Portland Stairs Quest 5: Alameda Ridge

Okay, okay, after this I promise no more stairs stuff. Just one more to see.

One last area of Portland has a decent cluster of staircases within a reasonable walking distance. Well, maybe 2, but I'm not doing the lower southwest Terwillinger area. Alameda Ridge is a big cliff that stretches from NE MLK to Rocky Butte. The specific area I was on is the neighborhood area between Sandy at NE 51st and NE 19th. So yeah, 30 blocks. I walked 30 blocks, twice. Up and down hills, because I am a masochist.

I parked at Whilshire Park and walked down 33rd to Fremont and turned east, and mostly followed the roads at the top of the ridge. Once I got over to 38th, I walked down the hill and found a staircase of 78 steps back up to Alameda st. Further east on Alameda, a well hidden staircase between houses drops 127 steps back down the ridge. Then, at the bottom, just east, is another staircase back up to Alameda via 118 steps. From here, I kept going east.

Things got confusing at this point. I was using the small map in the Portland Stairs Book to navigate, but the book's map didn't show that 51st, when going downhill, splits into 2 streets, Wisteria and 49th. Since I've never explored this area before I got a little confused and ended up missing the stairs I intended to take down. No biggie, I got re-oriented at Sandy Boulevard. I walked up to 51st, which contained a 50 step climb back up the hill. From there, I walked back to confusion avenue with a better sense of direction. I descended a nearby staircase of 43 steps down to 50th, then turned right around on 49th, and climbed 30 steps back up to Wisteria. Confusion over!

Confusion not over. Because the ridge is a sudden, diagonal piece of steep terrain the roads in the area don't conform to the usual well organized grid pattern most of Portland has. After I got back up top the ridge, I was looking for an easy route to the bottom as I walked back west to hit the second half of my walk, I took 41st down, and ended up switching backing to pretty much the bottom of the first steps I took down. So after some annoyance, I finally got back on my way east. Worked my way all the way back to 33rd, walked up 33rd to Fremont, and then crossed 33rd. Shortly past 32nd on Fremont a set of 65 steps climbs up to Alameda Terrace. Then shortly east of that, a 98 step staircase drops back down to Fremont.

Then I was up Edgehill for a bit and onto Ridgewood, where I came upon the mighty Stuart Drive, a steep dropping road. I skipped the first staircase on the bottom of Stuart, and stayed on Ridgefield another 50 yards to a 75 step staircase to the top of the Stuart hill. Then I kept going northeast till I hit 19th and Mason. Then I went up a 51 step staircase, looped back onto Skidmore and went west until I hit 24th, walked south until I re-found the top of Stuart hill. This time I took my final staircase of 70 steps down. After that, a little extra confusion landed me back onto Fremont, which I just took back to 33rd, then back north to Whilshire park and my car. Stair Week Complete. Lets check it out!

Map!

Lets do totals!
6.4 miles
467 Steps Climbed
338 steps descended
805 steps total

But now we can add things up. Stairs Quest 2016 totals!
29.45 miles
3979 steps climbed
2143 steps descended
6122 steps climbed completely

All 5 trips!