Journalist By Nature: Play It Again Sam

"Seeing it again for the first time" would describe our city walk through the St. John's area today. Last year (see my March 1, 2014 entry) we got soaked in a spring rainstorm and cut our soggy walk short to dry out by the wood stove at the McMenamin's St. John's Pub. This year the grey sky wore thin enough in places to reveal spots of "sun break" blue. We determined to complete the local loop this time amid talk of Glacier Park treks and new summer adventures on the Northwest trails.

Up and down muddy backstreets we searched for notable historical homes. They are becoming surrounded by modern infill condominiums and multistory houses squeezed into spaces formerly occupied by single family homes. The riverbank is easily viewed in the absence of leaves on the copse lining the swollen brown Willamette River. The city of bridges is a vague, dreamy outline of lego-shaped blocks beyond the black silhouette of the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge and the arched Fremont Bridge farther upriver. The Railroad Bridge is one of a few swinging section bridges in the United States. Heading downhill towards the railway tracks we spied a flotilla of boats moored offshore in Willamette Cove. A water-logged dinghy was tied at the shore but no oars or motor were visible to give it power. From the looks of it, this was a scene of low rent housing.

The railroad tracks curve in tandem with the river's path and are currently used by robot-controlled rail cars to deliver scrap metal to the Columbia Forge plant. A great expanse of empty cement pads mark the former location of the McCormick and Baxter Creosoting Company, operated between 1944 and 1991. Due to the toxins used there and subsequently dumped into the river, the site became marked as a Superfund cleanup project. Although now clean, it remains a dead-looking area useful only to visiting youth and their various juvenile activities, the remains of which linger throughout the scratchy blackberry tumbles. A gravel pathway parallels the railroad tracks and is used by joggers and dog walkers who brave the loneliness of the area. Eventually the path wanders up to Cathedral Park, that great expanse of green lawn under the St. John's bridge where locals run their dogs and fishermen launch their boats at the nearby dock. The Water Pollution Control Laboratory showcases a natural water filtration system of native plants and rocky shelves and samples and analyzes various sources of water.

Rounding to the end of our walk we decided to add another mile to it and walk across the busy St. John's Bridge where sidewalks at the edges allow brave pedestrians a place to carefully tread amid the forest of green wire cables holding the towers upright and the road steady. Passing trucks and cars whiz by at 35 m.p.h., making the bridge surface rumble. The views from mid-span are exhilarating as you stand over the ever-moving river and gaze west toward the Coastal Range and east toward downtown Portland. In between these extremes are oil, shipping and dry docking businesses of Linnton. Read the details of it all in Foster's book Portland Hill Walks even if you don't want to make the walk. It's a fascinating part of the city's history.

Incoming clouds began to drop their load of water on us, a light sprinkle at first and then a more persistent spatter carried on the winds high above the river. Unfazed, we paused for photographs, a bakery stop and lunch at a Thai cubbyhole. There we challenged the patient waiter as we hemmed and hawed over selections, finally settling on a request to the chef to make us seven different dishes and just surprise us! A bona fide feast arrived soon enough and we passed around the dishes, inviting other diners to join us. When they declined we managed to clean all the platters anyway and groaned in cuisinal contentment. We prefer to ease into our summer trail physical conditioning gradually, mile by mile, plate by plate. Come trail time we'll hike off this winter fare as we search out new challenges in the forests of the Columbia River Gorge Scenic areas.