GPHQ 5: Powell Butte

April 13, 2021

For the fifth day in a row, I’m off to check out another local descent. This sounds pretty compulsive and not much in the spirit of being on spring break, but I have my reasons. I’m in to see the dentist tomorrow for a long-overdue dental procedure and I imagine I’ll be on light duty for several days afterwards.

It’s beautiful again here today - clear, great visibility, and warmer than it’s been of late. We’re at the front end of a warming spell and a week-long string of fine days, with a projected high in the mid-80’s due this weekend. Today though it’s quite windy, strong enough that I scrap my plans to bike back up to Skyline and ride it to its end at Rocky Point. Instead I decide on the less ambitious ride east out the Springwater Corridor and the climb up to the summit of Powell Butte. Like Rocky Butte, it’s another cinder cone from the Boring Lava Field that’s at its best on a clear day like this.

I get a late start. I uncharacteristically overslept this morning, not waking up until nearly 7:30. Rachael’s been up for a while, finishing up the video from yesterday’s ride down McNamee Road. She wants to review it with me for the final cut, and then we listen to some candidates for the sound track. I don’t make it out the door for coffee until after eight, I take my time there and again at the apartment when I return, so it’s nearing on noon before I finally leave for the ride.

Rachael has been long gone, of course - she left on her own ride not long after I left for coffee, hoping to beat the worst of the winds. Unexpectedly, we cross paths on Springwater a few miles from home - she’s just returning, I’m just starting out. She calls back to remind me that we have a dinner reservation at 4:30, and to keep track of the time.

Image not found :( — The cherry blossom season is done for the year on the waterfront, and the trees are beginning to leaf out.

I follow the Springwater waterfront trail downriver past the Sellwood Bridge, and then cut east on the new connector that skirts the south end of the Sellwood Neighborhood. After that it’s a straight shot east on the bike path for another eight or nine miles until turning off just past Powell Butte.

The trail continues east beyond Powell Butte for another five miles, past Gresham and finally ending at Boring. This used to be a really lovely ride, a route Rachael and I visited countless times in the past. Hopefully will be again someday. Now though, like so many other similar spots around the city, it’s blighted by the homelessness crisis to the point that it’s starting to feel unrideable. On a day like today I would have passed dozens of recreational cyclists on this heavily used route, one of the favorites in the city. Now though there are only a few, nearly all single men. It’s not really a place that many unescorted women or families would feel safe riding.

It’s all quite depressing. As much sympathy as I feel for the unhoused and anger at the failure of our social safety net, I also feel a growing anger at the city itself. Why create such a fine resource as this trail if you’re not going to protect it? It’s like the city has just given up. If there’s any one thing that would cause us not to resettle here someday, it would be this.

Happily though, the Springwater Sheep are in session today.

I worried about the climb up to Skyline yesterday, but shouldn’t have. I should have saved my worries for Powell Butte instead. I remembered the climb, but had forgotten what a lift the first part is. It’s not far before it tapers off at the parking circle - maybe a fifth of a mile - but it’s a 13-15% lift that always catches me by surprise.

From the parking lot there’s a narrow paved trail that zigzags up the north face of the butte to the summit, where fine views of Hood and Saint Helens await. It’s a popular trail with walkers and their dogs, and even though it’s open to bikes also I always feel just a bit intrusive and apologetic. It’s best to come here on a weekday under less favorable conditions so that there aren’t many others sharing the path with you. Maybe it’s the fierce wind that kept people away today, but it’s quite quiet. Well, quiet as in solitary. It’s quite noisy actually, with winds at the top that must top 25 mph. It’s picked up considerably since I left town, and once I’m back on Springwater it will blast me all the way back to the river.

Video sound track: Just in Time, by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet

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Ride stats today: 37 miles, 2,200’

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Andrea BrownThanks for the report on the Springwater. I’m in complete agreement with your frustration and discouragement. I guess it’s the Trolley Trail for me.
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