Van Living

Annie tells me I need to post some photos of the van, which is like my little house on wheels now...it has just about everything I need.I LOVE THIS VAN!! And it drives like a dream! There is a queen sized bed that lifts up easily to storage below. We kept the frame of the little cabinet that I built in Texas as I liked the way I could clip things to the metal bookshelf frame...and my brother modified it, adding a sliding drawer, a sink, and screwed it together a LOT better than I had it, so now it does not wobble a bit. Good thing as it holds 5 gallons of water and a propane tank.

Either scrounging from my brother's workshop or purchasing at a local Recyle Building Supply shop, like this drawer that fit perfectly under the bed and thanks to Clint now glides for easy access to my clothes...and a handy little table that slides out.
Check out the wooden cooking "shield"...it is hinged with...yes that is Tie-Dyed Duct Tape!! Can you believe they make such a thing...HA! and out of all the colored duct tapes to choose from, that was the most popular because the box was almost empty!!

Olympic Hot Springs

I have decided to take in some of the Olympic National Park since the weather is cloudy, rainy and cool...well it's cold to me.....as I want to wait to cross the ferry into Canada when the weather is clear and warmer so I can see where we are going...and have a nice sunny day in Victoria! And besides I paid $80 for that Annual Pass to get me into all the National Parks and Monuments. I started by hiking up to the Olympic Hot Springs....about a 2.5 mile hike one way....there were about 10 little pools, only one had people in it, so I continued to find the one at the top with very hot water, it was shallow and reeked of sulphur smell but I loved it! The hike was beautiful along a mostly paved trail as there used to be a resort up here until the road got washed out and other natural disasters.The trail crossed the Elwa River which used to be a premier salmon river, but was dammed in the early 1900's which put an abrupt end to that which fed the local Native Americans...now there is a major movement to remove the 2 dams and try to restore this river to its natural state.

Kayaking in Mats Mats Bay

Some friends of Molly's invited me to use their kayak in the bay where they lived since so much of this country is surrounded by water and I should see it up close....as tides dictate when you do things around here, we waited until the tide was coming in...then I thought I was going to be accompanied by an adult but to my complete surprise I was told to sit in the back and then John put his 4 year old Hunter and Molly's, 6 year old Julian in the front and instructed us all to NOT stand up and then shoved us off...now I am not a very experienced kayaker....and almost all my experience is in an ocean sit-on-top (which is unsinkable)...so I was a bit uneasy at first being responsible for these little children, but then I got more confident and we paddled on across the bay.... After we manouvered around sailboats and bouys, I returned the kids to the dock and I took off on my own down the channel to where it opens to Pugent Sound....I went to the mouth and poked my head out but when the kayak started rocking I got scared and turned back...mostly because that water is COLD!!! and though I am sure there was someone there to rescue me I could not imagine getting in that water! I could appreciate the beauty from where I was comfortably seated!

Port Townsend, WA

Molly took me to North Beach in Port Townsend and we had a walk on the seashore...I was amazed at the different kinds of kelp that washed up on the beach.

...Bull kelp that looked like ropes with a ball on the end....and the rocks are just beautiful... I have now begun to pick up rocks....I told myself I would wait until I was on the way back but I cannot resist... After a cider and a plate of hummus wraps at a Waterfront Restaurant we strolled through this Victorian seaport... Molly is an advocate for local food production, tending a table at the showing of a movie in the Rose Theatre...."Food,Inc".....!!!it's about our nation's food industry and the highly mechanized production that has been hidden from the American consumer...and the corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We should all be paying closer attention to our food sources

Olympic Peninsula

I drove the backroads to the Olympic Peninsula skirting around Seattle and Tacoma as years ago I had taken the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island to visit Mel and Dawn when they lived there. I also had a destination in mind as I had contacted a long time acquaintance from Spring Branch, Texas
.....Molly now lives in Port Ludlow with her husband Mike and son Julian. They invited me to stay in their home but I opted for parking my van on their land...Molly built a backyard fire as we watched the full moon come up. The next morning we took a walk in their back 40...a forest with HUGE trees and ferns and berries of many kinds...We picked and ate thimbleberries....sweet and delicious....maybe my favorite berry so far.

Rethinking Alaska

Well I have decided against going to Alaska on this trip...I have spoken with my Canadian friend, Allan and my favorite Geographer, Brock and both concur that it is too late to drive to Alaska....it is 2750 miles from here AND it would take me a week to drive there at my pace probably longer....AND the weather can be pretty iffy for August and I might get stranded...I checked the weather for Anchorage yesterday and it was a high of 59 and a low of 15! Yikes....I also don't like the idea of freezing my ass off and I have been informed that there are LOTS of mosquitoes....more than Louisiana! Soooo....I will be content with staying in British Columbia, Canada!! I am headed to Vancouver Island...YEAH!!! Also am renaming this blog as it occurred to me that it should reflect where I am going.

Wildlife

One of my first photos with my new camera...now I can zoom in on the critters! Here is a 6x6 or 6x7 point buck Elk. A herd of Elk just a few miles out of town.
A big horn Sheep display at the Museum in The Dalles...I really liked the depiction of the Gorge section of the Columbia River in the tile floor. Several Salmon Hatcheries here, the government's response to help the species as they suffer from loss of spawning habitat and impact of dams on migration. When the salmon adults return to the hatchery, they follow the scent right up the fish ladder into the hatcheries holding ponds.

Working on the Van

My brother really helped me out by redoing the interior of the van...we took out the electronic bed and replace it with a Queen Sized wooden platform that raises and lowers for access to all the storage underneath, including a pull out drawer and a little table. The cabinet is very compact and holds all the essentials......I forgot to take photos as we went but I will show the final product soon.

View from White Salmon

One can see 2 Volcanoes from this small village of White Salmon, pop. 3000. where my brother lives in the midst of downtown. Mt. Hood is across the river and the locals call it "their mountain" meaning Oregon's. That is White Salmon in the foreground, Hood River across the river which is not seen in this photo. and there is Mt. Adams "our mountain" just north of here. Both are snow covered year round.

Main street of White Salmon.
I hiked up that hill to get a better view. It was a heck of alot steeper than it looked and parts of it I was on my hands and knees backing down....as the soil was loose and rocky.

Goldendale Observatory

It is a unique facility because it caters to the general public with programs designed to educate the novice as well as the experienced star gazer. They have a number of telescopes including a 24.5 inch that is used in the evenings for public viewing sessions 4 days a week. The facility is run by the Washington State Parks Department.
Steve Stout serves as the facility supervisor and is a very knowledgeable amateur astronomer.Even though the clouds moved in and we were unable to look at much, the trip to Goldendale was well worth it. We looked at the star "Deneb" and a binary star (I forgot the name) and the moon. The highlight for me was the observation outside of the "Iridium Flare". Iridium is a communication satellite 485 miles above earth that reflects light from its solar panels at a certain predictable time. There are about 60 Iridium satellites (they serve the Satellite phone industry) and they each orbit the planet 14 times per day! Steve warned us about 5 minutes before the flare...it was amazing to look up at the exact moments and see one of those fast moving satellites come into view and then flare brightly for about 5 seconds!! Way cool...there are prediction tables on the internet for nighttime and daytime viewing. http://www.heavens-above.com/ look under satellites.

Berries are everywhere!

Huckleberry bushes. We have been picking huckleberries and blackberries. They are everywhere! Very different from picking berries in the south as one is always on the lookout for snakes...but here there are NO poisonous snakes....not at this elevation anyways...so the only real concern is bears...they like the berries too!
Clint using his ingenuity and nature to create a bowl for picking...the maple leaves on the ends keep the berries from rolling out the log!

The Columbia Gorge

The Gorge is an 80 mile canyon along the Columbia River that winds through the Cascade Range on its way to the Pacific. It also forms the boundary between Oregon and Washington. This route was used by Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1805. Train tracks run along both sides of the river as well as barge and ship traffic.





A high concentration of waterfalls. This is Multnomah Falls that drops 620 feet!
HorseTail Falls.Atmospheric pressure differentials east and west of the Cascades create a wind tunnel effect in the deep cut of the gorge, generating 35 mph (56 km/h) winds that make it a popular windsurfing and kiteboarding location. And just about any day there are a hundred or more kite boarders in the water......"board heads" they call em.