Springtime on the trail

My friend, Beth, and I walk a section of the Fanno Creek Trail 5 days a week—summer and winter, rain or shine. We just started our fourth year.

About midway on the walk we cross Fanno Creek and we usually pause to watch the creek and see if we can see ducks or geese in the water. Yesterday when we got there, there was a great blue heron standing in the creek. I didn't have my camera with me. We watched him for quite awhile, then he spread his wings and soared away. I knew we wouldn't see him again, but I brought my camera along today anyway, and took this picture that I call "where the heron was yesterday". Squint your eyes and try to imagine it.

There are signs of spring all along the trail. Fruit trees are blooming and everything is covered in brilliant green moss, after the wet winter and spring we have had.

One jarring sight is this razor wire strung along a section of fence where the Portland Golf Club course backs up to the trail. It's a snooty, private golf course. This addition to their fence looks really nasty and is an eyesore along an otherwise beautiful walk.

In a marshy area we stopped to watch two mallard ducks. The female, who is harder to see in the lower right, was finding lots of worms and grubs to eat in the mud, while her mate stood by. He seemed to be guarding her. He just followed her around nervously and once he spotted Beth and me, watching from a little bridge, he seemed really nervous, watching us and flapping around her.


Here's where our walk always ends—the Garden Home Starbucks. Our friendly barristas posed for a picture. I promised them they would be famous when I published it on my blog.


I just looked at my friend Carl Schmidt's blog. Coincidentally, he and Dickie, hundreds of miles away from here, in Northern California, saw a great blue heron on their walk yesterday too. He had his fancy camera with him. Carl takes great pictures.