Sadie's big day

I took the puppy for her first big Oregon City walk today.

Sadie's been out for a hike before with her big buddy, Mocha, but this was her first time walking the loud and scary sidewalks of Oregon City. Mocha had an invitation to go to the beach today, and Sadie stayed behind.

We walked across the beautiful and historic Oregon City bridge, beautiful and historic, that is, from five feet above the ground. At dog level, it's a span of rough concrete, high over the river, vibrating with the weight and growls and groans of vehicles trundling across it.

We ascended to the upper part of the city by means of the Oregon City Municipal Elevator, where the friendly elevator operator welcomes well-behaved doggies and even gave Sadie a treat. But to Sadie, it was a journey into a dark cavern, followed by a closed-in room with strangers, where she had to sit for a minute, and then through another cavern. She had little little chance of finding her way home without Mocha, and the salty biscuit didn't cure her thirst.

From there we walked the McLoughlin Promenade, a walkway along the bluff above the two paper mills and the Willamette Falls, a quiet grassy place with panoramic views upriver to the falls and beyond and downriver past the two Oregon City bridges and on toward Portland. Fine if that sort of thing appeals to you and if you're not being challenged by a Lab and a rottweiler barking at you from a pickup truck.

Then a narrow pedestrian bridge over Hwy. 99 W, and a walk back to town with the highway close on our right and railroad tracks and the thumping, clanging paper mill on our left.


Then through a cave-like pedestrian underpass beneath the railroad tracks and back across the bridge and home.

Is it any wonder that she now looks like this?