Portland - April 2021

In mid April, Mary Ann and I decided to take a trip to Portland, Oregon.  Rather than fly we took the train.  While a flight is less than 2 hrs and costs around $300 for two, a sleeper on the train takes some 16 hours and costs over $900.  So it is not for the economy of time or money that one takes the train, it is for the experience of train travel and the scenery that you can see on the way.

We boarded the train in Sacramento around midnight on Wednesday night.  We had what Amtrak calls a Roomette - basically a small two person compartment with face to face seating in the day that converts to an upper and a lower bunk for sleeping at night.  As it was night we climbed into our bunks as the train moved slowly north from Sacramento to Chico and Redding.  As the sun came up we were in the Sacramento River Canyon near Dunsmuir passing through the Shasta Trinity National Forest.  Shortly thereafter we had splendid views of Mt Shasta over to the east.  

Mt Shasta and Shastina

After breakfast in the Dining Car (in these Covid times there was no cooking going on, just microwaved prepared food) we stopped in Klamath Falls and had a chance to stretch our legs and get some fresh air outside.  The next stop was in Chemult and after that we had a beautiful stretch of country as we moved down the Willamette valley to Eugene.  We lost over 4000 ft from Chemult at 4700ft down to Eugene at 430 ft.  It was particularly scenic alongside Lookout Point Lake which is a long skinny reservoir on the damned Willamette River.

Lookout Point Lake

After Eugene the countryside was not so exciting - just a flat plain of agricultural land through Albany, Salem and on into Portland.  We arrived in Portland around 4:30 Thursday afternoon.  It was warm and sunny.  Perhaps not quite the typical weather one expects of Portland.

The Benson Hotel

We walked up to our hotel, the Benson, and checked in before going out to explore the city.  The hotel is named after Simon Benson, a local businessman and philanthropist who made his money out of the lumber industry at the end of the 19th Century.  He gave his name to the hotel and to the Benson Bubbler, a type of water fountain found around Portland, and to the Benson Seagoing Raft, a huge seagoing log barge used to move lumber from Oregon down to Southern California. 

A Benson Bubbler

Portland is a nice city but there are not any major sights in the tourist sense.  We visited Powell’s Books (a city block of books that must be one of the best bookstores in the world); we walked along the banks of the Willamette River with great views of Mt Hood in the distance; we admired the Portland Building, a fine Michael Graves post-modern building with an impressive statue of Portlandia clinging to its side.

The Portland Building

Finding food in this foodie city was not easy in this time of Covid.  Limited indoor seating and a lot of closed restaurants.  We had to settle for a hamburger and fries -  albeit a fine hamburger and fries.  Similarly the next morning finding a decent cup of coffee was not easy and I had to settle for Starbucks.  Don’t think ill of me.

Multnomah Falls

We picked up a rental car Friday morning and we headed out of town along the Columbia River gorge.  The gorge itself is quite spectacular and the river here is impressively large.  We stopped at Multnomah Falls and took a hike up to the top of the falls and then a short way up the trail beyond the falls.  It is certainly beautiful countryside - lots of streams, lots of waterfalls, and very nice trails.

Above Multnomah Falls

Back at the car we drove further up the Columbia Gorge past the Bonneville Locks and Dam, the Bridge of the Gods (spanning the Columbia River), the old Cascade Locks and on to the town of Hood River (where the Hood River joins the Columbia River.   Hood River has a really nice feel to it.  It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed walking through the small downtown area.

Mt Hood from the Hood River Valley

We turned up the Hood River valley towards Mt Hood.  The valley here is the home to many apple orchards and the apple trees were in blossom.  With the apple trees in blossom and Mount Hood in the background it was a wonderful sight.

Timberline Lodge

We wanted to visit the Timberline Lodge, the WPA built lodge on the side of Mt Hood that was the location for the film - The Shining.  We got as far as the parking lot but the lodge was closed because of Covid restrictions so we didn’t get to see its splendid interior.  The lodge was above snow level but the ski resort there was also closed. 

Mt Hood from Timberline Lodge

Timberline lodge was the start of the Hood to Coast Run which I took part in a couple of times in 2003 and 2004.  It is a 12 person relay for 200 miles from Mt Hood to the coast at Astoria.  The first time I did the race I took the first leg, straight downhill from the lodge to the main road 6 miles below.  I remember it was my fastest ever 6 miles but the constant downhill did a number on my quads for the rest of the weekend.  I would not do such a thing so aggressively these days.

Driving back into Portland we paid a visit to Mt Tabor.  This is a hill that is an extinct cinder cone on the east side of the Willamette River that is a popular park and a great place to watch the sun going down over the city of Portland below.  

The Bust of York

There was once a statue of one Harvey Scott in Mt Tabor Park.  Mr Scott was the owner and editor of The Oregonian newspaper.  His statue, by Gutzon Bordlum of Mt Rushmore fame, was torn down by protesters during the BLM protests in 2020 (along with the statues of Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt in the same year).  A bust of York, the slave of William Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame, and the first African American to have crossed the USA to reach the Pacific was secretly installed on the site sometime in 2021.  The bust is quite impressive and I am sure it will be a permanent installation on the site.

Again in this time of Covid we found it difficult to find a place for dinner in Portland.  We did however stumble across the Tabor Tavern which had outdoor seating and pretty fine food.

Shattered Glass and Paint outside Starbucks

Driving back into Portland we left our car near the car rental office and walked back to our hotel.  On the way we came across the rear of a protest march, fortunately moving away from us.  We then saw the damage done by the protesters - broken windows, paint spilled on the pavement, graffiti spray painted on the buildings.  The scary thing was that some of the windows showed signs of bullet holes - that is not your everyday protest march.  In Portland they have a very organized group of protesters - they are all uniformed in black T shirts, they have pre-arranged meeting points and routes through the city.  The random and indiscriminate property damage does not seem to work in their favor however.

Portland Museum of Art

Next morning, Saturday, we had tickets for the Art Museum.  The walk up to the Museum passed many fine art deco buildings but no artisanal coffee shops that were open (Starbucks again).  Portland is certainly a beautiful city.  The Museum was nice but didn’t really have anything spectacular, in my humble opinion.  

Voodoo Doughnuts

After the art museum we walked down to the river and walked along the riverfront to the Saturday Market.  Apparently, Portland is famous for its Saturday Market and this Saturday was the first day it had been held since Covid.  There was the chance of interesting people watching but nothing else was too interesting to me - lots of jewelry stalls, T shirt stalls, and of course CBD oil vendors.  Portland has a reputation for doughnuts and one of the more well known establishments is Voodoo Doughnuts.  The line outside the store was long enough to deter us from wanting to try them out.

Who is Missing?

Back at our hotel we just had enough time to look at the display of historic photos in the hotel’s staircase before leaving for our train.  The staircase from the 13th floor down to the ground has photos of Portland history and famous hotel residents.  Many presidents have stayed there - at least FDR through Obama and the current President.  Missing thankfully was Mr Trump. 

 

The Coast Starlight

We boarded our train for Sacramento around 2:00 pm.  There was a problem with the lift bridge over the river that delayed our departure by an hour but we made that up over night and arrived in Sacramento on time at 6:00 am.

We were lucky on our “roomette” assignments on the right side (odd numbers) going up to Portland, and on the left side (even numbers) going down to Sacramento.  Most of the good scenery was on our side of the train.