The city built a bridge over the highway so pedestrians can traverse it. This highway, which you can walk over if you like, branches off the I5 Bridge and runs parallel to the Columbia River. Between the River and the Bridge there is a small sliver of waterfront with a path snaking along it and a road running beside that. There are cheap restaurants and an old pier that is slowly, but surly, falling into the River.
"Rosa spp. Leaves pinnately compound; leaflets 5 to 11, oval to elliptical, toothed except at the base; flowers pink, 3/4-3 1/2"; fruit orange, turning red or purple, many seeded, dry and sour; thorny shrubs 1 1/2-8' tall, rarely climbing. Rosaceae.
Nootka rose, R. nutkana (noot-kay-na: of Nootka, Vancouver Island). Flowers (2 1/4-3 1/2") and fruits large, single; thorns variable, typically in stout pairs at leaf nodes; plants usually 2-6'. Both sides Cascades, commoner East."
This bit of waterfront is also home to an old apple tree enclosed in a white brick fence, which is right at the base of the footbridge that stretches over the highway. This apple tree was planted in 1826 by Meriweather Lewis and it is slowly dieing. I wouldn't blame it, the highway having been built so close. The footbridge is dedicated to the people we killed when we settled here. Native plants grow on both sides of the bridge; Lupin, Sweet Pea, Nootka Rose.
I've never seen anything so ironic in my life. Nor have I ever smelled anything as beautiful as the Nootka Rose.
