9/10/16
Hi All,
While the nice weather holds, we decided almost on the spur of the moment to do a short campout with our daughter Esther. As it turned out she was thinking of going camping herself, so we decided on a place not too far from where we both live called “Fisherman’s Bend Campground.” The place is about 25 miles east of Salem, Oregon, on the Santiam River. This river has its source from the snow melt in the Cascade Mountains which is the eastern boundary of the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon. The river is quite clear and, while I am not into fishing, it does hold native trout with Salmon and Steelhead at appropriate times of the year. Adventurous folks kayak its upper stretches and canoeists the lower stretches, and we have done so in past years on the last 10-15 miles of it, just before it empties into the Willamette River which divides the middle of the valley of the same name.
Since most of the recipients of this are family who don’t live here in the west, I decided to include the above description to help you understand where it is. I think it took us 75 minutes to drive there from our house on the other side of the valley. This time of year is usually slow for birding but we did have a Pileated Woodpecker in our campsite in the morning - the largest woodpecker species in America.
I plan to write a description with each of the photos to help explain a little more about them. To keep us good company were Esther's two Chihuahua dogs, Pierre and Apollo. They are pretty good dogs, at least they are quiet for their particular breed.
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| Esther's tear-drop camper |
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| The 3 of us - I took this photo with a camera app from my handheld I-phone. Technology never ceases to amaze us! |
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| Our daughter Esther |
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| Looking up river - the Santiam River |
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| The 3 of us with downriver in back of us |
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| A better shot downriver |
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| Making breakfast. I build the fire...... |
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| A group of boaters getting ready to embark |
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| The northern boundary of the campground |
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| This shot was across the road from the entrance of the campground. Guess someone got quite creative....... |
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| It was a little nippy in the morning for Pierre |
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| Two little pampered pests, er, I mean, pets |
