Marine Drive Trail

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Here are a few photos from along Portland's Marine Drive Trail, on the south shore of the Columbia next to, well, Marine Drive. The trail extends along the river from just west of the airport all the way out to the area of Blue Lake Park, with a couple of gaps here and there. So it surprises me how little info there is about it on the interwebs. Part of this may be due to who owns it: Most of the stretch belongs to the Port of Portland (due I guess to being next to the airport), making it part of their hyper-obscure little park system (see also McCarthy Park and Stanley Park Blocks). The eastern stretch is the "Phiippi Property", another of the assorted park-like bits Metro inherited when they took over the Multnomah County park system back in the 90's. As far as I can tell, neither agency mentions the trail anywhere on their respective websites.

(I later realized there's third stretch of trail further west from these two, extending between the Expo Center and the Oregon Slough Railroad Bridge. Most of this stretch is privately owned, though Metro owns the piece closest to the Expo Center.)

There is an upside to this, though. Walking along the trail, you might note it really is just a trail. If the city had put it together, there'd be tedious interpretive signs and fair-to-middlin' quality public art every few feet, and the project would've been vastly more expensive. So it's a nice break, if you aren't in the mood to be lectured again about our collective mystical-yet-gastronomical love of salmon or some such thing.

One downside is that it also feels oddly remote, even though Marine Drive is right next door, on top of the levee. Maybe not the ideal place to be a lone jogger at night. I can't put my finger on why; that's just the vibe I got.

A few links, photos, etc., from across the series of tubes:

• A page including a map at Off-Street Paved Bike Paths in Oregon
• "marine drive bike path" at Mary Anne's Portland Oregon Travel Blog
• "Marine Drive Bike Ride", WierHere Blog
• "The Little List To the Right", Felt Up Tees
• "Sunset Clamshell, Sky Pano" on Flickr
• Apparently there's a Women's Triathlon every year that uses part of the trail.
• Oh, and the inevitable Urban Adventure League post, a few steps ahead of me as always. Bah, humbug.