First Volunteer position

So on August 1st, we pulled into Cascade Locks fish hatchery located at Eagle Creek Recreation Area.   It was a bit of maneuvering to get into the spot, but we managed with no problems.  We were supplied with full hook-ups plus cable TV.  In the hatchery building we also had access to a washer and dryer and a refrigerator.  We could also use their freezer if we didn't mind sharing space with "morts" (dead fish) that are collected each day from the ponds.  They are disposed in the garbage when they have a large collection.  I chose not to use the freezer. 😉

Unfortunately, this is how close we were to a 4-lane highway and railroad track.

There are four employees with a fifth joining them in mid-September.  We enjoyed getting to know them as we were invited to join them for breaks and lunch.  We usually had morning break with them in addition to morning staff meeting where the day's assignments were discussed.  For the most part we would work in the morning and have afternoons off.  As our commitment was 10 hours each per week, we normally had a couple days during the week that we could take the whole day for exploring or doing errands.  They rotate weekends, so one person works the weekend and than has a couple days off the following week. The manager is always the backup.  We never had to work on the weekends but had the opportunity to chat with whomever was on duty.  So, I feel we really had a chance to get to know each of them.  Two of them live onsite, one down the road at Bonneville hatchery, the new employee will also live on site as he is taking the empty house where the fifth fellow lived for 18 years.  He chose to live off site when his wife was offered a good position and needed to live closer to Portland.  The hatchery is located approximately 35 miles from Portland. 

It is quite a drive to do anything as it was 35 miles to Portland and it's suburbs and 32 miles to Hood River, a town large enough for some shopping.  Cascade has a few restaurants, a fish market, marina, a couple hotels, bars, and a small market with limited selections.  Across the bridge at Cascade, to Stevenson, WA is a larger market, shops, and restaurants, but it is $3 one way for the dually to cross the bridge.  To me that was one of the drawbacks for this location, it was a long drive to do many activities.  Also, traffic in and around Portland was a nightmare!  We tried a couple times to explore around Portland but sitting in traffic moving at 7 mph for an hour and a half was exhausting. 

We feel we had a good chance to explore much of the surrounding area.  Twice we drove the 90+ miles to Maupin, OR so Dave could fish the Deschutes River.  Interesting drive into the high desert country of central Oregon where I was surprised to see wheat fields being harvested and orchards.

This is what the landscape was like at the river.

It was quite hot each day, by early afternoon reaching the low 90's.  

One activity we enjoyed was driving the "Fruit loop", an area south of Hood River and around Mt. Hood with many orchards, wineries, lavender farms and alpaca farms. I think we did 3 partial trips and one full loop trip.  

Bounty, along with a gallon of blueberries 

Mt. Hood from the lavender garden.

A view of Mt. Hood from the fruit farm

Bounty from the lavender farm and one of the orchards.

We also enjoyed visiting The Dalles and the Columbia Gorge Discovery center.  A local man, carved this wonderful sculpture of a sturgeon.  It is definitely worth the price to explore the four rooms with the history of the area; it was very well done.

Another day we drove to The Dalles where we crossed the river and drove back west on the Washington side.  Personally, I think the drive along the Gorge is more scenic on the Oregon side.  The Columbia Gorge area is absolutely beautiful!  It was fun to see all the surfers on their sail boards. 

Numerous evenings we drove the mile or so to the Bonneville hatchery to walk the dogs along the river.  Their grounds were quite extensive and beautifully landscaped.  The dam is also at that location, so if we were lucky we could see a barge or boat locking through.  Bonneville is a huge location compared 

to Cascade and they have many visitors.  

One of the highlights of visiting Bonneville fish hatchery is seeing the giant, old sturgeon, Herman.  There are actually three really large sturgeons in the pond but Herman is the oldest and largest.  Herman is over 70 years old and 10' long.  

The island across from the Marina in Cascade Locks was another area we enjoyed walking in the evenings

The local tribes are allowed to fish with nets and supply the local fish market with fresh fish on a daily basis.

Barge heading down river to the dam.

We enjoyed our volunteer position at the fish hatchery and would volunteer again, but at a different location.

More updates to come.  I am a month behind. 

Sorry! 

Numerous updates to come

It has been quite a long time since I posted; we were in southwest Oregon near Crater Lake.  After leaving Collier Memorial SP, we drove to Sutherlin, OR as we wanted to check out the Escapee Co-op there.  It was really nice with good spacing and separation of the lots. Some of the owners have done extensive landscaping and others just enough, but all are well kept and neat.  This park's policy is one we agree with more than others.  When a lot is put up for resale there is a set base price, regardless of how many "improvements" or landscaping has been done.  What an owner did was for their enjoyment but they will not recoup the cost.  At other parks, if there has been "improvements" it is added on to the base cost of the lot.  We are monitoring lots in Arizona and sometimes the cost for a lot seems way too high in our opinion. 

This is the lot we rented for four days.  What you do not see in the picture are some bushes planted around the edges of the lot for separation.  This was one of the minimally landscaped lots.  We really enjoyed this Co-op; it was very enjoyable to walk in the evenings but it was quite hot, in the 90's while we were here.  We would stay here again if we ever came back to this area.  

During our time in the area, we drove to the central coast, near Coos Bay.  It was 40 degrees cooler on the coast than it was in Sutherlin.  In fact it was so overcast and foggy with rain it was hard to see much or do much walking around.  Though we did go through a couple areas where it was sunny. 

Cold and rainy coast near Coos Bay.

Just a few miles inland

A bit further south on the coast; good seafood shack.  Crabs were their specialty. 

From Sutherlin it was on to Cascade Locks and the fish hatchery.  More on our first volunteer experience in my next post. 

 

Preparing to Fish

Dave has been talking to Rangers and camp hosts (3 sets).  A few have given him some leads and along with his reading on the area, ideas on where he can wade fish.  I am staying at camp and doing a couple short hikes in the park while he scouts for locations and obtains his license.  He would like to fish tonight and tomorrow morning; tomorrow (Tuesday) is our last day here before we start to head north.  There is a trail, a bit more then 3/4 mile one way, which follows Spring Creek which flows into the Williamson River, supposed to be good for fishing, but one of those they no longer stock.  

Spring Creek:

Next stop, hopefully Timber Valley SKP Co-op, but we will find out on Wednesday.  Hoping to explore a bit of the coast and the area around Eugene, OR before we are due at Cascade Locks on the 1st of August.  We will see..... 

Crater Lake NP

We had been told that part of road in the park was under construction, the amount of people visiting was more then the park could handle and the roads were very, and I mean very narrow.  All of this was very true.  Driving from the SP to Crater Lake was quite picturesque, through a lovely little valley with farms and a fish hatchery we had visited the day before.  Regarding the fish hatchery, we visited on Saturday afternoon and no one was around to answer questions but we walked the grounds and viewed the ponds.  There was a lot of rainbow trout in various sizes.  One of the Rangers at Collier told us they no longer distribute the fish in the streams/rivers in this area, because the Native people in the area, put huge nets across the stream right after the release and catch almost all of the fish and none make it down stream.  I guess it is an ongoing battle, so they release near Mt. Shasta, CA and are supposedly reimbursed from that state. 

Anyway, it was a 34 mile drive along Route 62 to reach the entrance to the park.  Now, none of the 2 facilities in the park open until 9 a.m. and we arrived at a bit before 7.  There were no maps of the park displayed for picking up as a guide, so we decided to head toward the east rim drive.  In many many sections, the lanes were barely more then the width of a bicycle path.  Thankfully in the first half of the drive we met no oncoming traffic as I spent that whole section straddling the center line so the dually' right rear tires could stay on the pavement.  There is no shoulder at all, just straight drop off and no railings or rocks for protection.  We drove for miles and all Dave could see were steep valleys of forests.  I was too busy keeping my eyes on the road to even notice.  Finally, we reached a portion where we would get glimpses of the lake and at last some turn outs big enough that we could pull in and view the lake.  I know the color would have been richer and deeper in the afternoon sun, then in the early morning light, but no way we're we staying and risking the heavy traffic we had been hearing about. 

Views from three turn outs.

Now as we approached the north and west sections of the rim drive, traffic started appearing, coming from the north entrance. Thankfully I was in front of them.  Then as we arrived at the western section, the road turned to gravel and the sides were even worse!   On the gravel section I only had one car coming the other direction.  There were a few more turn outs and a few cars in each.  It was now after 8 a.m.   The speed limit is 35 in most sections but I had two cars that rode my bumper and had to speed by when I found pull outs to let them pass.  No way we're they going that slow.  Along this route we passed eight cars and I was glad to be near the end.  The visitor center was still not open as it wasn't yet 9 when we passed, but the restroom and gift shop near the entrance was open with quite a few cars in the parking lot.  We all needed a pit stop. Along the way, there are a few spots for trail heads and a pit toilet.   Traffic into the park was picking up as we left and there was now a ranger at the entrance.   The facilities for this park are really lacking, for the amount of traffic it gets, and the roads are in very poor shape and in my opinion dangerous.  Though we both agreed the lake is beautiful it is a one feature park and the negatives out weigh the positive.  We can now check it off our bucket list, but it doesn't have the draw to call us back again.  

  

Continuing on

We left off in Arco, ID and traveled through Burns, OR for a one night stop onto our next destination, Collier Memorial SP. This is our location for five nights to explore SW Oregon and visit Crater Lake.  Our first full day here, we drove down to Klamath Falls, visited the Visitor center for the area and picnicked at the Memorial park.  I had read that the Link River trail was a favorite destination here to walk, but after a quarter of a mile of the one mile trail we turned around as it was totally unimpressive.  There was a museum at the trail head I would have liked to explore but we had the dogs with us, so that didn't work as it is much too warm to leave them in the truck even for a few minutes. 

We arrived back at camp just in time to attend the Dutch oven cooking demonstration at the logging museum across the road, that is part of the park.  That was a complete waste of time.  The ranger was unorganized and very lacking in her presentation.  She could not give an informed knowledgable answer on any question that Dave asked her. We left after a half hour.  It was supposed to be a 3 hour demonstration but in the half hour we sat there only a few other people stopped by and none of them stayed.  I wanted to feel sorry for her, but with her whole approach or lack thereof, it was hard to feel sympathetic.  

The museum was also poorly done in my opinion.  They had lots of logging equipment set out in decent displays but no descriptions or naming, so unless you are a logger or former logger you had no idea what a particular piece of equipment was or how it was used.   

On our way to Collier, we drove through Bend, OR.  I would like to spend more time in that area in the future, but it may have to be another trip as our route will not take us through there again.  We stopped at the Newberry Volcanic National Monument and did the one mile loop.  There are quite a few additional walking trails but with the dogs this short loop worked the best.  It was quite hot, in the low 90's.

Crater Lake review is next.  

Last week or so

Last I left you, we were touring around Yellowstone with Julie and Ray and just relocated to West Yellowstone.  We explored all the geyser areas that were open; a few were closed due to construction. Making very early arrivals into the park, as early as 6:30 or 7 really helped us see the many features without fighting the crowds. When it started to get crowded we retreated to the veranda at Old Faithful Inn for some wonderful ice cream, which was our lunch one day.  The scoops were huge!

Another afternoon we explored some shops in the town; they have some nice ones with interesting offerings.  West Yellowstone is a nice little town to walk, but just like the park it is being overwhelmed with visitors.  Though Yellowstone and the Tetons are our favorite parks to visit, I don't believe we will be going back anytime soon.  The crowds are getting way to large and makes traveling the roads difficult; there are so many people that have no common sense or common courtesy. Also, we have always enjoyed having a meal at the Inn, but after our experience this time, we will not eat there ever again. To say the food was poorly prepared is a generous comment.  Last year's lunch wasn't much better.  So two times was enough.  

Here are some pictures from the Grand Loop and the geyser features. 

Flowing into the Firehole River

Also, along the river

The colors of the micro organisms along the boardwalk at Grand Prismatic. 

Old Faithful Inn dining room from the balcony. 

After three days exploring the lower loop, we moved to Colter Bay Village RV park in the Tetons for our last two days with Julie and Ray.  We enjoyed a leisurely raft trip.  The water was not slow but definitely not rapids.  We had no wildlife sightings other then a couple Eagles, but our guide kept us entertained with his stories and was a good source for things to do. 

A forest fire was started in early morning that day by a lighting strike and the farther down the river we traveled you could smell and see smoke drifting over the mountains.  By the next day when we left the mountains down near Jackson were almost concealed by smoke.   We heard later that all electricity was lost in Teton county including the park. 

Mountains overcast from a small storm passing by.

Us and our traveling companions, Julie and Ray.  We had a GREAT time together. 

Ray drove us to the top of Signal Mountain where every one enjoyed the views.  The views are great, the road up, not so much for me with my fear of heights and drop offs. I am always surprised when I think of our travels and so many of them are in the west and in the mountains.  I think I am due for some flat land experiences.  😙

We also drove to Teton Village, a stop Dave and I have never made, along a rather bumpy back road, but we did have our first moose sighting along the way.  On our last morning before we went our separate ways we had breakfast at Jackson Lake Lodge and had a few more moose sightings right from the dining room windows.  They put on a very nice breakfast buffet.  

From the Lodge, a view of Elk Island. 

Our next stop on our journey to Oregon was Arco, Idaho and Craters of the Moon NM

It was very "other worldly".  

I will leave you in Arco and get more pictures downloaded and continue my updates tomorrow.  I need to sleep as we arose so early to drive to Crater Lake today.  More on that later....

First days in Yellowstone

We are in Yellowstone!  Travel has been fun with our travel buddies, Ray and Julie, Dave's niece and her husband.  We are having so much fun! 

Here they are at Slough Creek in NE Yellowstone, near Lamar Valley.  We have spent two very full days in the park, leaving Gardiner at 6:15 and arriving back the first night at 5 or so and last night after 9 pm.  We have seen elk, black bear, mule deer, bison, osprey, ground squirrels and swans.   Will download pictures later and post another day. 

This morning we move to West Yellowstone and will spend three days touring the lower loop of the Grand Loop; yesterday we completed the full loop of the upper portion.  

The guys did get a few hours of fishing in the first day, but fish were not biting.  

It is now afternoon and we have arrived in W. Yellowstone. We are in shock, the drive down from Gardiner to Madison wasn't bad at all, but after we turned onto the road to West, the backed-up traffic was absolutely unbelievable!!!! In all the times we have been here we have NEVER seen traffic backed up like this. Last year was Yellowstone's busiest ever and this year is already surpassing it in numbers. The traffic waiting at the junction was backed-up 8 EIGHT miles!!!!!   Never have we seen even half that bad, probably even a quarter of that. It is shocking.  

So instead of trying to go in this afternoon, we will explore West since they have never been here. 

Here are a few pictures:

Having a great time!