Great Ambition, fifth year
This is the continuing story of our new life as River Rats on the Columbia River aboard our Catamaran Cruisers houseboat we named Great Ambition.
If you want to see how we got here (and hints on how you can do it too) see Great Ambition, the beginning.
Click here to go back to our fourth year.
I'm sure some people think it's crazy to drive my dinghy like this, but I am so used to it I can't imagine driving it any other way. Notice that I do have the "kill lanyard" connected to my jeans, so if I fall, at least the motor will stop.
Had a nice bonfire on the beach, which meant I got to stay out late enough to watch the sunset.
The Columbia River is up to Action Stage, one step (and one foot) away from Flood Stage. Good thing there are two ramps, this one is not really usable at the moment.
Finally we decided to leave the safety of the slip and head out, over 7 months after we parked in the slip last year. We're headed up Lake River to Vancouver Lake. This shot was taken looking North.
A nice shot of Lake River, such a pretty place. We've anchored in this area before, but now that we know how and where to go on the lake to be safe, this area will remain a backup in case the lake is too dangerous due to high winds.
Here we are tucked into the Southeast cove of the island in the middle of Vancouver Lake. Although this is not the prettiest cove on this island, it's the only one that provides good protection from the daily Northwest winds that pipe up every afternoon. Being anchored in windy areas gets tiresome, which is why I am not a big fan of windpower for houseboats.
Making a glass of fresh, pure water right from the lake. Look at that flow, that's 2 gallons an hour, which is far more than most families can use (unless they want to do the laundry with this beautiful stuff!)
I heard some "chittering" from somewhere out the back door and checked. We often see eagles hanging out on this side of the island, it's a great place to view them.
Sunrise over Vancouver Lake looking toward Lakeshore Drive.
Eagle flying over Vancouver Lake.
We set up the anchors to be ready for a storm forecast to bring Southwest Winds. On the morning of the 25th we awoke to Northeast winds! We suffered through most of the day with the winds slowly veering to the Southeast, then gave up and made a run around to the Northeast cove of the island. Here we are protected from everything except North and East winds. Plus it's much, much prettier! You'll see why I say that over the next few days.
The view out the back door during sunset.
I did a little photo editing, combining a picture of Great Ambition taken by a space satellite and a picture of the island in the middle (sort of) of Vancouver Lake. I pasted the pictures of our houseboat in the two places we like to be. Each cove has its own advantage, the Northeast cove is really beautiful and protects us from South and West winds, but the most common wind this time of year is from the North. So we usually end up moving to the Southeast cove which protects us from North and West winds, but leaves us wide open to East and South winds.
A moonrise over Lakeshore Drive homes. Spectacular!
A pair of Western Grebes. They are such loving birds, staying close all the time, diving together for fish, then reuniting immediately when they surface. If they had hands I suspect they would be holding hands together as they swim.
Back in the Northeast cove. We spent two days here, then got wholloped by strong North winds and spent an hour moving to the Southeast cove in the fading light of twilight.
We're so happy we chose to leave the slip and come to Vancouver Lake. The record snowpack in Eastern Oregon, Washington and British Columbia is melting raising the river to historic new levels. The lake is not immune to these changes in river level, but at least there is no current, which brings with it the threat of being wholloped by huge logs and other debris that gets torn away from the shore by high waters and currents approaching 1.5knots. Click on the picture to get the latest river level at Vancouver.
We were treated to a sailboat race, 14 boats zipping around the lake while we watch from the front deck with music playing and the big Mr. Heater blasting away to keep us warm.
The sailboat race finishes just as the sun sets.
A late day rainbow over Lakeshore Drive homes.
We took a short cruise around the lake in Lil' Ambition and found what could be a new home on the lake for us. Having to be concerned about the wind all the time was starting to grate on our nerves, and this cove appeared to be protected on four sides. And since the river levels appeared to be holding at 17 feet (1 foot over flood stage) it was important to find someplace we could be comfortable for another few weeks. So Friday morning we pulled up anchors and cruised over to our new home, Somewhere Else, Vancouver Lake.
The forest surrounding us is flooded to a depth of at least 10 feet. It means I can explore the entire area from the comfort of my plastic (and nearly indestructable) dinghy. An inflatable boat could never handle bashing and crashing through the woods like this, but my Watertender 9.4 takes it in stride.
I took a cruise in the dinghy through the now flooded forest and found the power line road (which is now a canal!). I was able to drive the dinghy straight under the power towers to get these fabulous shots. This shot was take while underway, standing up in the dinghy looking straight up!
Driving straight through the tower legs.
While cuising though the flooded meadows I came across a Red Tailed Hawk. What a great shot!
While I am not a fan of photos with power lines going through them, these trees aren't at fault for their ugly neighbors! You can see Mount Saint Helens in the background though the trees.
Mount Hood and the new ponds (former meadows) next to Lower River Road.
While crusing I scared off this poor eagle. Such a beautiful bird.
Sunset time, golden hour in our snug little cove.
I did some more bashing and crashing through the forest in my dinghy and popped out next to Lower River Road near the dump and the old VanAlco sign, which before that was Alcoa. A view rarely seen from a boat!
With the flood waters taking over the low areas around Vancouver Lake a whole new world opens up. In this video you can see how much fun we are having cruising around the forests. My little plastic dinghy does a great job handling this stuff. Try THAT in an inflatable boat!
We've been here on Vancouver Lake nearly three weeks and we've solved all the logistical issues. One of the biggest is water. These three photos pretty much sum up our situation. We go from this (Vancouver Lake water)...
through this...
and in one hour produce this.
A really nice shot of the currently submerged forest here around Vancouver Lake. Nearly the whole shoreline is like this, you could just drive your boat to the shoreline and penetrate directly into the forest anywhere on the lake.
Three weeks on the lake so far, and the river levels just now dropped below 17 feet. We really don't want to go back until the river level is closer to 14 feet so we're having to make runs into town for supplies (like Tillamook Udderly Chocolate Ice Cream!). Here's the wife making a run in Lil' Ambition
We had a fantastic sunset, too bad I didn't see it coming and head out onto the lake to get a better shot! Oh well, this will do...
As the water level slowly drops I'm taking as many Bullard-dozing trips through the forest as I can, this time back to the power towers. Soon the forest will be impassible by dinghy. I may never get a chance to do this again!
Sunset June 10th.
Another sunset across the choppy lake. We found a nice sheltered spot to take these shots from Lil' Ambition.
Morning view from the front deck.
We had some visitors on Sunday, friends from my days at Maxim.
Sunset taken across the lake. My little hidey-hole for taking sunset shots works great! The trees block the North wind yet don't block my shots of the sunset.
A little diversion, here's a video about a couple of brothers who live on a houseboat. They have all the conveniences of a modern home and live a good life on the water. See, it doesn't take much to enjoy life!
We've been in this cove nearly two weeks, time for a change. Now that we know the anchors are going to hold, we decided to spin ourselves 180 degrees and hug the trees a little closer. Now that we are facing Southeast we can get DirecTV, and have a nice cool place to hang out in the late afternoon when it starts to heat up next week.
Snake! Don't worry, just a Garter snake sunning himself on a log. There are not too many places for a snake to hang out now that this whole area is flooded!
I came across another Garter snake, this one was swimming. Probably out looking for a nice place to sun himself like the other snake.
I hiked around in the head high grass to get some shots of these lovely trees near Laframbrois Road.
Nice sunset.
From my little sunset viewing hidey-hole I can see traffic at the 30MPH curve on Lower River Road, near the flushing canal and the entrance to Vancouver Lake Park. They probably can't see me though!
Sunset! I can't miss a single one. To paraphrase the hero of one of my favorite movies, Breaker Morant, "Watch every sunset, for one day it will be your last.".
Another sunset! This one I caught from the upper deck back in our cove.
The river level is coming down fast, it's almost like someone pulled the drain plug! Still, we're waiting till the water gets quite a bit lower before we go back to the slip. We're in no rush, we are loving it here! .
The lake went very calm so we grabbed our cameras, dished up our evening ice cream and cruised out onto the lake to enjoy the sunset with our ice cream!
The view to the Northwest, we used to be much closer to these hills when we were anchored near the island, but being in our cove is much nicer.
Now that the water is a little lower we are seeing strange things. When the water was up algae mats grew between branches of the plants, but as the water drops, the algae is left "hanging". It looks like paper draped over every bush! April calls it "laundry day in the swamp".
The plants have no ground to grow on, so they are growing on floating logs in the flooded forest. Like a floating garden!
I took another stroll on terra firma near Laframbois Road. I just love these trees!
We noticed that the sunset was looking promising (you have no idea!) so we took Lil' Ambition out onto the lake to take pictures. We didn't even set an anchor, there was no wind, and unlike the river we are used to, no current. Yes, April is an Absenthe drinker.
Two mountains were visible, here is Mount Saint Helens. This shot is looking towards the island where we spent over two weeks.
And here is Mount Hood.
Now for the sunset. No need for any more jabberin'. Enjoy.
It was hard to quit shooting pictures. Even the trip back home yielded a beauty.
The guys at NOAA changed the scale on the river level plot when the level dropped below Action Stage. Now the river is holding around 14 feet, the level we had previously decided would trigger our return home. But, we're having a nice time, and 14 feet is still pretty high, the current is still over 1.1 MPH, and we're in no hurry, so we'll probably stick it out for a while.
River level holding above 14 feet.
Went Bullard-dozing through a new section of the forest and found this curiosity. Obviously someone disposed of a tire and wheel. And in nature it becomes an impromtu floating garden. Gives me an idea for growing tomatoes on the water...
Four of our five anchor lines on the stern. There is another one on the other side, and three on the bow. In total we have eight lines holding us in place. When the wind comes up strong even that doesn't seem like enough!
Not a really impressive sunset, but not bad.
Another nice sunset.
And I love how these clouds on the horizon cast a shadow into the sky!
The view off the upper deck in the morning as the sunshine starts to hit the treetops.
We had started mentally preparing to leave on Monday (in two days) but now the water is coming back up! No big deal, we could stay here forever, but come Monday it will be 40 days and 40 nights away due to the flood. It had a nice biblical ring to it!
Sunset over the lake. Very pretty...
The river peaked, now headed back into reasonable levels. Should we stay or go? It's a hard decision, it's been wonderful here!
We decided to go back to the home slip, with the river level forecast to be below 13 feet it was time. As we found out later, the river current at 13 feet is still very strong, we probably should have stayed put! First, here I am doing a 180 in our cove after pulling up all our anchors. To execute this manuver I have the starboard engine in forward and the port engine in reverse, then I just adjust the throttle settings on each to make sure I don't pull forward too much, or drift back too much. I do love boating in zero current + zero wind!
April could take that photo of me doing my 180 because she was in Lil' Ambition. She was going to act as scout running ahead of me to make sure I didn't hit any deadheads in Lake River or the Columbia.
So now we spent most of the trip taking pictures of each other. Here I am on Vancouver Lake, towing the dinghy. So quiet and still. We'll miss you Vancouver Lake but it's time to go home.
And here is Lil' Ambition again on Vancouver Lake.
As we pass Felida we see that the water had gone down quite a bit, no longer do we have to worry about our car, the Buick, getting swamped.
There are some power lines that cross here around Knapp Washington, if the water is too high we can't clear these.
Here's Lil' Ambition heading down Lake River. You can see Woodland Washington in the background.
Here is Lil' Ambition about to go under the Ridgfield Wildlife Refuge access bridge.
And Great Ambition going under the same bridge. There was a period of time during the last month where passage under this bridge was impossible for Great Ambition.
A floating home that has been moved out of Ridgefield Moorage. This usually happens when someone is behind on their rent, very, very behind.
Now that we are back home (of course we are always home) with full time power I had time to created and upload a 10 minute video on "Bullard-dozing" through the forest with my dinghy. It starts out slow, just stay with it!
The flood of 2011 is officially over, and we are back at the slip enjoying unlimited power and water. Still, it was a great way to spend 40 days and 40 nights and now we are looking forward to our next flood! Bring it on!!!
Fourth of July weekend, and the island is covered with campers. Actually there are three seperate islands now, thanks to the high water, so each group gets their own island!
A smaller camp at Pier One.
This field of daisies is rather stunning! It's a small clearing in the forest that the daisies completely took over!
A couple of interesting pictures of a feud between a pair of Ospreys over a fish. These were taken by my friend, Martha Denning.
I finally made it out to the island to see what the damage was from the 4th of July crowd. The Southmost group left quite a pile of trash. Put your mouse over the image to see the difference after I cleaned it up. I did take the trash away and toss it into the dumpster at the marina.
I've always been pretty good with a knife, this is my impromptu machete after a single attempt at throwing it about 6 feet.
The water level is going down, but still, some of my trails and inundated. Here's a nasty looking trail, it could be weeks before I get to use this one again!
Lunch for two on the dock. It is nice to have a little more space to live in. The green chair was rescued from Vancouver Lake during our stay there!
The David Thompson Brigade paddled by Caterpillar Island on Wednesday on their way to Astoria. They are re-enacting David Thompson's voyage from British Columbia to the Pacific Ocean via the Columbia River.
The last canoe sang a little song while paddling.
I spent most of Bastille Day out on the island. Since the flood a lot of sand has disappeared, now this tree is caught trying to walk away.
My daisy field is just wonderful.
And here is a nice yellow flower.
A nice sunset.
A fisherman on his way home. Like a dream.
And speaking of going home, it's my turn. This little Mercury/Tohatsu 3.3 has been a really faithful friend. She gets me home every time and takes abuse most motors can't.
Home is in my sights
Hark! It's Lewis and Clark! Nope, its Bill and Kalib scouting the Southend channel.
When the water is calm and the sun is getting low, a funny thing happens. You end up with two light sources, thus, you get two shadows. Here is a self portait taken just before sundown, the sun reflected off the water is canceling part of my shadow.
The cotton storms we've been having are incredible! So much cotton in the air, and in the water. Here's a little taste.
And were does all that cotton come from? From the seed bodies of the Black Cottonwood trees that have colonized the riverbanks. Here's a little timelapse showing what happens when these cotton nuggets mature. Put your mouse over the picture to see the explosion.
Here is a closeup of the last day's scan of the cotton bloom.
This is what the cotton does when it can't find anywhere else to go, it forms a mat across the water.
A Sunday Summer Sunset as seen from Caterpillar Island, in sequence.
A dead sturgeon drifted into the end finger at the marina. This huge fish stunk like nobody's business, so we pushed it off and let it go on its merry way.
A lovely sailboat on anchor sparkling in the sun. Such a beautiful sight.
Here is a sailboat underway, but if you look closely at his sails, you can see that he isn't actually sailing. He's motorsailing, cheating really. It's hard sailing in a river, you have to do a whole lot of tacking to do it right. What this guy is doing is motoring directly into the wind with his sails up, you can tell they are luffing, lots of big wrinkles in them. The only reason to do this is to claim right of way, you see, a sailboat sailing has the right-of-way over a powerboat. With his sails up he can fake sailing, and take the right of way if he comes across a powerboat. Cheating!
On my birthday I took my two string stunt kite out to the island and flew it several times. This nearly 5 minute video shows the basics, getting the kite flying with no help, flying, and then stalling and landing the kite.
I also shot this video of a tub pushing a barge full of logs off to a pulp mill to be turned into paper. This barge represents a lot of trees, but, they will make a lot of paper. You have to cut down trees to make paper, unless you want paper to cost $10 a sheet. You can see in the background, there are still a lot of damn trees out there in Oregon forests!
I had a beach bonfire and got some interesting shots. First, here is the sunset taken from chest-deep in the river. The water is still under 70 F, a little nippley for evening swims. Luckily I have a roaring bonfire on the beach.
Then I got some interesting shots, it was actually dark when I took these. It's a boat traveling up the river. Of course you never actually see the boat, only his navigation lights. It's a time exposure and the streaks are the boats nav lights.
And that gave me an idea to capture a tug pushing a barge heading upstream. You can see his red port light, and his two masthead lights which means he is pushing a barge. Three lights means he's pulling, one light means he's running without a load.
The easiest way to get through the forest is to cut trails following tree falls. The reason for this is simple, the tree clears a path for you by crushing most of the brush, and you can walk across the top of the log. Until he wife gets tired of balancing on the log, then you have to clear around the trunk! Notice the cotton all over the place, on the ground, on the log and in the brush.
Cotton gets into the spider webs too! I guess you could call this a cotton and silk blend!
This reminds me of Christmas Trees of yore, masses of cotton fluff in the boughs.
And another picture of the Nancy Ann, one of our favorite tugs. The little camp trailer on the rear deck gives her away. This feature makes her easy to spot from miles away. Notice the Jet Ski checking her out, gives you a good idea of her size.
A sternwheeler came by and gave me an opportunity to get a great shot.
A beautiful day on the beach, first, looking South.
And now looking North. You can see Lil' Ambition anchored out.
Another very impressive cotton ball.
You may remember a few weeks ago the David Thompson Brigade paddled their canoes past Caterpillar Island on their way to Astoria. They finally made it, having paddled the entire Columbia River. Their journey was captured by filmmaker Jay Macmillan. The full film will be available in November, but here is the trailer.
An otter having his Sunday morning breakfast of mini-lobster sashimi, hold the wasabi. Shot right out of my computer room window.
It's getting to be blackberry season. Here is a macro shot of a ripe berry. It's great being able to catch a snack while you're hiking through the forest.
And while hiking through the forest I ran into a cottontail rabbit for the third time, but this time I had my new Kodak point and shoot camera. The video isn't too bad, and the rabbit is so cute!
I have to apologize for the lack of photos, I'm still trying out a new camera and I'm not getting as many good shots as I used to. But here's one, a stroll through the forest reveals a fairyland of cotton and trees.
The cotton is everywhere, it's even decorating this stump.
Here's April near a fuzzy tree. The cotton is all over the forest!
Me in the fuzzy forest.
A perfect summer Sunday sunset. These folks are headed home after a long day of having fun. What a life!
A speedboat blasting down the Columbia River.
And here's Lil' Ambition getting up on plane. OK, she's a bit slower, but when you hit the gas she really moves!
Not all pontoon boats are slow, here's one that hit over 100MPH!
These cotton scenes are addictive. The stuff is far more fragile than snow, one rainstorm and it will be gone.
After a night of fishing the gill netters bring in a pretty healthy catch of salmon.
We finally got away from the dock! This is only our second time out this year, of course our last trip out lasted 40 days and 40 nights. This trip won't last that long. We are headed for Gilbert River via the Willamette River and Multnomah Channel. This shot was taken near the Sauvie Island bridge.
Here is one reason I love my Raymarine Radar/Chartplotter/Video display. I can keep an eye on the dinghy all the time we're cruising.
On our trip down Multnomah Channel we saw some interesting boats. Here's a pontoon boat built for a guy in a wheelchair! You can see the wheelchair ramp on the side of his boat, the guy driving is in a powered wheelchair. Try that with a regular boat!
Speaking of interesting boats, we came across Great Ambition's little brother. We met this boat and its owners, Laurie and Leon back in 2008. It's a Little Hobo built by Catamaran Cruisers and she's still looking good!
We're so glad to be here at the Gilbert River docks. We've been alone for most of the time we've been here. Look closely to the right and you'll see a fish jumping.
We can't stay at Gilbert River docks the whole time, free docks have time limits, so we cruised over to Coon Island to make water (Gilbert River water is a little too muddy most of the time) and stretch our legs on the island's wonderful trail. Here we are at the West Side docks.
Here is a nice shot of the shipwreck on the upstream side of the island. A lot of wood and metal in this beast!
A nice shot of the trail that circles Coon Island.
And here are some interesting mushrooms growing out of a piece of wood along the trail.
We came to Coon Island to make water so here is the obligitory water photo. In addition to filling the main water tank, I started using this 5 gallon jug for our drinking water. That way I can avoid overflows that happen when using the little 2 liter jugs. It takes two and a half hours to fill this jug, but think of it, 5 gallons of pure water in 2.5 hours and it costs nothing. That's pretty darn good!
A nice shot of us at Coon Island docks. April's taking pictures of the shoreline for her crazy monster shots.
Sunset from Coon Island Westside docks. The foreground is just the Multnomah Channel levee, but the rest is handcrafted by God.
Off in the distance we have rain falling in August. Somewhat unusual.
A couple of panorama shots. First, Coon Island Eastside docks. Usually we hang out on the inside spot at the far left, but when we first arrived there was someone there. It's all open now though!
And here is a pano shot looking North from the North tip of Coon Island. On the left you can see a cascade of water, that's from a canal draining water from the gravel quarry near Scappose. Remember all those gravel barges I show you all the time? That's where the gravel comes from, from the same place that water is coming from.
Around 3:45AM I was laying awake and noticed flashes of light in the bedroom. Getting up I saw flashes of lightning off in the distance. I woke April and we sat on the front deck with the Mr. Heater running and XM/Spa playing on the overhead speakers as we watched Salem Oregon getting hammered by this awesome thunderstorm. The video has been edited to remove the long periods between the lightning flashes, so it's only 16 seconds long. Don't blink!
We came back to Gilbert River docks to spend the weekend away from the usually crowded Coon Island docks and found a boat already there. Carl and Ellen of Ondine. They were just leaving anyway, so after we had a nice chat they departed, leaving us alone again, naturally.
I woke up before sunrise and found the tide was coming into Gilbert River so I decided to ride the tide up into Sturgeon Lake. Here we are about halfway up the river as the sun is rising lighting up the treetops.
Here Gilbert River runs into Sturgeon lake (visible on the other side of this shoreline). The gnarly old tree is a favorite roost for a gnarly old eagle, but he's not here today. Off in the far distance you can see the West Hills and beyond, Hillsboro Oregon.
Near the end of Gilbert River as it empties deep inside Sturgeon Lake. The windswept trees have to work hard to hold onto the soil here as their roots are also assaulted by the winddriven waves.
And here we are looking off to the Northeast across Sturgeon Lake. Don't get any fancy ideas about waterskiing here, the water is less than a foot deep across the entire expanse of the lake. Not good for much but birds like pelicans and seagulls.
A unique perspective. Alone at Gilbert River docks. The great thing about this dock is that it's not attached to land, so there's no threat of some land based intruder appearing in the middle of the night. A bit like anchoring, but safer in many regards.
Golden hour at Gilbert River. This shot is looking North towards Multnomah Channel.
We took advantage of the tidal flow to spin the boat around for us to make departure from Gilbert River docks easier. Rather than risk backing into the inrushing current we used the current to spin the boat for us. Here is how it's done.
After arriving at Coon Island Eastside docks I took another panorama shot. Mysteriously I now have three wives, and they are all clones! (click on the picture to see a large screen view)
Here is a nice shot of Great Ambition through the foliage from the island trail.
It was only a few days ago we were here at the Westside docks on Coon Island and look what has happened in the meantime! A log punched through the dock and bent a deck board up. It's hard to believe that could have happened in just the last few days, but it did!
A Paper Wasp nest on Coon Island. So we have bees and wasps ready to greet visitors. Not a really good thing!
Someone left a crab trap on the Coon Island Westside docks and we pulled it up to get a look. It's immoral to steal from other peoples traps, but William F. Buckley did it with a twist. According to his son Christopher, when Bill was sailing the Atlantic he would keep an eye out for lobster traps. If he spotted one he would pull it up, extract enough lobsters for dinner and leave a couple of bottles of scotch in the trap as payment. I think that's fair!
I emailed the Columbia County Parks and Recreation department about the dock issue on the Westside docks and got an almost immediate reply from Glen Crinklaw. We decided to stick around one more day so we could help Glen's crew fix the dock but by the time we got out of bed we heard hammering across the island. We went to investigate and Glen and his crew had already finished the repair by 9AM! Good work Glen!
With the dock fixed we decided it was time to go. Glen informed us that a large yacht club was planning on taking over Coon Island for Labor Day weekend, so we slipped our moorings and cruised on home at a modest 4.0 knots, thanks to the tidal outflow. On the way we came across this houseboat for sale. It's got boat tags, so it's a boat! That means no property taxes!
And a beautiful shot of floating homes on Multnomah Channel.
Now that we are back we can spend time with our friends. Here we had a party on the beach complete with April and the marina band's new lead guitarist Bill. Bill has a sailboat anchored out here in front of the island so we setup my little Honda generator and plugged in the amps and we are rockin' 'round the clock!
Speaking of Bill's boat, here it is!
We enjoyed a beautiful day on the island today. As we watched the river sparkle at us some kids we know found this tailed frog on the beach.
A face only a mother could love.
A trio of possible sibling Wood Ducks showed up on the opposite bank from us. As they age the males will become stunningly beautiful, and the ladies get prettier in their own way too!
I found a bird corpse on a branch in the forest. Here a Yellow Jacket feasts on the flesh. These bees are carnivores with a nasty painful bite, and a sting if provoked!
Many times I carp (ha!) about campers leaving garbage, but this time I'm going to thank all the campers that were here over Labor Day weekend. This is one of the many campsites used this last weekend, and it's nearly pristine. From all of us, thanks for picking up your own trash, and I'm sure in some cases, picking up other people's trash.
Sunset. The haze from forest fires on Mount Hood transported by East winds makes it prettier!
I found an old spoon on the beach. I often find utensils left by campers, but this one was obviously lost long, long ago. Probably pewter and very old.
Another hazy sunset.
Came across a snake on my stroll down the beach. He's a little guy, and being a Garter Snake he's no threat to me.
I found a new knife on the beach (thank you very much!). I've been without a knife ever since I lost my machete that I also found on the beach. This was my first attempt at throwing this knife, what do you think?
I hiked all the way back to "the Glade", which earlier this year was a field of daisies. Now it's pretty much dead. Put your mouse over the picture to see what it looked like only 2 months ago.
We spent a hot Saturday on Lil' Ambition swimming and watching the river. A sailboat race came upon us and we enjoyed watching Wave Dancer do a perfect tack right in front of us.
Here's the rest of the fleet shortly after Wave Dancer passed us. They are headed for Saint Helens.
Cleaning up the island after the weekend I found that the river had eroded away enough sand to uncover this pile of trash. Years ago (based on the state of the steel cans) someone buried this pile of trash. Now I get to clean it up! How wonderful.
As if to pay me for my trouble the river gave me another beautiful red sunset, this time with a tug heading downstream.
And more shots of this beautiful sunset.
A jet left a contrail in the sky, and at this exact moment it's casting a shadow toward us. A moment later the shadow was gone despite the fact the trail was still there.
A little before sunset, you can feel that summer is over, and it is a sad thing.
Another panorama, this time of the river off Caterpillar Island during our first rainy day of the fall. Click on the picture to see a full size image.
What can you see here? Look closely! This is where a Great Blue Heron landed recently. You can see where he dragged his two hind claws through the sand as he flared to land. Look closer and you can see where his front claws dug in and finally stopped him.
I love this time of year. Feel like a snack? Head back in the woods, you'll find plenty of ripe berries just waiting for you.
We got away from the dock again! This time, we made the arduous quarter-mile journey to Southend, everybody's favorite spot on Caterpillar Island. The water is really low this time of year, but Southend has a nice deep hole right next to the beach, so here we are close enough to step from the front deck onto the beach and have a bonfire at our leasure.
Of course now it's much easier to take a walk on the beach, just a hop off the front deck. And while walking on the beach I was "buzzed" by this guy. I've seen this guy a lot over the years, I also saw him at Vancouver Lake earlier this year. I sure hope his motor never dies while flying over water, that could be ugly!
An interesting find on the beach. This log was hit by a ship's propeller. You can see how the prop made four good cuts in this log, every slice the log rolled a little bit so the the slices not only move down the log, they also go around its circumference.
The tide is such that the gillnetters have to go out at high tide in the middle of the day and then wait until dark to start fishing. If they wait till it gets dark, the tide has already gone out and they can't get out of Fisherman's Slough. So here is one guy waiting patiently to deploy his net. He doesn't have much longer to wait. Put your mouse over the picture to see a closeup version of this shot.
And here is the sunset, sans gill-netter.
The next morning, the scene was pretty but more grim to be sure. We now know that fall is on its way when the fog starts appearing over the river. Shortlived, but it will become more and more persistant as winter approaches.
A really nice panorama of Southend. Click on the picture to see the full screen version. Heaven on earth.
Sunset. Fantastic!
And then as I was reviewing last night's sunset pictures, I got this sunrise. Fantastic!
Detecting a pattern here? Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset, quickly go the years...
Sunrise, not as nice as yesterday's but still pretty darn nice.
Here is an interesting find. A very old boot, leather sole, stitched and nailed. Must have spent a long time buried in the mud and still looks pretty darn good. (named for the song Good Ole Shoe from the movie Wag the Dog with Robert DeNiro).
Gillnetters going after salmon. Some people are against this style of fishing, but the same people expect to find salmon on the menu at the sushi bar, seafood house and grocery store. You can't save the fish and eat them too!
Deep in the forest is a rotted tree we call The Chimney, because of the blockyness of its rotted remnants. As I was walking through the forest it just so happened that a beam of sunlit lit up The Chimney and nothing else. Very nice.
From the island our two empty slips. We have Lil' Ambition with us so both slips are empty. Seems like a big hole in the dock.
Also in the forest, we call this tree Five Finger Jack for the five fingers you have to step over or on to get past it. A beautiful feature of our forest.
Here he is from the other direction. Not as pretty.
Great Ambition as seen from the top of South Hill. At least part of it!
A ship anchored out in the river at night. You can just see the sand spit on the Washington shore breaking up the light reflections.
Our last bonfire of this trip, with Great Ambition on the right. We have to go back to the slip tomorrow, the weather forecast says rain and wind and it's nicer to have unlimited power when that happens. But we'll back back someday!
Missing the open river we took Lil' Ambition out to the Oregon side of the river and anchored for a couple of hours. So beautiful on this fall day.
Remember the photo earlier of the Para-Plane? Well, I finally had time to make a movie of him flying by. Click here to see the same movie with music. (Youtube discourages music on videos)
Some stray cat read the map wrong, this is CATerpillar Island, not CAT Island. This cat is living on the island and we can't seem to convince it to come for a boat ride to get off the island!
The rudderpost and rudder of the sunken ship at the North end of the island.
I found our ship's bell! About nine months ago I knocked our bell off its holder and into the river. At the time the river was about 10 feet deep, and since this was before the Flood of 2011, I was very concerned that I would never be able to find our beautiful brass bell. But find it I did. I blasted it free of the mud with a submersible pump coupled to a garden spray nozzle and pulled it up with a boat hook. Let the polishing begin!
Tonight's sunset.
The water is a Darwinian filter, it's really good at punishing people who aren't very smart. Case in point.
A troop of racoons checking the bank for goodies. You never know what they will find.
Speaking of finding goodies, it seems if you pick up enough glass, steel and trash the island rewards you with goodies like this fender (retail price $100) and this pair of his and hers beach shovels. Sweet!
Here is an old friend, a turtle basking on a warm fall day. Where will you be when it's below freezing in a couple of months little turtle?
I installed a Q-See QC-444 4 channel security DVR on Great Ambition. This DVR records video on my navigation cameras as well as hidden security cameras throughout the boat. If anyone steals anything from my boat I can figure out who did it. Also as I am demonstrating in this picture, I can view any or all of the cameras in real time using the internet from anywhere in the world. It supports Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads and Android phones and tablets. In this shot I was viewing myself on my MacBook and snapped a shot of myself. And since the QC-444 runs on 12 Volts, as does my internet router and the cameras, it doesn't matter whether I am in the slip or away at Coon Island or Vancouver Lake, everything gets recorded running on solar power.
We had a nice beach day complete with a bonfire. So quiet out here, no one around, just the two of us walking down the beach or through the forest searching for mushrooms. Click on the photo to see a full size version.
The sternwheeler came by, here she is with Pier One in the foreground.
On the way back I got a nice shot of Craig Weagant's home. He's gone now but his daughters now own it. What a nice legacy!
Here is a shot of our fire on the 14th.
And here it is on the 15th.
Walking the beach we found a cucumber that had been washed up. Most of the food items we find on the beach come from spillage from loading foodstuffs onto the cargo ships that are anchored or docked in Portland or Vancouver. The only one of these I've ever eaten was a coconut that I found last year. River water cannot penetrate the shell of a coconut, but it can surely penetrate a cuke skin, so no thanks, let the deer have it!
I got some more shots of the ship at the North end of the island. It's quite an impressive hulk. You are seeing the stern and rudder.
Roaming through the forest I found some Lycoperdon Molle mushrooms, also known as Puffballs.
These mushrooms are filled with tofu like flesh that is fairly bland. Many people cook them with various spices to liven up the taste. You can tell it's OK if the flesh is completely white. If it's not white it is getting ready to turn to dust, which makes it unpalitable.
The kitty is still on the island. I've been trying to find food for him, I found a packet of fish bait on the beach and opened it in the forest for him, but they had gone bad and all I accomplished was stinking up the woods.
Walking one of my trails I had to stop when I came across this cute little guy sunning himself on my trail.
Speaking of puffballs, I picked a nice bunch of them in a meadow near the North end of the island. Now that I know what they are and how to prepare them they are worth collecting. As a matter of fact, I had some sauteed and mixed with scrambled eggs this morning, and it was ahg...ahggg...ahgggggggggg
Don't worry, I survived the puffballs. They are good mushrooms if you can find them at the right time. The next day I took a stroll in the woods and got this shot. Sure is pretty!
I came across an old picture that I took from an "O'dark-thirty" flight out of Portland back in 2004 and annotated it. Here you are seeing the Columbia River snaking its way Northward. Click on the picture to see all the significant landmarks of what I call My World.
In Italian this is called effetto dio, meaning God's effect. This photo was tweeked a bit.
We had an early Halloween party at the marina so we had to have a pumpkin to put on the far bank of the slough. I think it came out well!
This is not just any old photo of the slough. This photo was taken with my Kodak 14MP Point-and-Shoot camera that I dropped in the river and retrieved. It sat on the bottom in 5 feet of water for about 5 minutes while I tried to retrieve it. Finally I hooked the wrist strap with a boat hook and brought it up. After two weeks of drying out it's 100% operational!
A couple paddled down from Frenchman's Bar to spend a day on the island. Here they are heading back after sunset.
We had a couple of pheasants fly towards our day-camp on the island and one of them ended up in a tree near us trying to decide if we were OK or not.
A yacht rescuing a cat boat sailor.
Since I've borrowed a mushroom book from the library I'm having so much fun finding and identifying 'shrooms on the island. This one is supposed to be edible, it's Hericium ramosum.
A good shot of our day camp on the island. We've gone through the area with vengence, cleaning out creaping berry bushes that threaten to take over this nice grassy spot.
Speaking of mushrooms, I came across this little colony. I have no idea what they are but they are beautiful!
Deep in the forest you seldom get much sunshine, at least when the trees still have leaves.
I have been putting off cleaning up one homeless camp because of some rather unweildy pieces that had to be moved. I finally combined a cleanup mission with a metal salvage misson and in two days floated off over three hundred pounds of trash, steel, aluminum and camping gear in my poor little overworked dinghy. I can tell how much I am carrying, when the load exceeds my weight (180lbs) the front of the dinghy rides pretty low. Here I have close to 200 pounds of stuff that I'm taking to the Langsdorf boat ramp to load into my van.
I found some old photos, June 9th, 2008 to be exact. I cobbled them together into this animated GIF. The wind came up and blew a tree down right on top of my van. Not exactly "on top". Over might better describe it. Not one scratch on the van, not a dent, nothing! And it gets better!
The bow of the ship at the North end. It's a huge ship, but I don't know it's name or anything!
Here's April planting the anchor for Lil' Ambition. It's nice to have a boat that they wife can handle by herself, and it's nice to have a wife that can handle a boat alone. Sorta works hand-in-hand.
Halloween night at Pier One. Spooky!
Up first thing to turn the water back on (it was 29F last night) and came across these spider webs. One of them even caught some geese!
April found a couple of Shaggy Mane mushrooms under our Buick. Once they go black like the lower one it's too late to eat, now it's only good for making ink. It is amazing how they can pop up in graveled parking lots that get driven over almost daily.
I decided to craft a home for the Island Kitty by carving out a foam floatation block. There were at least three of these floatation blocks on the island, I found a suitable one and towed it back to the slip. Now to get out the chain saw!
We finished the Kitty Home and planted it in the forest. Because it's carved from a single block of foam it should be completely rainproof. I think the entrance is small enough to keep the beavers and coyotes out!
A beautiful end to a beautiful afternoon on Caterpillar Island.
We had a wonderful day in the sunshine on the beach along with a nice bonfire. It was a fire the fishermen had left behind, we restarted it and burned it all down so it didn't leave a mess on the beach.
The slough on our trip back home.
Another look at the slough from the other end. The colors are muted by the cloudy skies, but still beautiful.
Despite the cloudy skies the sun did make a few appearances this day.
The river is so quiet and still that as the tide comes in it lifts small patches of sand off the beach and floats them away. You can see that they are depressed into the water but surface tension keeps them afloat.
The morning sunlight accentuates the colors of fall.
Here's a good shot of the Island Kitty on its roof having lunch.
I found a good crop of Hericium ramosum, a fungus that looks a lot like coral. This is an edible fungus and it smells pretty good too!
Almost two and a half pounds of Hericium ramosum.
A few days later I went back to the forest to get another sample. This stuff is incredibly beautiful! Put your mouse over the image to get a closeup.
The stern of the shipwreck at the North end of the island. Leaf color is just about at maximum.
Hiking through the forest I found one of the most beautiful Cottonwood trees I have seen.
A slightly different perspective of the ship grounded at the North end of the island. I'm actually inside the ship and you can see the outline of the hull.
Looking the other direction you can see Fisherman's Slough headed South back towards Langsdorf boat ramp and the marina.
More fungus among us! Hericium ramosum "on the hoof".
We took a stroll on the island for Thanksgiving. It's the only good way to feed Gracie, our Island Kitty and give her some loving. Plus, we get a walk on the island!
And here she is after having her Thanksgiving dinner of fresh cooked Pacific Northwest salmon. She's a happy kitty!
The sunset lighting a tree on the beach. What amazing color!
The sun popped out right at sunset to create this stunning scene down the moorage.
And in that light I got this shot of the covered moorage where part of the movie Twilight was filmed. So pretty with the sunlit trees behind it.
And a shot of our old floating home, Darkwater Keep.
A nice shot of the South entrance to Fisherman's channel and Balum's Pole. Dick Balum held a lease on this piling for quite a while and had a home here. While it's pretty, it's a horrible place to spend a winter as the storms invariably bring in strong Southwest winds. Since this photo was taken looking Southwest you can see there is nothing to stop the wind for miles, being wide open to 50MPH winds is not a recipe for happiness.
A nice shot of Sauvie Island and the West Hills on an otherwise gloomy day. Click on the picture to see a larger version.
Behind Pier One near sunset.
The low sun angle combines with the tired old leaves to produce magic.
Sunset.
Daybreak. Very pretty!
Gracie the Island Kitty found a goose that had probably been shot and made it as far as the island before dying. That's like waking up and finding a freshly dead cow in your front yard.
April giving Gracie some lovin'.
Now that Gracie has had a bit of a snack and some loving she's relaxing on our makeshift table.
My dinghy on its Anchor Buddy in the sunshine.
The Mahoni (front ship) is anchored, Essayons (behind) is dredging and the wreck at the North end of the island.
On the way home.
On the morning of December first the river was bathed in a heavy fog.
While walking down the beach I notice an airplane had throttled back his motor while in flight. What was he up to? Once I saw the floats on his plane I knew what he was up to, I was going to be treated to a fantastic show!
A fantastic sunset approches.
A fantastic sunset needs a panorama to show the full effect. Click on the photo to see a much larger version.
Southend.
Just a quiet moment on the river.
A Foss tug plying the river at sunset.
Sunset on December 2nd.
While it looks like a mighty fine feast for Gracie, she's not that impressed. She doesn't like the small fish because they have very nasty spines that are super sharp and hurt her mouth. I've found the only way to get her to eat these fish is to cook them, then remove the spines so she doesn't get stabbed in the mouth.
The trees have lost most of their leaves. It's looking a lot more like winter, yet it hasn't even started yet.
Sunset.
A bald eagle enjoys the sunset after feasting on a fish in the shallows.
Another panorama shot of the river. It's so calm! Click on the picture for a better look.
It has taken months to domesticate this cat, and on this day it took three hours of concentrated attention to get her used to the fire. In the end Gracie would sit in one of our camp chairs and bask in the heat of the fire while we went off looking for firewood. That's a calm kitty!
Then this previously deadly killer cat was confronted with a real meal, a pen raised pheasant deposited here by the WDFW. How does she do with this tastey bit of food on the hoof?
Our annual paddling of Merganzers returned, they like to hang out just off Southend so they have easy access to Fisherman's Channel. Here at sunset they are being scared off by a passing boat, but behind them, ghosting along in sillouette is our favorite tug Nancy Ann pushing a load of gravel upstream to Portland.
With temps going down to around 24 degrees F, the beach tends to freeze, remember, this is fresh water. When the beach freezes at high tide it leaves an ice line, giving away the high tide line, literally frozen in time.
I started a bonfire around noontime and kept it going to keep me warm while waiting for the sunset, which turned out to be muted, but very pretty.
And after the sunset I had plenty of coals to keep me warm before I jumped in my dinghy to head home for dinner.
And here is my view from the fire. You can see my dinghy waiting for me on her Anchor Buddy. Click on the photo to get a larger version.
Gracie the cat who has lived on the island for months has this survival gig figured out. She found a dead salmon washed up on the beach. This ought to last her a few days!
A pheasant walks the shore looking for breakfast on a cold December morning.
We were invited to ride along with Tom and Jerri for Christmas Ships. It's a great event and boating in the dark and cold Columbia just to show off some Christmas lights is too much fun to turn down! This year Tom converted the Goose to Rope Light, it looks good!
A couple of tricky photos. Can you tell what the trick is?
Here is a normal shot, no tricks. Just amazing!
The fire I had last Sunday still had hot coals so I stoked it up again for a little warmth. Any chance that something here could get out of control? Are you kidding? This huge log has been burned on and off for 5 years, it's not going to suddenly explode into a raging forest fire!
Properly re-stoked the next day this fire will make some serious progress against this huge log that's been on the island for almost 3 years!
Our favorite tug, the Nancy Ann pushing a load of gravel up from Scappoose to Portland.
With flat water the nighttime shots are incredible.
Another day, another load of wood, more progress against this evil log.
Neat video showing how a major ship port and wildlife, in this case a huge paddling of Merganzers get along.
I don't know why I'm holding this oar, I usually steer by leaning one way or the other. If I need to stop I just yank the red safety lanyard. And if I fall in, well, that's between me and God!
Really nice sunset with the wingdam in the foreground.
And the afterglow at Pier One. I enhanced Venus (upper middle) because while visible in the original 14MP image, it was very faint in this smaller (0.5MP) version. I didn't think you would mind.
The water is so still.
Pre-sunset. Just awesome!
Another panorama, click on the photo to get a bigger view.
And another, click on the photo to get a bigger view.
Another awesome sunset. On the panoramas you can click on the photo to get a bigger view.
And another great sunset! December seems to be the month for great sunsets.
Yay! The solstice is behind us which means this day was just slightly longer than yesterday! We're back on the right path to long summer days!
The timing is tricky, but I got it. A ship coming upstream getting ready to anchor. The big trick here is that the panorama is taken with two shots, you have to be very careful not to let any motion (like a moving ship) get into both shots or the pano-stitcher will get confused.
Just a few seconds later the ship has moved too close to the center of the photo to use the scene for a panorama.
And a little bit later the ship is anchored and the sun is down setting the sky on fire.
The final shot.
This is the meadow directly behind Pier One just about sundown. You can see the shadow of Pier One as well as my shadow. Yes, shooting a picture of your own shadow is a no-no in photography, but it's hard to get out of the way when shooting a panorama. As usual click on the photo to get a bigger view.
Sunset on Christmas Eve.
Capitalism at its finest. The river is full of dead wood this time of year, all you need to harvest it is a boat, even my dinghy is capable of towing in such a log. A few minutes later, I heard the roar of a chainsaw off in the distance, the guys cut the log up at the boat ramp, loaded it onto a trailer or pickup and took home a mighty fine load of firewood. Creating wealth out of nothing, that is what makes America great.
Sunset on New Years Day.
The Fazio Brothers dredge on the job pulling up sand off the bottom and pumping it up to their pit. The Army Corp of Engineers does this year round and just move the sand from place to place. Fazios, being a small business has to obey the dredging rules that the government doesn't, so they only get to dredge two or three months out of the year.
Another nice day on the island. We got a few rain showers but showers make rainbows and those are always pretty.
Sunset.
A different view, today's camp as seen from the water. If you look really closely you can see Gracie the Island Kitty curled up in my folding camp chair napping in front of the campfire. Can't see her? OK, just imagine it then.
When you feel like being alone, there's nothing like fog to give you solitude.
A section of our dock was rotting out so Kadow's decided to have it repaired. Here is the bad section removed.
After some duck hunters left I hiked to their camp and discovered evidence of a Murder most fowl, as Sherlock Holmes might put it.
Back to the dock repair. I often write about the excitement of finding plastic 55 gallon drums in the river. Here is why they are so great. When a section of dock is sagging you can refloat it by submerging a barrel in the river, wrestling it into position and then filling it with air. Each barrel contributes about 400 pounds of lift to the dock (55 gallons * 8 pounds per gallon = 440 pounds). The blue barrel shown here came from the island in the middle of Vancouver Lake last spring, the white barrel came from Caterpillar Island just a few days ago. I placed these two barrels in about an hour, too easy!
We've made really good progress on this log, but it's hard work! The idea is that once it's burned in half we will put the two halves together which keeps the heat up and makes the log burn twice as fast.
It's just Plum Crazy to be cruising up the river in fog like this without Radar. Look closely and you can see the crew of Plum Crazy on the flybridge driving this houseboat in freezing fog. If I were driving Great Ambition I could be inside, snug and warm while I use Radar, GPS and AIS to get me through the fog. Without Radar you are risking your life on a boat ride!
The dock repairs are done! Nice work Steve!
Sunset.
We heard all day on the weather about very strong winds. Just before the sunset we got some "catspaws" from a very gentle breeze, but that's the closest we got to wind on this day despite the forecasts.
Our newly repaired dock patio, with frost thrown in for effect.
A ship is heading out to sea around sunset. Bon voyage!
And here is a different take on the sunset that day.
After another fire four more feet of this log is gone. The trick here is to use the come-along to draw these two together and burn them at the junction. Hopefully by summer they are gone so that when the grasses are dry no one will set the island on fire.
We got about 4 inches of snow overnight on the 17th/18th. By the time I made it out to the island it had slumped under the higher temperatures (upper 40s), but still it is pretty.
Sunset one month after winter solstice.
Pier One (actually Daymarker 31) with high water submerging the base.
With the flood waters come wood, lots and lots of wood.
Last week I setup a video camera on the dock to capture the Bald Eagle pair that has been hanging around. I actually caught them chatting to one another! A one minute video you must see.
We finally had a dry day, so back out to the island to try to get rid of that giant log, now two logs, thanks to the last round of fires. I used a come-along to move the two logs together, then built a fire between them. This doubles the heat causing them to burn faster and longer. This one minute video starts with a bald eagle flyover followed by a 360 degree view of the fire and my day camp.
This shot shows how I moved this 2 ton log. Basically I would crank on the come-along until it was super tight, then use the Peavey (the blue and black thing) to rock the log. While rocking the log I could watch it slowly inch up, then I go back to the come-along to get it tight again, the rock again, a few inches at a time. Afterward I measured the distance covered, about 7 feet in an hour and half of work. Not bad for a man working alone.
Another view of the fire, with Gracie having her lunch on the far log.
I found evidence that Gracie had been attacked in her little house by some animal, probably a coyote or raccoon. I scoured the island for materials and beefed up her house into a fortress and placed it off the ground to make it harder for the coyotes to get to her. The modifications also seriously improved the strength of the floor and the doorway.
A view of the fire afterwards. I probably removed a thousand pounds of material from the log on the left. I'm thinking this thing will be gone before the end of March.
Another day of burning. This one will probably reduce the weight of the piece on the right by 1000 pounds. It's already much easier to move with the come-along.
The dinghy hanging on its Anchor Buddy.
Final sunset shot.
A cheap dolly is a handy thing to have when you are rounding up firewood. Here I'm able to carry a 150 pound piece of wood that washed up on the beach. In this configuration I was able to wheel this piece down the beach to my fire with just one hand!
The bonfire was going so well I kept it going well into the night. Here I snapped a photo of the sparks with one hand while poking the fire with the other.
In this shot April is standing at one end of the log before we started burning and I am standing at the other end. You can see that a lot of wood is now gone totally.
Sunset. Very nice!
The experts will tell you to put your fire out when you go home. However, all that does is leave a nasty pile of partially burnt wet wood and charcoal. Letting the fire burn itself out means no debris at all! The ash washes into the sand and disappears completely. The only thing I did here was to pick up any stray nails with a magnet.
Last years flood put a lot of sand in places it shouldn't be, so it looks like someone is headed upstream to dredge some of it away. Note that this shot is actually two shots, one of the tug, and one of the barge stitched together. The secret is to make the center of the panorama something bland and unmoving, like the tow-cable between the two.
"Hey kids, we're having dinner tonight!" That famous quote by Cletus from the Simpson's pokes fun at the fact that one day you may be forced to eat whatever you can find. That day has not come for us yet, but it's nice to know that we often have that option. This stuff came from a ship stocking up its pantry for the trip back to Asia.
I've made a huge amount of progress on this log. All that remains is this 4 foot by 4 foot square of wood. One or two more fires will completely eliminate what was a huge tree that took over the beach almost exactly three years ago.
To show how far I've come I updated the Pier One Log log. This is what that tree looked like 3 years ago when it washed up on the island.
After picking up two full garbage bags full of trash from the island I made a pass by the Fazio Bros. dredge, sucking up sand off the bottom to sell to the public. This is quite a beast!
Nice shot of 'da Hood.
How do all those Hondas get to America? On ships bearing the Honda Wing name. This one is named Celestial Wing, last week Solar Wing was here.
Here is the last shot of the fire today, what was the huge 5000 pound monster log that took a come-along to manuver is now reduced to the little log on the right.
The next day I re-stoked the fire. It made some good progress overnight.
And after a day of work, this is what it is reduced to.
Sunset.
And the afterglow.
And the next day's sunrise! OK, the road sign and telephone pole aren't helping, but I can't just go up there and saw them down!
On the way out to the island to check on the fire I caught this pair of barges racing downstream. The Tidewater (foreground) is losing to the SeaSpan.
It was a cold morning so when I went out to check on the fire this is what I saw. Notice that the wood is nearly gone and that the area around the fire is the only frost free area in view. Fire will do that for you!
A couple of hours after feeding the last remnants of the fire, this is all that is left. See, letting the fire burn itself out is the best way to not leave a mess.
And here is where the log used to be. Over the next few weeks the ash will disappear and there won't be a trace of my fire. Unlike the someone's old firepit on the far left which has been there for over a year.
And now for the big picture.
I must have walked past this sculpture a hundred times. I have no idea who did it, I just hope they didn't cut down a living tree to make it.
We took Lil' Ambition out to the island to enjoy SuperBowl Sunday away from the crowds and partiers. It was a wonderful day.
A view of the island on our way back home.
The stern of the sunken ship at the North end of the island.
As we return home just before sunset we can watch the sun shoot straight through the island. Of course once Spring arrives it will be harder to get this view.
An interesting shot of the slough. This is actually a shot of the water and then flipped upside down.
A rather frightening thing is happening to Caterpillar Island. Over the years the sand has been disappearing from the beach. This photo comparison shows how in just seven short years the sand near Pier One (Daymarker 31) has just disappeared. Put your mouse over the photo to see the comparison from June 2004 to December 2011.
I took a video of the bear that was carved into the tree stump. The Geo-location of the YouTube video is correct, so check the location if you want to see this carving for yourself.
The Fazio Brother's dredge working off the North end of the island near the Windgam. The sand is free, hassling with the government, that's what makes this job far harder than it has to be.
When the floodwaters receeded recently it left these little fish with no water. They went to the deepest puddle they could find, but it dried out too, killing them all. Sometimes extinction is a pure accident. But they'll provide someone a nice meal, or at least fertilizer for the plants.
A nice panorama of the forest. You can see a board that was picked up by the flood waters last spring and deposited between the branches of a small bush.
On the way out I got this nice shot of the point off Quinn's Cove.
Overcast days can be pretty too. Here is a nice shot out the Southend Channel.
A paddling of Greater Scaups. We've never seen these birds until this year. They sure like this place, but they don't like me driving by in my dinghy.
Coming home I got this nice shot of us in the slip.
I don't care what your cause is, you can't run around putting signs up on my island! It ruins my photos!!!!
I was able to sneak out onto the front deck and get this shot of the Greater Scaups we saw earlier. The males are the ones with black heads, the females have a brown head.
I now have a way to watch myself park in the slip using my "God's Eye Camera". It's a normal surveillance camera mounted on top of a 30 foot pole that looks down on my slip. But the real twist is that I'm using a 5.8GHz video transmitter to send the image to a receiver inside Great Ambition where not only does it get saved into the security DVR, but it also displays on my Raymarine Radar/Chartplotter/Display. Because it does this wirelessly I can watch the whole drama from the helm of the boat and make sure that I'm doing a good job parking this behemouth.
A ship heading out to sea in the dark. Beautiful!
We had a little electrical trouble. After almost five years of exposure to the elements our 125V-30A twistlock connector overheated and melted. I was able to cobble together a fix from the marina stockpile and make a much more robust solution. I used some pipe insulation that I found on the beach to shield the connector from rain and snow.
You might notice a line marked by the growth, and lack thereof of a light green moss in the trees. That my friends is the line left by the Flood of 2011. Everything you see below that line was underwater last spring, including this trail.
A spider built a swimming pool! The fine silk holds the rain water which balloons out the bottom of this structure. Amazing! Click on the photos to see even more detail.
A storm moved through the area, but I was on the margin, so only got a little light rain. As the front moves East it uncovers this ship from the inky blackness. Click on the photos to enlarge.
A little later the storm is past and the effeto dio takes over the scene.
A sailboat motorsailing downriver in the sunset. Beautiful.
A nice shot of the Ansac Splendor anchored near the North end of the island. At this point she was pretty close to shore, but luckily Fazios had been dredgeing here recently so there was plenty of water for them.
A panorama of the Ansac Splendor and the river. Click the photo to enlarge the image.
We had about an inch of snow overnight going from Leap Day to March first. By the time I got out to the island much of it was melted, but there was still a little left behind.
A cute little Amanita with a pool in the cap. So pretty, yet so dangerous!
A pair of Scaups feeding in the slough. The male is on the right, the female is on the left.
We've had several sea lions come up the slough recently. This one surface near Great Ambition but by the time I got my camera ready he was already up to Chris Jones' dock.
I dug up some old footage I took last summer and made a nice quiet movie using Mars Lasar's tune Satin Skies to show off my wonderful, clean beach. I love peaceful music and this tune is perfect for a peaceful putt down the beach. Now go to iTunes and buy the entire 1 hour and 14 minute version, it's so pretty it could be my theme music for life.
We've had a paddling of Greater Scaups loitering in front of Great Ambition for weeks now. In this first photo you can see Mama Scaup with a brown head and greyish body surrounded by her male yearling offspring.
Gracie, the Island Kitty who was such a recluse I couldn't even approach her has finally succumed to my charms. It took months of careful nurturing and patience but now she is like putty in my hands.
A yearling male Scaup.
Another yearling male.
At first when I found these in the forest I was pretty excited, oh boy, Morels! But then I did a little research. These are actually Verpa bohemica, a variety of False Morel. They are easily distinguished becasue the bottom of the caps are not attached to the stem. True Morels have a cap that is fully attached to the stem at the bottom. False morels can be eaten by some people if cooked very well, but they are not safe by any means. They can cause stomach aches, partial muscle paralysis and even coma.
The river level is rising like crazy with all this rain. We would love to get out onto Vancouver Lake like we did last year but I still have one more day at the Library where I have been volunteering over the winter. Rats! That's OK though, we're thinking about heading over to Vancouver Lake after the peak. During the peak it would be difficult getting past the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge bridge.
Here is the spot where we burned that huge log that washed up on the island during the last flood. It's nice that the river came up to smooth out our spot but we left it pretty clean so it wasn't really neccesary.
I was worried about this huge concrete dock section that was beached just upstream of us. Had it hit Great Ambition it could have been really ugly. (Concrete vs fiberglass, ick!) But I happened across it and guided it through the marina. A neighbor decided he wanted it just as I drifted by his house. It sure would have been easier had he decided a couple of minutes earlier, but I was able to tow it to him!
The water is nearly as high as it was last year in June.
Hiking in the woods I came across some more False Morels (Verpa bohemica). The cottony center gives it away, along with the fact that cap is attached only at the top. It's easy to be fooled because the cottony stuffing in the center of the stem fades after a day or so, making it look like a true morel, but still the cap being free on the lower margin is the dead giveaway.
It's a big one! I did find someone at the marina who will eat these and it hasn't killed them yet.
A nice shot of the dinghy and Great Ambition from the island at high water.
The river is very high, here is a shot near Pier One to show how high the water is.
Spring is here, the leaves are sprouting! Yay!!!
On my first free Tuesday after giving up my volunteer job at the Vancouver Library I took Lil' Ambition around Bachelor Island to Felida to have it ready for taking Great Ambition on the same journey tomorrow (albeit a bit slower). This is the Ridefield Moorage and a cute little house.
Here I'm about to pass under the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge bridge.
And I made it! Here is Lil' Ambition at Felida Moorage. Tomorrow we do the same journey with Great Ambition!
We started our journey to Vancouver Lake at 7:10AM so we could catch the tidal inrush into Lake River. We checked AIS and saw only one ship, Sound Reliance coming upstream. No biggie we thought, until we saw her upclose and personal. Her wakes were pretty big, big enough to wash over the front deck and give us a hobby horse ride in the river for about an hour, but that was it.
One of our favorite landmarks on Lake River is this huge oak tree. So complex and so pretty!
Just a random spot along Lake River.
Near the finish line, the shoreline near the confluence between Salmon Creek and Lake River. So pretty!
We finally made it in just under 4 hours. Overall we got about a 0.6 knot boost from the tidal inrush the saved us nearly an hour on our trip. Here is Great Ambition anchored in an area we call Beaver Bend.
Our first sunset of 2012 here on Vancouver Lake.
Sunrise over Vancouver Lake.
We decided to treat our houseboat less like a house and more like a boat. So we pulled up all six anchors and drove out to the middle of Vancouver Lake and dropped just one anchor. That way we could wait and see what the wind was going to do before we chose a place to spend the night. Here we are just hanging out with the island in the background. Click the picture to see a larger version.
Sunrise the next day from our favorite Southeast cove. Click the picture to see a larger version.
Looking South during the sunrise. Click the picture to see a larger version.
We had a Bald Eagle in a tree near us as we relaxed on the front deck. Another eagle decided to harrass his friend diving towards him and screeching at him. Eventually they both left, but what a show!
I took a long cruise in the dinghy and got this shot of Great Ambition and the island in the middle of Vancouver Lake. We are still in our Southeast cove.
In case you really couldn't make out Great Ambition here is a closer view.
Such a beautiful morning looking Southwest towards Portland. However the weather forecast is pretty bad and we do have things to do, so we're going to head back to the slip. Maybe April is a little early for these outings.
Cruising down Lake River we came across a lot of eagles. Here is a nice specimen relaxing in a dead tree overlooking Lake River.
Great Ambition going under the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge Bridge.
Cruising up the Columbia River near Bachelor Island a tug, the PJ Brix came along behind me. I setup the Raymarine Radar to track the target so I could keep an eye on him. Such a useful tool! Just set the curson on the echo in question, click on it and the unit calculates his heading and relative speed. It also warns you if the target is a collision risk.
Our cruise to Vancouver Lake and back again thanks to the stern navigation/security camera and my security DVR. Note that the video is mirrored so the images are all reversed.
I made a movie of the marinas in the area by editing the security camera video that captured our passage by Ridgefield, Felida and Kadow's.
We decided to get out to Southend for the nice weather forecast for the next few days. It's a whopping quarter mile trip, but just getting out of the slip with the high water and fast current can be a heartpounding experience. Luckily the anchoring process went smoothly thanks to our Fortress Anchors.
Sunrise. So pretty!
A nice shot of us at Southend.
I brought Gracie over to Southend so she wouldn't stand on the shore and wail at my empty slip. She made herself at home pretty quickly.
Sunset from Southend on April 22nd.
And the sunrise the next day!
The view from the front deck. Just beautiful! Click on the picture for a bigger image.
Bill and Thy went out sailing Time Out so we shadowed them and took a few shots.
A pair of Canadian Geese stuck around to have a family. The little ones are so cute!
A pair of Bald Eagles out harrassing the newly arrived Ospreys.
We went out in Lil' Ambition to greet our friends Bill and Thyra who were on their way back from St. Helens. Little did we know that they gave up the battle against the current and anchored off Sauvie Island at the halfway point between St. Helens and Caterpillar Island. That's OK, we got some awesome shots of the sunset!
And along comes Nancy Ann with her travel trailer on the stern deck pushing the gravel barge upstream like she does nearly every day.
A nice shot of the slough on the morning of May 9th. Winter is over, the trees are full of green leaves and soon cotton will be drifting through the air.
We made it to Southend! A short cruise and there we were looking out at the beautiful Columbia River. Lots of wildlife out here for us to enjoy!
One of the great things about staying at Southend is that we get to see all the river traffic on the Columbia. Here Queen of the West goes upstream towards Portland.
As the beach erodes away trees keep falling over. Here is one that has been standing here since we arrived in 1999, soon to be washed away.
Here another kind of catamaran cruises downstream, off on some adventure no doubt.
Most of the time we see Blue Herons, they are as prevelant as fleas on a dog. But occasionally we see these guys, this is a Great Heron.
The view from the front deck. Just beautiful! Click on the picture for a bigger image.
A shot of Great Ambition at Southend.
Overnight the cargo ship Pan Dynamic anchored in front of Southend Channel. Here I caught her just before sunrise with her lights still on.
Sunrise on May 19th. We could have owned that house, Carolyn Dickey offered it to us when Washington State DNR forced us out. Probably good thing we didn't accept it, it would have been an anchor around our necks. A boat is easy to move, a floating home not so much.
Lil' Ambition fits nicely along side Great Ambition. Also the decks are equal height so you can walk straight across from one to the other without having to step up or down. Way better than a traditional boat where you have to climb up and down.
A Bald Eagle soaring overhead.
Making water. I sure am impressed with my watermaker. I've been using it for two years and it has made a whole lot of water for us, probably close to a thousand gallons over those two years.
We went out for a bonfire on the off chance that we might get a nice sunset, but no such luck. Instead we just got a nice bonfire.
While having our bonfire I found a set of keys on the beach. They had been there for years apparently. After I cleaned them up I showed them to a neighbor who claimed them! She lost them over five years ago and no longer had the car they fit.
