jstv – Page 42

July 31, 2022August 6, 2022

Dog Days

Once past the summer equinox, days are getting shorter and in Central Oregon, progressively hotter. During these dog days, our schedule shifts toward sunrise and early morning departures. While it may be hitting triple digits by noon, the day usually starts off cool.

At this point in the summer, cool is a relative term. High desert spring mornings often include frost and the need to don a hoody.

However, by July we are withering under 105ºF afternoon heat. So it’s nice to start the day at a brisk 60º. This week we took advantage of a pleasant morning along the river.

You can shave a few degrees off the thermometer in the shaded riparian. There are a few choice spots on the river offering decent fishing and sufficient shade trees.

Wildlife activity seems to shift to morning hours as well. We’re still treated to birds and water fowl along the river. Stepping out from under the shade to cast a line, the breeze across the river and the water itself stave off the worst of the summer sun.

By the time the afternoon sun has penetrated under the juniper boughs, we are back in AC with iced drinks and eBooks. It looks like there might be a cooling trend this coming week, with daytime mercury only raising into the 80’s. We’ll continue to plan around early mornings for a few more weeks.

July 24, 2022August 6, 2022

Pick a spot, any spot

Columbia Gorge, from an overlook near Mosier, Oregon

This week’s travels were more of a route than destination. Typically, we pick a location, then plan a route. Occasionally, we pick a direction and stop whenever and wherever we feel like it. This was one of those trips.

We begin our trek heading north. We have a vague idea of “cherries are in season now” and realize … “it’s been awhile since we saw the Columbia River Gorge.”

As mentioned in previous posts (see “Fossils, Rocks and Turkeys”), there are rules we apply to every road trip. In this case, “don’t repeat route wherever possible.”

With cherries in mind, we head to Hood River’s Fruit Loop. We wind our way past orchards, then stop at Pearl’s Place Fruit Stand, one of our favorites. The owners are nice, the fruit, in this case cherries and fresh peaches, are delicious.

We notice traffic is really picking up on the Loop. We shift to a new route away from the tourists and toward the little town of Mosier in the gorge.

A few years ago, we picked end-of-season apricots from trees on Annie’s Orchard, which is located here. After all, cherries are in season and we are in prime orchard country.

We are ahead of the hottest part of the day as we exit I-84 into Mosier.

A fruit stand, manned by community volunteers and stocked from nearby Roots Farm, has several varieties to choose from.

We pick up a few pounds of Rainers, setting aside a small bag for front-seat snacking. And we are back on our way.

Instead of the freeway, we go east on Second Street, out of town, which is a stretch of the old Columbia River Highway, US-30.

This section is still in service, featuring lots of driveways, wineries, orchards, and scenic overlooks. We follow the narrow, twisty road, watching out for groups of bikers, and enjoy stellar views of the gorge.

Then, we are back on the freeway. This time we turn south towards home, taking an alternate route through landscape that morphs from grain fields into ranch country. Visible from the car are rolling hills with an abundance of sage. After a full day on the road, it is good to be home.

July 17, 2022July 16, 2022

A Day on the River

Summer in Central Oregon starts out full of sunny, warm days that transition to the dog days with sweltering afternoons. There is a shift in how long it takes for the morning chill to burn off.

By August we’ll seek AC spaces for midday retreats. This week we took advantage of one of those slowly warming summer days to sit along the river.

The Crooked River canyon has started to shift to the brown tones of summer. Along river’s edge there are still green grasses and a few remaining blossoms.

While the migratory birds have moved on, the juniper trees and willow bushes are still alive with activity. We even manage to catch glimpses of Osprey stalking the river and raptors hunting the canyon edges.

The day is balmy and we don’t even need to move camp chairs into patches of shade until the late afternoon sun really starts to beat down. Fishing is pretty good and our iPads are full of reading material. We fill cups from a thermos of ice tea and munch on crackers spread with Mettwurst (German spreadable smoked pork sausage) and cream cheese.

Dappled light casts shadows through juniper boughs

By late afternoon the wind picks up so we pack the car and head home. There will be lots more trips to the Crooked. In the weeks to come, we’ll be more dependent on shade trees and actually look forward to afternoon winds coming off the river.

July 10, 2022July 8, 2022

Our National Park neighbor

Surrounded by cliffs almost 2000 feet high, Crater Lake is one of the 7 wonders of Oregon and is the cleanest and clearest large body of water in the world.

Did you know there are 63 National Parks in the US? All but 14 of them are west of the Mississippi River. We’ve only visited a handful, but one is just an hour’s drive south.

Alaska and California each have eight national parks, Utah has five, and Oregon has one … Crater Lake. It’s only 180,000 acres, and while it is a spectacular sight, the lake is the park’s biggest draw.

This volcanic crater lake is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity

In Montana, I grew up minutes from Glacier National Park. That park is just over a million acres in size. Nearly every Sunday in the summer, we fished a river that defines Glacier’s western border, but only on rare occasions did we actually drive into the park. National Parks attract lots of people, so you really need to be strategic about when and how you go.

For us, Crater Lake is a perfect day trip. A road follows along the crater’s rim, with numerous pullouts, photo ops and picnic areas.

No rivers flow into or out of the lake …water is replaced mainly through rain and snowfall.

The park is snowbound and closed to vehicles through May. We usually wait for the north entrance to open and this year it happened to be late June.

An early start puts us in the park by 8:00 a.m., usually ahead of the crowds. The East Rim Road is our preferred route, though a section was still closed for repairs. A windless day put a mirror like surface on the lake, perfect photo weather.

July 3, 2022July 2, 2022

Cygnet sighting

Picked up the local paper this week to find that the Sunriver swans will hatch young soon. It has been months since we last prowled the nature center, so this week we changed that.

Tiny free library

Sunriver’s Nature Center is tucked up against one end of a landing strip on the west side of the resort. It functions as an educational center with a variety of program offerings throughout the year. There is an excellent stellar observatory, an injured raptor sanctuary, and for us it’s a trail head.

The resort has an abundance of walking / biking trails. As you get near the Market area, bikes overrun paved tracks. However, out at the edges this isn’t the case. The nature center’s parking lot functions as a staging area for quick birding or some basic leg stretching.

Lake Aspen at the Sunriver Nature Center

Along with the usual migratory birds, there are resident ducks, nesting Redwinged Blackbirds, and a pair of Swans. In the fall of 2017, the male was shot and killed leaving just Gracie. Two years later, the center introduced Gus to the pond. It took a couple more years, but in June of 2022 the pair have produced at least three eggs. They expect the cygnets to hatch the first part of July.

They hadn’t hatched this week, but Gus and Gracie were staying close to their nesting site. The other interesting observation was the obvious work of some beaver. These nocturnal creatures have been busy gnawing down small pine trees along the pond’s edge. We’ll definitely return and spend some time seeking out a possible dam/den site, as well as checking up on the cygnets.