boring lava field — Hannah Elise Schultz

Adventures in
Serendipity

— Hannah Schultz (biographical name): a Kentuckian, traveler, PhD student, hiker, environmentalist, and Great Pyrenees enthusiast

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things

Cherry Blossoms on an Extinct Volcano: Mt. Tabor Park (Portland, Oregon)

While you might not think of Portland as a particularly volcanic area nowadays (especially compared to other western states like Wyoming), turn back time about 5 million years, and the story would be very different. In southeast Portland, nestled at the top of a quaint neighborhood is Mt. Tabor, an extinct volcanic vent and remnant of this volatile time in Oregonian history. Its cinder cone (a steep conical hill of loose pyroclastic fragments) is part of the Boring Lava Field, an extensive network of Plio-Pleistocene era cinder cones and small shield volcanoes ranging from Boring, Oregon to southwest Washington. This park was my destination for my second nature excursion in the city while visiting for the AWP 2019 Conference.

Hiking, TravelHannah SchultzApril 7, 2019portland, oregon, cherry blossoms, extinct, volcano, mt tabor, park, hike, boring lava field, reservoir, trailsComment

Adventures inSerendipity

— Hannah Schultz (biographical name): a Kentuckian, traveler, PhD student, hiker, environmentalist, and Great Pyrenees enthusiast

Adventures in
Serendipity