In Defense of Wildwood Trail

Post date: Jan 06, 2017 10:10:55 PM

By Marta Fisher;

The beauty of Wildwood lies precisely in it's lack of stunning views. Wildwood's charm is the more meditative slip and roll of trail between foggy, mossy trees. Wildwood is like your favorite pair of jeans, as compared to the flashy, party clothes of the trails along the Columbia River Gorge or around Mt. Hood. Once you live around here, the danger becomes that you fall into Wildwood's familiar comfort a little too easily and forget to reach into the back of the closet for that fancier stuff. In the goal that all of us go out more, we need a range places to do it. Both big expansive wildernesses that we can form our dreams and goals around and the little neighborhood routes that start out the front door. Wildwood falls at an underpopulated spot between proximity and wildness and I wish more cities had their own version of it. Wildwood is not the first trail I would recommend to a wilderness-loving visitor. But if I ever move away from the Portland area, it will be the old friend which I am delighted to revisit every time I come back for a day or two.