Sunday, June 10, 2012

Just How Big Is It?

Another week is behind us and we've continued to learn new stuff; experience and skills for the resume when we begin our search for next year's gig. Workweeks run Sunday through Saturday. Joan and I have Sunday and Mondays off. We started the week by driving north to the Columbia River Gorge and traveling east along Historic Columbia River Hwy 30 from Troutdale to Hood River. Hwy 30 was one of the first roadways to follow the Gorge. According to Wikipedia "The original highway was promoted by lawyer and entrepreneur Sam Hill and engineer Samuel C. Lancaster, to be modeled after the great scenic roads of Europe. From the very beginning, the roadway was envisioned not just as means of traveling by the then popular Model T, but designed with an elegance that took full advantage of all the natural beauty along the route."
Looking East from Chanticleer Point


Vista House
Horsetail Falls
The workmanship and design of the bridges and roadway railings/walls is quite amazing. There are numerous waterfalls, overlooks, trailheads and parks along the route. Unfotunately many parts of the original route have been replaced by Interstate 84.





A Young Family We Met
Along Our Route

One of My Favorite Views
























Joan and I are considered Maintenance/Camphost. Our primary responsibilities include maintenance of the campgrounds and their infrastructure; and we can fill in as camphosts at any of the 51 campgrounds when the primary camphosts are away. Wednesday found us cutting and bucking trees in campgrounds closer to Mt Hood. Temps started out in the low 40's and topped out in the mid 50's. It actually snowed the day before we worked on the trees. And some of those trees were very large.

Ever Wonder How Big the Trees Are That We're
Having to Trim?



About Half as Tall as Our Truck
























New skills this week.....carpentry, demolition and plumbing. We spent time repairing a couple of tables that had been damaged. We had to dismember and remove a couple of tables that could not be repaired. We also worked to repair a broken 3" pvc water pipe and topped off some water supplies for camphosts in remote campgrounds. Who knows what next week holds?

Happy Birthday to Sarah. Enjoy your vacation. Stayed tuned. More to come.















6 comments:

  1. Holy cow -- those trees are ginormous!

    I wonder if we're related to that "Young" family. (Ha Ha)

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  2. Sounds like you can add lumberjack to your resume. Geez. That's dangerous work!

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  3. Good grief those are big trees! Sounds like you are working hard!

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  4. After trimming all those trees, you should hit the softball out of sight this season.

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  5. Steve, no matter how gorgeous the state of Oregon is, we know your favorite view is any view with JOAN in it.

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    1. AHHHH! That's so sweet! Hope you have a safe trip to Ohio. Miss you guys!

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