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The Derry Dell Dollars

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  D ERRY  D ELL CREEK , in Tigard Or, begins at some lost spring on Bull Mountain, and rolls downhill through a narrow canyon to a beaver pond and beyond that, Fanno Creek. For a little over half its run, it flows through a public greenway, with the main trail in the park—the Pathfinder-Genesis Trail—built to follow it. Half of it is paved, but after crossing 115th Avenue, the path changes to dirt, winding and twisting, as it follows the terrain, making use of several simple wooden bridges over bogs or creek itself. The Pathfinder-Genesis Trail itself is enjoyable for an afternoon walk, but it’s the mysterious art I’ve found here that make it stand out. I don’t A Deer walks along Derry Dell Creek mean graffiti—that is pleasantly absent. But scattered throughout these woods, are pieces from a unique set of homemade play money, which I still have no explanation for. The dollars have been appearing for some time; on one of my first trips to the area, I had noticed a few of these ...
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The Orange Night Bus Pt. II

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To read Part 1, click here Portland is a massive, and often beautiful city, filled with hidden glens and parks and neighborhoods of all styles and eras. And like its  home city, Trimet—our transit system—has its own nooks and crannies.  One of t h ese is Line 291, the “Orange Night Bus”, which follows the Orange Line MAX train from downtown Portland to Milwaukie, almost 7 miles as the crow flies from where I stood, in Portland’s Old Town district. I had made the decision, for better or worse, that I wanted to ride this bus, and had set out on Monday evening taking an eventful ride on the Orange Line into Portland, hoping to intercept this mysterious bus, and praying that I hadn’t somehow miscalculated something. So far my plan seemed to be working out. I rounded the corner, and found a bus stop just down the street from the Amtrak station. The upcoming arrivals made no mention of the 291, but I thought nothing of it. I had done some research the previous day, and the onl...
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The Orange Night Bus, Pt. I

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T he city was deserted as the night bus crossed through Portland. Streets and MAX train stations sat empty, and towers rose silently into the night sky, as the city lights shimmered on the dark expanse of the Willamette River. It was a journey long in the making, and one that I would not soon forget I’d long been intrigued by the idea of a “night bus”, but only recently had I felt any real motivation to actually ride it. Perhaps I wanted to take that journey for the novelty, to ride a city bus long after most others had returned to the barn. Perhaps I once more drew on my romanticized ideas of passenger trains from days of old. And, less the steam heat and sleeping births, the image wasn’t actually that far off. An Orange Line MAX waits at the Park Street station in Milwaukie, OR on a cold winter  evening, ready for its 11:00pm departure to  Portland Major changes were once more on the horizon for Trimet’s system, and while researching these changes one afternoon, I re-di...
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