mill stream walk: 28 september 2008

Rose Dickson

28 September 2008

1030 – 1130 hours

Following the mill stream from Willamette University campus to Riverfront Park, Salem, OR, USA

62 degrees, clear skies

         Today is absolutely beautiful, clear skies and a cool temperature. In an observation yesterday I decided that I wanted to better understand the mill stream, I wanted to follow it throughout Salem. This morning I am going to journey with the current and follow the mill stream from Willamette University campus to Riverfront Park, where the mill stream becomes the Willamette River. As I hike downstream I come to my first break, there is a grate near the end of Willamette campus closing off the stream as it flows underground. Uh oh, will I be able to find where is comes out? I walk on and fortunately it comes back right across the street. It looks different now, surrounded by concrete. It looks manmade with fountains, contrasting very much to the Willamette campus mill stream I have become so accustomed to. I follow the stream further and the structure again changes back to the natural beauty I love so much. I decide to get in, to truly walk with the current. As I step in, I notice the folks around me aren’t giving me the best looks. I hear a voice call out to me, “what are you doing young woman?!” I explain that I want to better understand the river and I am following it through salem. The man accepts the explanation and takes me in as a very strange sort of person. I quickly move on in my journey.  As I reach the opening to the Willamette River I am disappointed in how much influence man has had on the stream. What would the stream have looked like before man created concrete walls around it? I want so badly to see the stream in its natural state. As I think about this, I let my feet sink in the Willamette River and I attempt to stay stabilized as the current pushes past me.