Journalist By Nature: Rainy Day Options

Intending to hike the Central Salmon River trail we met as usual to carpool to the trailhead. However, recent torrential rainfall had severely muddied the trail and made the rocky places slick and footing hazardous. Quickly turning to Option B we hustled up to the BLM Wildwood Recreation Site. Located about 15 miles east of Sandy, OR on Hwy 26, this lovely wooded setting serves as a multi-use recreation site specializing in salmon habitat retention through education. Parking is plentiful, pathways are paved and artwork adorns benches, lookout points and walkways. Service buildings are clad in rough cut cedar and sport whole log beams. Cast metal figures, mainly salmon, swim in frozen motion throughout the park. Bridges bow over the streams and a sunken viewing room with thick glass windows allows visitors to watch salmon swimming upstream right before your eyes. We saw a beautiful 24 inch specimen flash across the window at one point.

Picturesque stream

With miles of trails it is advisable to acquire a map of the site in order to take advantage of the planned layout and not spend time walking in circles. Despite the light rain of this morning we enjoyed the bright fall colors, the rising stream and the moss-coated tree trunks bending over water and trails. With temperatures in the mid-fifties, it was a pleasant time to be out-of-doors yet not cake our boots with heavy mud nor slip and slide along on a ledge above a roaring river.

To assuage our lack of heavy duty trail time we lunched at Rendezvous Grill a little farther east from the park. A warm setting with friendly service, innovative menu items and linen napkins made for a delightful midday repast at this more remote dining location. While not up to our usual adventure quotient, today was a satisfying time of updating friendship tales of travel. If you're out that way, the Wildwood Recreation Site is a great place to stretch the legs, take in a salmon run and enjoy a tame version of the Mt. Hood Wilderness.