Columbia Slough trek

On November 22, Seth and I took a bike trek on a cold day with the goal of following Columbia Slough as much as possible. We started at NE 33rd Ave. and went west to Kelly Point Park, thence south through St. Johns and back to my place in NE Portland.

There were may places where we couldn't follow the slough very closely, as you can see if you look this route up. The City of Portland does plan to purchase property to create an unbroken south-bank trail, but it doesn't exist yet.

I wanted to take this trip to get a feel for the area, since I cover this area in my thesis and plan to cover it in my book. I'll be writing about the topic of pollution in the slough; in the meanwhile, below are some images from the trek:

Above is an image from about where NE 14th Place dead-ends, looking west. Seth and I had to carry our bikes to the top of this dike. We then followed this path west as far as we could (to a few blocks east of MLK).

Below are two images of a concrete fabrication facility on the south bank of the slough E. of MLK, between the slough and Columbia Blvd.:


Below is an image of the slough looking east from the MLK Blvd./Hwy 99E bridge:


Below is an image looking west from the bike trail in Delta Park West:

Below is an image of geese in Heron Lakes Golf Course (this is where Vanport used to be, and now there doesn't appear to be any trace of it left at all):


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