February 19, 2020
The Portland Heritage Tree Quest: Group 5-1/4
Twenty Questions, continued
Question #4: Referring back to Question #2, what is the orientation of the 500 mile dimension? ESE/WNW.
Question #5: Will this be a continuous bicycle ride, or will other forms of transportation be a part of the tour? There will be one embedded flight in the tour, and possibly a car rental.
Today’s ride
Today’s PHTQ ride was conceived to be so much more, but was the victim of poor planning. As it captured only two new trees I considered not posting it at all, or merging it in with the next outing. Historical accuracy is important though so we’ll throw up this brief, truncated post just to keep the record straight.
It was a beautiful day - absolutely clear, perfect for a ride - except for the fact that it was fairly cold and there was a strong east wind that made it feel frigid. The plan was to make a figure eight loop - one that picked up the remaining three conifers on the east side of the river and then crossed back to the west side to pick up seven more in a loop through the inner west hills.
First though, I went back for a second look at the Coulter pine I saw in the last outing. After reading up on the tree I was intrigued by the thought of huge, spiky 5 to 12 pound pine cones from a tree known as the widow maker. I was disappointed to not find any on the ground today - the property owners unfortunately keep a tidy ship and appear to rake the ground regularly - but the few I saw high up on the tree looked menacing enough.
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From here, the day’s quest starts out well enough. The first new tree though, a Port Orford Cedar, is a challenge to locate. The address listed in the inventory, 3203 SE Woodstock Way, is a fiction as near as I can tell. The tree is actually on the campus of Reed College, near Woodstock and 32nd, but there are no addresses and structures on that side of the street - just the grounds for the college.
And if you’re familiar with Reed College you know it’s blessed with many magnificent trees, including a cluster of giant conifers growing close together at this spot. It took awhile, wading through the dense network of low-hanging branches of these trees, to find the one with the heritage tree label. Finally though I discovered it, and knocked one more tree off the list.
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4 years ago
Next up is a China fir, in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Unfortunately, I bike right past it without stopping and don’t realize it until about a half mile later. I don’t want to turn back - in fact, I’m pretty confused about the situation and don’t know where I’ve gone astray - so I’ll save it for another day. Annoying, because it remains the only evergreen species on the east side I haven’t seen yet. At this point I’ll probably leave it until I come back on a deciduous raid.
Finally, still in the Brooklyn neighborhood I come to the final eastside conifer, this English yew:
So, with nearly fifteen miles of riding in but only two new species to my credit, I bike back to the west side across the Hawthorne Bridge. I’ve still got seven more trees mapped out for the day, all clustered in the inner lower elevation neighborhoods near Washington Park. Not much distance remains, but a fair amount of climbing and descending. And, I’m probably facing some difficult sleuthing work. Two of the trees look like they have fake addresses and are actually standing in the middle of a park somewhere. And a third has a presumably completely wrong address - it matches that of a different tree on the east side that I’ve already visited, but the map indicates it’s in Washington Park. Some sort of error in the register, so who knows where the hell the tree really is.
At this point though, I realize I made a fatal error in plotting today’s route. My ride passes directly in front of our condominium. It’s cold, it’s windy, I’m hungry, and I’m a bit peevish about having missed the China fir. It’s just too much temptation: do I go climb some hills on a cold and windy day, or do I just slip into this tall building here, head upstairs, and enjoy a nice, hot cup of tea? Tough choice.
So, that’s it. 2 new trees, only enough to count as a fourth of a normal outing. No matter. I’ll pick up the rest in a day or two, assuming I can find them at least.
As long as we’re all here though, let’s look at a few other curiosities I saw along the way.
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If you had the opportunity, would you try riding one?
4 years ago
4 years ago
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4 years ago
Keeping Score:
Group 1 (7 species): grand fir, willow oak, hedge maple, Douglas fir, incense cedar, tulip tree, sugar maple.
Group 2 (9 species): silver maple, Japanese cedar, oriental plane tree, European beech, American chestnut, copper beech, mockernut hickory, basswood, butternut.
Group 3 (9 species): ginkgo, crape maple, northern red oak, deodar cedar, bigleaf linden, giant sequoia, coast redwood, Japanese pagoda tree, Mount Fuji flowering cherry.
Group 4 (8 species): Zelkova, Carolina poplar, Japanese red pine, Katsura, bur oak, river birch, catalpa, wych elm.
Group 5 (8 species): Monkey puzzle tree, western white pine, boulevard cypress, madrone, single needle pinyon, pecan, Coulter pine, Monterey pine.
Group 5-1/4 (2 species) Port Orford cedar, English yew
Dropped (1 species): paradox maple, which I couldn’t find and may no longer exist.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 5 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 19 |
4 years ago
4 years ago
And good thought on Mauna Kea! Definitely fits into the known world, and is in a sensible season for it - probably the best stab in the dark to date. Also fits within the larger theme of the 2020 retrospective. We loved our one trip to Hawaii and have often talked about when we should return.
So, a good candidate. It will take a few more clues to know if it holds up, but in the meantime congratulations!
4 years ago
4 years ago
I'm green with envy how you got so many people to respond to one little nutty word, albeit quite witty. You run rings around me and my writing in our journal. I guess you are simply more poplar. I seed defeat. Eucalyptus.
4 years ago
4 years ago
Filthy minds.
4 years ago
4 years ago