Forest Park Hike

By Michael Oliver

I stare at the blank computer screen, and then look out the window of my home office and gaze longingly at the lush, green contours of Forest Park. I am sentenced to a day of working indoors, shackled to the computer, but the words I need to write just aren’t coming. I’d much rather be out in the woods plodding over some trail at my own leisurely pace, and I can’t concentrate. I try to focus, try to work, but my eyes turn toward the window again. The hills, accentuated by a wispy mist, glow with a stroke of sunlight illuminating bright fall colors. I shut down the computer, lace up my shoes, and head straight for my favorite one-hour-plus loop hike.

It takes me only a few minutes to walk from my home to the Lower Macleay Trail, where I pass under the Thurman Street Bridge and almost instantly am swallowed up by the thick woods of Balch Creek Canyon. Earthy odors rise from the damp, ripe forest floor and swirl about on a husky breeze that rattles and scatters the last of the season’s brittle leafs. The creek churns out gentle rhythms as it spills calmly down toward the Willamette. I’m only 15 minutes from home, yet I feel a million miles away from the city and the stress of my work.

Just under a mile up the trail, I pass a rustic ruin of a stone house straight out of Hansel and Gretel. For years I thought it was a remnant of the original Balch Homestead, but in reality it is a Depression-era restroom long since abandoned due to repeated vandalism. The stone house marks the junction where the Lower Macleay Trail turns into the Wildwood Trail, and where the westbound Wildwood breaks off to the right and heads up hill. I keep going straight through, along the banks of the creek, up canyon.

After about 10 minutes of brisk walking from the stone house I cross the creek on a footbridge, and all around me are beautiful ferns dripping last night’s rain and towering old-growth cedar and Douglas fir trees. Unfortunately, the snaking vines of Hedera helix, or English ivy, also grow here. This voracious invasive plant rages throughout the park choking out native plants and smothering trees.

From here the trail climbs about two-hundred yards up switchbacks, depositing me near restrooms and a parking lot where NW Cornell Road crosses the Wildwood. (If you’ve got the time, the Portland Audubon Society has a nature center and bookshop just off to the west of this area that are worth poking around in.) I follow the well-marked crosswalk over NW Cornell to pick up the Wildwood again, and keep following the trail as it climbs and dips and hugs the wooded hillside for about another half-mile, to where I take the Cumberland Trail, veering left and downhill off the Wildwood. After about 10 minutes I pass the Tunnel Trail on my left, climb a slight hill, then the Cumberland Trail ends. There are two paths that exit the park here, and I take the path to the left which drops about 20 yards down to NW Luray Terrace.

I leave the park and the woods now, and move through a landscape no longer dominated by tall trees but by the large and grand old homes lining the streets of NW Portland’s West Hills neighborhood. I am already feeling more focused and have mentally started on the project that waits on my desk. As I wind down the street a steely gray layer of clouds is wholly enveloping the hulking Cascade volcanoes — Hood, Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens — that you can see from these heights on a clear day.

Where NW Luray Terrace splits I go right and uphill on NW Luray Circus, and on the left-hand side near the end of this cul-d-sac I hit the first of four public stairways — with 400-plus stairs — that drop me back home. Despite the gray skies the short jaunt has fueled my creative process and I’m feeling refreshed and revamped and ready to work. Filled with ideas, I settle in at my desk, look out my window one more time, and then let the inspiration from the woods flow out of me and onto the page.

Directions
Start the hike at Wallace Park/Chapman Elementary School, parking on Raleigh Street between NW 25th and NW 26th avenues. Walk up Raleigh toward the hills, turn right or north on NW 28th Avenue, going three blocks to Upshur Street, then turn west (left) to follow Upshur about a fifth of a mile to its end and the Lower Macleay Park Trailhead.

Stay on the Lower Macleay Trail past the stone house (where the trail name changes to the Wildwood), then up the hill, past the parking lot and restrooms at the top, and across NW Cornell Road. Once across Cornell, follow the Wildwood Trail to the junction with the Cumberland Trail, where you will veer left and downhill. After passing the Tunnel Trail on your left, you will continue on slightly uphill to where the trail ends and exits onto Cumberland Road. Don’t exit here though. Take the path to the left that drops slightly downhill about 20 yards to deposit you on NW Luray Terrace .

From here you will walk to the left and downhill, following NW Luray Terrace for about 10 to 5 minutes, then branching right and uphill at the Y in the road onto NW Luray Circus. On the left, almost at the end of this cul-de-sac, is the first set of stairs. (All of the entrances to the stairwells are tough to see as they are covered with foliage and blend with the surrounding houses, so look closely for them.) Go right at the bottom of these stairs, which puts you back on NW Luray Terrace, then when you hit Cumberland Road go left, staying on the left-hand sidewalk. In about 15 yards you’ll cross over Shenandoah Terrace and then — on the left-hand side, just in the crook of the road where it breaks right — the next set of stairs will plunge steeply down to Fairfax Street. From here you want to cross Fairfax, and then cross over to Westover Street, walking about 20 yards to the right where between two houses the next set of stairs waits. At the bottom of these stairs turn left, and follow NW Summit Street downhill to NW Cornell. Turn left up Cornell, walk about 25 yards, cross the crosswalk, and then descend the stairs immediately on the other side of the crosswalk. At the bottom of these stairs take a right down Pettygrove Street, and at the stop sign at 26th Avenue go left onto the paved path. This path cuts between the school and the park and will lead you back to Raleigh Street and your car.