Mt Tabor

This month we took a short trip to a local park, Mt Tabor. It's a dormant cinder cone of the Boring Lava Field. It is 636 feet in elevation. This lava field, with its network of cinder cones and small shield volcanoes, extends from Boring, Oregon to southwest Washington. It has been extinct for over 300,000 years. The park is located in southeast Portland. Apparently there are other cinder cones from this field within the city of Portland: Rocky Butte, Powell Butte, and Kelly Butte. We've been to Powell Butte. From 1894-1911 the reservoirs were built here to distribute water.

The hike was pretty easy for us. Three different trails are marked, green, red and blue. There are smaller connecting trails too. We stuck to the red and blue trails. The green trail seemed to just go around the outside of the park and had a road along side of it most of the way. We started out mid morning and finished just after lunch. That was with look out stops and a snack break along the way.



This is one of the pump houses, the steps identify this building as Reservoir No 5 built in 1911. Most of the building reminded me of the early 1900's. And there were lamp posts that looked older too. They reminded me of the lamp post that I imaged as I read the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia.

Older lamp post in the back ground 

The west side of the park had great views of the city of Portland.

There is a cut-away of the cinder cone near the parking lot. Apparently the part that was cut away was used to pave the nearby parking lot. 

We had fun exploring this area. Maybe we will bring the grandkids here for a walk to "get the wiggles out". There is a nice amphitheater here with a tree perfect for a picture, only I need to photoshop the chain link fence out of the frame. 

Update

I've been neglecting my blog. So today is an update on many things to catch you all up.

Fishing. We have taken up fishing. We started out fishing on the Wilson River for steelhead. The Wilson is good for many kinds of fish during the whole year. We haven't caught anything but we have fun trying. We combine the fishing trip with a trip to the ocean. We "catch" lunch at one of the local small restaurants on the coast. I suppose if we actually catch a fish that we can take home and not release-we will be heading home instead of going out to lunch. We've gone fishing with my grandson too. It was great fun.
                      


Snow. January was warm and February was cold. Cold enough to snow. Mind you we don't get a lot of snow but it is fun to see and the grandkids love it! I even got to drive for the first time in the snow and ice to go horseback riding.
                    


Retreat. I went on a woman's retreat put on by our church. It was nice to get away and meet some new people. It was a great time of personal refreshment and reflection. A very good way to start a new year-it was in February but close enough! There's something awesome about reflecting on who I am in Christ and how much he loves me. That changes my perspective on the world and balances my priorities. And I got to go running on the beach. I've taken up running again and ran my first 5K here in Oregon on the beach at the retreat.


Planting. I'm continuing to try to start some plants for my garden. The first plants failed. The grow light didn't seem to help, it just made them very tall and leggy. If I put the plants closer to the light their leaves started to burn. Then they got some fungus. I gave up on those plants and I'll have to buy them from the nursery. But I still got some other ones starting and I have a different method of starting them. No grow light for these ones. I made a small portable "green house" for them. Every day I take them outside and bring them in at night. Night time is often freezing or below. So far this method is working. I currently have basil, coleus, and onions coming up. I have other seeds planted waiting for them to come up. We will see.


Taekwondo. My 6 year old grandson is in Taekwondo and is currently a yellow belt. Portland was hosting the National Taekwondo Tournament. He was allowed to compete in form. He got 2nd place in his age group! He got the highest score out of all of the yellow belts tho. He came home with a silver metal. (Grandma bragging here)


I have more to write but those subjects each be a blog. Hopefully I won't wait so long to write again.