In August I completed the Bridge of the Gods Half Marathon. It was an event I’d heard about and thought about doing. So, when my friend, Molly, asked if I would do it with her for her first half marathon, I said, “Of course!”

The actual Bridge of the Gods spans the Columbia River connecting Washington & Oregon. Recently the bridge has gained popularity due to Cheryl Strayed ending her Pacific Crest Trail journey here as she describes in her book, Wild.

THE SHUTTLE

Parking for the event was on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. However, the start line was on the Washington side. Near the parking areas were buses to shuttle us across the bridge.

THE START

The start line, in Washington. We met Molly’s cousin there and gave our well wishes and awesome race vibes to each other.

This was a first sight for me. There was a drone taking pics at the start line.

THE COURSE

And, we’re off.

The openness of the metal grates while running across the bridge was an odd feeling. It was my favorite part of the race.

That small island off to the left is the finish line location.

Running past the Bridge of the Gods Trailhead along the Pacific Crest Trail.

I wasn’t aware there was such a nice trail along this section of the Columbia River. It was great.

We made it to the Stairway of Heaven. Not gonna lie, this was about the point where the fun ended.

The trail was well marked and well maintained. But, I was just not feeling it that day. Well… I should say I was feeling it too much. I’d been hill training, but those elevation changes hit me hard. I didn’t sleep well the night before. I didn’t eat quite as many calories that morning as I typically do on race days. I started my period that day. Possibly a combination of all these things contributed to the rougher than normal race. I’m not sure. But after the first few miles, it sucked and my body was paying for it.

The view of the Columbia Gorge was beautiful. The weather was perfect.
In the top photo you can see I-84 & the powerhouse at Bonneville Dam.

Oh, thank goodness we made it to the half way mark! I’m smiling, but cringing inside.
I did/do love the new tank I bought from Sparkle Athletic. I don’t often run in tanks, but I kinda liked it.

I didn’t take any photos on the way back to Cascade Locks. I was too busy struggling to get myself up and back down those damn hills.

Once, though, we saw the bridge it was such a beautiful sight I had to snap a pic.

This place has the best ice cream cones. It’s a must to stop and enjoy one anytime you travel through Cascade Locks. I absolutely thought about getting one and continuing the race with it. I wasn’t going to get a PR. I might as well have enjoyed some ice cream. But, I didn’t.

Crossing the pedestrian bridge to Marine Park and the finish line!

THE FINISH

I always run across the finish line, but this time I was too tired to even care.

It was a challenge, but we did it!

This event goes down as my worst half ever. I felt horrible and my finish time was slower than even my first half at Disney.

The good news is that we never gave up and we finished.

I’m so ticked off at my performance that I want to go back and kick this course in the ass next year.

The post 2016 Race Recap – Bridge of the Gods Half Marathon appeared first on .

On a fairly sunny day in May, the kids and I spent the day exploring sites in the Columbia Gorge.

COLUMBIA GORGE INTERPRETIVE CENTER

Although I wanted to see other things, my main reason for going to The Gorge that day was to visit the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center. So, we went there first.

The Interpretive Center is on the Washington side of the Columbia River, but I had planned to drive most of the way on the Oregon side, up I-84. Even though, for the most part, I knew where to go I still turned on Google navigation. When I got closer to Portland, Google Maps changed my route. I don’t know why, but I followed it. It now had me crossing the Columbia River in Portland and driving the rest of the way on the Washington side, on SR-14, part of the Lewis & Clark Highway. This was my first time driving up The Gorge via Washington.

BRIDGE OF THE GODS

After touring the Interpretive Center, we drove over the Bridge of the Gods to get back to Oregon. As well as being a cool looking bridge, it is also part of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Cheryl Strayed ended her PCT travels here, as she tells in her book Wild. She was a nut & probably never should have hiked that trail as inexperienced as she was. But, it is a great story about not only her journey on the PCT, but also her journey through life getting her where she is now. It’s inspiring. I can’t wait until the movie comes out.

PACIFIC CREST TRAIL

Just over the bridge, in Oregon, is the little town of Cascade Locks. Here, we hiked a short way on the Pacific Crest Trail in search of a letterbox. Which, we found. Yay! One day we will hike more of this trail.

CASCADE LOCKS

We found another letterbox not far from the sign.

I’ve only been to Cascade Locks once or twice before, and I remember getting ice cream cones from this place. So in adding to that memory, I treated the kids. It was a warm day, perfect for licking ice cream.

BONNEVILLE DAM

BONNEVILLE FISH HATCHERY

From the dam, we went to the Bonneville Fish Hatchery.

MULTNOMAH FALLS

Our last stop of the day was a quick visit to Multnomah Falls.

Multnomah Falls is the highest year round waterfall in Oregon. Second largest in the US. The Upper Fall plummets 542 feet. The Lower Fall is 69 feet.

A few months prior a boulder fell through the Benson Bridge. This bridge allows you to continue your hike across the Falls and up to the top. The bridge was being repaired, so it and the trail were closed. It is now open, though.
The furthest we could go up the trail was to this observation point, which was fine since I didn’t want to spend a long time at the Falls anyway.

Excerpt from the journals of Lewis & Clark, April 9, 1806
“we passed several beautifull cascades which fell from a great hight over the stupendious rocks & the most remarkable of these casscades falls about 300 feet perpendicularly over a solid rock into a narrow bottom of the river on the south side. . . . several small streams fall from a much greater hight, and in their decent become a perfect mist which collecting on the rocks below again become visible and decend a second time in the same manner before they reach the base of the rocks.”

It was a long, fabulous day. I don’t even remember the kids arguing much.

The post Columbia Gorge Day Trip appeared first on .

To go along with our Native American studies we visited the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center. This was our first time exploring this museum.

I was surprised at the variety of exhibits. We were there for the Indian artifacts, but also learned about the natural history, transportation, & community of the Columbia Gorge.

FIRST PEOPLES – THE CASCADE CHINOOK

We began our tour in the section of the museum that housed the items we came to see, The Native American exhibit.

Left: Standing tall & proud in the middle of the exhibit is a replica of  Tsagaglalal: She Who Watches. She is probably the most recognizable petroglyph in our area.

Top Right: Carved totems or sticks & Shaman’s spangle or shield.

Bottom Right: Canoe anchor & net sinker

Top Left: Knife – Stone blade attached by pitch to antler handle.
Not long before we visited the museum, Farm Kid1 asked me how the Indians made knives. I had to tell him I didn’t know, but probably out of bones or stones. I was happy to see this example & an explanation of what it was made from.

Top Right: Gaming stone – rolled or kicked by teams in the “kick” game.
Holy cow, that must have hurt when you kicked it.

Bottom: Root gathering or storage bags.

Left: Ceremonial dress made from buckskin with bead & shell embellishments

Emory Strong Library
Emory Strong spent more than 40 years researching the early people of the Columbia River Basin. After his death, his family donated his collection to the museum. Walking in the library is only available by appointment, but we could see all the memorabilia & artifacts through the glass.

TURNING POINT & THE CORPS OF DISCOVERY

With Lewis & Clark exploring the area in the early 1800’s, change was certainly coming. Between 1850 and 1853 land speculators & settlers filed claims under the Donation Land Act along the north bank of the Columbia River.

Top Left: Council Fire on the Columbia by David Manuel
A bronze sculpture with Native Americans & members of the Corp of Discovery. There was a small sign encouraging us to find a few items in the sculpture like a quill pen, fishing net, & blue trade beads. I love things like that. I guarantee my kids would have took a quick glance at the sculpture and moved on. Instead, they examined the sculpture searching for the items.

Bottom Left: Model of the Clahclehlah village
Lewis & Clark visited this site in 1805 & 1806. It was excavated from 1977 -1979 during the construction of a powerhouse at Bonneville Dam. Many artifacts were found.

Right: Items typically traded by the people of Clahclehlah in the early 1800’s, such as wapato roots, salmon tails, hazelnuts, tobacco, wool blankets & dentalium shells.

EARLY CHANGES

This area focused on the pioneers moving to the area & the military forts needed to protect them from Native Americans.

1907 dry goods store front
The real Doumitt Store closed in 1957.

The store windows displayed items available at the store. I love the items from this time period.

TRANSPORTATION

A small area is dedicated to sternwheelers & the SP & S (Spokane, Portland & Seattle) Railroad. I’ll admit we didn’t spend a lot of time in this area, although I do find the changes in transportation interesting. The sternwheelers were basically put out of business once the railroad came through. I’m curious to see what, if anything, makes automobiles obsolete.

Bailey Gatzert pilot wheel
The Bailey Gatzert was a sternwheeler built in 1890. She ran up and down the Columbia River & also around Puget Sound until the 1920’s.

HARVESTING RESOURCES

A large, open area showcases the timber & fishing industries.

Top Left: Logging equipment

Top Right: 1930 Caterpillar Tractor

Bottom: 1921 Mack Log truck. Max speed is 17.2 mph

Top Left: Typical airplane to deliver air male, a 1917 Curtiss JN-4 or “Jenny” bi-plane.

Bottom Left: The Corliss Engine, a giant saw mill steam engine weighing 32 tons. This thing was huge. It was made in 1895 & provided energy to a sawmill until 1949.

Right: McCord Fishwheel Replica
I asked Farm Kid2 what he thought this huge contraption was used for. He said he thought it had something to do with catching fish. I thought he was crazy, but it turns out that he was right. The wheels were placed in the Columbia River scooping up fish & dumping them into boxes. They were very effective. By 1935 they were banned in both Oregon & Washington.

HARSH DEMANDS – BONNEVILLE DAM

It is a small section of the museum, but I found the effects of Bonneville Dam & our need for its hydro-electric power very interesting.

COMMUNITY GALLERY

Inside & around the “house” are items about the people in the community.

Left: An old scrapbook. I’m so tempted to make one of these oldies, but goodies, for my kids. It’s a much better way than an old box to hold their memorabilia.

Right: Canteen cup with WWII battle locations inscribed

JAPANESE COLLECTION

An added bonus at the museum was their Japanese collection. We had just finished studying Japan, so it was great timing to view items from that culture.

Since Japan is right across the Pacific Ocean many Japanese immigrants came to the Pacific NW in the early 1900’s. They helped build roads, railroads, & tunnels, they planted orchards & operated ranches.
Top: Kazeon-bosatsu (Goddess of Mercy)
c. 1600
The gold ball in her hand represents happiness, joy & good health

Top: Wedding kimono

Bottom Left: “Beautiful Woman Just from Bath” by Kitagawa Utamaro
wood block print. copy of 1797 original
When we went to the Portland Art Museum I was hoping to see a wood block print, which we didn’t. So, I was glad to see one here.

ROSARY COLLECTION

I am not Catholic, but this was amazing. The Don Brown Rosary Collection displays about 4000 rosaries.

OUTDOOR EXHIBITS

Court of the Cedars
Carved in 1980 by Dudley Carter at 90 years old.
Right: Primitive Woman

Top: Early logging & road building equipment
If you are someone who really likes machinery, this museum had lots of machines to admire.

Bottom: 1959 SP & S diesel locomotive
Supposedly there is a geocache hidden on that train engine, but we didn’t find it. Dang it!

I am definitely glad we went to this museum. We learned so much about the Native people & the many changes over the years in an area not far from our home.

The post Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center appeared first on .

After visiting Bonneville Dam we drove a very short distance to the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. It is on Tanner Creek, close to where it empties into the Columbia River. This is also the location where Lewis and Clark stayed on April 9, 1806. The last time we were at the hatchery was in 2007, on our way back from Idaho. It certainly was time to see it again.

This hatchery is Oregon’s largest & has been around for over 100 years. They hatch Coho Salmon, Chinook Salmon, and Steelhead for release in the Columbia River. Some young fish are also sent to other hatcheries.

The hatchery is managed by Oregon Fish & Wildlife & is part of the Bonneville Dam Historic District.

REARING PONDS

SPAWNING BUILDING

Spawning takes place during the fall. We visited the hatchery in the spring, so nothing was happening here. We did watch a video on the spawning process at the hatchery. The video was a bit graphic, but very informative. The part that I remember most is fertilization of the salmon egg. Many eggs from females are held in a bucket. The sperm from the males have been collected in a cup. The sperm cup is then dumped into the bucket of eggs. Voila, fertilized fish eggs.

STURGEON VIEWING & INTERPRETIVE CENTER

Inside the building you can view Herman, the Sturgeon. Honestly, I’m not sure if Herman was out the day we visited. This was the largest sturgeon we saw and I’m not positive it’s him. Herman is more than 70 years old & over 10 feet long. I don’t think this guy was quite that long. Either way this one was fun to watch.

A few other fish were swimmin’ along with the sturgeon.

We also viewed the sturgeon from outside, looking down into their pond.

This was a fun place to take my animal loving children. I’m glad they got to see conservation efforts at work.

One of these years, I’m going  to have to make a point to visit the hatchery in the fall to watch the spawning.

The post Visiting Bonneville Fish Hatchery appeared first on .

On a recent trip to the Columbia Gorge, we stopped at Bonneville Lock & Dam. It is located about 40 miles east of Portland, on the Columbia River between Oregon & Washington. Construction of the lock & dam was complete in 1938. A second powerhouse was operational in 1981. The lock & dam are used for river navigation & hydropower. In 1987, Bonneville Lock and Dam were declared a National Historic Landmark.

INSIDE BRADFORD ISLAND VISITOR CENTER

We explored the Bradford Island Visitor Center.

Bottom Left: Capt. Benjamin L.E. Bonneville (1796 – 1878)
Years after graduating from West Point, Bonneville set out to be a fur trader in the west. From 1832 – 1835 Bonneville explored much of what later was the Oregon Trail. He worked for an American man that was a rival of the very large Britain-based Hudson’s Bay Company. HBC had a trading post we visited at Fort Vancouver and, at the time, the trader’s from HBC were not allowed to trade with the American fur trappers. Although the fur trading didn’t go well, Bonneville’s expedition wasn’t a complete failure. He took extensive notes on agricultural areas, timber & fur trading in the west.
As stated in the photo, Bonneville returned to the Pacific Northwest in 1852 and was one of the first to recognize the waters of the Columbia River could be controlled for human benefit.

Bottom Right: Post insulators & a bus bar. The post insulators keep the bus bar from touching anything. The bus bar carries electric current from transformers to transmission lines.

Fish Ladder
We got an underwater view of the fish swimming in the fish ladder.

There’s no guarantee that there will be fish migrating through the day you visit. I’m glad we got lucky when we went.

Workers at the dam use the underwater viewing to count the fish coming through the ladder. Biologists use this information to track fish runs.

Sketches from the Corps of Discovery
These two fish photos are in almost every museum we’ve visited that have anything to do with Lewis & Clark. They are reproductions from their journals.

Left: White Salmon Trout (or Coho Salmon), by William Clark
Excerpt from Lewis’ Journal, March 16, 1806
“The white salmon trout which we had previously seen only at the great falls of the Columbia has now made it’s appearance in the creeks near this place. One of them was brought us today by an Indian who had just taken it with his gig…”

Right: Eulachon (or Candlefish), by William Clark
Excerpt from Clark’s Journal, February 25, 1806
“I purchased of the Clatsops this morning about half a bushel of small fish which they had caught about 40 miles up the Columbia in their scooping nets. As this is an uncommon to fish to me and one which no one of the party has ever seen. On the next page I have drawn the likeness of them as large as life…”
“I found them best when cooked in Indian style, which is by roasting a number of them together on a wooden spit without any previous preparation whatever. They are so fat that they require no additional sauce and I think them superior to any fish I ever tasted…”

Learning via Computer
Downstairs, near the fish ladder viewing, was lots of info about fish & their migration patterns. The kids, of course, thought the information gained through use of the computer was best.

OUTSIDE THE VISITOR CENTER

Bonneville Powerhouse
To get to the Visitor Center on Bradford Island, you have to stop at a security checkpoint. Then, the road continues on right over the powerhouse. I’ll admit it gave me a slight case of the eebie-jeebies.

Fish Ladder
Fish ladders are used to get adult fish heading upstream passed the dam. The fish swim & jump up the ladder similar to the way they swim & jump up rapids of a river. Common fish that use the ladder are Chinook salmon, steelhead, shad, sockeye, lamprey & sturgeon.

We watched fish going up the ladder for quite awhile.

Bottom Right: The darkish blob is a jumping fish. Getting a photo of the fast moving fish in the rushing water was difficult.

Pill Box used during WWII
Bonneville Lock & Dam were a potential threat during World War II. Armed guards used these tiny cement shelters to defend the area.

Old Turbine
This gigantic turbine was in use for 60 years. It helped create power for 25,000 homes.

The Spillway
The spillway was open the day we visited, allowing water to gush through. This water is not used to produce power. It is used to let young migrating fish through to continue their journey to the ocean. Sometimes, after very wet winters, the spillway is open to let more water flow downstream.

I left the dam with very mixed feelings. I love what an engineering feat it is. It truly is amazing, even though a lot of the mechanics go way over my head. I truly am grateful for the energy it produces. I certainly don’t want to live without my lights, microwave or computer. The thought of not being able to charge my camera battery… eek!

I’m also impressed there is so much thought going into helping the declining number of salmon and other fish survive our human ways. Yet, I feel guilty. We’ve done quite a bit to mess with nature’s course of events. Fish waiting to go up the fish ladders often become a sea lion’s dinner. That has become such a problem that they now kill some of the sea lions. The same fate is waiting 16,000 cormorants next spring. I once was a scuba diver and had an interest in fish and sea mammals. I hate to see any of them killed on purpose. In more recent years, I’ve become a birder. I also hate to see such a huge number of birds killed. I don’t know what the solution is. But, it does give me something to think about.

Well, I hate to leave as a Debbie Downer. We really did learn a lot while visiting the dam. I think we’d all agree, our favorite part was watching the fish in the fish ladder. I’d actually like to go back, learn more & see the lock.

The post Visiting Bonneville Dam appeared first on .