Urban hiking Eugene’s river buttes allows for a 10+ mile urban hike on sidewalks, bike-paths and bark-dust trails with no car time – all from my front door.
The urban hike route
Starting on Gillespie Butte up Spyglass 2x and back over Gillespie for the sunrise and then down to Alton Baker Park. Around the Mill Race on Pre’s Trail and then through UO campus to Hendricks Park. Finally, retraced steps back over Autzen footbridge back to the bark-dust trails.
The trails were in great condition with little mud
Before an urban sunrise
Atop Gillespie Butte waiting for a sunrise that did not really arrive. Clouds were not low, however, showing Spencer Butte off to the south.
While heading up Gillespie the first time in the dark, my headlamp caught beady eyes reflecting back from an empty lot w/ a creek running thru it. It was a raccoon, but too dark to photo (but here’s the creek)
Birds on river islands
For some reason I cannot figure out, birds seem to love hanging out on tiny islands. For a couple of weeks, the island with the Great Blue Heron (Cornell reference) was completely submerged in river – the water has dropped a couple of feet.
Fishing with friends
Finally, I am not sure what this guy was doing, but he surely had some friends. These scenes are common along the Mill Race.
[…] of Eugene’s great park trails – primarily Ruth Bascom river path. Very similar urban hike as earlier this month, but the other direction along the river. Urban hiking Ruth Bascom north […]
Maybe some of the herons are wintering in your area as they certainly aren’t at Stone Lake.