12/19/14

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and are looking forward to a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

We've been learning a great deal about Oregon history and having fun. We're getting more comfortable giving tours to guests, though they are generally few and far between. Don's been editing one of the documents used to train new hosts. It was written in 2007 an a few things have changed since then, plus he is adding photos so readers can better relate to the subject matter. Penny and Don have also been helping archive the equipment stored in one of the out buildings, so it can be moved and the structure of the building can be repaired.

Part of our job is to help with some of the animals that live on the property. There is a cat named Bucky, that lives in the mill and is essentially the mill mascot. Unfortunately, Bucky's allergic to wheat and lives in a wheat mill. We have to give him eye drops every day. He doesn't care for them but knows he'll get tuna as a reward, so he doesn't fight them. He does help keep the mouse population down as part of the deal. We also feed the ducks, chickens and turkeys that live here. In the picture below, you can see Penny with her new best friends, going to breakfast one morning.

 

Yesterday, as we walked out of the outbuilding we were working in, Penny saw two bald eagles in the trees at the south end of the property. There was a young one and a mature one. They sat in the trees for quite a while before they flew off. We were guessing that they were hoping to find dinner amongst the ducks on the property.

 

Penny has decorated the trailer for Christmas and we've started making Christmas candies. We will be spending Christmas day with some of Don's family in nearby Albany, Oregon.

This weekend is supposed to be interesting with the significant amounts of rain expected. We will be trying to keep on top of the flood control job we have at the mill. We don't expect any problems though.

11/27/14

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are spending the day with Don's mom, who lives near where we are volunteering.

We spent a month in the Seattle area taking care of our annual physical, seeing friends and family, etc. Had a great time seeing everyone.

We left the Puyallup fair campground about 10 a.m. November 17th and got to Albany, Oregon around 3 p.m. The drive was comfortable with no problems and no crazy drivers.

We were going to stay at Waterloo County Park in Lebanon but decided we didn't want to drive the extra half hour, so we stayed in the Albany-Corvallis KOA. We aren't big on KOA's, mostly because of the price, but in this case, the cost in diesel to get to Waterloo made it a wash. After setting up, we drove down to Harrisburg to check out a different RV Park, to see if it looked like a good place to move to, while we waited for our parking spot at the state park to open up. It looked acceptable, if not austere, so we decided to move there the next day. It was also considerably cheaper, with the same amenities that we would be using anywhere we stayed.

Tuesday morning, the 18th, we moved down to Harrisburg and stayed at the River Life Resort for a week. It's an ex hotel/RV park that is being turned into a church, with retreat capabilities. They are adding a sanctuary, which is taking up some of the pull-through RV spots (especially during construction). There are no trees, picnic tables or fire rings, but there are concrete site pads, neat and clean hook-up facilities and they keep the grass areas between the sites well mowed. The RV park/hotel were built not too many years ago, but someone forgot to have rebar put in the concrete site pads, so they are all cracking and a few of them have sunken areas that the owners have to fill in with gravel. It's generally not an issue for those parking in the sites. The original owners went out of business and the church bought it a couple years ago. I suspect the reason was mostly due to it being nowhere near a heavily traveled corridor, so it didn't get much business. It had many available spots while we were there, though there were quite a few spots taken by the construction workers.

The weekly cost was considerably less than KOA or even the county park and it wasn't too far from the state park that we are volunteering at for the winter.

We were able to get over to Don's mom's house a couple times during the week and we went to our new volunteer location, to get the lay of the land, meet the people we will be working with and see just what we will be doing as volunteers.

The couple that we are replacing as volunteers were originally going to leave the day after Thanksgiving, but had a family emergency and left the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We moved into the spot they vacated, on Tuesday.

Penny pulled the trailer from our Harrisburg spot to the state park. She needed to get some experience pulling the trailer in case she was forced to do it in an emergency. She did very well and fortunately the roads were relatively straight and level and there was little traffic. Optimum conditions for the first time someone is pulling a trailer this large.

The spot we are parked in is kind of tight, so it took us a while to get situated exactly right. We have a tree that could have been a problem at our right rear corner and we had to make sure it would not interfere with our slide or the rear corner of the trailer. There is a building on our left side and we are the largest rig they have ever had in the park. The front end of our trailer reaches clear out to the driveway. We even had to have them cut a couple limbs off the tree that we are parked next too, just so we could back into the site without scraping the roof with the tree limbs.

 

There are a bunch of ducks, chickens and turkeys that the camp hosts feed each morning and evening.

 

 One of the ducks has a problem with his right leg, where his foot is turned under, so he has become more of a pet than the others. They have named him Finley, after one of the people that has an historical association with the mills. We make sure he gets his share of the food by virtually hand feeding him.

 

The rest have to eat off the ground like normal birds.

There is also a cat that lives in the mills who helps keep the mouse population down. His name is Bucky, though we don't know how he got that name. His problem is, he has a wheat allergy but lives in a flour mill, so every day he has to be given his medicine. He really dislikes the eye drops but takes his other medicine well. We just sprinkle it on some tuna and it's gone in short order.

The facility has only been in the state park's ownership for seven years, so there is still a lot of work to be done to get it back to good condition. They have a timber framing carpenter working on fixing the basement that has been flooded a few times, a needs some of the woodwork replaced. They also want to ultimately get all of the grain out of all the workings, which will help cut down on the mouse problem. There are volunteers in the community that come in once or twice a week to work on various projects, including a retired professor from one of the Oregon universities that is going through all the archive material, to build as much of an historical record of the mills as possible. Others are trying to catalog all the equipment that exists, so they can make an historically accurate recreation of what was in the mills and how they worked. I only have a couple pictures of the outside of the mills at the moment, but will get some of the inside as time goes on.

 This is the house the owners used to live in. It is now the on-site ranger's house.

10/13/14

Made it as far as Declo, Idaho today (just east of Burley). Found a campground called Valley of Trees RV Resort. A little expensive ($31.10/night with Good Sam discount), but clean and quiet other than the freeway noise. The campground is right on the Snake River and most of the noise comes from the bridge going over it. It is also very buggy, with lots of little gnats flying around.

10/14/14

We decided to stay another night just to have a break from driving. We will leave tomorrow and head towards Farewell Bend State Park just north of Ontario, Oregon. Can't make reservations or check for availability less than three days in advance, so will have to hope there's space available. The website indicates quite a few sites large enough for our trailer. This time of year park usage should be light, particularly mid-week.

10/15/14

Today we drove from Declo, Idaho to Farewell Bend State Park just north of Ontario, Oregon. We arrived about 1:30 p.m., including the time change to pacific time. It's a beautiful little park, with a number of large sites mixed in with smaller sites. All sites have water and 30 amp electric. The campground is right on the Snake River. Unfortunately, it is also located next to a cattle ranch which supplies us with a plethora of flies.

 

10/18/14

We left Farewell Bend State Park a little after 8 this morning and drove to Maryhill State Park on the Columbia River, in Washington (just south of Goldendale). We got to Maryhill around 1:30 this afternoon. Our first impression of the park is very favorable. The only drawback is, it is very near a busy section of railroad track and highway 14. The trains don't seem to use their whistles along this section of track, so a reasonably well insulated trailer blocks most of the annoying sound. This is a area where wind surfers come during the summer, to get some strong wind action. The park is only about half full, or less right now.

10/19/14

We drove to Multnomah Falls by taking Hwy 14 west to Vancouver, then south on I-205 to east I-84. We wanted to see if we could take Hwy 14 to northbound I-205 with our trailer when we head home tomorrow.

 

 

Because of tunnels that are less than 14 feet high, we can't take our trailer on Hwy 14, but we did stop at some of the turnouts, to see the Columbia River. On the way back to camp on I-84, we stopped at Multnomah Falls. There was no parking for our truck at the falls, so we had to stop in the road and take pictures. Fortunately, no one was behind us. Boy, is the road narrow. We did get to stop and get out at Horsetail Falls though. The drive was great.

When we got back to camp, we continued on up the hill to the Stonehenge replica, which is a memorial to the men of the area who died fighting in WWI. There is a second memorial on the other side of the parking area for the men of the area who died in WWII, the Korean War, the Viet Nam War and in Afghanistan.

10/20/14

We left Maryhill State Park about 9 this morning and headed west on I-84, then I-205 and I-5 north towards Seattle. We got to the Puyallup Fair Campground a little after 2 p.m. Barring any unforeseen issues, we will be here about 3 weeks. Then we will head south to Shedd, Oregon.

10/13/14

Sunday was our last day of work, though we only had to work a couple of hours. We closed another one of the campground loops. Now there are only three loops open. With the good weather we've been having, they fill up anyway.

We've been having a grizzly bear sow and cub visit the campground the last few days, off and on. Yesterday they were near the dump station early in the morning, then later in the afternoon they were in the campground near our trailer. The photo below is a shot out our back window.

One of the campers who has been riding his bike all over the country (he started in Anchorage, Alaska and biked through British Columbia before coming to Yellowstone) left some food out on his picnic table (strictly forbidden by park rules) and the bears went after it. The next photo is of the mother bear finishing off some bread the guy left on the table.

 

The mother bear then proceeded to trash his tent, while the cub finished the food. Lucky for him, the guy was not in his tent at the time.

 

 

We called the rangers and they tried to chase the bears away. The bears left for the rest of the day but came back this morning. The rangers were setting up traps when we left Yellowstone this morning. Hopefully they will catch both of them. If they do, they will move them away from all the campgrounds (rule of thumb is to move them far enough that it would take them 3 days to get back). They will also put a radio collar on the mother bear. If they come back to the campground, they will have to put them down, unfortunately.

We gave a copy of all the pictures we took, so the rangers can use them as evidence when the guy that left the food out goes to court in December. He may have to pay for all the rangers time used in dealing with these bears over the last two days, plus a fine.

This morning we left the campground for good, at 11 am. We are spending tonight in an RV park near Burley, Idaho. It's right on the Snake River. We'll either stay here one more night tomorrow, or head for the Oregon border. We'll decide in the morning.

10/9/14

This was our last weekend before we leave for Washington and Oregon on Monday the 13th. We decided to hike with our coworkers one last time on Tuesday, after seeing off three of our other coworkers, who left a week earlier than the rest of us.

Penny and I had not hiked Storm Point or to Natural Bridge, both on the east side of the park. Our hiking partners had, but they wanted to do them again, so that's where we went. Both are relatively short hikes an neither have significant hills to climb, so we were able to do both in one day.

On our way to the first trail head we saw a male grizzly bear walking across the meadow just west of Canyon Junction. His name is Scarface because of all the scarring he has on his face and the lack of one ear. We assume it's because he got into a lot of fights in his earlier years. He is now going on 25 years old. He has been hanging out in the Canyon area since he was young.

Storm Point is at the north end of Yellowstone Lake. There is a town of Marmot that live near the point, but they apparently go into hibernation early and we didn't see a single one. Our hiking partners said there were dozens of Marmots in a pile of rocks near the point, when they were here earlier in the summer. The hike is a pleasant walk along the northwest corner of Yellowstone Lake, with a loop back through the forest.

 

After the hike, we drove east to an observation point that gives a view to the south end of the lake and beyond, all the way to the Tetons.

 

After the observation point, we drove back a few miles west and had lunch on the north shore of the lake. After lunch we drove to the trail head to Natural Bridge, near Bridge Bay. Not far from where we lunched we saw another grizzly bear coming down the hill, foraging for roots and berries. It came within 20 feet of the car.

Natural Bridge is an interesting feature, formed by water erosion and freeze/thaw cycles.

 

There is a trail that leads up to the right of where I was standing, that goes up to the top of the rocks. It was getting late, so we didn't go that far but we are already planning on going all the way up next year.

On the way back to the trail head Penny saw a Grey Jay and got a nice photo of it.

Wednesday, Penny and I went back to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and hiked Uncle Tom's Trail and down to the Brink of the Lower Falls. Both of those hikes are climbs of 600 or more feet, so they gave our legs a good workout.

I've shown photos we took on Uncle Tom's trail when we hiked it earlier in the year, but we hadn't hiked to the Brink of the Lower Falls until now. The first photo is from the brink of the falls, looking upstream from the observation deck. The second is looking at the brink of the falls and the third is looking downstream after the falls.

 

We will be leaving Yellowstone Monday morning, making our way back to the Seattle area over the following few days. We may not get there until sometime the week of the 20th, but there's a chance we'll get there sooner. We won't be driving for long hours and we don't want to drive every day either. If we find a nice place to stop, we may stay there a couple of days. We'll let you know when we get there and we will keep in touch.

10/2/14

It's been raining for the last few days, but we went for a drive Tuesday afternoon, around the upper loop. They had just opened the road between Norris and Mammoth, after a two week closure for construction. There is now a new section of roadway, built above the old road, but none of it has been paved so it was a muddy drive through that section.

   
We saw three young bull elk in the Mammoth area and a few bison around the loop, but no large groups of either. There was a bit of snow falling on Dunraven pass but it wasn't sticking.

 

 

Heading south from the Tower Junction we stopped at the Calcite Cliffs Observation Point.

 
As we were leaving, we saw a herd of mountain sheep up on the top of the hill across the road.

 

We think Wednesday was our best sightseeing day ever. At first, we figured we'd stay home and do some needed house cleaning. After cleaning the kitchen and vacuuming the carpet in the living room, we decided to take a drive down to the Midway Geyser Basin and see if we could climb the hill overlooking Grand Prismatic Spring. About halfway there, we saw a grizzly sow and cub just in the trees across the road. Only a couple other vehicles were stopped, so the bears must have just reached the area where they could be seen. We were able to watch them forage for berries for about 10 minutes. They crossed the road in front of our truck and headed across the Firehole River to the exact place our friend Phil had been fishing earlier this summer.

 

A bit farther on, there was a herd of bison lounging in the meadow just west of the Lower Geyser Basin

As we approached the Old Faithful area we could tell it had been colder there than at the campground the night before, because the hills were blanketed with the first light snow of the season.

 The parking area for our hike was full, so we parked on the road, but there's a trail between the road where we parked and the trail head since this trail is extremely popular. The climb up to the observation point behind Grand Prismatic Spring is steep and cluttered with fallen logs, but the logs actually help to some degree by giving you a handhold for climbing. It's well worth the effort once you see the view it affords. Had it been 20 degrees warmer, there would have been less steam and the images would have been even better.

 

After climbing the hill, we drove on to Old Faithful and were lucky enough to find Castle Geyser erupting. Something we hadn't seen before.

 

Around the corner the Old Faithful Inn still had snow on the roof. We went inside and treated ourselves to a scoop of ice cream. When we came out, it was snowing again and the roof of the Inn was really turning white.

The snow stopped a couple miles west of Old Faithful and we drove through the Firehole Lake area. We got to Grand Fountain Geyser just as it was erupting, so we sat and watched it for the next 20 minutes. White Dome Geyser also erupted in the background while we were there, as you can see in the third photo below.

 

 

When we got back to the campground, there was a bull elk with his harem lying in the meadow by the Gibbon River.

 

It's a tough job seeing all these sights, but somebody's got to do it and it might as well be us. It was a great day.