About us
The PUPs Meetup Group opens its participants to an urban environment in a variety of ways via the practice of walking. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to wander our city and learn to feel more engaged with the space and it’s inhabitants? Are there neighborhoods you’ve never explored, but piqued your curiosity? Could you rediscover something fascinating in places you’ve visited previously?
Join us as we explore the Portland/Vancouver metro area's treasures through event activities such as downtown sauntering, photo walks, art gallery touring, street art strolling, destination walks, district meandering, exploring parks, and co-sponsored EverWalk events. This group is ideally suited for long-time residents and newcomers.
As pedestrians, we will move through a designated area of the city with a time range limit and structure guided by an itinerary or theme. The pace is intended to allow for meaningful observations and interaction with the city and group participants, including those with assisted mobility.
Members must have a front-facing, clear photo of themselves to join the group. Walk leaders are volunteers, not professionals. By participating in an event, you and your guests accept full responsibility for your own well-being/health/safety/COVID protocol and completely absolve the event hosts, the Portland Urban Pedestrians group, and Meetup of any responsibility for injury that may occur during the walk.
This group is also on the Heylo app by the same name where events are cross-listed at: Heylo Link
Upcoming events
2
Learning Hike: The Secret Life of Salmon
Bonneville Dam Washington Shore Visitor Center, Dam Rd, North Bonneville, WA, USWe Northwesterners know salmon intimately, provided it arrives grilled or poached. Beyond that, things get embarrassingly vague.
On this adventure, we’re fixing that with a deep, interactive exploration of the entire salmon life cycle. From their hidden beginnings beneath streambed stones to their ocean years, complete body transformation, and punishing journey home, we’ll uncover the senses, navigation systems, athletic machinery, and spectacular biological weirdness most of us never knew existed.
We’ll do this at Bonneville Dam on the weekend when upstream salmon traffic is expected to be at its heaviest. Live fish will charge past the underwater windows and fight their way through the ladders while we discover exactly what makes them so extraordinary.
We’ll begin by plunging into the bowels of the dam with a park ranger, peering straight down inside an enormous generator, and discovering what has to happen before the Columbia River becomes something your toaster understands.
• IMPORTANT: Download this tour PDF onto your phone before you arrive. This will be a deeply interactive tour, and the presentation is loaded with photographs, graphs, and fascinating illustrations. Don’t just open it, DOWNLOAD it to your phone. Also, make sure your phone is fully charged.
This will be a short, flat, two-mile hike with multiple learning stops around Bonneville Dam. We’ll drive to the picnic area for lunch and cross the Bridge of the Gods, which has a $3 toll. Bring a bag lunch and beverage to keep in your car. Carpooling is recommended.
The Expedition:
• 10:30 am: Ranger-guided plunge into the powerhouse, a look inside the generator, construction secrets, and the daily work of keeping this river-sized machine from calling in sick
• 11:30 am: Live salmon charging past the underwater windows, dissolving stomachs, ultraviolet vision, pressure-wave superpowers, and aquatic interval training in the fish ladders
• 12:15 pm: Bring your own lunch at the picnic shelter, with no expectations beyond chewing
• 1:00 pm: Hidden streambed babies, the complicated promise of hatcheries, and a Bridge of the Gods crossing for humans lacking salmon-level commitment
• 1:30 pm: The roaring spillway, salmon fighting beneath our feet, concrete-climbing lamprey, and a professional fish counter in action
• 3:00 pm: Tour finish and official promotion from casual salmon admirer to alarmingly informed salmon friendThe salmon will make the impossible journey. You will walk two flat miles and pay attention. Everyone has a role.
33 attendees
Portland’s Prettiest Cover Up: The Hidden History of the Rose Garden
Rose Garden Store, 850 SW Rose Garden Way, Portland, OR 97205, Portland, OR, USBe warned, this is not your typical beauty tour of the rose garden. Buried inside these flower beds is the wildly tumultuous story of civic ambition, political panic, real-estate scams, queer defiance, suffrage battles, and power-hungry men in weird white suits.
We’ll walk through the garden stop by stop, uncovering how a frontier logging town like Portland turned roses into a signature identity. That lovely perfume drifting over the city is far stranger, rougher, and more combustible than the postcards ever dare admit. Sure, the roses are lovely, but the backstory has wicked thorns.
Please bring a fully charged mobile phone and download this presentation prior to arriving. It will be your passport to the full tour: vintage photos, historical images, explanatory graphics, and proof that the rose garden’s backstory really is this wonderfully twisted.
The Stats:
Meeting Point Location: Rose Garden Visitor Center
Meeting Point Address: 400 SW Kingston Ave, Portland, OR 97205
Google Maps Meeting Point
Hike Distance: Approximately One Mile
Elevation gain: 100 feet
Estimated time: 2 hours
Physical Difficulty level: Very Easy
Bathrooms at the Rose Garden Visitor CenterParking:
It’s gonna be a beautiful fall day in Washington Park, so parking will be very tight. Plan on arriving early to give yourself lots of time to get there.
Best way to get there: take the Max Train, then catch the Washington Park shuttle to the Rose Garden.
Parking lots within walking distance: Sherwood Parking Lot (7 Minute walk, but small), SW Kingston Ave.
Parking Options that connect to the Washington Park Shuttle: Veteran’s Parking Lot, Parking Lot B, Parking Lot C, Washington Park Max Station Lot
Street Parking: SW Wright Ave, SW Tichner Dr., SW Marconi Ave., SW Park PlaceAcknowledgement:
Walk leaders are volunteers, not professionals. By participating in an event, you and your guests accept full responsibility for your own well-being/health/safety/COVID protocol and completely absolve the event hosts, the Portland Urban Pedestrians group, and Meetup of any responsibility for injury that may occur during the walk.38 attendees
Past events
154
