Heather and I recently celebrated our 23rd anniversary with a morning hike in Portland’s Forest Park followed by dinner at Sisters Irish Bistro in Salem.
We started our hike at the Germantown Road Trailhead where the Wildwood Trail crosses the road.
We chose this loop due to the presence of some low clouds. This section of trail didn’t offer the mountain views that some others do so we thought it was a good day for it. From the parking area we headed south on the Wildwood Trail which briefly climbed before leveling out on a hillside.
We followed the Wildwood Trail for a little over four and a quarter miles through the foggy forest. Junctions were well marked along the way with maps located at several of them.
Waterline Trail junction
Map at the Springville Road junction.
Ridge Trail junction
We turned off of the Wildwood Trail at Fire Lane 7A which we followed downhill less than a quarter mile to a pointer for Leif Erikson Drive.
A short path led fairly steeply down to the closed road where we turned left.
After one and a quarter mile on the road we came to the remains of an old building on the left.
A little over three miles after turning onto Leif Erikson Drive we arrived at another small parking lot along Germantown Road.
From this trailhead we followed the Cannon Trail uphill for a third of a mile back to the Germantown Road Trailhead and the Wildwood Trail.
Our loop was approximately 8.4 miles long with about 500′ of total elevation gain. It had been a good day for this particular hike and although we saw quite a few other people it never felt overly crowded. Shorter (or longer) loops could be done using the numerous other trails in the area.
Dinner at Sisters Irish Bistro was a perfect way to end our anniversary celebration, the food was excellent and so was the relaxing atmosphere. Happy Trails!
Flickr: Forest Park
wanderingyuncks 
8 replies on “Forest Park – Wildwood Trail & Leif Erikson Drive Loop”
23? Congratulations! 😉 We used hike the Wildwood fairly often when we lived in Portland. Nice mellow hiking area.
you saw a “part of building”, but what was there before in this wood that you saw this vestige?
Was there a small town, or just a building (house)?
In the early 1900’s they attempted to develop this area and managed to build a few houses but the hills are prone to mudslides and it was too difficult (and expensive) to continue so it became a park instead. The remains were likely from one of the small houses that did get built.
thank you for this explanation, I can better “visualize”
Congratulations on 23 years! That’s a pretty trail.
[…] was our third time on the 30 mile long Wildwood Trail (11/18, 5/18) and we followed it for 3.2 miles through a variety of […]
[…] hiked portions of it on our Washington Park (post), Maple Trail (post), and Northern Forest Park (post) […]
[…] Northern Forest Park – Hiked 11/17/2018 (Germantown to Fire Lane […]