from the mixed up files of mrs. jozi e. massagi: Fake Hike #2

I tried again.

Really, I deserved the bust that this hike was. For a few reasons:

1. I was so determined to hit the trail that I abandoned my (overscheduled) hiking buddies and went out on my own.

2. I was trying to cover as much ground as possible but only had a few free hours myself so I had to hike very close to home.

3. I was trying to go someplace "new" so I found uncharted (by me) territory and didn't research its hiking veracity very well.

4. I was pretty sure I wasn't ready for a lung-busting hike yet, so I looked in my trail book for the easiest hike I could find within driving distance.

Consequently, it was sort of lonely and boring and once again: just another (literal) walk in the park. Well, first a park, then a farm. Apparently this park is farmed. So first I walked along the river through the woods, then I walked around a cornfield. I can't believe I moved to Oregon from Indiana just to say I hiked in a cornfield. Good grief.

But! I was determined! So Walter and I headed out to Willamette Mission State Park. And it was COLD!

The trail started in the middle of Filbert Grove, and that was pretty fun as I'd never really seen filbert trees before. There were no leaves, but the moss covering all the branches made them really pretty.

In the grove itself, the trees were really manicured and made really cool rows. When I was a kid I would have called this a fairy tunnel.

The trees were everywhere through the rest of the hike, but not as manicured. I love their tangled trunks.

(I tried to find some random hazelnuts laying around on the ground to make myself some Nutella, but it didn't happen.)

Some views along the Willamette:

Bridge behind the cabled ferry:

A view of the original Willamette Mission site- the mission was the first of its kind and established in 1834. It operated until 1840, when it was moved to Chemeketa (Salem). Offspring of the original Mission Rose brought as a gift to one of the mission founders still grow wild here and it's probably really pretty in the spring and summer. As for winter (like now), it looks like those missionaries were pretty cold...

The trail ends at the nation's largest black cottonwood... uh... it ends where you can see the nation's largest black cottonwood. From across the river. 100 yards away. It's quite exciting. Really. Jaw-dropping majesty. (cough)

Walter proving we made it to our destination:

You can tell his antler is about to fall off in this picture. Note the majesty of the tree in the back ground. It's so biiiiiiiiiiig I can barely get it in the piiiiiiiiiiicture... (I believe the loss of the antler is my penance for going solo and leaving my buddies back at home.)

Interestingly enough, a second trail in this park is across the river. It's more of an educational walk, really, and literally circles a big giant cornfield. I would know why it circles a big giant cornfield if I had taken the time to read all the educational placards dotting the 2.5 miles that circled the big giant cornfield. (Yes. You read that right. Two and a half miiiiiiiiiiiles around a CORNFIELD.) There were nice views of the river along one side, though, so it was still pretty. And the sun came out for us!

(Don't take this trail)

Almost at the end of the loop, lo and behold, we come upon the Great Black Cottonwood. On this side of the river, you can actually see it and walk up to it. Um, so... it is a pretty darn big tree.

In case you can't tell how big that is, that tiny brown dot near the bottom right side of the picture is Walter. Um... big tree. Here's a closeup and you can find his blue ribbon to get the scale. So yeah. Big tree.

I was poking fun at the tree all day (to myself, yes, I and the voices in my head have a wonderfully genial relationship) until I saw it again from across the field (you know, two and a half miles away) and I had to admit, it's sort of big. :)

So, after marveling at the bigness of the tree and the prettiness of the river, it was time to head home. Any notions of spending the rest of the afternoon enjoying a nice picnic in the park were put to rest when we found this footprint: Bigfoot!