Powell Butte Letterbox
Portland, Oregon

CLUES: (revised)

The first step to finding this letterbox is to climb Powell Butte. The easiest way to do that is to climb up the north face of the Butte from the Powell Butte Nature Park at Powell Blvd and 162nd Avenue. The Mountain View Trail is a nice handicap-accessible paved pathway up to the Summit Orchard Picnic Area. On horseback, you could take the Wildhorse Trail, or bikes can go up the Meadowland Trail.

You can also access the summit from the popular Forty Mile Loop Trail on the south side by hiking up Pioneer Orchard Trail or taking the Wild Hawthorn Trail on horseback.

Once you've climbed the Butte, locate the mountain viewpoint, where you will be able to identify as many as seven mountains and several large buttes. Follow the trail east from here, as it passes by a small grouping of tall, scarred fir trees standing alone in the distance on your right. Stay on the trail and keep to the left to merge with the Wildhorse Trail as it drops back down the side of the Butte.

Before you reach the bottom, you will intersect a dirt access trail. Turn right onto this trail and follow it toward a residential area, until you spot another narrow dirt pathway leading upward to your right. If you follow this path, it will lead you back to that grouping of tall firs.

The letterbox is guarded by a youth who grows where an elder once stood tall. Before you leave, please make sure that it is well hidden again.

This is the oldest letterbox in the Gresham area. The walk from the parking lot, up the north face, over to the letterbox, and down again is around two miles. The view from the summit is fantastic and it's a great place for a picnic. Good Luck!

  — Der Mad Stamper

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