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.