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Deschutes River from Columbia January 2020
Posted: February 5th, 2020, 8:52 am
by retired jerry
My annual trip up the Deschutes. Spent several nights.
Rainy in Portland, just a bit rainy on the Deschutes. This is a reason to go there, much less rain than in Portland.
The area is recovering well from the fire a couple years ago, you can hardly tell there was a fire.
The "trail" is a gravel road with locked gate. You can see that the trees along the river have been pretty much unaffected by the fire:
There are places that were burned, plants are growing back, but you can tell that it burned recently:
All those buildings at the Harris Homestead are burned up with some residual burned lumber:
One could argue those old dilapidated buildings are better off burned.
Great place for a winter hike when it's raining on the west side. If the gorge isn't so icy as to be impassable.
Re: Deschutes River from Columbia January 2020
Posted: February 5th, 2020, 11:33 am
by Ron Goodwin
Sorry to see the homestead and water tower gone.
Re: Deschutes River from Columbia January 2020
Posted: February 5th, 2020, 12:15 pm
by retired jerry
not sorry to see homestead gone, it was dilapidated. Although it was sort of cool. Okay, maybe a little bit sorry
sorry to see water tower gone, they had restored it a while ago
a couple of those other buildings were still being used to store stuff
Re: Deschutes River from Columbia January 2020
Posted: February 5th, 2020, 1:44 pm
by mountainkat
My husband and I did the long walk out to the Harris water tower and back on Sunday. It was a nice escape from the rain, but quite breezy. It really has come back quickly since the fire.
We saw a few tents and wondered how it was going for the campers. Very cool that you were out there. It is so nice and quiet there, especially in this season. I have yet to see any sheep, though we look every time.
Re: Deschutes River from Columbia January 2020
Posted: February 5th, 2020, 2:13 pm
by retired jerry
I hardly ever see any other tents
Occasionally I see big horn sheep on other side, once there were three groups of about 150 total in my path, I was a bit concerned
Re: Deschutes River from Columbia January 2020
Posted: February 5th, 2020, 2:45 pm
by teachpdx
I'm planning on doing a quick overnight out there this coming weekend. The sounds of the wind, the rapids, and the occasional train are very relaxing. And being a flat hike I can pack a few more pounds of life's comforts with me.
Re: Deschutes River from Columbia January 2020
Posted: February 6th, 2020, 6:31 am
by kepPNW
retired jerry wrote: ↑February 5th, 2020, 12:15 pm
not sorry to see homestead gone, it was dilapidated. Although it was sort of cool. Okay, maybe a little bit sorry
sorry to see water tower gone, they had restored it a while ago
I still need to explore beyond the water tower (site)... How far did you go?
Thought that old homestead was kinda cool, too, yeah...
Photo credit: mountainkat (album)
Its days were likely numbered, though.
Re: Deschutes River from Columbia January 2020
Posted: February 6th, 2020, 7:03 am
by retired jerry
You are a brave person Karl
I have stuck my head inside a bit checking out what's inside.
I went another couple mile further, then I heard gunshots so I turned around. Then there were gunshots the other direction - it was from a boat going down the river, I think they were shooting birds. I assume everything was legal, I didn't feel too much in danger.
Of course, I've been all 23 miles many times. A couple months ago I started from the other end but didn't feel like hiking very far down. Good way to escape the rain.