Oregon Fall

Well we're back to standard time and it's dark early, just in time for Halloween.

I spent Friday and Saturday in Florence, Oregon at an oceans conference. My motel was right on the Siuslaw River. Wish I'd had a kayak!

Last weekend, Peter joined Chuck and me at Wapanitia. It was a busy weekend, transplanting pines to the new berm and then watching as Bob Finn and his crew chopped down a big tree that was leaning toward the cabin. Peter was a tremendous help throughout--digging up pines, transplanting them and then helping us saw up the tree. It was great having him join us.

After all the wood work, we hiked into Clark Creek and Newton Creek to see the extent of the damage from the Highway 35 flood. Chuck and I had toured the whole scene a couple of weeks ago with the ODOT and USFS guys. The power of the debris flows on the mountain are amazing--moving tons and tons of sand, gravel and rocks. It makes geology come alive. We had heard that the bridge across Clark Creek washed out, but it was still there. And the Newton Creek crossing ended up easier than it was before the flood. The picture above shows Chuck and one of the ODOT guys looking at one of the main flood areas.

It was great hearing from Michael and seeing his photos of California. Hope some of the rest of you bring us all up to date.

Gail