Portland Stairs Quest 2 - Washington Park

Stairs quest 2! Electric Boogaloo

This was intended to be a mild day, but it was not. When I was originally planning the "all stairs in one day" route, the biggest hurdle that caused me to break it up into several days was a scouting trip to Washington Park. Washington Park is a clusterfuck of staircases. Planning a route through Wash Park that didn't have much backtracking was a logistics nightmare. The trip should have been confusing but not too long. However some improvisation ended up making it an even longer day. Lets get to it.

I went up 23rd, crossed Burnside heading south, and took a back road that no one ever has any reason to walk on. Why? Because one of the best staircases in the city is hidden away back there. It starts on a cul-de-sac turnaround, and takes a spiral path 37 steps up to a higher cul-de-sac on the hill. It's great, and honestly has no reason to exist.

From here a small opening at the end of another street drops me off at the top of Washington Park's Park Place entrance. A quick stroll south and you see the grand 46 step entrance stairs at the top of the hill. From here I walked across the playground area and dipped back down next to the reservoirs, where 3 total staircases go down to lower Jefferson street under the Vista bridge. I took 49 steps down, then 6 steps down, then on the way back up hit the middle steps for 29.

From here I was back at the top, and walked back north to the Mac Trail start. At this spot, off the road, drops a huge several flight staircase all the way down to Burnside again. It's technically several different staircases, but it's all part of a single pathway, so I counted it as one. It was 165 steps downhill.

Then a breif detour back up the gully pathway entrance to WashPark, and a right turn west took me up one of the better staircases. It's an old, falling apart, uneven curvy 36 step mess of a staircase.

From here, I swung back down to Burnside and then took the monster stairs of the day. A tight narrow staircase that goes through multiple stages on the way up the hill, It's 278 steps to the top the whole way. The steps are short and easy, but still, 278 steps. Damn. It just keeps climbing.

Then at the top, next to the statue, lies another staircase down. 54 steps. It drops you off on a trail. A quick loop back around and I take another staircase,20 steps up. Next to the maintenance shed on the west side lies a steep 7 step drop.

Now I'm back on roads near Washpark. A little looping takes me to the entrance to a 22 step climb into an unused road that functions more like a pretty alley driveway to a couple houses.

Then, once on the road again, another well hidden staircase (one of my favorites since I found it years ago) drops down 44 steps to the park road.

From here, cut across an open green area to the ROSE GARDEN ENTRANCE STEPS.

The Rose Garden is built on tiers and therefore contains absurd numbers of staircases. 13 separate stairs in all, 15 if you count the two proper stairs in the amphitheater. I did about half the stairs on my way in. I went up 31, down 28, down 3, up 6, up 21, up 3, and up another 2. Then I exited, the garden half complete. I had to swing by something else then I'd hit the rest. Also nearby the garden are two large staircases to the upper parking and tennis courts. I went up 33 and down 19. I wanted to do the Japanese Garden stairs, but there aren't many and the area is closed for construction, so I had to sadly decline.

 

I then illegally went up the "closed" staircase to the zoo train station, all 44 steps of it. Then I took a meandering road walk down to the playground area, where 15 steps chill out near a pavilion. Then I got a bad idea. I was 3 miles in at this point, and almost done. But I just remembered something. Hoyt Arboretum is nearby, and HOYT ARBORETUM HAS STAIRS. Well guess I'm gonna kill these birds with one stone. I set off up the Mac trail, to the wildwood, to the upper overlook trail. I found my first Hoyt stairs going downhill to the Zoo parking lot. 15 steps down, then a long walk, and then 88 more steps down.

Once in the zoo area I walked to the Vietnam memorial, which as 26 stone steps down and nearby 5 steps up to an access trail. Then I took the access trail to the memorial, walked the spiral path around and up, re-joined the wildwood, and found the stairs I was looking for. 60 steep wood steps up to the road.

At the top of the hill past the road, 26 steps descend to the visitor center. Then 17 more down to a big wooden pavilion. Then 6 back up to a nearby trail, it never ends, these stairs. This was about the time I was heavily questioning my life choices.

After a long time on roadways getting back down to Washington Park, I was finally ready to re-enter the rose garden. I then went down 16, down 13, down 6, up 13, up 20, and up 4. Now for the Amphitheater.

The Amphitheater is a mess. Two major staircases, plus a huge amount of mini-access stairs to the different levels of the amphitheater. I did every one, getting weird looks from nearby relaxing guests.

I went (including the major staircases) down 8, down 26, up 20, down 29, up 38, down 37, up 31, down 29, and up 12. Phew. Only a couple staircases left.

Back down the road, a quick side path to 8 stairs. Then 26 stairs up to a meadow, then to my favorite staircase, the Gully Stairs. The Gully entrance to Wash Park is a concrete path up a valley functioning as a sort of backdoor from Burnside. At the top of the gully lies a 39 step wide, grand staircase with excellent railings for sliding on. I did not slide, I had to walk them. So I did. Hooray for me.

My final staircase of the day was a pointless 3 stairs to a side path where hobos live in the gully area.

8 Miles later, I was done. STATS!
Total steps climbed: 873
Total Steps Descended: 755
Total Stairs: 1628

More stairs and miles than the day before. Here is a map of my route, probably the weirdest map you will ever see. Green is stairs.

Portland Stairs Week: Day 1 - The Northwest Passage

So for the past two months, in an effort to get back into and stay in decent shape, I've been doing regular long walks each day, aiming for 5 miles and up. My usual route takes me up the nearby hills toward Pittock Mansion, a quick 4 mile round trip climb up about 1k feet of elevation. I've gotten a pretty sick redneck out of the deal, since I go up there at minimum 3 times a week.

The only problem with this is things get a little repetitive. I try to vary my route as much as I can. Sometimes I take the trails up. I take different combinations of roads. Sometimes I go elseware altogether. After 5 years living in this location, I've frankly walked almost every street within reasonable distances of my apartment. I know the northwest streets like the back of my hand. So I have to try really hard to come up with new ideas for walks to keep things fresh. That's where stairs come in.

I've found several well hidden public staircases in the west hills. Relics of a lost time when people didn't have cars and had to quickly get down the hills to the trolley stops. Now-a-days the Staircases are tucked neatly in between mega mansions in the hill neighborhoods so closely that walking them feels vaguely like I'm trespassing.

After my finds in the nearby hills, and thanks to a silly little coffee table book I found at REI I have recently become very interested in local public stairs. I want to walk all of them. I don't care much for the history but I do like to mark things off checklists for smug senses of satisfaction. So I came up with a challenge. Walk all the stairs I can. At first I mapped them out and wanted to do the entire west side stairs in one long hike. After actually mapping and planning the route, I realized it would be more than 16 miles of walking. That sucks on dirt. On concrete? Hell no. I had to split it up. So I extended my reach and came up with 5 day plans that I hope to do over the course of this week.

The NW staircases -Everything in the hills north of me
Washington park - A small area of land absolutely clustered with staircases
Portland heights and Council Crest - Stairs in the hills south of my apartment
Mt. Tabor - A bunch of stairs in Mt. Tabor Park on an old volcano, east portland
Alameda Ridge - A ridge in Northeast portland that offers lots of stairs

For each trip I decided to count my steps and try for a loop route with minimal backtracking. Monday was the Northwest hills. As documentation, I decided to take pictures of each interesting staircase. Since I figured snapping DSLR pictures in narrow stairs right behind expensive people houses might arouse unwanted attention, I used my new phone and snapped a selfie at each staircase I found worth seeing. I will probably take more selfies this week than I will take the rest of my life combined.

So lets go!

Starts at NW Everett Street and 23rd. Go north 2 blocks to Glisan. Walk uphill to the west till you reach 24th. At the top of Glisan is my first staircase. 51 steps up to Westover road.

Take a right, go north for two blocks, then take 46 steps back down to Irving.

Take Irving back to 24th, and turn left on 24th. Walk north for 4 blocks till Marshall. Turn left, walk west till the corner of 26th and Marshall, where 55 steps takes me up to Cornell road.

One block north on Cornell, and it's 62 stairs down to Northrup.

One block north from Northup and a left on Overton takes me to 56 stairs going back up to Cornell

and yet another block north on Cornell gives me access to a 63 step descent onto Pettygrove.

Walk back down Pettygrove past the chapman school, and turn left up 26th to the north for 5 blocks till you hit Upshur. Take Upshur west to 28th place, turn right (north again) and walk to the dead end, which offers a wooden staircase of 34 steps down to Vaughn at Montgomery Park.

Wander into Montgomery Park's parking lot (It's an office building), and a 55 step staircase drops you back down to a different section of vaughn.

Loop back east on Nicolai street, enter the lower business park area, and climb the grand 85 step staircase back into the upper parking lot of Montgomery Ward.

Turn east for a block to find the intersection with 27th, head south to Thurman, walk west on Thurman to the bridge, and take the 70 steps into Balch Creek Canyon.

Wander north out of the park (hitting a cheap 4 step climb near the shed on the way) and then take the 30 step descent onto 30th ave.

North on 30th to Wilson, left and west on Wilson to 33rd, up 33rd to Vaughn, right up 32nd back onto Thurman west of the bridge, and then go west on Thurman for 2 blocks until you spot a sign showing you the access point to the 101 stairs up to Aspen Ave. This path goes through backyards and surprises me that it's public.

Take a quick left at the top, then another left downhill on Franklin court to 32nd, back onto Thurman, back across the bridge, then right (south) up to 29th and Quimby, where a 25 step climbs takes you back onto Cornell! how I missed you, Cornell Rd.

A very quick south path leads you to almost an immediate 75 step trek up to summit avenue. When I did this hike, someone had written the names of all the BlackLivesMatter victims on the stairs, which was a nice and somehow fitting little tribute.

On Summit, head left (south) just past the intersection with Summit Court, where the mother of staircases exists. This steep 155 step monster leads up a narrow hillside to Westover. This is the staircase seen in the Instagram photo I linked near the top of this post. That view is from the top looking down, this is from the bottom looking up.

No rest for the weary. At the top of the monster stairs a quick diagonal crossing of Westover and Cumberland leads to yet another steep monster of 131 steps, although with a nice flat section in the middle.

From here, turn up Luray Terrace and keep an eye out on the left side for a hard to spot 49 step climb up to Luray Circus. Watch out for large angry dogs, I had to basically run up these steps. This might be the least used public staircase in Portland. The stairs drop you off on a cul-de-sac of 3 houses, and the road takes you immediately back to Luray terrace. I then walked the rest of Luray Terrace until I reached the backdoor entrance to the Cumberland trail.

Take the Cumberland trail 20 yards to Cumberland's dead end and head back on Cumberland. I then took a right on Ariel Terrace and then dips downhill past the Hillside community center/park, where 15 steps in small flights gave me a little extra push. Then back down Ariel terrace to Albemarie Terrace and Melina Ave, which has 2 steps on the sidewalk. Then down to marbourough, brief left back up Westover to the south end of Summit ave. Summit ave drops downhill and at the nadir of the hill is a beautiful staircase to Lovejoy. 33 steps down.

Then, back onto Cornell, a quick turn right onto 25th place gave me my final stairs of the day, a 41 step climb to Westover. From there, it was Westover back to Everett and home.

Totals!
822 steps climbed
402 steps descended
1227 steps total
7.5 miles of walking
God knows how much elevation gain

The weirdest route you'll ever see

Tomorrow: Something even harder