This book owes much of its inspiration to the pioneering work of Keith Hay. Keith’s original vision of the Pacific Greenway remains firmly rooted in many of our minds and refuses to go away.
I am equally indebted to “Ding” Canon, Bill Keil, Thornton Munger, and C. Paul Keyser, all key contributors to the founding of Forest Park. I was honored to work with both Ding and Bill when I first joined what was then still called the Committee of Fifty. Their long-term determination gives me hope that great ideas can be realized in Oregon as long as you’re patient and stubborn as hell.
And then there’s Marcy Houle, whose wonderful One City’s Wilderness provided the scientific backbone to the concept of a wildlife corridor. Without the inspiration to find out where that corridor went and how it functioned, I would still be happily puttering around the Hoyt Arboretum.
There are so many others who have helped me along the way and who I would like to thank. My wife, Cynthia, is foremost among them for her patience in putting up with my routine disappearing acts, which usually ended with heaps of muddy clothes and a filthy, exhausted Siberian husky whose first act upon returning home was to jump on the couch. A special thanks to my faithful companions Loki, Buddy, and Pal for accompanying me on my many expeditions, and to DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital for saving Loki’s life after he was kicked by an elk.
My thanks go out to all those who helped me turn a jumble of ideas into a book, including the very talented editor Mindy Fitch. Without Eve Goodman’s patience and encouragement at Timber Press, this book never would have been possible. Erik Goetze’s lucid maps made the trails come alive in ways no amount of words could have achieved. I would like to thank Metro for helping me with many detail aerial maps, and David Bragdon in particular for helping me understand the regional scope of this project. Thanks, too, to Laura Foster for her review and contributions, and to Ian Hall for his evaluation of my information about mushrooms.
Finally there are the many nameless people upon whom I chanced while walking up these dusty roads, who told me about homesteading on Dixie Mountain, bootlegging in Linnton, and plenty of other fascinating stories. Oh, there’s definitely gold out there in them hills if you can only listen! Thanks to all of you who added your intricate piece to the puzzle.
The Jones Creek Hike: a 2-mile exploration into the northern edge of Multnomah County