Sunday, November 19, 2006

Got Wind?

Well, we were able to get outside a bit yesterday during one of the non-rainy days we have seen in a while. It was chilly, but VERY windy. We started out by heading up to hwy 14 on the WA side of the Columbia River. Beautiful drive, I must say. Our first stop was at Beacon Rock, the remains of one of the many mini-volcanoes that used to line the Gorge a long, long time ago. It stands about 840 feet high and looks like there would be no way to climb it. Fortunately for us, there is a switchback trail all the way up the side to the very tip top. Quite an amazing bit of trail work, I must say. It was chilly but the worst of it was the wind. It must have bee a steady 50-60 mph up at the top. It chilled us to the bones! After that, continued east to a little known area called Hamilton Springs. Right around this time of year, and as we found out probably another week, it's home to some amazing fall salmon spawning. We saw about 10 fish out there and a couple of dead early spawners. They were all pretty active but not quite ready to spawn yet. In a week or so, the area will be home to over 300 fish. We are planning on going back after Thanksgiving. Hopefully things are more productive. I'm putting in a picture of one of fish we saw but I'm not sure what it is. Possibly Chum? Maybe my fish guru sister can enlighten us all. After that we headed a bit more east to a little town called Stevenson. We walked around some of the shops while we waited for the local brewery, Walking Man Brewery, to open up. While in a flower and garden shop, the owner asked about the hat Anne had on. When Anne told her she made it, she said she could easily sell them in her shop. She gave Anne her card and told her to think about it. Could this be the start of a new business for Anne? Yoga bags and winter hats maybe? Only time will tell. We finally made it to the Brewery and had a small pizza and a couple of pints of brew. I had a great hoppy IPA called homo erectus and Anne had a black cherry stout. That one was good enough for us to buy a growler and bring it home. All in all, a nice day.
--P

1 comment:

Marci said...

Hmmm - looks like Oncorhynchus nerka to me, but what do I know??? Hard to tell when they're adults and all skanked out like that...