At least for Central Oregon the wildfire smoke has subsided, that is . . . there are fewer hundred plus AQI (air quality index) days.
The wind in your hair on a summer day is joyful
Our particular area remains smoke free, but the August heat bears down in the afternoon. A good reason to seek higher elevations and denser forest cover.
Checking potential fishing spots on the Upper Deschutes River
This week we headed west up to the Cascade Highway.
The Upper Deschutes River parallels that road offering a number of good spots to set up a camp chair and enjoy the peaceful babble of a small stream.
A refreshing wade in the stream
Ahh, a cold drink
Fireweed
Cold drinks, a light lunch and some cooling wades in the water take the edge off a relentless summer sun.
Bull Thistle turns from a green bulb to a spiky threat in late summer
As we move into the middle of August and our ad streams get clogged with back-to-school sales, we’re reminded of autumn’s imminent arrival.
We are not ones to lament the end of summer, particularly now that it’s permeated with wildfire smoke.
To be truthful, we prefer the edge seasons, fall and spring.
More Willamette Valley farms are growing food crops rather than landscape plants . . . or at least that’s how it should be.
However, it should be noted that it’s the height of fruit season.
We are not talking about that season-less stream of fruit crated up in some distant field in every grocer’s produce aisle.
Diamond Princess Peaches
What you need to be doing, right now, is enjoying the local crops at peak freshness and perfect flavor.
(left to right) Splash Plum, Star Pop Plum, Sugar Twist Plum
It’s also a good time to restock jam, jelly and syrup jars. It’s important to preserve some of that seasonal goodness to enjoy on those dark winter mornings.
Taking in the orchard views
This calls for a trip to the farmers market, or better yet . . . a local orchard, farm, or farm stand.
Prevailing winds cleared smoke from the Willamette Valley, so that was this week’s destination.
A beautiful old barn located east of Salem in the Willamette Valley
We have some favorite spots . . . Nanneman and Schlecter Farms are a couple of our favorites.
We also try to make it to Hood River and Kiyokawa Orchards, but currently there is a pall of smoke over that area, so that trip will have to wait.
A variety of berries in a variety of sizes
At Nanneman Farms we find berries. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, and marionberries . . . an abundance of flavor nuggets spilling out of fiberboard cartons.
The white corn from Schlecter Farms is super sweet . . . our favorite.
At Schlecter’s we pick up a bag of sweet corn (both yellow and white). Their corn is available well into the fall, but it’s only a few minutes from Nanneman’s . . . so worth the effort!
We’ll be back when these are ripe.
As the berry season wanes, we’ll stock up on stone fruit and apples from Hood River Orchards.
That usually involves a couple of trips as different varieties ripen throughout the season. Hopefully the fire season eases by then.
We’ve had another week in relatively clear air, but remained surrounded by a smoke plume. At one point this week the air quality index for Prineville was 500 . . . that’s ventilator level bad.
This crummy summer got even worse with an early closure of Steelhead fishing on the Lower Deschutes. That season typically runs August to October and we get a couple of early fall attempts for the sea-run trout.
Better days on the river
The fires remain mostly to the east of us and the smoke map was showing some better air along the Cascade Range.
With time running out for even a day on the river swinging for Steelhead, we were looking for an opening in the weather around Maupin.
South of Maupin, Lower Deschutes River shrouded in smoke
The SmokeWX map seemed to offer some chance, which was better than none, so we took it.
Turns out winds can shift quickly, so the light smoke cover had turned to a thick cloud by the time we got up there.
Highway 197 looking east
One poor choice down, we made a second and decided to see if we could get some images of the Grasshopper fire from Highway 197, east of Dufur.
The answer to that question is . . . yes, a resounding yes.
We managed to drive right into a level three “evacuate now area . . . oops. But the images were good and as long as you stayed in the car and kept your mask on it wasn’t too bad.
Fire watch adventure aside, we’ve been lucky with the air and at least to the south and east of us the air quality remains good.
As the week started our good fortune ended and a smoke plume took it’s place.
Up to that point, we’d been one of the few good air quality spaces in central Oregon. The wind pattern shifted and then most of the state, heck the Pacific Northwest, got covered with smoke.
On a clear day you’d be able to see the Cascade Range from this point
With the air quality so bad and no place to catch a breath, we’re pretty much homebound for the foreseeable future.
“smokeWX” map
There’s an app . . . ” smokeWX ” which lets you see an animatedprediction of future smoke cover. It has been a big help in planning our outings.
At the same time we’re dealing with the smoke, our daytime temps cooled . . . so some good news.
A supply of baked goodies stacked in the freezer
There were a bunch of baking projects that needed to be done, so those jobs moved to the top of the list. Restocking our freezer and pantry was how we spent the week.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Coffee Cake
Peanut Butter Cookies
Yogurt Biscuits
Camping Cake
Fruit & Nut Crackers
Isn’t variety the spice of life? We think so, and to that end have a set of cake pan sized metal bins in the freezer to hold baked goods.
Have you discovered Alton Brown Cooks Food on YouTube? Check it out and look for the chocolate chip cookie episode / recipe . . . these chewy cookies are very nice.
Looking north it’s not bad here, but you can see what’s around us
As the week winds down some of the fires are getting contained, which should lessen the smoke plumes. Now we just have to get through October.
That’s the end of fire season and it seems a long way off doesn’t it?
Just outside Terrebonne it’s hard to make out Smith Rock from the road
It has been an odd week. A large portion of Oregon remains on fire and choked in smoke. Over a million and a half acres have burned and thousands of people have evacuated, with more just waiting for that Level 3 – GO Evacuation Order.
While that was going on, our small corner of the world has been nearly smoke free.
A clear day on the Upper Deschutes
There were a few bad air quality days the end of last week. Then this week our skies cleared. Our small section of central Oregon lay isolated from smoke.
We’re not complaining. It’s been nice to open a door and not start coughing. But there is a downside. All our regular haunts are still sitting in the smoke.
And that’s not even the worst of it
There are a couple of project fires just North of Prineville and southwest of Maupin. The John Day fossil beds Painted Hills Unit is scorched. And the plume from all these fires pretty much covers the rest of central Oregon.
We did find a spot close by to escape the smoke.
The Upper Deschutes is relatively smoke free, at least the section we stopped at.So for now we stick close to home and watch the fire apps waiting for the winds to shift and the fires to burn out
