Outings! – Orchard Heights Park
Welcome! Welcome to the third installment of Outings! If you’re new here, please check out the early installments to get a sense of what this whole series is all about. Orchard Heights Park This is a lovely neighborhood park in a pretty affluent part of town. It’s tucked back behind a retirement home and some winding housing blocks. You would never expect the park to be so big or have so much to offer, which makes it quite the gem! The main area of the park has brand new tennis courts (4 full courts!), a basketball court, two baseball pitches, a children’s playground and a small, fenced off-leash area for dogs. There’s also a paved path circling all of this. And across the drive are butterfly and community gardens. All of this would be enough to rate this park pretty dang high. It just offers so much in a very…
Outings! – Fairview Wetlands Scenic Trail
Welcome! If you missed the inaugural post (Issue? Episode? Volume?) of Outings!, then please pop on over and give that a read. Today’s post is going to be very similar, although maybe not as long? But the gist is this: Each Sunday I’m visiting a trail or park in my city, reviewing it (along with reviews from my companions), and breaking down gear used vs gear I wished I used, etc., etc. Fairview Wetlands Scenic Trail This trail truly lives up to the #urbanoutdoors vibe. Back in the 90s, when the Fairview Industrial Park was built, the City decided that it wanted to offset all of that industrialization by replacing some of the lost habitat with a man-made, urban wetland. Honestly? Pretty dope of them. The trailhead is directly across the street from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, and I’m guessing that has a bit to do with…