Forest Park (Lower Macleay to Pittock)- choking on cotton!

Thursday was a great 4th of July! It's a four day weekend for me from work so I figured I'd go for some great hikes each morning. It's not going to happen like that though :( But what I'm missing the hikes for is even better so that's ok.
Since I had a ton of time on Thurs morning (plans weren't till the afternoon) I wanted to do the Lower Macleay hike up to Macleay park and then take the wildwood trail up to Pittock mansion. I've done this hike 3 times in total now. Once with my kids the entire way, Macleay to Pittock with their friends, Lower Macleay to Macleay with the kids and husband, and then the full way myself. So you'd think I could find Lower Macleay by now. Nope. And I didn't want to use my phones gps because I wanted to save the battery for runkeeper and music. And I figured Macleay (that any gps knows the name of) would have a full parking lot. So instead, I found trails just up the road from Macleay park and headed up from there. Basically, this meant I was going from the halfway point to the top, back down to lower Macleay, then back up to midpoint. There are two tunnels after you pass Macleay towards downtown portland. They're not that far from the park. Between the two tunnels is side parking for trails. I parked at the Tunnel trail (just after the tunnel nearest downtown portland. It's a tiny tiny trail, but it hurts. Like very much hurts. Like it was only .3 miles and I had to take a break midway up. My thighs were on fire. Am I out of shape? Yes. But I'm pretty sure when I was in shape, this would have been steep. Of course Sasha had no issues with it. Do dogs even really know what the burn feels like? I had her off leash for this point because I wanted to die and didn't feel like her tugging all over the leash. Tunnel trail takes you up to Cumberland trail. I took right there towards the mansion, and eventually Cumberland took me to Wildwood. From the bottom of Tunnel trail up to the mansion, it was .9 miles.

Front of Pittock in the morning

Other than Tunnel trail, I was constantly getting passed by people that were actually jogging up these trails towards the mansion. You definitely need a leash for this part. There was one guy that had weights on his ankles and arms and was going full speed. I had no clue whether I should have cheered him on for being awesome or flipped him off for making me feel less awesome. I settled with saying good morning and grumbling that I would eventually get to the point he's at.

Once up to pittock, I took a few quick pictures but did not follow the trail behind the mansion. If you get a chance to come here, go onto the grounds and follow the trail to the back yard. The view is wonderful! I would have gone back there but there were too many people walking the grounds and I was wanting to get 5 miles in and head home.
Heading back down the mountain. I decided to jog a little. I've never jogged down a mountain. I didn't do all of it, but I did a good chunk. It's actually a lot of fun if you have good ankles. I'm normally pretty accident prone but trails seem to be my thing and I didn't fall at all. Sasha was a big fan of it also. We stayed on the wildwood trail the entire way down instead of heading back to the car. This trail leads you to Macleay park (across the street) and then heads to lower Macleay from there.
The view on Lower Macleay is sooooo much different than the upper part of the mountain. Mainly because the Lower Macleay trail follows a stream. It's also very light hills until you get to towards macleay. I'm pretty thankful for this because it's also the longer part of this "loop".  Most hikers will only do lower Macleay up to Macleay and head back down so be prepared to share the trail with people going the opposite way of you. It's cottonwood season. This had part of the trail covered in white. It was beautiful. But inhaling it isn't fun. We had to stop for a second because I inhaled a bit that was falling off a tree. I bet I looked awesome almost dieing because of a tree.

"Witch House"

When we got to Lower Macleay park (under the big bridge), we turned back around and headed back up. At this point I was tired. Very tired. My foot that constantly has issues with plantar faciitis was hurting. Sasha was itching to get off the leash. But we were still having fun because this park is so much fun to just look at. We ended up stopping at the "witch house" (the one in the pictures) and looking around for a break. This was a good idea. Did it add a little time to the hike? Yes. But we needed a break. The upper part up to Pittock was probably not a wise idea to start out with and then head to the easy part. I will probably not start in the middle ever again.
When we got to Macleay, my choices were to go partway back up the mountain taking wildwood, hit cumberland, then head back down tunner, OR follow the road back to my car. I chose the road. I didn't want to go uphill anymore.

Here's where I'm really happy that I had runkeeper on. It has a map (even the free version) that you can bring up while still walking. Because I took the road in from Portland and only went under one tunnel I forgot completely that there was another tunnel, so on my way back, the first tunnel was not the one I had driven under. I had a mini panic attack the closer I got to it and did not see my car or the lot I had parked in. Common sense told me (hey, there must be a second identical tunnel after this) but my "I got up at 5 am off of very little sleep to do this" brain thought maybe I had misjudged how far the lot was from the tunnel and needed to go back or Macleay was on a different road than the one I had come in on. I stopped and took out runkeeper and thankfully it showed it was still just down the road.
End result when we did get to the car: 5.2 miles done, I felt accomplished and sweaty, and Sasha fell asleep immediately after we got in the car. Uphill hiking really takes a lot out of you.

Runkeeper GPS Happy: Yes  
Dog friendly: Yes (leashed)  
Path- dirt and rock
Good for medium distance (over 2 under 10) to long distance (multiple trails will take you much further than I went)
- wide enough for 2 people  
Quiet :)  
5.2 miles down
Total for month= 14.3
  Left to go this month=60.7

Tuckered out Sasha

Englewood to Greenway (Opposite path of yesterday)

Sorry for the lack of pictures today. I just wasn't feeling picture happy. I parked in the same spot today. I went south on Springwood, first left on Ironwood, and took the third entrance into the park. Unlike yesterday, I took a left instead of a right at the entrance. Same park, TOTALLY DIFFERENT WALK. This side is much more open. Yesterday had open grass areas, but they still had a lot of tree coverage. The Greenway park side is tons of open grass. There's still a lot of tree coverage, and as usual, very pretty, but I'd see this side as more of the winter walk for when the trees are naked and you're not trying to hide from the sun rays of death. At least it's not Texas/Arizona hot. But still, shade is wonderful in the summer. And I like trees. Lots and lots of trees. The great points on this trail are
1. Lots of playgrounds for your kids if you want to make a day of walking from one park to the other.
2. Frisbee golf! Yah, it has a Frisbee golf course on it.
3. There is a fitness park with all the little fitness bars and tables and stuff I have no clue what to do with... yet.
4. It has mileage marked signs that tell you how far you are from the next road if you're like me and don't map out your route. 
There are multiple ways to do this trail/loop and yes you can actually make it a loop. For the longest loop, head towards hall, right over the red bridge, and when the path reconnects next to Albert sons, that's your path back. That's NOT what I did today. You'd have to look at my gps route to see how I got the mileage I did. 

If you have a dog, watch out for rabbits. There's tons in this park. We saw at least 9 this morning. Sasha's weaknesses are squirrels, ducks, and rabbits. This park had all of them. We jogged  .9 miles of the route today just to keep her calm in certain areas. That's not a bad thing though. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it also. She's already sleeping behind me. :)
I feel really good by the way. It seems like the more I'm out and walking, the better attitude I have during the rest of the day. I'm not wanting naps, I'm actually less hungry, and I feel more satisfied about my day. It's not the same joy I got from dance classes but it's pretty dang close and I know Sasha is much happier with the added exercise. She literally sprints for the car in the mornings. Before I've even shut the house door behind me, she's licking the driver door of the car.

Runkeeper GPS Happy: Yes Dog friendly: Yes (leashed) Path- paved Good for medium distance (over 2 under 10)- wide enough for 3 people plus grass on both sides Quiet :) 3.5 miles today Total for month= 9.1 Left to go this month=65.9

Fanno Creek Trail- Englewood to Woodard

This is a trail I've been curious about for a while. Part of it is on either side of Scholls Ferry right by the Nike Run store. But the side I've been curious about is the one that goes down the bridge and behind the bushes. Well I found it today! (Turned south on Springwood and followed the signs down Ironwood to Englewood and picked and entrance.. People like wood names here) I saw an older couple goofy walking (speed walking) and followed. It was interesting because you follow the wetland but you don't really see it. There's a wall of pretty between you and the water. It's easier to see in the pictures what I'm talking about. You do have to cross a few small roads where the path is not straight in front of you but the signage is easy to follow. As I got closer to Woodard (wood) it became more of a family park than just a hike. It was large open grass areas, picnic tables, a cool looking barn, and treeeeeees. 




I loved it. There's also a hidden baseball field in there. As I've noticed with every hike in the Tigard area, there were tons of Oregon grape bushes. I think they're beautiful. My favorite part was when Sasha decided sniffing ducks was not enough and took off after the smallest one. It floated... she didn't. Her leash helped me pull her in because she FREAKED out. Of course I would too if I expected to keep running and then there was magically no ground under that water. She got quite a few laughs and "poor thing" from others who had seen it. I consoled her with "Well, you shouldn't have gone after the small one. Karma hates that."

She was pouting after falling in the water and wouldn't look at me for a picture.

Runkeeper GPS Happy: Yes
Dog friendly: Yes (leashed)
Path- paved and split
Good for medium distance (over 2 under 10)- wide enough for 3 people
Quiet :)
3.1 miles today
Total for month= 5.6
Left to go this month=69.4

She never lets me lead

Fanno Barn

Baseball Field

Summer Lake- Ducks and Cal burn

Summer Lake park is located south off of Sholls Ferry and 130th Ave. We usually go there for the dog park, but I really like the "gardens" (dirt path around trees) area. Last time, I walked there with Sasha from our house, got to the gardens, and had to come straight home because I was running out of time. This time, I just drove over there. I remembered the leash this time :) The best place to park is over by the dog park. It's just a little south on 130th from the bathrooms and playground. 
We started out in the gardens and I went with what looked like the main path. It turns out it wasn't. It was still .75 miles. The next route I took only added .10 miles to that so I know I still didn't take the right path. I just find it hard to know what paths lead to streets and which ones are part of the loop. I guess next time it would be better to check it out anyways. Heaven forbid I walk a little longer on a hike...

I loved the ducks everywhere. Sasha loved the fat oversized hamster looking things. I'm a bigger fan of dirt pathed tree covered light hills, but this park is great for a good walk.  We got 2.5 miles done for the first day of July. Only 72.5 to go!

Runkeeper GPS map happy: Yes

Easy terrain- no hills

Path: paved unless you're in the gardens

Main loop is wide enough for 3 people

Dog friendly (definitely bring the leash for this one- dogs, ducks, and runners everywhere)

Quiet- No road noise

Note:There are many entrance/exits to this hike. This would be a great one to bring your kids with you on and let them play at the multiple playgrounds afterwards. There is also a large bathroom at this park.