Length: ~3.5 roadway loop
Height: ~750 feet of elevation gain
Time of Hike: Thirty-four minutes to summit, fifty-five minutes back down (longer route)
Hiking Partner(s): Joe Orndorff
I never considered Mt. Scott to be a “proper” mountain when I was growing up in the Willamette Valley. Seeing Mt. Hood in the distance, with it’s snowy white cap, made Mt. Scott look kind of silly and diminutive in comparison. It wasn’t until I lived on the east coast for a couple of years, and saw what passed for mountains out there, that I came to accept Mt. Scott. Now, as I live nearby it, I try to hike up Mt. Scott on a regular basis.
While I could walk to where we start the hike at, we usually drive as it saves us time and the path from my home to what we consider the base is pretty much all level terrain. What we are after, in this hike, is a short hike that is pretty much all uphill. Brisk little bit of cardio with some good scenery upon the way.
Starting on SE 91st Ave, just off of Johnson Creek Blvd, Joe parks his car along the side of the road and we get out and walk over to the crosswalk for SE 92nd.
Johnson Creek Blvd is all uphill in this segment. A steep hike up the sidewalk, the freshly barkdusted flowerbeds, and in the shade of the handful of decorative trees planted along the way. The first false summit is where Johnson Creek Blvd dead ends and you have to walk a block to the left to read the bottom of SE Quail Ridge Dr.
This is where finding this route on a map gets tricky, as Quail Ridge Drive is gated and mapping the route will usually take you up the southern flank of Mt. Scott instead, which isn’t quite as steep. From here on up the hike is through more recent developments, in some cases there are signs out still listing lots being for sale atop Mt. Scott, mostly with a north or east facing view.
The second false summit is where Quail Ridge Drive dead ends in a gate, beyond which is the corner where Ridgeway Dr and Eastview Dr meet.
From here it is west, on just a slight slope, to where Ridgeway Dr meets Cityview Dr, which is the point we consider the summit of the hike. There is a gated driveway there, but you can see through / over / past the gate and get a view of all of Portland. From Lake Oswego to the west up to Mt. Tabor to the north. Great place to take a picture if your camera doesn’t garble it (the panorama I took of all of Portland turned out awful, I only got the one shot below worth sharing today).
Normally we’ll just head back the way we came after that. Today we did the slightly longer square route at the top, heading down Cityview Dr, up the steep hill of Tyler Rd, and back along Eastview Dr to the gate back to Quail Ridge. That added loop at the top adds another downhill and steep uphill, and about a quarter mile to the hike.
All in all, it’s a nice hike to do early in the day when it hasn’t gotten too hot out. It’s close to where I live, has a nice bit of hill for cardio, some shade in places, with little to no traffic usually (being along private housing development roads help with that), and the views of Portland from the summit are beautiful.