Sauvie Island and Warrior Point

 Sauvie Island is a big river island at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, created by the Multnomah Channel leading off of the Willamette. Sauvie Island is a big flat swampy island that despite being so close to Portland proper (10 miles north) has almost a middle of nowhere feel to it. It's about half quaint farmland, and half wildlife refuge. There is a nude beach in the northern sections. It's a very quiet, peaceful place. It's also the place to be in October, as every farm has a corn maze, tons of cheap food, pumpkins, cider, and mud. It's the fall place to be for Portlanders.

Last weekend I went up with my girlfriend and another friend, we did a regular corn maze and a haunted corn maze, drank cider, stuffed our faces with hot dogs and corn on the cob, and got mud all over our shoes. This weekend, we wanted to do a simple hike since it was a crappy day and neither of us felt like doing anything difficult. We ended up with an interesting adventure.

Warrior Point is the northern most tip of Sauvie island, isolated in a wildlife refuge past all the farms and the nude beach. The road is kind of crappy getting out there and it feels very alone that far away from things. You need a day pass to park there, and it's a steep 7 bucks, but we hike so much I had no issue giving funding to a probably underfunded refuge.

The hike to the warrior point lighthouse is 7 miles, out and back. The Elevation gain is maybe, a foot? the trail is a flat ATV access road through forest and beach to the rocky outcrop of Warrior point. We started out by accidentally taking the wrong path that curved inland, but before we turned around it was worth it because we saw a cool snake.

Not sure what kind of snake it is, I'm not a biologist. Looks like a Northwest Garter Snake with minimal google research. It was really pretty.

Back to the real road, it's just an access road that parallels the beach up the island to Warrior point. There is no elevation to climb and we spent a good amount of time walking on the beach itself, until the tide came in and forced us onto the road again. There are various meadows and clearings along the way, but you are mostly in the trees. The wind was blowing leaves down around us and it was a lovely walk. The rain came and went. On the beach you can see the Lighthouse all 3 miles away, and it looks closer than it ends up being as the walk is pretty long, but quiet.

Eventually you end up at the rocky outcrop of Warrior Point with the small concrete lighthouse. The wind here was intense, and we hung out on the North side so we were shielded. There is a nice log to sit on and watch the boats go by. The sky was getting dark and the wind was picking up.

We got a text from a friend saying that a wind warning had just hit PDX and was coming our way. We decided to head back at a brisk pace and that was when the hike got interesting. The wind was very strong and it was ripping small branches off the trees around us. We entered one of the clearings along the way only to watch a huge branch rip off a tree 20 yards to our right, and the danger finally hit. For the next mile we basically jogged, ever watchful of the trees. At one point a branch hit 5 feet from me, and the trail back was completely different as it was covered in branches and fallen bits. Luckily after about a mile once we got farther inland the wind cooled off and the sun even came out so the danger left. Regardless, it was a huge relief to reach the car.

Our hike was probably not the usual result of this hike, but Warrior Point was still very nice and if you want to get away from the typical crowd it seems like a nice place to have an easy stroll through the woods, with some bushwacking exploratory options.