions this year the sinkhole had been covered over by a shallow layer of sandy soil – we couldn’t find it the day of our stop (and search we did!). The “lake” was a dry bed and any even slightly moist soil had been claimed by reedy grass and willows.

Installed in 1988 the weather machine is a spinning contraption located in Pioneer Courthouse Square that alerts the public to the weather by producing, with great fanfare, a symbolic icon at noon each day.  If the weather is clear and beautiful, the machine delivers an abstract golden sun, if transitional or a bit drizzly a blue heron appears, and if raining a dragon appears. Not only did we hear the grand fanfare and see the abstract golden sun appear but following the fanfare and revealing a troupe began singing opera!

Perched above the entrance of The Portland Building sits Portlandia – the second-largest copper repoussé statue in the United States, after the Statue of Liberty. We didn’t know that repoussé is a metalworking technique in which a malleable metal is shaped by hammering from the reverse side to create a design in low relief. Astonishing artistry!

The Wishing Tree grows on the property of Nicole Helprin, who first granted the tree its wishing status in 2013. Before leaving town for a short trip, she wrote out a few wishes and hung them on the tree. Upon returning from her trip, the entire tree was covered in wishes like paper tinsel. The tradition carries on to this day.

Beneath the St. Johns bridge and along the banks of the Willamette River at a river landing thought to have been one of Lewis and Clark’s encampments is Cathedral Park. The “splendid arches” of the park create a beautiful backdrop.

As part of the Centennial Exposition and International Trade Fair a 31-foot-tall statue of Paul Bunyan was erected in 1959 to mark the 100-year anniversary of Oregon’s statehood.

Under an old trestle railway bridge is a colony of little trolls…Why? Perhaps (and with apologies to Austin, Texas) it’s simply part of keeping Portland weird!

Walking along the banks of the Willamette River we were surprised to see the USS Blueback, a Barbel-class submarine, at dock. The last ever USS Navy’s diesel-electric submarine had been decommissioned in 1990 and found its way to Portland where it has become an attraction.

Portland’s “Bridge of the People”, Tilikim Crossing, is the largest car-free bridge in the United States and provides a scenic crossing of the Willamette River for pedestrians, bicyclists and public transportation. From the bridge there are amazing views of the City and a number of the 12 bridges that span the River.

80 miles north northeast of Troutdale and in the State of Washington is one of America’s iconic disaster sites…yup-Mount Saint Helens.

According to the National Park Service: “On March 20, 1980, Mount St. Helens experienced a magnitude 4.2 earthquake, and, by the end of April, the north side of the mountain had started to bulge. On May 18, a second earthquake of magnitude 5.1, triggered a massive collapse of the north face of the mountain. The magma burst forth and flattened vegetation and buildings over 230 square miles (!), and more than 1.5 million metric tons (!) of sulfur dioxide were released into the atmosphere. The collapse of the north face mixed with ice, snow, and water created volcanic mudflows (lahars). The lahars flowed many miles down the Toutle and Cowlitz Rivers, destroying bridges and lumber camps along the way. A total of 3,900,000 cubic yards (!) of material was transported 17 miles south into the Columbia River by the mudflows.

For more than nine hours, a vigorous plume of ash erupted, eventually reaching 12 to 16 miles (!) above sea level. The plume moved eastward at an average speed of 60 miles per hour (!) with ash reaching Idaho by noon. Ashes from the eruption were found collecting on top of cars and roofs the next morning as far as the city of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada.

The May 18 eruption released 24 megatons (!) of thermal energy: ejecting more than 0.67 cubic miles (!) of material. The removal of the north side of the mountain reduced St. Helens’ height by about 1,300 feet and left a crater 1 mile to 2 miles wide and 0.4 miles deep, with its north end open in a huge breach. The eruption killed 57 people, nearly 7,000 big game animals, and an estimated 12 million fish from a hatchery.”

Mount Saint Helens remains an explosive volcano…

Thank you, Portland, for exemplifying the reason we decided to adopt the RV lifestyle in the first place.

Barbara and Brian

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.“ – Henry David Thoreau