I wanted to do something a little different today, so I headed up to Sauvie Island to hike its northern shores to Warrior Rock. It's a pretty easy hike, about 3.5 miles one way and pretty flat. At the end of the hike there's a neat old lighthouse, and along the way are great views of the Columbia River, Mt. St. Helens, and with any luck some giant ships and wildlife.
I've heard they've got some really big stuff down in Texas, but you know, we've got some pretty big stuff here too. Big mountains, big valleys, big rivers, big beaches. And if you can believe Wikipedia, we've also got the "largest non-delta river island on earth". That would be Sauvie Island, a charming if somewhat strange quilt of pastoral farmland, state wildlife refuge and "clothing optional" public beaches just 10 miles north of downtown Portland. The trailhead is at N45.80848, W122.79834, which is at the very end of Reeder Road, about 14 miles past the Sauvie Island bridge. If you do head up here for this awesome little hike you'll need a Sauvie Island Wildlife Area parking permit, which are $3.50 at the Cracker Barrel market by the bridge.
Just a few cars at the trailhead today...
The hike starts out along the beach...
A seaplane taking off...
Pretty soon a giant car carrier came cruising along...
A channel marker back in the woods...
Some big flotsam...
I ran out of beach after a while, so I took a path up into the tall cottonwood trees to look for the old lighthouse access road...
One of about a dozen birdhouses I saw today...
More shipping...
Before long we were at the neat old 1930's era lighthouse...
There were some folks fishing from the nearby beach...
At the end of my hike, near the end of the island I got a bit of a view of the town of St. Helens...
Heading back...
Somewhere along this stretch of beach Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery made camp back in 1805. I wonder what they would have thought had this rusty little bucket come lumbering by...
Today's map (click to enlarge)...
Fun day on the river!
Gordon
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