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| | | Marquam Trail - Portland 4T, OR | | | |
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Marquam Trail - Portland 4T, OR
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| Hiking | 4.55 Miles |
1,355 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.55 Miles | | | |
| 1,355 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | The 4 T's "Trail"....starts on a freeway and ends in a hospital. So the "4T" is a tour of portland by the four modes of transportation beginning with T; Train, Trail, Tram, and Trolley. This covers the trail portion of the 4T - which begins at the Zoo, meets up with the Marquam through Council Crest and back down to the hospital. Much of the trail portion is the Marquam Trail to Council Crest, although this extends before and after that trail.
Although the hike of the 4Ts begins from the Portland Zoo, the trailhead on the 4T towards Marquam actually is from the I-5 freeway on-ramp. Walking down the on-ramp on to I-5, just before the merge into 3 lanes, hikers veer to the right and up the hill. Fortunately it has okay signage, otherwise I'd have a tough time convincing myself to walk into an interstate to find a trail. I can't make this up. Soon enough the sound and sight of rush hour traffic disappears and the hike offers glimpses of NW forests, but just when you think you're reaching solitude you find yourself adjacent to a backyard fence and another urban section. The trail empties out into a neighborhood, and non-sidewalked roads carry you up to the City park. Oddly enough the streets are marked with trailmarkers, but no sidewalk or off-street trail exists. Hikers are directed to briefly re-enter the forest for the last ascent to Coucil Crest, where greeted with fresh air and sweeping views of the City. This is a nice hilltop City park, maybe one of the highest points in the City so views are great and it's well traveled.
Now if only the hike concluded at the top and the tram offered to the trip down, but the trail re-enters the forest and again empties on to a two-lane road, where hikers in the roadway negotiate hairpin turns with cars and trucks. This side of the City offers amaaazing residential architecture - crafstman and modernist houses stilted into 60 degree slopes alongside the roadway - but if it isn't a new neighborhood you're after this may not be for you. After a couple miles, we finally reached the next T - the tram, and all of us were ready to escape the pavement we'd been trekking on. In order to reach the tram, however, hikers must walk through the hospital to reach the tram port. Imagine a group of 12 sweaty confounded hikers entering a hospital looking for a tram as a part of some hike...I'm surprised we weren't sent for medical evaluation ourselves.
After completing the hiking leg we were convinced that the 4T is just a way to screw with tourists by getting them out of the city onto a pretty undesirable trail loop that contains about equal trail to roadway. Although the trail markings substantiate that this is actually a real thing, some past mayor has to still be chuckling to himself. In the end, the drastic efforts taken to connect this trail to other alliterative "T" modes just make the alternative of "I'll pass" far more enjoyable to spend your time in Portland. Instead of wasting a few hours hiking in the middle of roadways, just drive a few minutes out of town and actually check the gorgeous real trails along the Columbia or in the woods. Granted, Coucil Crest is similar to Phoenix's South Mountain or LAs Griffith, so it's worth a visit. I do applaud the Portlandians for developing a very subtle way to get tourists out of their city - well done. Fortunately I had some time at the end of the trip to explore other trails on the east side near the Columbia - fantastic. I do have a tough time understanding how this loop has formal endorsement given that it's encouraging people to walk large distances in (some areas fairly perilous) roadways without shoulders. |
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Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.
Evan Hardin
Footloose adventures are documented instagram @afrankie8. |
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