Dave Manville will lead our June 8 walk. This walk has about 150 ft in elevation change, and it is 6.4 miles long. We’ll leave Wilson High School and head to Raz Baack crossing, then on to Gabriel Park and visit some new trails; then on over to April Hill park and a natural area on SW Trail 3. On our back we head northeast to Vermont, check out the recent sidewalk improvements and stop at the SW Community Center; then up through the Gabriel Park and onto Vermont to Capitol Highway, walking on sidewalks for our return to Wilson. Continue reading →
NO meeting this month for SW Trails! Normally we would be meeting on May 23rd, but we’ve got a number of people out-of-town (two are in Europe!), so we wouldn’t have a quorum to do any official business. Our next regular meeting will be on Thursday, June 27th.
We have been very involved in two of Portland Bureau of Transportation’s projects, and we would encourage everyone to look these up on PBOT’s website to see what’s going on for SW Portland: PedPDX and SW in Motion. These two projects are detailed plans for PEDESTRIAN use of our city streets and will guide our city planners for many years to come — do take a look because they are planning for OUR community!
Please join Southwest Trails on Saturday May 18 at 9am, for its monthly “Stroll and Coffee” walk. The “Stroll and Coffee” walk is designed to offer a walking opportunity that is shorter than our traditional hike and ends with a stop for coffee and socializing if you desire. Kids (and well-behaved pets) of all ages welcome.
Our stroll will take us through the Stephens Creek Natural area to the Frisbee Golf Course. From there we will walk down the SW Bertha ROW restoration project and then head back to where we started. The walk is around 2.02 mi with an elevation gain of about 129 ft. We will meet at 9am in the parking lot of Wilson High School near the food trucks (the same location for our longer hikes). Hope to see you there. Continue reading →
Lee Buhler will lead the walk on May 11 to Tryon Creek Park. We will start by car pooling to the SW 4th Ave. entrance to Tryon Creek Park, a lush, wooded, reminder of the thick vegetation that once covered the SW hills of Portland. From the trailhead we will go through some outer loop trails in Tryon Creek Park including 4th Ave.Trail, Lewis and Clark Trail, Cedar Trail, Red Fox Trail, etc. We should see a variety of native forest flowers, forest critters, and hopefully Trillium should be blooming. The hike will be 4.5 to 5.5 miles depending on how people are doing. The hike has ups and downs with about 600 feet elevation gain. The trails may be a bit muddy so dress accordingly. Continue reading →
We meet in the Watershed apartment building in Hillsdale, 6388 SW Capitol Hwy. (parking is available in the shopping center across the street) in their community conference room on the main floor next to the central outdoor courtyard next to SW Bertha Ct. (enter directly from the courtyard). Everyone is WELCOME!
SWTrails next Stroll and Coffee is scheduled for Saturday, April 20, at 9 am. We will meet at Wilson High School near the food trucks. Lee Buhler will lead the walk along Terwilliger Blvd. and down Hamilton St. to his house for a cup of coffee. We will then car pool, or take one of the many nearby buses, back to Wilson High. Bring bus fare. Those that are up to it can also walk back. Hope to see you there, and remember that children and well behaved dogs are welcome.
Don Baack will lead the walk on April 13. It will be the 4T, Trail, Tram, Trolley and Train with the addition of Bus. For this walk you must be signed in by 8:45 am at Wilson High School to take the bus from Hillsdale at 9:01 am. From the bus we will catch MAX at Pioneer Square to the Zoo. Then we’ll walk up the Marquam Trail to Council Crest, down the trail to OHSU, then ride free down the Portland Aerial Tram to South Waterfront, then north on the Trolley back to Pioneer Square and Bus back to Wilson High School. Continue reading →
SWTrails needs a new hiking coordinator! Our coordinator ensures that we have hiking leaders for our monthly walk/hikes, sends information on their route plans to the local press and our website and Facebook managers, and (ideally) goes along on the hikes (although this part isn’t absolutely necessary). This isn’t a time-consuming project, but a hike coordinator is vital to SWTrails. So–if you’re already a member, or have attended one of our walks or work parties and think you’d like to know (and do) a bit more…please contact Sharon Fekety at fekety@hevanet.com.
SW Trails monthly first Thursday Work Party for April 4th 2019 will be at Gabriel Park from 9am until Noon. We will meet at the Park South entrance down by the community gardens. Limited parking is available at the garden area, so it might be best to park in the south parking lot and walk down. At this work party we will be working on tread improvements, closing some social trails, possibly a new section of trail or reroute, and as it is spring there will always be brush to remove. So, lots to do.
Please consider joining us out on the trail in 2019 as these work parties are designed to support a wide range of worker capabilities. We welcome all and all abilities. So give some thought to joining us or just stop by and say hi. Continue reading →
