Two weekends ago was Junior Parents Weekend at the University of Portland. Our whole family flew out to see Nate. My dad got in early Wednesday afternoon, and my mom and I got in around 10:30 at night. I spent Wednesday night at Nate's house. The next morning, I went to Nate's Coastal and Marine Systems class. It was taught by an Australian teacher. She talked about tides and how they shape the life that lives on the coast. After his class, my mom and dad picked us up and we drove to Cathedral Park to eat lunch. The park was a beautiful, grassy area below St. John's Bridge. After lunch, we played Ultimate Frisbee. After that, we dropped Nate off at his house and drove to the Columbia River Gorge. We hiked 2.3 miles up to Angel's Rest. The trail started out in a dark, old growth forest climbing up past big, mossy boulders and across talus slopes that had views of the Columbia. The trail curved into the Coopey Creek drainage. There were two pretty neat waterfalls, but you couldn't really get a good view of them. After crossing the creek on a bridge, the trail climbed through three switchbacks, and entered the area that was burned in 1991. Soon after entering this burned area, we got our first good view of Angel's Rest rising above us. The trail climbed on through around 10 more switchbacks before crossing a big talus field. This talus field had great views of the western Columbia. One more switchback, and we were on the Angel's Rest ridge. A short scramble up and we were on the summit. The views were absolutly beautiful with the Gorge and Columbia River spread out below us. The wind was blowing at a pretty steady 45 mph. We spent only 5 minutes on the top before descending. My dad and I tried to hike up Devil's Rest, but we turned around after 25 minutes of uphill hiking. Once we got back to the car, we picked up Nate from his house before going to my uncle's house. As usual, my uncle cooked an awesome meal. We watched the Olympics for a while and then went to bed. The next morning, my mom and I hiked up to Council Crest. From the top, we could see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Rainer. Then, we went to the Oregon Musuem of Science and Industry. I went in and saw Samson, a T-Rex skeleton. On the way to Nate's house, we stopped at IKEA and bought him a table. Once we got to his house, my dad and I set up the table in an hour. That night, Friday, we went back to my uncle Randall's house; this time, we brought one of Nate's friends, James. We ate a great salmon pasta dish and watched the Olympics some more. On Saturday morning, Parent's Weekend started with a breakfast buffet. After the breakfast, we went to a "Life After College" talk. After this, we went back to Nate's house before the President's Luncheon began. At noon, we headed over to the President's Luncheon. The catered meal was pretty good. After the luncheon, we watched one of Nate's friends in her Ultimate Frisbee game. After that, Nate and I got on mountain bikes and biked over to Forest Park. We biked over the Willamette River on the St. John's bridge. Soon, we started our climb up the famous Germantown Road. Germantown is a narrow, winding road without a shoulder heading up 1,000 ft. up the hills through Forest Park. One and a half miles of uphill riding brought us to the trailhead. From here, we biked on the Lief Erikson Trail for several miles. Then, we climbed up through some steep, muddy switchbacks and up a long fire road to Skyline Blvd. Once we hit Skyline, we had biked up 1,100 ft. from the bottom of Germantown. From Skyline, we rode down Saltzman Road. This wide open fire road descended 400 ft. over 1.5 miles. The wide, fire roads in Oregon were fun to ride down, especially because Missouri is almost all singletrack. We rode back down the Lief Erikson for several miles before going down another fire road back to the St. Johns bridge. We rode back across St. John and headed back to Nate's house. In the end, we biked 20 miles. The riding was a combination of bike lanes, sidewalks, singletrack, fire roads, and narrow roads without shoulders. The trail ranged from dusty to total mud pits. That ride was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We went back to Randall's for our last night before flying out on Sunday. At first, we were just going to send my dad out, but then, my mom and I decided to come. That was a great choice, we had perfect weather, and I had a great time.
While we were driving into the Gorge, we got awesome views of Mt. Hood.
One of the waterfalls on Coopey Creek.
One of the smaller waterfalls on Coopey Creek
Hiking across the talus field near the top of Angel's Rest
Me on top of Angel's Rest
Hiking up the Marquam Greenway Trail on the way up to Council Crest
Here is the view of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainer from Council Crest.
Mt. Hood from Council Crest
This is a picture of Samson, the T-Rex skeleton at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
Here is a Google Earth Map of our Forest Park Bike Map.
On the way to the airport, we stopped at a great view of Mt. St. Helens rising over downtown Portland. Below, is the view of Mt. Hood from the same location.
Sunset from the plane. When we left Portland, it was sunney and 60 degrees. When we touched down in Kansas City, it was 28 degrees, cloudy, and there were 6 inches of snow.