MIK's shoestring tour of the USA.

[Boatmik]

The pics in this post are just a hint - many more on flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik...7622429159970/

So ... What a Weekend! It is the highest I have ever sailed by far - about 2500 to 3000ft above sea level.

A very nice bunch of folks. And got to meet BobWes (from here), John Kohnen (the author of the "mother of all nautical links"), Jon Kowitz and Andrew Linn (puddle duckers that sailed in the Texas 200 so triumphantly and a whole bunch of other boat people and a swag of interesting boats.

I had selected pics of all the boats, but since BobWes has done a nice job of it above ... I have been able to select my more favourite pics.

It was a long and slow climb up into the mountains. I actually did not realise how steep the grades were until we started back at the end of the weekend. The mountain range is the Cascades about 2 hours East of Portland, Oregon where the Graybeals live and thrive.

We had PDRacer #77 "Shredder" on the roof and the GIS on the trailer behind. Graybeal likes to camp comfortably, or it might be a response to how close we are to winter.



The car looks low but it has self adjusting air shocks.

We saw this sign near the base of the climb and went straight past.



Later I found out it had quite a good school while reading the local paper. But I did miss out on photos of the "Boring Police Station" and the "Boring Bar and Grill". But soon after that we started to climb and it was conifers to the left of us, conifers to the right of us.



We went down a couple of side roads ... the camping area ...



And the lake and the launching ramp.



Edge of the ramp is rocky as is the beach. The process of part emptying the lake ready for the spring thaw is underway and the water is a couple of feet down. The area was forest and a dam was built. When you sail you can still see the stumps of the trees 5 or 10 ft below the surface. The old river course was on the far side so is significantly deeper along that edge.

This was the collection of boats after we had set up camp. Cost was $17/night for the site.



This was the collection of even more antique objects ...



As the sun went down further I got a shot of Andrew Linn's mightly "Salem Electron", which is the OZ based PDRacer that performed so well as part of the group in the Texas 200 mile race.



The next day I had a look at the boats in more detail. Have a look at the full flickr series (link at the top).

This is Pat's modified Michelak. It is used by him and his wife for cruising. I have an interview with him telling how and why he modified the boat- I am trying to find out how to set it up as a streaming audio clip.. Apparently there are lots of great cruising waters in or near Oregon - The Sacramento Delta is huge with hundreds of kilometres of navigable water.

These rivers are really huge. You look at a pic of the whole state and the rivers have a measureable width on the maps - not just a blue line like in ours.



The next is one of my two favourites. It was restored by Greg Stoll and probably is a plan from Popular Mechanics or one of those magazines. It really was a nice job and gave a real sense of a Utility boat. Everything was very practical.



In the Morning Andrew Linn gave me a rundown on the local trees, showing me the diff between a Douglas Fir and a Hemlock. The fir tops are straight and the ends of the branches have leaves all around.



Continued next post

[Boatmik]

The Core sound was a bit of a hero over the weekend. It helped tow the GIS back in when the woodscrews that held the rudder pintles on pulled out (bolts specified). We were heading back in the right direction ... but it seemed best to accept a tow as it was offered as the wind was very changeable on the lake. It also saved another traditional boat that was from another campsite. I was aboard for that rescue.



This is a really nice pic of Jerry and the offending mutt rowing out toward disaster. The strange thing (to me) is nobody thought of jumping on the centreboard and getting the boat upright again and bailing it out. But maybe they do it a different way here.



I was quite excited to see CRAWDAD that night. I had only ever heard of them on "The Beverly Hillbillies" where they ate "Crawdads", "Grits and Jowls" and "Fatback". Buddy Ebson the star was a multihull pioneer with Rudi Choy catamarans in Hawaii in the '60s.
(trivia is my middle name - and the Coots ... I never met such a trivial bunch in my whole life - hope that reads OK as a joke)



Being vegetarian, I am not even sure if these are the same or different from our "Yabbies".

This is a camplight pic of the Kowitz family. Jon brought his kids and two PDRacers to the weekend. He also went across the USA to go in the Texas200. His "Ranger" is notable for having a lie down cabin for when the weather is bad.



Bobwes is the sweetest guy in the universe. He cooked the slighly scarily named "Dump Cake" on the Saturday night and David and I missed out because I was cooking some dinner and David came to fetch me for the cake. So he cooked another one for us for breakfast. It was so cool. You take some cake mix, a can of apple sauce, some sliced apple and some slices of butter and dump them in a Dutch oven. He puts 6 coals under and 6 coals on the lid. After 20 min he opens it and stirs it. the sheet of paper stops it from sticking.

Was "Heaven on a Stick".



Some people have extra sensory perception about such things so John Kohnen and Gerry turned up from right up the other end of the campsite as the lid was opened. That's about 300metres.

Pat (one of the flounders (sic) of the Coots) gave me a Coots Flag and declared me an Honorary Coot. (Correction from D Graybeal ... the coots are so little into formality "No rules, no fees, no door prizes" that there is no possibility of "honorary". I am a full coot.



I got a bit brave that afternoon and took my voice recorder out in Thorne's((his real name for tax purposes is David Luckhardt) boat and we talked about the boat.



It was built as part of a boatbuilding school by Simon Watts. Some of you will know that very early in the wooden boat revival that Simon and Ian Oughtread were two that were pushing modern traditional boats. It is a nice interview about the boat and covers black powder.

Thorne is David Graybeal's evil twin. OR have I got that round the wrong way. Anyway .. on shore it was frightening. Maybe their mum shops for both of them.



We left soon after the next photo.



This was the last weekend for Timothy Lake. As we left the Rangers were wrapping plastic over the park signs and locking the gates.

The lake is about half drained ready for the spring thaw when the snow melts.

Where we camp gets 2ft and sometimes much more snow and the lake freezes over too.

It was a great weekend. I would like to thank all the Coots and, in particular David Graybeal and his family, who have been most triffically nice. If anyone needs some woodworking/cabinetmaking/boatbuilding done in Portland ... he is the man!

Thanks so much.

MIK

[b.o.a.t.]

(in best Homer Simpson voice)

mmmmm. Yellowcake.

I think they mine that stuff up at Olympic Dam & Jabiru.
Didn't know you could cook with it.

cheers
AJ

[Boatmik]

We get to look in the storage sheds of the Astoria Maritime Museum tomorrow with Lon.

[b.o.a.t.]

What a grand weekend.
Great to put faces to names too.
Thoroughly enjoying the photosets MIK
Glad you're enjoying the trip.
AJ

[m2c1Iw]

What a grand weekend.
Great to put faces to names too.
Thoroughly enjoying the photosets MIK
Glad you're enjoying the trip.
AJ

Ditto and many thanks to Bob.

Wish we were there, what a beautiful spot and as Mik said.........biiiiig trees.

[b.o.a.t.]

Thinking further, apart from them being the wrong sort of trees and higher mountains,
Lake Timothy shares much similarity with several Tasmanian lakes.

*sigh*
You cannot begin to imagine how envious I am at this moment.

AJ

[Boatmik]

Should I stop posting ???

I was glad I caught the tree height. Happy too that Andrew Linn showed me which ones to cut down (joke)

MIK

[m2c1Iw]

Should I stop posting ???

Rhetorical questions are not recommended here, way too confusing.

[Boatmik]

Well a mind-boggling day today.
Set is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik...7622312609441/


Some of the "Coots" boating group organised a joint trip for four of us to Astoria (named after the Astor Family who made their money in the fur industry a couple of hundred years ago.


We got up early and went to meet Long 龍 at his house and climbed into his car. He has a fascination about Australian Cockatoos, the "bad boys" of the bird world so we swapped stories about them along the way. We were also joined by Jim who was buying a Bolger light Dory along the way.






He bought it off Craig's List. He only had to buy the oars - the boat came for free. He has 10 boats gathered in this way and usually onsells them to someone that likes them at quite small prices.


The logging operations are just mind boggling. Acres and Acres of logs waiting for processing or export. Their woodchips come as byproducts, not from destroying whole forests like in Australia.





The comment from David Graybeal (who worked in the industry as a kid - his parents had a ply mill and he worked along the banks of the river attaching cables to logs being pulled into the river) was that the logs are really small these days.


Once in Astoria we went to a really nice bakery. The lady in the shop when she realised I was from Australia gave me more cakes and buns than I could eat at the time. Really nice too. Particularly the Cardamom buns.





She was very proud it was a "BAKERY and not a FAKERY" - meaning not like some of the franchised breadshops in OZ.


Up the road is the museum. Long is in the lead with David following. There were two cruise ships in town and the museum was full of Japanese and Korean Tourists.







Astoria is at the opening to one of the most dangerous river ports in the world. There are dozens of wrecks scattered around the opening of the port. Each of these boat shapes is a wreck.





Here is the info about number 3.





So the entry to the Columbia River is hugely dangerous as well as being the border between Washington State and Oregon.


Now the really cool thing happened. Long had organised for us to see the storage sheds across the road.


I really, really recommend that you have a look at the full flickr set above if you are interested in boats .. I have commented the photos so you can see what they are about.


I still have not worked out how to get audio up on the net.


Fishing boat



Local Racing Yacht class.



One of several duck hunting boats. They are low to the water so the ducks can't see them.



A Calkins designed Bartender - a type used for rescue.

[Boatmik]

I took lots of pics of historic outboard motors.



Some have quite beautiful details. This was a race engine for a hydroplane (pics later and more in the set)




This hydroplane and the one above it held a number of records.




Detail from a self draining rescue boat. It would have been very scary going to sea in one in rough conditions but the parts like this skeg are made quite beautiful by the builder.



This next one is the first type of lifeboat that was built in plywood that was able to be registered for "all weather use". It was built to be used on the liberty boats that supplied England with goods and machinery from Nth America during World War 2.



This is a Salmon Gill Netter. They are very beautiful motor boats, fine lined and elegant. I have pics later of the sailing craft that they were derived from.



This is one of the sailing Gill netters. They had to carry a good load but be fast. The central floor area is very flat giving them quite a lot of stability. Very fine lined in the ends giving good directional stability in rough water.



This is the Executive Director for the Museum who is having a look at the storage areas with us. Thanks Sam Johnson and Curator Jeff Smith!!!





Another view. The rudder slided up and down and extends below the boat when the water is deeper.



Another view of the boats.



They were called the "Butterfly Fleet" because of this






cont next post

[Boatmik]

The Executive Director invited us to the Boardroom as he is interested in getting a meeting together of local people to create a catalogue of traditional boat builders in the area and took lots of notes about contacts etc.

Meanwhile, I looked at the view from the boardroom. Long thought that the room would make a nice apartment. I agreed.









We drove down to the area where people work on their own boats ... but you will have to look at the photoset for that.


But I took some leaving shots to show how cute the houses are.



And we left town as the sun went down.

[Boatmik]

Yesterday spent the day traipsing around Central Oregon With Andrew Linn. We had a canoe on the roof and a boat behind.

The boat behind was a delivery - Andrew had sold a Laser look alike - a now defunct class.

And was pretty nice to get foot mobile and do some short bushwalks.

So not a boaty day - though we talked about boats and I got a bit intimate with Cedars and Spruces.

In each case the spruces were garden variety, but the cedar was the real deal in the forest.

So slightly arty orientation of this lot of pics.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boatmik...7622444035942/



The first stop was Foster Lake. We were about half an hour behind the release of 25000 salmon - they are trying desperately to save the fishery. Found out later that Andrews Mum had spent hours clipping one of the fins of fingerling salmon so they could track the progress of the cultivated fish.

Some had not made it ... but the others were out there wondering where the edges of the tank were.


This one looks like people. It is part of an old sawmill and mill pond that some of the PDR people and the local community are trying to make useful. They plan to reflood it and make it a municipal lake.


Rain forest.

This was part of an offshoot of the wagon train trail . There was serious competition between the towns to see which could grow into a city by attracting settlers. Very cutthroat - sabotage, strandings.



Clear Lake is correctly named. You can see the 6 or 10 ft to the bottom very clearly here. Mountain spring lake with huge flow. it is 35 degrees F all year ... no variation.


This is a representation of how much the earth has been torn up by earthquakes etc in the past.

Remember when the top of Mt St Helens blew off. There are piles of dirt everywhere further north where they have swept the dust of bridges, buildings, roads.

But here is a huge lavafield. Forest all around ... but there are stories of wagoneers bringing the wagons across this mess.



It is miles and miles wide and long. It happened within the memory of the American Indians.

Then off to the dams on the Crooked River. Big hydroelectricity dams. It is these that are wiping out the salmon, but they are still beautiful in their own right.




I am off to Utah today.

MIK

[Joost]

Some wonderful pictures again! Thanks for the daily updates. You seem to be having a very good time in the USA.

Joost

[Boatmik]

Plane was delayed and I am sitting at the airport. A good chance to catch up with more detailed readings of what has been happening while I am zooting around. So far I have really only answered emails like normal but need to catch up with the forums a bit.

Makes me a couple of hours late into Salt Lake City and I am going via Vegas.

MIK