STORMY WEATHER ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER

PATEROS WA looking east across a wide stretch of the Columbia River during a storm.

100 years ago the river was less wide, and one might have seen a vintage steamboat coming up the river to deliver passengers and supplies to this port settlement. The current of that river, pre-dams, was so swiftly moving (to the right in this photo) that a ship might have to attach a cable from ship to a team of draft horses on shore to pull them past this area. This location also is where the ancient Canadian glaciers covered the river solidly. Between Brewster (five minutes from Pateros)  and Grand Coulee Dam by road one still can see the boulders left over when the glaciers melted during a natural climate change and pulled back to release the ancient river to flow once more. Pateros volunteers and contributors have built a small museum near this site that is worth visiting.  Not far from Brewster upriver visit a fort once manned by Hudson's Bay Company personnel as a stop where HBC's fur employees changed from traveling by water to horses on their way north. The book Columbia River, published by Caxton Press in late 2013 gives insight into this period.

Today the calm waters attract outdoor people in small boats or kayaks, or fishing enthusiasts, Salmon travel up river as far as the mighty Columbia's source more than 400 miles north of the Canadian border! True, their progress and numbers are affected by many dams, but fish and wildlife managers on both sides of the border constantly work to assist the spawning mama fish in fall and the lively babies in spring wending down river to make the 1200+ mile annul journey between Astoria, Oregon, and Columbia Lake, British Columbia. Of course, a large percentage of the salmon also veer off to the many rivers that empty into the Columbia. Major research to solve the myriad problems of the coexistence of power needs and fish maintenance continues.

North Cascades Charms, both sides

Here we are at October 7th still enjoying temps from 70-close to 80, but weather next week looks like reverting to typical fall or early winter weather more like 50s.-60s. Leaves are beginning to turn but not yet. My garden is full of flowers blooming. I play golf every Friday with three others, but -- like them -- do not take scores as a big deal. If I get a bogie once in awhile, good, but I also might rack up 10 strokes on some hole where all goes wrong. Great scenery always in the Northwest, usually nice weather except in rainy mid-winter, so who cares. I am hoping to get over to eastern Washington yet before the North Cascades Highway closes for the winter (heavy snow in mountains, not in western WA. ) But driving along the Columbia River means wonderful views of fruit orchards along the river that turn brilliant yellows in fall, enhanced by reds here and there and certain wild deciduous trees mixed into the prevailing tall evergreens in the Cascades that are mostly yellow, too. Fall in the San Juan Islands brings some foggy mornings and brilliant afternoons and fewer tourists to help out the seasonal businesses that tend to cater to boat populations.  A good time to avoid crowds and some reservations on the ferries, though.

The North Cascades Highway usually gets so much snow above 4,000 feet (passes are all more than that) that some close. The NCH seldom makes it past December 1 and comes back to life around late April or May. Dangers of avalanches or rock slides along the highway. But the valleys are always fun and the east side great for cross-country skiing. Nearer Bellingham, Wenatchee, Seattle, and so on are top downhill skiing areas with good overnight facilities. A book I have not talked about on this blog is constantly popular: North Cascades Highway  -- and also another one Stevens Pass (lots of railroad history there). It has gone through several reprints and is very desirable still since publication originally for the Mountaineers and later Montevista Press,

If you find my books of interest, a more serious but unusual story is Ranald MacDonald, Pacific Rim Adventurer from WSU Press, the fascinating life of a half-Chinook and half English (Hudson's Bay pioneer) who made history along the Pacific coasts, in Japan, Australia, Canada, and the USA. It took two years of broad research in all those countries to put it together as armchair-readable history. Not the Ronald of MacDonald's burgers but Ranald. That is actually the way  a man's name in spelled in some areas of Scotland.

Happy leaf raking, readers.  JoAnn   www.joannroe.com

A lake on one of the San Juan Islands