A Darker View

The Mitchell Point Tunnel

I do not recall when I first discovered the Mitchell Point Tunnel in period photographs, I would have been quite young. I do recall thinking that it was one of the coolest roads I had ever seen. A road tunnel cut just inside the face of a cliff with wide windows open to the sunlight.

The old postcard photos show a fascinating scene, a tunnel large enough for the cars of the early 20th century to pass one another on a smooth roadway. Big openings with heavy stone pillars separating them holding up the tunnel roof. The scenery would have been lovely, with views of the Columbia River well below.

The Columbia River Highway features prominently in my childhood memories. I grew up in the Portland area, and for many years my grandparents lived near The Dalles, as a result our family often traversed the area.

As the line from the old song stated “Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go,” we went. For us the river was the Columbia, and the woods were the thick forests of the Columbia River Gorge.

Salmon Roast

Roasting salmon over open coals in a traditional manner

Waterfall

So… I put assembled something from all of the video I took at Falls Creek Falls and Panther Falls. A small taste of a waterfall hike in the forests of Southern Washington.

Two goals… Get out and enjoy a proper PNW forest hike. Yes, we have waterfalls in Hawaii, just not quite the same. Second… Take a pile of photos and video. I do enjoy a day set aside for photography.

The drone made a huge difference. Falls Creek Falls is particular is quite large and impossible to properly capture from the ground. The drone made all the difference, able to sweep along the waterfall from the air or fly right up to unreachable locations and shoot at lovely angles.

Cordova Gallery

Just a sample of travel to Cordova, Alaska…

A rainy day in Juneau as seen from the window of an Alaska Airlines flight
The fishing port of Cordova, Alaska
Lupine along the trail at Sheridan Glacier
A muddy Sheridan River drains the lake in front of Sheridan Glacier
Icebergs scattered across the lake in front of Sheridan Glacier
An iceberg from Sheridan Glacier sits in the muddy waters of Sheridan Lake
Trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator) forage near Cordova, Alaska
A bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) monitors the Copper River Delta from a convenient perch
The Copper River delta near Cordova, Alaska
The fish processor Dawn unloads in Cordova, AK
Orca Adventure Resort, Cordova, Alaska
The old cannery dining hall serves breakfast at Orca Adventure Lodge
A large winch list abandoned in the brush
A small unnamed stream tumbles through the rock
The Lioness fishing boat belonging to Orca Adventure Lodge
A pole awaits a halibut in Gravina Bay
Fred Cooper fishing with a traditional northwest indian halibut fishhook
Coho salmon ((Oncorhynchus kisutch) on the deck
The author with a nice catch

Crashed and Repaired

It is always a sick feeling in the gut when a drone goes down.

This time it was an unseen branch, a thin and leafless thing that reached well out from the tree, unseen until it was too late. Unseen by the drone’s obstacle avoidance system as well.

I crashed the drone at Panther Falls while enjoying a waterfall day in Southern Washington. A place deep in the trees where a drone pilot is advised to exercise caution. I did, and crashed it anyway.

Waterfall Day

Falls Creek Falls drops into a large plunge pool

For the most part I was just spending time with the folks, a week hanging out and even doing some chores around the house.

I did have one day planned in an otherwise unplanned week… A hike somewhere, a chance to enjoy a bit of summer in a classic Pacific Northwest sort of way. This year it would be waterfalls.

I had two waterfalls picked out… Falls Creek Falls and Panther Falls, both located in the hills above Carson, on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge.

Along with the waterfalls I had one other stop planned, a quick excursion to the new Mitchell Point Tunnel. Add a lunch somewhere along the way and I had a full day.

An important part of the plan was an early start. I left the house at 4am for a dark drive up the gorge for a planned dawn arrival at the trailhead.

The morning dawned clear and beautiful… It should be a great day.

An M3A1 Stuart

Driving through the quiet rural town of Pe Ell, Washington on the way to Tokeland I was a bit surprised to see a small tank along the highway. A little M3 that is currently serving as a veteran’s memorial.

M3A1 light tank serving as a war memorial in Pe Ell, Washington

Having played a few tank based wargames I immediately recognized the tank and we took a few minutes to check it out.

I did need to check a few references to identify which variation this example was, the vertical glacis and lack of a raised engine deck identify this as the M3A1 version.

Sheridan Galcier

Southeast Alaska has so many glaciers, but very few of them are easily accessible. Most require long hikes into wild coutry, floatplanes to remote lakes, or boating through iceberg choked waters to reach. Sheridan Glacier you can drive to.

The glacier is only a few miles from the airport reached by a short gravel road, and an even shorter trail through the woods. Not the glacier itself, as that is about a mile away on the other side of a lake. Rather you reach the shore of a lake covered with icebergs, creating a spectacular scene with the glacier in the background.

At the end of the road the glacier is just visible through the trees as glimpses of ice. A well maintained US Forest Service trial leads to a point from which some of the lake and glacier can be seen.

Sheridan Glacier viewed from an aircraft landing in Cordova

This first viewpoint has a clever feature. Here you find a simple post with a small recess milled into the top. You can place a cellphone on the post and take a photo. Sending the photo to an email address allows the Forest Service to monitor changes in Sheridan Glacier over time. Not by installing their own expensive remote camera, but rather by simply having visiting tourists contribute their photos.

Going a bit further, my brother and I hiked the short trail around and down to the shoreline looking for a better view of the iceberg covered lake. Where the trail emerged again onto the shore a small moriane offered the view we were looking for, a place to sit and enjoy spectacular scenery. From this little moraine also flew the drone to gain a better vantage for some photos.

The lovely weather would not last long, it was a good decision to use this first afternoon in Cordova to get out and see the glacier and explore further to the end of the road.

Sheridan lake with scattered icebergs from Sheridan Glacier

Bering Glacier

It is big. Really, truly big.

The glacier looked to be miles wide and flowed from deep in the mountians to where it nearly reached the sea. My view from the aircraft window allowed a perfect view on a beautiful sunny day. Unlike previous times I had passed this way no clouds obscured the scene.

It took a quick look at the map after the flight to identify the glacier I had seen and photographed… Bearing Glacier, the largest glacier in North America.

The glacier starts at an icefield in the St Elias Range, a stunningly rugged mountain range that abruptly rises from sea level to heights near 20,000ft in places. From there a five mile wide river of ice decends over 50 miles to the coastal plain, ending in Vitus Lake dotted with icebergs broken from the glacier’s terminal face. Seal River, a short, two mile long river then drains glacial meltwater into the Gulf of Alaska.

The numbers fail to capture the sheer grandeur of the that river of ice. While the view from 30,000ft was impressive, I wonder what it would be like to stand in the middle of that expanse on such a beautiful day.