Portland/PNW
Running 'Between the Bridges'
I’m a fair weather runner. From May to early October, I consistently get 3 to 5 runs in a month. Then, when the darkness dominates, my willingness to get out there wanes noticeably. I know, I’m a wuss. But a fact is a fact.
However, today was a beautiful day in Portland. After some morning clouds, it reached the mid 70s and was sunny all afternoon. Lucky enough, I had the ability today to get out there and enjoy it. I decided to go to one of my favorite spots, the trail along the east bank of the Willamette River, between the Sellwood Bridge and the Ross Island Bridge. I assume most Portlanders will know where I am talking about. In my notes, I locate these runs as ‘between the bridges.’
On a day like today there were tons of other runners out there, as well as a slew of bikers (both the tight pants variety and the more laid back folks rocking the casual SE PDX look). My favorite aspect of this particular locale, besides the gorgeous views of the river the appear here and there, is how flat it is. My other favorite running spots are great, but they all force me up and down too much (Tryon Creek, I’m looking at you).
I neglected to take any pics today (running was hard enough that it focused all of my attention). However, I have taken some nice pics in the past. Two are below. One is from summer 2025 and one is a mid-November shot from a few years back. Having enjoyable places to run definitely helps with the motivation.
Woody Guthrie's Portland Paycheck
Yesterday while listening to a Great Courses (Great Rivers That Shaped History, Episode 16: The Columbia, Once Wild, Now Tame) episode I learned something about Portland that I did not know. It has to do with the great folk singer Woody Guthrie. Apparently, in 1941, when he was still in his twenties (and financially struggling), he was hired by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to be an early version of an influencer. They called him an ‘information consultant’ and paid him $267 for the month of work.
The BPA was new and controversial. Some on the right called it–wait for it….socialism! (Once a boogyman, always a boogyman!) They hired Guthrie to write music for a documentary about the building of the dam, and to obviously build support for the government’s effort to provide cheaper electricity in the Pacific Northwest, and he holed up Portland where he wrote 26 songs in 30 days, including “Roll On, Columbia,” “Grand Coulee Dam,” “Pastures of Plenty,” and “The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever Done.”
The dam wasn’t completed until the end of the decade and the film once it was released was not a success. Indeed, only a few of Guthrie’s songs made it into the final production. Ironically, the government under Eisenhower ordered all copies of the film and its songs destroyed once officials learned about Guthrie’s leftist associations. This makes sense in light of the second Red Scare that was ongoing in the early 1950s. However, it is weird and sad that our government ordered the destruction of art it had commissioned itself.
It is always good to learn a bit of lore about your hometown!
