Tunnels along the Gorge

Our camp spot at the John Day dam provided some natural light shows …

As well as red, white, and blue lights on the dam itself.

Here’s a photosphere I did from right on the river bank – underneath a power pylon!  Check it out!

And, here’s another one I did – from on top of one of these fishing platforms.  Click the pic below!

Just downstream, we crossed over into Oregon briefly, to fill up on Oregon diesel and propane.  Then, it was back across the river to the much slower pace of the north shore route as we headed west.

There were trains, and there were tunnels.

And more tunnels.

And MORE tunnels!

And EVEN MORE TUNNELS!

And still more!

The GPS took us west through Portland without incident, but one idiot driver tried his best to ruin a lot of days.  You see, we were cruising along the interstate westbound in the right lane, and there was an on-ramp merging with our lane.  There were three vehicles in line, getting ready to merge.  For some reason, the idiot in the first vehicle came to a virtual stop, instead of speeding up to fit in with the traffic.  The next vehicle behind him noticed this manoeuvre and slowed as well.  Unfortunately, the third vehicle in that procession did not notice that her lane had stopped – till the very last minute!  When she did realize what those brake lights were telling her, it was too late for her to stop – so she swerved violently pretty much into the lane occupied by a big GMC pulling a fifth wheel!  Of course, I was watching this all play out and had slowed enough to avoid her.  And I had my gopro looking  out the front at the time (a la Wandering Willy!), but alas it was not turned on   The video could have gone viral!

After that we just headed straight west till we ran out of roads – in Tillamook, Oregon.

And there was the ocean – just like when we left it.  Nice to be back.

Normally Hailey isn’t much for walking in a straight line, like on a trail.  But on some of the trails out here she has just trotted along beside me like a little dog.

It was a fairly long hike down the the beach, but she made it most of the way on her own.  She did leap on an unlucky frog or toad, but came back spitting and shaking her head to get rid of the taste.  It must be a good defence, as I don’t think the frog was even hurt in the encounter.

There were a few whale spouts to be seen offshore.  Stick around as we explore more of the north Oregon coast before heading south.

Columbia River and the Washington–Oregon line

After winding our way across some of the hinterlands of southern Washington, we reached the Columbia river, and an expansive view.  It was only a couple miles down the steep grade to Roosevelt right on the river bank, and a few more to our intended stopover spot at John Day dam.  But, right at the top of the hill, with an unobstructed view was a bleak, windy, gravel pull-off.  We passed it the first time and were half way down the hill before finding a spot to turn around, but turn we did and were blown back up the hill!  The winds were really howling on top, and it took most of my strength to get the truck door open and both hands to prevent the door from being detached.  I parked briefly broadside to the gale to enable me to move Hailey to her quarters without losing her to the wind.  Then I parked the truck directly into the wind, and put the front jacks down in an attempt to provide some stability.  Hats or sunglasses were not an option, neither were any photos possible.  Once inside, it was not too bad once everything outside had been tightly lashed down.

Surprisingly, the gale ended abruptly at sundown, and after it was very close to calm outside.  That gave a chance for some night photos with the gopro on a tripod – that would not have been possible an hour previous.  Looking to the east, this 30 second time exposure shows on the left a white streak that is the traffic on highway 14 on the Washington side of the Columbia.  All the rest of the photo is showing the Oregon side, with Interstate 84 in the center.  The back, which appears to be city lights is not.  These are all red lights on the wind turbine towers, that flash off and on in unison!

I shone some lights on the back of the rig …

And the side …

And waved my light around a bit …

And even though it was no longer Halloween, some ghosts were spotted.

In the morning, I did a quick count of the wind turbines visible across the river in Oregon. I stopped counting at 550!  While a lot better than coal fired power plants, I wonder about the effects of thousands of acres of synchronized flashing lights on wildlife and wonder how many birds and bats are killed by the rotors?

The last few miles across the table lands approaching the river, as well as miles of country along the river on the Washington side had clearly been burned over very recently.  A quick check on Google indicated that the fire occurred on August 5th and resulted in the entire town of Roosevelt being evacuated.  The size of the fire was 37.5 square miles.  Some news reports and video of the fire HERE.

Next day, we moved down to our waterfront camp spot right below the John Day dam at the entrance to the locks.  That’s Rufus, Oregon across the river.

The lock seems pretty quiet right now, but eventually a group of empty looking barges came by on their way upstream.

Lots of Native fishing platforms on both sides of the river, but none were in use.

After this, we’ll be headed west through the scenic Columbia River Gorge area, then through Portland to the coast.

On the Road for real this time–Headed South!

Once Hailey got all the mice on the home place trained again, there was not much reason to stick around.  I finished all the aerial photo work that was available this fall, everyone who was going to visit had done so, and the good weather was not going to last forever.
We were going to miss the many turkey suppers at local community halls, and a couple pieces of mail failed to arrive, but we may have saved a few turkeys, and the mail will still be there in the spring!
At any rate, the ‘alarm cat’ got me up early in the morning, and by 2 pm we were on the road.  It took a bit of time to drain the water lines, add some antifreeze to the drains, turn down the heat, plug in the back up electric heaters, drop the blinds, empty the fridge, but most of the stuff was already loaded in anticipation of such a departure.

Hailey didn’t have all her border crossing paper work in order, so we stopped at the vet on the way through town to get her shots.  She has a very, very short fuse and you don’t want to be anywhere close to her when she loses her temper, so I have the vet waiting with loaded needle when I whisk her in.  When the vet approached her with the stethoscope, I had to insist on the needle first; any other examination would be a bonus.  After the needle, she did get to listen to a low growl with her stethoscope, but when she offered Hailey a treat, that was the last straw!  I managed to get her back out to the parking lot without anyone bleeding, and she pulled me to the safety of the trailer sitting there!
After that we were on the road for real.  Southbound to the trans-Canada highway, then west through Banff we went, before turning south through my old stomping grounds of Kootenay National Park.  Nice to see a lot of wildlife fencing under construction, as well as numerous wildlife underpasses.  That should provide some welcome relief to the wildlife mortalities on the highway.  When I worked there, picking up the smashed remains of the park’s wildlife was a daily ritual – while the park did not seem to have the courage to ‘request’ some of the speeding drivers to defend their negligence before a judge.  The way I saw it was that the reckless speeders should ‘contribute’ to building fences and overpasses!
At this time of year a couple decades ago, there would have been herds of a hundred elk grazing roadside, as well as deer, moose and various predators.  I didn’t see a thing.  They might be closing the barn door after the stock have all escaped?
It was dark by the time I was immersed in the soothing hot waters of Lussier Hot Springs, an 18 km gravel detour off the highway south of Fairmont.  The springs suffered some damage last winter when an ice-jam clogged up the adjacent river, but BC Parks seems to have done a great job repairing any damage and improving the walkways and rock work.  While enjoying the stars from the hot pools with a cool beverage in hand, I decided that the winter travel season had officially begun!

Next day, after another early morning dip and these photos, it was back out to the highway, an on southward through Cranbrook, and down to the US border.  Got into a bit of a conversation with the customs officer about working in fire lookouts and flying UAV’s, but then another vehicle showed up behind me, and we had to cut it short.  My kind of border crossing!




Since then, we’ve spent a couple of nights in the rain near Sandpoint, Idaho, with a nice view of the Pend Oreille river, and then on a south-westerly direction through Washington state.  Only a few times has the sun peeked out, and the rain almost constant, but no snow or freezing temps, so I’m happy with that.
Continuing south-westward on I-90, then onto 395, we decided to have a look at the town of ‘Warden’, to the west.  Just past there are many public fishing access points indicated off the road and we took one to a deserted spot on the south end of Warden Lake.  Back on the road, we crossed the dam creating Potholes reservoir,
 
then checked out Potholes SP.

It seems like a very nice and well maintained park, with prices to match.  Fall colours were out, and the sun came out as well!

 
After that it was more of a zig-zag route down through Othello, then down and across the Columbia River – which is not that huge at this point, before it is joined by the Snake River.
Shooting south across I-82, and down through Sunnyside, we saw a tiny sign in Bickleton, indicating the route to Roosevelt, down on the Columbia River proper.  Good thing too, as the GPS wanted to plot a route there almost 4 hours longer!!  Whomever designed the next section of road was clearly drunk or stoned, as it winds aimlessly back and forth across the open rangeland, with a 30mph curve at least every mile!  Luckily there was no traffic to be seen, and the pavement was excellent.  I have never seen as many wind turbines as here – there were hundreds, as far as the eye could see!  And they had them all running full tilt, making it extremely windy as we approached the river  .

That’s it for now.  Oregon in sight!