Walking the Road Less Driven
Monday, July 20, 2009
Yesterday, I thought I'd take a walk. (Yes, this behavior is quite strange for me.) What was just going to be a simple "walk downtown" turned into a 7-hour, 18.5 mile adventure that has left me a little sore today.
What I love about walking - and I'll say this a thousand times - is that you have time to notice things you'd never see while driving, and you're free to go places cars cannot. When driving a car, I generally try to stay on the road. When walking, I can go around "Do Not Enter" signs or past locked gates just to see what's on the other side. I can look down from an overpass, wonder what the road below is - and then find it. Walking takes me places that I like to go.
So I ended up walking down to the McCormick & Baxter Creosote Superfund site, where I was able to take a decent photo of the train bridge. I was also able to see some graffiti under a train overpass that I thought was amazingly colorful and artistic; how much time does it take to do something like this? Simple tagging, of course, is irritating, but this actually added value to the landscape.
Eventually, I ended up wandering south and, after a stop for water and StarBurst, I found myself downtown at Saturday Market. I hung out there, chilled out on the waterfront for a bit, then started walking again. It was then that I was reminded by a friend that the Sand In The City was going on. Being the curious sort, I walked up to Pioneer Courthouse Square just as they were going to demolish the sand structures and clean up. I managed to take this photograph moments before destruction!
Despite having left for my walk around noon, the sun was already starting to get lower in the sky as I walked home. I was up along Willamette Blvd when I spotted the following bench and snapped this picture:
I think that came out well!
Anyway, Portland is a beautiful town to walk around and, as usual, I can't wait until my next one!
What I love about walking - and I'll say this a thousand times - is that you have time to notice things you'd never see while driving, and you're free to go places cars cannot. When driving a car, I generally try to stay on the road. When walking, I can go around "Do Not Enter" signs or past locked gates just to see what's on the other side. I can look down from an overpass, wonder what the road below is - and then find it. Walking takes me places that I like to go.
So I ended up walking down to the McCormick & Baxter Creosote Superfund site, where I was able to take a decent photo of the train bridge. I was also able to see some graffiti under a train overpass that I thought was amazingly colorful and artistic; how much time does it take to do something like this? Simple tagging, of course, is irritating, but this actually added value to the landscape.
Eventually, I ended up wandering south and, after a stop for water and StarBurst, I found myself downtown at Saturday Market. I hung out there, chilled out on the waterfront for a bit, then started walking again. It was then that I was reminded by a friend that the Sand In The City was going on. Being the curious sort, I walked up to Pioneer Courthouse Square just as they were going to demolish the sand structures and clean up. I managed to take this photograph moments before destruction!
Despite having left for my walk around noon, the sun was already starting to get lower in the sky as I walked home. I was up along Willamette Blvd when I spotted the following bench and snapped this picture:
I think that came out well!
Anyway, Portland is a beautiful town to walk around and, as usual, I can't wait until my next one!
posted by Burton at 12:40 PM
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