Mount Pisgah

Our adventure for today was an outing to the Mount Pisgah Arboretum and the adjacent Buford Recreation Area. The plan was to take a hike to the summit of Mount Pisgah and then to visit the arboretum and walk through some of its trails to see features like the water garden and the riverside.

We stopped by the arboretum office and spoke with a helpful man who gave us maps and some tips on his favorite way to hike to the summit. Following his directions, we set out to take Trail #3 which makes a more leisurely approach and joins Trail #1 nearer the summit. Trail #1 is the direct trail, but it's quite steep and is a gravel fire road, so not much to see along the way (except that all the trails offer views of the Willamette Valley on the way up).

The trailhead for Trail #3 turned out to be farther up the road than we expected, about .6 mile. As we began our ascent, the first part of the trail traverses an open field.

The trail soon enters a densely wooded area with lots of ferns. All along the trail we had to watch out for poison ivy.

Trail #3 intersects with Trail #1. Some of the trail intersections are well marked. Others are not, and we had to ask other hikers for information. Trail #1 made a steep ascent to the summit, where we saw a bronze memorial sculpture. A fellow hiker explained that it is a memorial to Ken Keysey's son, Jed, who was killed in a van accident. The summit also offers great views of the valley below. We could see the Coast Fork of the Willamette winding its way to the west of us. The middle form lies to the west, but we couldn't make it out.

The top is a relief map of local landmarks. The sides show more than 300 plant and animal fossil images - including the tooth of a mastodon - dating 200 million years into Oregon's past; the images line up horizontally with a time line to show when each lived. Two slots capture the sun's path on the summer and winter solstices; at sunrise and sunset on those days, stand with the pedestal between you and the horizon to see the rising or setting sun.(http://www.thefreelibrary.com/WHICH+HILL+IS+KING%3F-a0119874840)

We headed down the hill. As usual, it was much easier to descend than to ascend. By this time we realized we didn't have time for the arboretum trails, so we'll come back another day. We stopped to do some grocery shopping on the way home, where we arrived just in time for a late supper.

While we were in town we took advantage of the Verizon signal to make a couple of phone calls and do some banking.