Astoria Riverwalk

My partner and I had originally planned on spending this weekend Yurt camping out at Camp Stephens State Park. But the weather forecast wasn't good. They don't allow cooking inside the Yurt and what fun is sitting in a Yurt all weekend if it is too wet to go out walking? So we switched things up. We went a day earlier and stayed in a nice Hotel in Astoria instead. This turned out to be very wise because a big storm was coming in on day 2 (that would have been day 1 in the yurt). 

So here I sit in the lobby of our hotel, looking out the rain speckled window at the scudding clouds blowing up the Columbia River. Very grey, but with an certain attractive aesthetic. We spent a few hours this morning walking the entire 4 miles (and back) of the Riverwalk. The trail follows the river (duh) and the old train tracks that come up from Portland and end at the Lewis river at the far end of Astoria. Our Hotel (The Hampton Inn) is at the East end of Astoria and so at the East end of the Riverwalk (and the East Terminus of the Astoria Trolley, when it is running). 

The Riverwalk is somewhat reflective of the feel of Astoria, in general. There are nice recently upgraded sections, with new electric lights and green grass and such, and old dilapidated sections that cause you look around and make sure you aren't being followed by unsavory characters.  The East side, where we started, is a nice upscale section. Right next to our hotel is a road that runs out over the water to a historic pier that now houses some airBnb rooms, a kayak and Scuba business, and a Rogue Brewery public house (the first in our tour of Breweries on this walk). 

As soon as you get out in front of our hotel you can hear one of the local 'attractions'. There is a colony of Sea Lions that have taken over (and pretty much sunk and destroyed) a floating dock out in the East Boat basin. Last time my partner and I were here we walked out the wharf to see them and take a general look at the boats and such out there. At that time people could walk out on the pier and fish and gawk. But today the pier was closed to all traffic due to structural damage. Sad. 

Welcome to the Hotel California...

Barricade to old Pier to Sea Lions

Right at the base of the pier, however, was a large tree with 3 large birds in it. We gave them a good gander and decided that they must be juvenile Bald Eagles. They were really big. They just sat up there and gawked at us gawking at them. 

This part of the trail is right on the jumbled stone built-up shore of the Columbia. It was high tide and in some places the ocean was lapping just feet away from where we walked. We waved to people in their hotel windows and enjoyed the view. Out in the distance, I could see where the Columbia dumps into the Pacific, with the expanse of the Astoria-Megler bridge gracefully spanning the gap between headlands. As I watched, the entire vista disappeared. Wow, I thought, look at the fog blowing in. Turned out it wasn't fog so much as a rain squall coming in from the Ocean. The first in a string of them to visit with us during our 3 hour walk.  

Down on the East side of Astoria are a lot of rather large and very old houses. These houses are all over Astoria, but down here they are more rundown. They are the old mixed with the new. The new are a community of new built houses around the old Mill pond.  The new houses are so new that they don't show up yet on Google Maps or Zillow. It is a pleasant looking community, probably for rich retirees from Portland.  They don't really give any access to the water, however. No floating docks on the pond. 

Old

New

Newest

Right about now that Squall hit us and we had to zip up tight and start getting wet. Right away I ran into the problem that it was getting hard to take pictures with my iPhone. Why? Because with my hood up Siri could not recognize me to automatically unlock my phone.  It was also getting a little hard to see things because the blowing rain was be-speckling my glasses. After a few minutes the rain stopped and I put my hood back down. But Siri still couldn't recognize me. It must be the water drops all over my glasses !! Siri is no doubt using a facial recognition algorithm that is somewhat different from the one we humans use and that is why she had trouble recognizing me in different looking glasses. 

Hey! This must be why Clark Kent wears glasses as a disguise. Kal-el (AKA Superman) isn't a human. He doesn't have the same evolutionary history as humans and no doubt his species facial recognition works differently than ours. His people are all so perfect, they probably never wore glasses. I bet when he puts on his Clark Kent glasses, he can't even recognize himself in the mirror, so he never even considered that humans would be able to recognize him.  Silly super being. 

Here is the Astoria Train Station. It was a big deal back in the early 1900's when Portlanders would ride the train down the Columbia to visit Astoria or the beach town of Seaside. There were a couple of passenger trains and freight trains a Day up and down the river in its heyday. Before the roads got better and cars got more popular. Now the building is part of a maritime museum of some sort and sits right next to the parking lot for the big (and impressive) Columbia River Maritime Museum. You can't miss it, it has a huge beautiful Pilot boat out in the parking lot. Inside is pretty cool also, the Museum is sort of built around a Coast Guard rescue boat that is mounted on a steep angle of a huge plastic wave. You can see it from the front window. 

Now we get to the downtown part of our tour. This area has gone through a number of transformations over the years as it has hosted different industries. It used to be lumber, and then sardines, and then other fish. I think the expensive big old houses with the nice views up the hill attest to different fortunes that were won and lost over the decades. The new industry for the town is Nostalgia (tourism) and Beer (Beer).  I already mentioned that we started this walk out in front of the Rogue Public house. Rogue is a relatively old and well established brewery in Oregon. They are the makers of Dead Guy IPA amongst other favorites. They have had this place out on the pier for at least a decade. The other breweries we now see down on the water front are much newer, but they all have wonderful beers.  One after the other we hit the brewing facilities of Astoria Brewing, Buoy, and Fort George.  I had a Buoy IPA with my Fish and Chips last night. It was really great and I would say that that was because it came out of the keg just a block away from where it went in except for the fact that the Fish place served it to me as a really cold mug and the just opened Can. The same can, presumably, that you can get in just about any Costco in the area. But it was Good.  Fort George makes the Vortex IPA, which I have tried and is also yummy. I don't think I have had an Astoria brew. I am going to have to fix that in the near future. As a matter of fairness, don't you know. 

This same area is right by the downtown shopping district. It is a quaint area of old buildings and old and new (but local) shops. A fun place to walk around in the summer when it isn't so Fraking Wet and blowing.  We are still following the trolley tracks and now things get a little crowded. Everything (the buildings and the street and all) are up on wharves over the river. Everything is huge pilings and wooden beams. Lots of restaurants, condos, and hotels built out over the water.  There are a few places where the trolley tracks (that are using the old railroad tracks) go around a corner over the water on a narrow train trestle  that forces pedestrians to share the same space as the trolley. If the trolley were running you have to be very careful in this area. The Trolley is not running, not sure if this is because it is winter or because it is a pandemic. 

Lots of little Trolley stops along the line

No Idea 

Now we get to a cool part. We get to walk under the bridge that has been looming in the horizon all of the time (that it isn't raining). There is a artfully down Maritime Memorial park just under the bridge. 

We are just about to the 3.5 mile mark and I must admit that my legs are telling me that it must be time to turn around and head home. My partner, however, assures me that just ahead the trail turns out onto that last of the piers and we will get a nice walk out to a nice view of the nice river. Nice.  Except for the stinging rain striking me in the face and soaking through my pants so I feel like I peed myself.  Good thing I was born adventure-ready. 

The Pier turns out to be sort of a historic reference. Nowadays it is more of a landfill. However, it is right at the border of Astoria where it runs into the confluence of the Columbia and the Lewis. And the wind was blowing. The Small Craft Warning flag was flying from the basin flagpole and the wind was whipping up white caps on the huge flat bay. Beautiful. Overhead, one the large Orange Coast Guard helicopters flew heading out who knows where, probably to help some guy that doesn't know what a small craft warning flag looks like (Red Triangle). We hit the end of the trail just as the rain peaked and the wind howled and I really did have stinging drops smashing into my face. Wow. I sure have a good raincoat. An important thing to have in Oregon. Wish I had worn my rain pants too. 

We turned the corner off the pier and back into town and the wind stopped and the rain stopped and... and... it was sort of nice. Gave me a chance to look at the big boats that they had up on stilts over on the old landfill pier. What is up with that? This one big boat (see picture) must have been sitting up there for decades. It certainly wasn't ever going to float. Why was it still there? Is it really cheaper to leave a derelict like that standing in your town? Might say the same thing for the useless (and probably immovable ) train cars that were sitting on the siding tracks right outside of the Astoria Trolley warehouse. At least the warehouse was a nice building and we could see the trolly sitting nice and secure inside. Probably getting good maintenance from the volunteers. If I lived in Astoria, I would certainly be a Trolley guy volunteer. Maybe they would let me drive the Trolley after a few years !!

Trolley Through the Building Window

Well, keep walking back. The Eagles are gone, but the Sea Lions are still make a ruckus out on their floating dock. I don't think they ever get tired of that. Our hotel has a sign up that says that if you get tired of the incessant "Music" of our sea lion neighbors then they will provide you with your very own set of Ear Plugs. 

Oh, and the answer to the riddle "how is it better to go walking in the cold rain all day in Astoria as opposed to our original plan to go walking in the rain all day at Fort Stephens?" Well. Mainly. The nice hotel room and the hot shower.