Mark’s Photos- #22
I actually took this picture yesterday a couple of miles from my house. Eugene, OR, has a sister city just across the Willamette River that borders both towns and divides them. That other city is Springfield, OR, of “The Simpsons” fame. Yes, this was the city that the creator, Matt Groening, of the popular cartoon, used for the name of the fictional town the Simpsons live in. Anyway, I was crossing the 1929-built bridge between Eugene and Springfield on a training hike and came upon this scene of a single fisherman fly fishing in the Willamette. Three blocks to the right of this picture is downtown Springfield. About three blocks beyond the end of the bridge to the left is a warehouse district shared by both cities. Though you really can’t tell from this picture.
In June of 1980, Hannah and I were living in Tempe, Arizona. That June we were taking her brother Doug and his girlfriend Debbie to Rhododendron Park on Whidby Island in the Puget Sound. They were going to bike from there back to Phoenix! Anyway, Hannah had a high school friend living in Eugene who we stayed with. The following morning, we, being runners, ran the sawdust trails I’m guessing of this river. Almost heaven, West Virginia compared to the pavement of AZ.
In the picture upper left where the river disappears is a bend in the river. After the bend it goes more or less straight for several miles past the university and downtown Eugene on one side and through woods and fields on the other. If you and Hannah were running along or near a big river then that is probably where you were. However, Eugene features itself as”Track Town USA” for a reason. There are about 72 miles of running trails in and around Eugene.