Sandy River Delta Park

Rain Finds Adventure at Sandy River Delta Park

Posted on by bookishheather

Sandy River Delta tends to have a specific type of trash left behind.

Portland was facing a three-day heat wave, and Rain’s agility class had already been rescheduled to an earlier time meaning we wouldn’t be able to make it.

In order to save my own sanity (not wanting a repeat of the extra excitable Rain I had after my trip) I decided that Rain needed an adventure in lieu of going to agility class. Originally I thought I might be able to sneak it in Friday afternoon/evening, but it didn’t work out.

Early the next morning I loaded Rain up the car and headed east.

Rain has visited Sandy River Delta a few times in the past. It’s a ginormous dog park on the eastern edge of Portland, where the Sandy River meets the massive Columbia River. The park is at the westernmost point of the Columbia River Gorge.

Rain’s behavior gave me pause when we first arrived. On leash at the trailhead, she barked at me nonstop as we were inside the vault toilet, then outside she barked at passing dogs and humans. She was drawing a lot of attention to herself.

We headed out though, and she soon piped down in order to start sniffing. When we reached the off-leash point I set her free and she was fully in her element. She ran back and forth, she ran wide circles around me as I walked, and she jumped in every mud puddle we encountered.

Did we play ball? Of course.

It was my hope to visit the portion of the park where dozens of dogs usually play on a gentle beach beside a small channel of the river. When we ascended the berm leading to this doggy paradise, we were sad to see the river level was still high enough to make the area dangerous for Rain. The gently sloping beach was underwater and the current banks were muddy cliffs.

We’ve been to this place enough to know of other river access points, and so we walked to the other side of the park. When we were nearly to the main part of the Sandy River Rain spotted a huge puddle and had plenty of fun splashing around and fetching her ball as other dogs and hikers meandered past. The other access point had higher-than-usual water as well but still offered enough of a slope that Rain was willing to wade in a few feet. She swam once, but not for long. She seemed happier sticking to the places where she could touch the ground, unlike the nearby Labrador retrievers who were halfway across the river fetching sticks.

Once we were done in that portion of the park, we took a new trail and ended up back at the beach we had abandoned. When we were out of the shady cottonwoods and into the wide expanses of grass, I could tell the temperature was starting to rise. Rain and I sat in the shade of one of the few trees in this area. I noticed that Rain was taking a rare respite and I was feeling like I had done a good job wearing her out. Once Rain started getting antsy again we headed back to the trailhead.

When we arrived the parking lot was mostly full. It seems that everyone else had the same idea I had that day but arrived earlier than we did. As we left, the parking area felt pretty deserted. Cognizant of hot asphalt, I did my best to keep Rain from standing in one place too long but she did lift her feet once or twice as I raced to open the back of the vehicle.

It wasn’t until after we had been home a bit and she was licking a paw that I had a look and noticed she had some raw skin on one of her front paw pads. It was at this point I also did the math and realized we had spent three full hours adventuring around the park!

Let’s unpack that stat: Rain is now a senior, at seven years of age. And it still took three hours of running around a huge parcel of land to wear her out! On a really warm day, no less. Aussies were bred to work cattle ranches all day long  and I really wish I had the ability to match Rain with the surroundings that would let her use all of her energy all of the time.

It was blissfully quiet that afternoon. Rain did not bark once between the time we got home and later that evening. She still followed me around if I made major moves around the house, but otherwise she was happy lying down and hanging out.

Doggy Heaven: A Trip to Sandy River Delta Park

Posted on by bookishheather

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Rain had a trip to Sandy River Delta Park over the long weekend. Doggy heaven!

If you’re not familiar, this park (also known as Thousand Acres Dog Park) is located near Portland where the Sandy River flows into the mighty Columbia. It’s an enormous dog park! There are a few places where dogs should be on leash, but it’s otherwise a doggy free-for-all.

There are forested areas thick with underbrush. There are wide open fields with grasses and an occasional oak tree. There is plenty of water access—along the Sandy River, the Columbia River, and a small channel that connects the two.

As you can imagine, it’s a pretty popular place.

Rain was excited to get walking. Once we were a fair distance from the trailhead, I took her off leash. I was just about to dig out the tennis ball I brought, when she was staring at the ground and I saw that she had already found one herself! So we played fetch as we meandered toward the northern part of the park.

Racquetballs have some advantages over tennis balls for everyday ball playing, but I try and take tennis balls when we go somewhere we might end up losing the ball somehow. Ironically, we often come prepared to lose our ball and more often end up finding another ball or two to bring back home with us!

We soon came to what I like to think of as Doggy Muscle Beach, a stretch of the aforementioned channel with a wide beach area. This is one of the prime spots in the park for doggy water fun.

Where the banks are higher, some dogs will jump in and swim across to get a stick or ball. Where the bank descends more gradually into the water is where Rain enjoys hanging out.

A few times, I deliberately threw the ball just a little further into the water, hoping Rain would swim a few feet to get her precious new ball. She didn’t love the underwater drop. Instead of swimming, she ended up walking down the bank as the tennis ball languidly floated. She was biding her time until the ball got close enough to shore that she could capture it again—without swimming.

Smart doggy, eh?

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After a while we decided to explore some new places. Walking briefly through a grassy field, we headed for some cottonwood trees and soon found a different access point to the same channel. This part of the channel was more shallow than the other portion, which Rain was more comfortable with. When she wasn’t ankle-deep in mud, she walked around in the shallow water, biting at the splashes she made. Rain got to enjoy the natural smell of a muddy riverbank and do some more ball fetching before we pressed onward once again.

Eventually we discovered the Maya Lin bird blind ensconced in the forested area and stopped to appreciate the species information carved into each of the vertical pieces that made up the structure. Well okay—we human companions stopped to appreciate the structure. Rain was ready to explore the next thing as soon as we came to the dead end where the bird blind sat!

We pressed on along the same trail and ended up in a meadow thick with teasel, thistle, sweet pea, and other flowers. The teasel was about eight feet tall at points, dwarfing our expedition party!

Soon we headed back the way we came. Rain was getting wound up again, barking when we started encountering humans along the trail.

Once we got to the open field I brought out Rain’s new ball and we played fetch for several minutes. I threw the ball along the trail, but it would frequently bounce into the shin-high grasses. Rain had no problem finding the ball, but soon I needed to pick a grass seed out of the crux of her eye.

After Rain had plenty of fetching, we made the final push back to the parking lot and headed home. She hadn’t wanted to get in the car to leave home, but she had no problem getting back in the car for our return trip. That usually signals a sufficiently exercised Rain.

Back at home, we started discovering tons of dried grass seeds and awls in our shoes and socks. Rain was scratching a lot too, and each time I tended to her I found a grass awl in the very deepest part of her undercoat. They’re difficult to pick out, and they caused her as much grief as they were causing me! If you’re not aware, grass awls and foxtails can do some serious damage to a dog.

Grassy mementos aside, Rain enjoyed her outing so much that she snoozed much of the afternoon and was pretty calm the rest of the day. In other words, she had a great time being a dog in the park made just for her! Doggy heaven.