Portland Hill Walks by Laura O. Foster

Author:Laura O. Foster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: 2013-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

Each of four classrooms at the former Fulton School leads to the outdoors. In 2012, the building closed except for rentals.

After passing through the garden, find 3rd Avenue, which runs through it. A home at 7420 dates from 1890, when things must have been really quiet up here. An ancient fruit tree grows in the yard.

Exit the garden at 3rd Avenue. Turn right, and walk a bit to cross busy Barbur Boulevard at the stoplight at Miles Street. Once across, jog back left to 3rd Avenue, turn right onto it, and climb 3rd as it begins a long, steady ascent to a fairly symmetrical, well-defined peak at its top.

The house at 3rd and California Street, 6901, is just about at the top of the hill, elevation 500 feet. Walk east on California a few steps to its dead end for a fine view of the Willamette and the buttes on the east side. You can see Oaks Amusement Park. The water now visible behind it is a pond within the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge that was created a century ago by the impoundment of water by a levee to support rail tracks. The clump of green south of Oaks Park is the heavily wooded Sellwood Park. In the Northwest, when in a strange city, you can often find a park without a map by looking for a dense stand of dark Douglas firs.

After perusing the view, walk on 3rd as it curves around the north side of the small peak. To the north the land drops to a forested canyon, bringing a momentary feeling of remoteness.

4 SOMEWHERE ALONG the curving road, 3rd Avenue turns into 4th Avenue, and you’re heading south. Walk one block on 4th and stop at Nevada, where a kind homeowner built a covered rest stop in the southeast corner with a bench, reading material, and a notebook to record your thoughts and read what others have said. When I sat there on an April afternoon, I was grateful for a ten-minute rest and a place to simply be still and savor the scene. It is just such urban places that lift my spirits and spark my eagerness to explore this wonderful city.

From 4th and Nevada, turn right (west) on Nevada, which ends at 5th Avenue. Directly across from the intersection, to the right of the driveway at 7107, is a greenway path that leads to Terwilliger Boulevard. Walk down the indistinct path, a city right-of-way between two backyards, and emerge from the path onto Terwilliger.

5 TURN RIGHT on Terwilliger, walk past two houses, cross Terwilliger carefully, turn left on 6th Avenue, and then turn left on Chestnut, a wooded enclave of homes that encircle another peak in the hills. This neighborhood has a classic Northwest feel, with its tall Douglas firs and cedars. The blue water tanks on the left were placed high, at 570 feet, to take advantage of gravity. Ahead is Wilson High School, built on the site of the Fulton Park Dairy, one of many dairies that once operated in the southwest hills.

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