A River Walk in Sellwood

Sunday, December 7, 2014.  As I do every day, I arrived in downtown Sellwood, having taken the 7-minute ride south on the 70 bus. This time I arrived at 11:30, half an hour before the library opened.

With some time to kill, I decided to walk west and see what lay at the bottom of the foothills west of Sellwood. Lo and behold, it was the Willamette River! I suppose I could have deduced this, had I had a map. Anyway, there was a fine bridge there, the Sellwood Bridge, which I later found out is 88 years old and is in the process of being replaced with a new structure. There is some controversy about cost overruns, but the overrun is relatively mild by today's standards--less than 10%.

There was a trail leading north from the bridge, which I took through a grassy meadow area and then into a wooded area. Where I came out was inside of an amusement park complex. For awhile it looked like there was no way out other than to backtrack, but eventually I found an opening.

There was a long line of people waiting along a railroad track outside the amusement park grounds. I initially assumed that they were waiting for a noon opening of the amusement park. Then I saw an old steam engine puffing out white smoke, and I thought that they were waiting for a tour of the engine. As I was walking back south, all of a sudden the engine gave a mighty roar and a huge billow smoke shot up, just like in the movies about the old West. Turns out the people were waiting on rides. The train came past me, five cars full of people, and one boxcar in the middle with wrapped presents in it.