This is an in-depth 10-part soundwalk series on the 30-mile Wildwood Trail in Portland’s Forest Park. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8 span Washington Park trailhead north to Newberry Rd. Feel free to press play above for the
environmental sound as we head to the end of the trail!
The northern end of the Wildwood Trail is the quietest part of the park. The forest is tall and largely undisturbed, the trail well away from the roads and neighborhoods that press against the park’s southern and eastern edges. Wildlife moves through here in ways it doesn’t in the more trafficked miles to the south.
If you spend time in these woods, they can cast a spell on you.
Colin Meloy, front man of the Decemberists, and his wife Carson Ellis, illustrator, used to live in a house with a path above it that led straight uphill into Forest Park. They took walks together in the park; a short loop with their young son, and longer routes where they talked through the story they were building. During one of those walks they decided to map a different country within the park, and dubbed it the Impassable Wilderness, or I.W. for short. Carson traced a map of Forest Park and included every real landmark she could think of that might spark the imagination: the Skyline Tavern, the Oregon Zoo, the Pittock Mansion, an abandoned stone foundation not far from their house.
The first book in the resulting trilogy, Wildwood, was published in 2011. Their editor haled it an “American Narnia”. In the world Meloy and Ellis built, owls and foxes battle an army of coyotes, and English ivy is the ultimate evil. Anyone who has spent time pulling ivy from a Forest Park hillside will recognize the apt characterization.
The first book has been adapted into a stop-animation film by Laika, the Portland studio behind Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. The recently released trailer is stunning.
The Wildwood Trail ends at NW Newberry Road. There is a small parking pullout, room for fewer than ten cars, and a multi-panel interpretive sign with a map. Some steps have been cut into the trail just before the terminus. The nearby sign explains what the trail is and where it goes. Thankfully it’s not really an impassible wilderness. All that’s required is stepping in.
