Category Archives: Pacific Northwest Outdoors

YAMHILL LOCKS – ALWAYS A LITTLE LATE TO THE GAME

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The walls of the Yamhill Locks remain; the dam is gone while the river still flows.
The walls of the Yamhill Locks remain; the dam is gone while the river still flows.

Three federally funded lock systems developed in Oregon with only the one at Willamette Falls remaining in some sort of functional capacity today. Cascade Canal and Lock -1878-1896 – submerged by Bonneville Dam; Dalles-Celilo Canal – 1905-1915 – lies under water from The Dalles Lock and Dam since 1956. Yamhill Locks closed in 1954. Gates and dam removed leaving the lock walls in place. The move to build the lock took over forty years. By the time of completion, time moved on, and the lock served little purpose for most of its fifty some year lifespan. 

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ENDURANCE NEED ON NESMITH POINT – A GORGE CLASSIC

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Above the first set of switchbacks, views begin to open - here is Hamilton Mountain, Table Mountain and Mt. Adams.
Above the first set of switchbacks, views begin to open – here is Hamilton Mountain, Table Mountain and Mt. Adams.

Nesmith Point gained the name Mount Nesmith in 1915, bestowed by the Oregon Geographic Board working with the Oregon Historical Society and the Mazamas, a local Portland climbing group. James Nesmith was a tough specimen, an important political figure from the early days of Oregon as both a territory and state.  He served as one of Oregon’s senators during the Civil War.  But Nesmith was never a climber spending most of his time in Oregon on his farm and grist mill near Rickreall, a few miles to the west of Salem where his grave also sits.

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DEVIL’S VIEW DEMONSTRATES THE MAGIC OF THE GORGE

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Time for a rest at Devil's Viewpoint.
Time for a rest at Devil’s View.

We do have our favorite hikes. And we have our favorite training hikes. A training hike is not always our favorite, maybe because of the effort needed to complete. Maybe the training hike has no real wow factor, just a lot of sweat and strain. In recent years, one of my first major hikes of the season has centered on the Wahkeena Basin and Devil’s View high above.

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REVISTING BYGONE AGE OF THE SPANISH GALLEON TRADING WORLD

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Manila galleon setting out across the Pacific.
Manila galleon setting out across the Pacific.

A recent trip took me to La Palma in the Canary Islands off the northwestern coast of Africa.  At one point, La Palma (also known as La Isla Bonita – the Beautiful Island) served as an important trading post on the way from Spain to the New World. Santa Cruz de la Palma, founded in the spring of 1493, is a pretty little town on the northeastern side of the steeply rising island. A life-sized model of Christopher Columbus’ Santa Maria located in the town center serves as the unique maritime museum for the town. Evidence of the once flourishing Spanish galleon trade.

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FISH HATCHERY – TRYING TO MAKE UP FOR LOST GROUND

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Chinook salmon circling about in a lower holding pond at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery.
Chinook salmon circling about in a lower holding pond at the Bonneville Fish Hatchery.

In the western United States, when something good gets discovered, it seems nothing better to do than to rush to deplete the good – gold, trees, … salmon. Gold is mined many times at the cost of whatever lived in the area before. Trees, centuries of age, swept away, sometimes replanted, sometimes not, always with ecological cost. In the case of salmon, former runs of billions of salmon first suffered from overfishing, taken to extremes. To finish off the magnificent earlier runs, primeval rivers dammed ending the prehistoric runs. Fish hatchery to the rescue

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ARTISTIC ESPIONAGE IN THE NORTHWEST – HENRY JAMES WARRE

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Falls of the Peloos River Henry J. Warre - note the Natives dressed in Plains Indian garb.
Falls of the Peloos River Henry J. Warre – note the Natives dressed in Plains Indian garb.

The Royal Army in 1845 sent out Lieutenants Henry James Ware and Mervin Vavasour to evaluate American presence in the Pacific Northwest and British ability to militarily respond. The political crisis brewing since the late 1830s responsible for Warre’s mission across the North American continent, however, dissipated by the time Warre returned to Britain. 

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CALDERA DE TABURIENTE – MAGIC IN THE CANARIES

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Northern and eastern rims of the Caldera de Taburiente.
Northern and eastern rims of the Caldera de Taburiente.

A recent trip took me to the Caldera de Taburiente on the island of La Palma on the western edge of the Canary Islands. The Canaries – not named for the birds but for dogs the pre-Spanish people kept and ate – are hugely popular destinations for sunseekers from northern Europe. The interesting geology of the islands is not what brings in the plane loads of tourists, though what they seek for a large part, results from geological processes.  Beaches, sun and alcohol, not necessarily in that order. Fuerteventura, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote all promise kilometers of beaches for the sun-deprived northerners to escape the long winters with.

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SOMETHING’S FISHY – FISH LADDERS ELEVATE TO THE NEXT LEVEL

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Waters fall over Bonnie Falls with the graffitied fish ladder offering an easier way up on the right.
Waters fall over Bonnie Falls with graffitied fish ladders offering an easier way up on the right.

If you have lived in Portland long enough, you will end up making a visit to visit the fish hatchery at Bonneville Dam, home to Herman the Sturgeon. The dams along the Columbia River system have hugely curtailed the once humongous runs of salmonids up and down the river and its tributaries. Overfishing definitely has a role to play in the depletion of the huge runs, but the hydroelectric – flood control dams have even more hugely impacted the once vast movements of fish. A recent visit to a small local waterfall brought to light part of the plight of the fish encountering physical obstructions to their journeys. One answer to the problem, fish ladders.

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DIFFERENCE A CENTURY MAKES – THROUGH THE LARCH MOUNTAIN CRATER

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Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin - Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rock slide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today.
Aerial shot of fire damage in the upper Multnomah Creek basin – Franklin Ridge is on the right. Rockslide traversed by the trail in the middle. The dead trees are much more open today. The view looks north from the open part of the Larch Mountain crater. State of Oregon photo.

Larch Mountain stands as one of the three big shield volcanoes of the extended Boring Lava Fields. Rising to 4055 feet high, the mountain presents an array of contrasts. Once the site of intense logging industry, the mountain shows an amazing natural renewal a century after most of the timber production came to a halt. Pockets of old growth, wonderful views from the top and remnants of past industry all make Larch Mountain and its crater, a fascinating walk in the woods.

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A WALK IN THE TREES – THE LARCH MOUNTAIN CRATER RIM

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View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.
View to the northeast off Sherrard Point. Note the west and east rims of the volcanic crater atop Larch Mountain.

We saw earlier how to climb to the top of the Larch Mountain crater from the Columbia River on the 1915 historic Larch Mountain Trail. But you don’t have to gain 4,400 feet over the 6.6-mile trek up to Sherrard Point. You can actually cheat and start at the top. Simply drive up Larch Mountain Road to its end. Fourteen miles up from the Columbia River Highway just west from Crown Point. Park in the large lot near the summit.

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