Meet-n-Greet Hike in Forest Park this Friday! (6/20)

[anna in boots]

Calling all Portland Hikers!

Here's the way to find hiking partners that match your speed and style, live close to you, share your training goals, and set up carpools. Join me in unveiling the mystery of which face goes with what screen name at PortlandHikers.org.

Since I'm so close to Forest Park and I'm there every day, anyway, I'll sacrifice myself--I mean volunteer--to host a hike once a month at Leif Erikson Trail. For those of you unfamiliar with this route, it's about as easy as easy gets--plenty of parking, a drinking fountain at the trailhead, a port-a-potty 1/4 mile up the trail, and it's gravel or paved the whole, flat, dry way. You can wear the pretty tennis shoes.

So here's the proposal:

WHAT: Forest Park Meet-n-Greet, easy 5 mile hike

WHERE: East Leif Erikson Trailhead
Just go west on NW Thurman Street in the Pearl until you run out of road and see the gate. (Plug 4008 NW Thurman St into your maps program.) Give yourself plenty of time to park; if it's nice out, there's usually a good-sized horde of vehicles.

WHEN: Friday, June 20 6:30 PM, rain or shine (We're Portlanders, dagnabbit!)

WHO: Portland Hikers members & significant others, future members.
Portland Hiker's dogs, pooches, puppies, llamas, etc. Bring leash & bags.
Adults only, so we can tell the really bad jokes. We can do family hikes later.

WHY: Connect, make new friends, share victory/horror stories, find out who's got the most fuel-efficient 4-seaters and how much it takes to bribe them to carpool you to the coast, Mt. Hood, etc.

HOW: I'll be at the trail map sign in a yellow Kokatat hat if it's raining, a royal blue windbreaker if it's nice. The password will be "Muddy boots rock." Pass it on.

Consider…this hike has added benefits, such as:

1. Breaking in new boots and/or pack because if you were wrong about the size and you find you suddenly need a stretcher at mile 3, there will people around to carry you and your pack back. For a price. Bring cash.

2. You can entice friends along who want to know more about Portland Hikers and want confirmation that we are not all stalkers. I can only vouch for myself.

3. If there are enough people, the group will invariably break into two groups at two speeds, Conquerors (fast, jack-rabbit-looking types) and Explorers (slower, take more pictures.) You can relax and find your place or aspire to keep up with someone faster than you to see what it feels like to wheeze.

4. If you just bought a new digital with lots and lots of buttons and a manual thicker than the Portland phonebook, chances are good that somebody in the crowd will know how to find the battery and explain what an f-stop is.

5. You can use this as an excuse not to hike too far the next day. ("I already did a 5-er with the club, yesterday, guys, I gotta pace myself!")

6. You can use this as a warm up for the hike the next day. (For jack-rabbit-looking-types only)

7. Folks in Vancouver, Gresham/Troutdale, Tigard, and other foreign countries can host some Meet-n-Greets to mix it up, location-wise. We can vary days and times, too. And add those family hikes.

8. It'll keep you outta the bars on a Friday night. Or give you an even bigger excuse to go. Because now you're thirsty. And hungry. And...who's up for a panini?

Anna

[OneSpeed]

I'm bummed I'm gonna miss this, especially since it's so dang close to my house! I got invited to go camping, and my buddy wants to leave before Friday rush hour.

Anyway, enjoy my hood! And please do this again so I can meet everyone.

Paul

[Jane]

Yay! My client resceduled so I can join you all now! The last time did this hike was Christmas day morning, it will be nice to see the season transformations, as well as meet some more of you happy hikers! (Thanks again Anna, for organizing this)
What a great way to greet the Summer Solstice : )

[Jane]

Thanks Anna for a fun evening walk! I think there were 8 of us (then one person needed to leave early), oh and a sweet doggie. We did 6 miles RT. We agreed for a Friday night on such a popular route - there were hardly any other people! Well except for bicyclists that speedily snuck up on us (I guess if we weren't chatting or laughing so much we might have heard them : ) For me there were a couple familiar faces, and it was wonderful to meet new folks. Thanks to Anna for planning this, and to everyone who came out for this event!

[yosemite hiker]

I agree with Jane; a nice time.
Thanks, Anna, for putting this together allowing us to put some faces to names.

[tjolson81]

i had a great time too. thanks everyone for all the suggestions for great things to do around the area. if only i could remember everything! i look forward to the next get together. i'm always up for evening and weekend hikes if anyone's interested!

-todd

[jeffstatt]

Sorry I couldn't make this one - but I'm glad y'all got together. Anyone take Any photos?

When's the next one?

[anna in boots]

Jeff,

The hike was definitely a success. The weather was nice and cool, the trail was empty but for a few bicyclists, and we covered a lot of ground, both on the trail and in conversation.

We learned, for instance, that Raven looks more like a grizzly bear than a raven, nyxlily is actually a water lily due to her interests in white water rafting, kayaking, etc., anna does not resemble her avatar (much), and Martell is a wealth of info for posting photos to this site. We only had one casualty: Jane's fanny pack, which gave its life for a good hike. We saw wild animals (mice and slugs.) And Todd, a new member of PortlandHikers and the Portland area, itself, is now replete with advice on where to go, what to do, and who to buy coffee from.

Pictures were taken but we refuse to post them on the grounds that they might incriminate us. Next time, I promise. Which will most likely be July 18 - 20 sometime.

anna in boots