I finally got around to reading Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. That’s right—yesterday was a beautiful rare sunny day in early November, and I was sitting on the couch reading a book about how people don’t go outside anymore.

So I was inspired to go to nearby Powell Butte Nature Park and walk amongst the trees.

Powell Butte is an extinct volcano in outer southeast Portland. There’s a meadow on the top, but I stayed on the forested paths that wind along the southern slope, accessed by the Springwater Corridor bike trail.

The woods is dominated by Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), western red cedar (Thuja plicata), and bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) in the canopy; vine maple (Acer circinatum) and red alder (Alnus rubrum) in the understory; and western sword fern (Polystichum munitum) at ground level.