Another perfect day for walking, a nice breeze and in the 70s.  The 10k and 5k walkers split right in the beginning and we headed towards Lewis and Clark College.  It's amazing how such a beautiful, wooded park can be so close to Portland.  Then crossing over Terwilliger we headed on to the Lewis and Clark campus.  When you pass by the Frank Manor House (as in Meier and Frank), one can only imagine the life they must of led.  On the way back to the Park we passed a beautiful pink rose garden along the side of the athletic field.  I'm going to put a link on so you can 

What a difference a day makes. Cool and party cloudy today, which makes it good walking weather.  Hanni, Kathy and Mike took off and did the 5k around the park, while the rest of us caught up on the latest happenings and strolled up to the view point.  Outside of a lot of birds, nothing much to see out there today. Coffee is always good after our walk and we had a chance to meet up with Mike Uyemura and Sandra.  To Tuesday night stroll, so let me know if you'd like to come along.  Wednesday is Tryon Creek, which is ALWAYS a good walk and lunch is always at LaProvence, 

Whew!  When was the last time I did a 10k, it must have been ages ago, but Andrea and I did it today, with a few stops.  We started out the same time as John and Judy, we ended up meeting them right after the checkpoint and then we all walked in at the finish, 4 hours later.  We made quite a few stops in between and they met up with family.  We started off with coffee at Cafe Italiano (we did the walk backwards), then headed on down to Saturday/Sunday Market, were we perused the the different vendors.  Then we strolled down to the checkpoint, where we ran into Sandy Reid on her bike.  I knew she had played a recorder and joined a group, but she said her group was playing for the Sunday Parkways on 13th and Hoyt about 1:30

Click here for the Oregon Flame Award Winners.
It looks like summer finally got to Portland today.  It was perfect.  It's always cooler when you are in that part of Portland.  Tomorrow it will even be better because the streets will be closed to traffic, which makes us all "street walkers" tomorrow.  Of course we did our normal 5k in 4 hours, finishing behind some of the 10k walkers, but we had to criss cross to make sure we saw what we needed to see.  From doing the many walks in Portland, it was nice finally going down those streets with the beautiful old homes.  We had to stop at so many and then of course there were the stores and the food.  Ste. Honore's was the first stop (although it took is a bit out of the way), then we hit Two Tarts Bakery off of Kearny and 23rd that had the most scrumptious little cookies, and eventually we met up with Bonnie and Jane (they manned the checkpoint at the Hawthorne Bridge) for lunch at Ken's Artisan Bakery, on 21st and Flanders.  Then we finally had to head back to the start so we could get to the State Meeting and the announcement of the Oregon Flame Awards.  I think we made that 5k into at least a 7k, but we were able to get in some great shopping and food.  In fact it was so nice, we are heading back tomorrow and maybe we will do the other 5k, but then again .......
By the way Merrywalkers, our club came in 2d for Club Excellence and we also got a ribbon for being in existence for 25 years.  

What a great walk.  Sometimes you wonder, it's a small town, how do they find even better routes?  But they did and if you didn't catch it this morning, run over there this afternoon and you get to take in their Farmer's Market as well.  
We did the 5k but Dick said that the 10k walk went by new places as well.  The Merrywalkers agreed, when there isn't an event, we have to go over and do this walk again.  The trail that goes by the river is so scenic.  Carolyn said when you get to the rock you have to rub the warm spot, then place your hand on your head and it will give you energy to finish the walk.  Good job, 4Ds!

Today was pretty special, Mike decided to spend his very first day of retirement and joined us at the Refuge for our Snails walk.  Becky Forsythe told him about us and he said he would also be joining us on Wednesday.  Hanni also brought her friend, Eve, but she is only here temporarily.  She is heading back across the pond to marry her childhood sweetheart.  She's going to keep her condo here and maybe sometime when she is back for a visit we might just see her and her new mate.
All of us were taking pictures of the heron today, he just stood there on that log and posed for us.  Everyone had their phones out to capture him.  
Remember, this Wednesday we are meeting in West Linn at the coffee shop for the walk, which will start at 9 a.m.

The Dog Mountain Walk is one the offerings in June 2012 during the Columbia Gorge Biennial Classic hosted by the Columbia River Volkssport Club.
 I previewed the walk with my husband this past weekend.  I’d call it a hike rather than a walk, and it thoroughly deserves its rating of 5! 
There are a couple of ways to reach the top of Dog Mountain, called this, they say, because a group of pioneers that reached the area many years ago were so hungry that they resorted to eating their dogs.  Both trails start at the trailhead parking lot.  We took the Augsberger Trail, which offers a more gradual climb, on a misty, drizzly Saturday morning in – July !?!  It’s not supposed to rain in July around here!
Whichever trail you take, you will go up, and up, and up, nearly 1,000 feet gain per mile of trail.  Watch out for poison oak on the lower parts of the trail, as it is everywhere.  The Augsberger Trail is narrow, so if you take your dog, it will certainly be brushing up against the poison oak.  The steeper Dog Mountain Trail is wider, so safer for taking your dog if you’re allergic to poison oak.  If you are allergic, you probably know that you can pick up the oils from the plant when you pet your dog, and get a nasty rash even though you personally avoided every leaf.
The trail is mostly smooth, so it’s easy to walk – if you can handle going mostly straight up!
The way up is mostly shady, and lovely, and after you’re up above the poison oak zone you can relax and enjoy looking around as you climb.  I’d recommend a walking stick or two to help you up the mountain.  Don’t forget to bring plenty of food and water and to fuel yourself as you go.
Close to the summit, the Augsberger Trail flattens out and passes through a vast area of meadow that is teeming with wildflowers in the spring.  On a clear day, they say, you have a wonderful view of the Gorge and surrounding mountains.  We didn’t get any of that, as we were in the clouds on Saturday, but being able to see the wildflowers made the climb worthwhile anyway.
Then you have to go down again.  Tighten your hiking boots!  If your foot slides around in your shoes, you’re sure to get sore toes and blisters.  Also, it’s awfully difficult to resist the pull of gravity, the trail is so steep.  We ended up doing a sort of racewalk/jog down much of the Dog Mountain trail.  Luckily, there are only a few areas of loose rock that make footing tricky, and most of the way the trail is very nice packed dirt.  If you take the slightly less-steep option down, the trail is a little longer, but you’ll get very nice views of the Gorge in places.
Allow at least 4 hours to get up and back down again.  Enjoy!  We certainly did!

Hike description and photos: http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org/wiki/Dog_Mountain_Hike
Hike description and map: http://www.nwhiker.com/CGNSAHike48.html

We looked on the web and they said it wasn't going to rain between 10 and noon, so 5 of us headed down from Sherwood.  Mike, Carolyn, Kyoko, her daughter Mia and myself watched as it poured all the way down there, and surprise, it did let up by the time we got there.  There was quite the representatives of different clubs manning the start/finish point, we saw, Albany, Eugene, Rose City Roamers and Vancouver Volkssport helping out, and of course we were able to munch on some great cookies before heading out.  The umbrellas came up and down, but for the most part, we missed the big rain.  We decided on the 6k that headed towards the river so we could see the bikes, but we were too late, but we did manage to see where some new establishments and taken root and some old ones were gone.  I think we had Mia ready for the Chippery, but that was one of those places that bit the dust.  We had lunch at the New Morning Bakery (in fact we ran into the Mossbacks there) and for me, the foccacia bread was fantastic, and then we went for gelato across the street. On the way back we had to visit one of our favorite stores, The Ink Well, we we shopped for about a 1/2 hour and even tried out those really neat and expensive chairs..  Then it was back to the finish where we finally got to see the bikes that were in the race.  It was really neat and we could only imagine how much fun it would have been to see them race in the river.  The way back was pretty slow going, we saw a 4-car accident and then a couple of 2-car accidents and we think it was from the standing water on the freeway.  But eventually we made it home and now we can saw, we finally made it to the Da Vinci Days, so thanks for putting on the walk.  Added note:  Julia from Albany wrote and said the accident was caused by a stray dog..

We had 4 people out there for Edy Rd. but we were done so fast and made it to Starbucks within 20 minutes.