The Hardware

The equipment we're using for this project is pretty sophisticated. All of the data is logged on this rugged little tablet PCs. And it is all done using a program written expressly for our project. The program actually didn't get finished (due to some monetary issues) until the day before we started. This means that there are tons of bugs in it, but it is still pretty neat.

I won't go into too much detail of how the program works, but it allows us to log the attacks on a map of the site so that when we are finished with the project we will be able to analyze the attacks and effectiveness of attacks not only by zone, but by exact location.

Equally as exciting as the program are the tablet PCs. These things are pretty serious. They start at around $1900 and are super rugged. I don't remember a lot of the specs offhand, but I do remember reading that they are fine in rain up to 4 inches per hour. Which is important given the quality of the weather this week.

And here's a picture of me in the full getup. They also got us 4-point harnesses so that the computer can stick straight out of our stomach while we walk around. It's nice if you're walking all day (such as when there are no birds to watch), but is annoying otherwise and impossible if you're trying to bike.


Also makes me feel a bit like a gargoyle (for those of you who have read Snow Crash).

Dog Mountain

This past Saturday I hiked up Dog Mountain. The weather was perfect, and apparently hiking on the Washington side of the gorge is the thing to do at this time of year. From the summit you could look across and see the snow still covering that altitude on the north facing slopes of the Oregon side of the gorge. On the south facing slopes of Dog Mountain the snow was gone and the sun was warm and pleasant. It even got close to 70 degrees down at the base of the mountain.


The hike was pretty taxing. It's a 7 mile loop with a 2700 foot elevation gain. I took a few breaks and was pretty exhausted by the time I reached the top, but it was well worth it. The views were amazing. As you can see in the above picture, the top of the mountain was completely open and the skies were clear, which made for some excellent vistas.


Below is a picture of Mt. St. Helens taken from the summit. You could actually see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens from the top. I didn't take a picture of the other two because I have had better views elsewhere. This was the first time I'd seen Mt. St. Helens, though.


Aside from a blister on my heel that I got from the steep and extended descent, I finished the hike feeling good. I wasn't even terribly sore the next day. Not sure what my plans are for next weekend, but it is supposed to be gorgeous as well. Perhaps another hike on the Washington side of the river.

Eighteenmile Island

Eighteenmile Island is a small island located in the Columbia river between Mosier and Hood River. According to the internet, it has an area of just under 10 acres. What makes Eighteenmile Island interesting is that it houses a single private residence. I have been told that the island is owned by Tom Selleck, of Magnum P.I. fame. I'm not sure if this is true. The internet tells me that it used to be referred to as Chicken Charlie's Island, definitely a much more interesting name.

Anyways, zoning restricts any further development of the island, but the lone structure remains. And it is still privately owned. The island is accessible only by boat, but has power lines coming from the mainland to supply electricity. Water has to be taken from the Columbia and filtered.

At first glance, this seems like an idyllic getaway. A private island is a pretty standard fantasy, I believe. The description of the island on wikipedia lists features including douglas firs, willows, a basalt cliff, wildflowers, and a sandy beach. There is however a downside to this residence. The downside is that it is located no more than a few hundred feet from a constantly busy highway. Other than that, it would be amazing. Though perhaps better suited to being a bed and breakfast than a home.


The island was put back up for sale in 2007 for $1.4 million. Since then it appears the price has dropped to $950k. In the description, they offer "bragging rights" as a reason to buy this house. No joke.

Audible.com

So, I was listening to This American Life the other day. It's a great podcast, but that's not what I am going to talk about. At the end of the episode, they mentioned that if you go to audible.com/american, you can sign up for an audible account and get a free audiobook. I have been trying to find ways to fill my time at work, so I did this. You get a 14 day trial and 1 credit with which to get a book. After the two weeks are up, they charge you $15, unless you cancel beforehand. When you go to cancel however, they attempt to keep you by offering better deals.

For example, when you are canceling your membership, they ask your for a reason. If you indicate that you did not like what you got, they will give you another credit with which to purchase a book (and don't be tricked, it is for any book. They just show you a list of customer favorites). The next time you go to cancel, I think no matter what you say, they will offer you a 50% price reduction for the first 3 months (which makes it $7.50 per month for the one book a month plan).

The secret is that you can make one audible account per credit card and email address (though the email address can be fake so long as you remember the login information). I currently have 3 cards and a bunch of email addresses, so last night I downloaded 6 books from Audible. I could have gotten 7, but it took me a bit of tinkering to figure out all the tricks. I am going to keep my subscription for at least a few months so that I won't feel guilty about getting all these books, but for now it's great.

The list of books I purchased is:
Bossypants by Tina Fey (which I actually listened to in its entirety on Wednesday)
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Matterhorn by Karl Merlantes
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris and
A Game of Thrones Book 1 by George R. R. Martin (which I knew nothing about until all this tv series hype)

The trick to getting 2x+1 books for $7.50 (where x is your number of credit cards and email addresses) is to sign up for the trial with each and get a book. Then go to cancel and say you didn't like the book, get another book. Then cancel all but one. On the last account, accept the 50% price reduction for the first three months and you will immediately be charged and given another credit for a book.

Alternatively, you could get two free books for each credit card + email address you have if you don't want to sign up for a subscription. Also, this might only work if you are putting your books on a device through iTunes. That is what I used.

Even if you don't want to do all this rule bending to acquire a bunch of books, you should at least go and get the one free book they offer to everyone.

Rowena Plateau and the Historic Highway Trail

This past weekend I went with a couple of my roommates to check out Rowena Plateau and the historic highway trail from Mosier to Hood River. Rowena Plateau is a scenic overlook with a couple of trails kept by the Nature Conservancy. It's a pretty area with some wonderful views, but the wind was fierce. And the longer trail to McCall's Point was closed. So, we after hiking the 1 mile trail there, we went to check out the other trail.

As it turns out, I took very few pictures on the second trail. Only the last two in this post are from the second trail, but they are pretty interesting. These next two are both from Rowena Plateau.


This field was interesting to me. The entire thing is made up of big chunks of talus. It's pretty normal to see slopes of talus, but an entire field?

You can't tell very well in the photo, but this entire tree is blackened from wildfires. There was a lot of evidence of wildfires along the trail. At least at first. After a mile or so we crossed an area with higher annual rainfall, so the trees got thicker and there was less evidence of wildfires.


Didn't see too much. One of the folks I was with wanted to turn around after a couple miles, so we only did about half the trail. It was okay, though. The day before was my roommate Ryan's birthday, so we were out pretty late. Next weekend I'll have to find something more adventurous (this path was paved).

The First Week of Observations

The first week of observations went well. For the first week I was on the PM shift at The Dalles Dam. This meant that I was working from 12:30 PM to 8 PM. Our schedules rotate weekly between the dams and between AM and PM shifts.

The first couple days were slow, but the gulls showed up on the third day. I downloaded a whole bunch of podcasts, so I've been spending my days listening to NPR and BBC programs and watching the gulls forage. It's not so bad. Well, not usually. Friday was cold and rainy. Nothing terribly pleasant about sitting out in the cold rain all day.

The picture below is taken from the top of the dam looking down into an area that used to be a public park. It is now closed to the public. Security tightened up quite a bit after 9/11 apparently. Now only employees and the occasional tour group are allowed on the project. The park is overgrown and now serves primarily as a nesting site for geese and quails.


On my first day of observations something completely unheard of happened. The picture below shows it. That is the spillway.



And if you zoom in reeeally close, you can see a black bear stuck right at the top of a 60 foot drop off. I'm not really sure how it got there. I don't think anyone saw it until it was already stuck.



Unfortunately, they killed the bear. The rationale is that they can't really get a boat that close to the spillway. And I am not sure how well they could tranquilize it, because it might just fall into the water if they did. So, they shot it. Apparently black bears are overpopulated in the area, so they weren't too worried about it. Still seems like a shame, though.

The last photo was taken this morning (4/18). It is the moon setting behind Mt. Hood. I'm on the AM shift for the next couple weeks, so I have to beat the sun to work in the morning.

Yeon State Park

Last Saturday I went to check out Yeon State Park. It is a pretty small park. More of a trailhead, really. It is just a little turnoff from the highway where you can pick up a couple of trails. I was feeling up to a challenge, so I chose the Neswith Point trail.


I quickly learned a couple of things about hiking the Columbia River Gorge. First, I am going to be in great shape by the end of the summer. Second, I will also have to overcome any fear of heights I have.

I picked this trail out of a guidebook without actually reading all of the entry. I picked it because the length was right to challenge me (about 10 miles), and I wanted to see how tiring a 'difficult' rated trail would be.


I didn't come close to finishing it. The trail ran practically straight up a mountain. It was steep switchbacks the whole way and frequently the path became terrifyingly narrow. I hiked upwards for about 90 minutes, but I was winded after about 30. I'm not used to all the inclines they have around here. But the real shock was just how small the trail was. At one point the trail was no more than about 3 feet wide, with a very steep hill to the left, and a steeper hill leading to a tall cliff just off to the right. And there was a fallen tree in the middle of the path to climb around. I was a bit nervous for a while, but I think I will get used to the steep slopes and narrow paths quickly.


Like I said, I didn't finish the trail. But it wasn't just exhaustion that stopped me. What really made me turn around was the snow. After about 90 minutes I had reached the frost line, and the path, in addition to being narrow and steep, was now also covered in slick snow and slush. I decided that I would leave those heights for a warmer day. I stopped, had lunch, enjoyed the view, and then began the easier but knee-battering down-hike.

Here's the view from where I stopped. Not bad. Also a pretty significant elevation gain from the highway below.


It was fun and a good challenge. I look forward to getting into good enough shape to take on hills like that. For next weekend, though, I am going to pick something a bit flatter.

Training week

The first week was all training. It felt a bit like summer camp. We took a lot of field trips, and it was a pretty easy schedule. We ended up having to put off the first real day of observation until the 11th because of some issues with the software we'll be working with.

The two most fun parts of the week were the trip to Bonneville Dam, and the trip to the Maryhill winery to observe a gull nesting area.

I'd been to the Bonneville dam before, but this time I was being shown around by a Corps of Engineers employee, so we saw some things I missed the first time. Nathan Zorich, one of my bosses, was showing us around. He took us through the hatchery, showed us the sturgeon they have there, and introduced us to the SCA interns they have working there. The interns there are monitoring sea lions. Bonneville Dam is the furthest downstream of any dam on the Columbia, so that is where the majority of the sea lions are. Occasionally one slips past up to The Dalles Dam, but it is not common.

We were pretty lucky and there was a lot of sea lion activity at the dam while we were there. When we first got there, one promptly surfaced with a huge steelhead in it's mouth. There were a couple others swimming around as well. Here's a photo of the sea lion with the fish:


The Maryhill winery was the other field trip. It is located on the Washington side of the Columbia about halfway between The Dalles and John Day dams. After being granted permission from the owners, we walked out across their vineyards to the edge of the cliff to check out the gull nesting grounds in the river. I forget the name of the place, but it is a bunch of small islands in the middle of the river, where thousands of gulls nest every year. Apparently it is a prime place for gulls. There are two dams nearby for them to fish, there are two landfills nearby for them to scavenge, and they are also fond of eating the cherries from nearby orchards.

You can't see it in the photo, but there are thousands of gulls on these little islands.


It was a pretty neat place up on top of the cliffs there. The winery has a large amphitheater for shows and a nice patio. I might have to go back a sample a few wines there once the weather warms up a bit.

And here's a photo of Mount Hood from our living room. This is the first day it has not been at least partially obscured by clouds.

Pike Place Market and Science Fiction

Pardon the chronology of the blog being all out of whack, but I am now going to harken back to when I was still on the road.

By the time I got to Seattle I think I was starting to get a little tired of traveling. I probably didn't take full advantage of my time in the area, but I did see some cool sights. And it definitely didn't help that my hotel was in a sketchy part of SeaTac.

Other than the sketchiness of the neighborhood, the hotel was great. It was cheap, and it was located about a half a mile away from a link station, so I could get a train into town for $2.50. I prefer to be on foot when exploring a city. You can't take in things well from a car, and parking is typically outrageously expensive. So, I enjoyed that about my stay in Seattle.

What I saw in Seattle ended up being a lot of science fiction. The Science of Star Wars exhibit had just opened a few days before I arrived, so I checked that out at the Pacific Science Center (thanks for the tip, Nate). The other science fiction exhibit I saw was the Battlestar Galactica exhibit at the Sci-Fi museum.

The Star Wars exhibit was pretty neat. Tons of props and costumes, some interesting science, and a ride in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon. I was there on a Friday afternoon, so the rest of the exhibit was filled with parents and tiny, screaming children, but I still enjoyed myself.




The Battlestar Galactica exhibit was pretty small. Nothing compared to the Star Wars exhibit, but I felt like I ought to see it. Battlestar Galactica is, after all, one of my favorite television shows.


Other than those exhibits, I didn't do too much sightseeing. I went to the Pike Place Market on the weekend. I'm not really the market-going type, typically. And with no kitchen and my car already pretty well packed, there wasn't a whole lot for me buy there. So, I wandered through, looked at the art, enjoyed the huge flower stands, watched some folks toss fish around, and had some street food for lunch. This time it was a couple of samosas. Can't go wrong with those.

This is the stand where the employees toss the fish around.

AirBnB.com

For those of you unfamiliar with it, AirBnB.com is a website that facilitates individuals renting out rooms in their house (or their entire house) as if it were a bed and breakfast. The nice thing about AirBnB as compared to a standard B&B is that you can find some really great deals.

For my first stop in Portland, I rented out a woman's finished basement for $300 for the week. It had a private entrance, a private bath, and all the other amenities you would expect of a nice hotel room, but it was quite a bit cheaper.

After Portland, I went down to Mapleton, OR, where I stayed in another AirBnB place. This one was just a room in a house, but it was only $25/night. The ladies I stayed with were very nice, and you can't find a hotel room anywhere for that price.

Some of the places are very similar to couchsurfing, where you are in close quarters with your host, but many of them are much nicer. There are also quite a few luxury places to rent listed on there, though they were well out of my price range.

Anyways, next time you're traveling, check out AirBnB. There might be someplace cheap and nice where you're heading. And if you have a guest room in your house, it might be a nice way to make a little extra cash as well.

My First Few Days

The first few days of work have gone pretty well. The first week is mostly orientation. The first day was all spent meeting people and getting the many securities clearances we needed to be able to walk around the dams unmolested.

The second day we took a detailed tour of each of the dams we will be working at, The Dalles Dam, and the John Day Dam. I've never been inside a hydroelectric dam before, it is pretty neat. They took us through the powerhouse and everything. Apparently most of the electricity generated at The Dalles dam is actually routed directly to southern California for use.

I got some more details about the job. We will all be working 5 days a week on either the morning or evening shift. The morning shift works from sunrise to about midday, and the evening works from midday to sunset. Our shifts rotate each week between morning and evening and between the two dams, so we will get to try it all. The downside of this is that for two weeks you will work from 12 pm - 8 pm, and the next 2 weeks you will have to be at the dam at around 5 am. It will certainly wreak havoc on our circadian rhythms.

We start observations on Friday. I think I'm on PM shifts for the first couple weeks. But the end before 8 this early in the season.

Here's the John Day Dam from the Navigational Lock Peninsula, one of our observation sites:


Here's a closer shot of the John Day spillway. They're spilling right now because there is apparently way too much water. I believe they told us that the dam was spilling around 100,000 cubic feet per second right now. And that's not including what goes through the turbines.


Here's a picture of all of us walking through the powerhouse at the John Day.


And here's a group photo taken of all of us this morning. From left to right, the interns are: Me, Natalie, Ryan, Lisa, Amy, and Melissa

And yes, we get to wear these hardhats every day.

Also, the picture at the top of this post is of the area around The Dalles. I took it one day when I decided to go for an early morning drive. The Dalles, I believe, qualifies as high desert.

Mt. St. Helens

So, as it turns out, I picked a terrible day to go to Mt St Helens. It was quite cloudy, and at no point in the drive was I able to actually see the mountain. Additionally, once I reached a certain altitude on the drive there, all of the scenic overlooks were still full of enormous snow banks. And finally, the road was closed a ways before the mountain. But it was still interesting. I checked out the visitor center, learned a bit about the eruption, and still got to see some of the landscape around the mountain, if not the mountain itself.

This bridge is at the very edge of the blast zone of the eruption.


This is what it looked like when I got close to the mountain.


And this is a neat thing from the visitor center. It illustrates the quantity of ejecta (in cubic kilometers) that left the volcanoes during their eruptions. The tiny one, front and center, is Mt. St. Helens. To the left is the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia. To the right is the 1912 eruption of Mt. Katmai in Alaska. And the huge one in the back is Mt. Mazama, the volcano that created Crater Lake here in Oregon.

The House

The house is way nicer than I expected. It has 3 baths and 5 bedrooms. The house is on top of a hill and has a gorgeous view of the surrounding valley. There are 6 interns, but I think the house is big enough for us to be comfortable.

I won't have internet until next Thursday, 4/7, so my posts might become more sporadic. And I will probably have less to write about, so I think I am going to shift to a MWF posting schedule. Here are pictures of the house.

The kitchen is pretty nicely sized. Plenty of pantry space too.

This is the living room.

This is the room I will be living in. Definitely not a bedroom, it has a fireplace and shuffleboard in the floor. Now all I need is a bed. But as least I have a couch to sleep on until I find one.



This is the view from the living room. The picture didn't come out great, because there was a cloud obscuring the peak, but that white blob is Mt. Hood.


This is the park at the end of the street.

This is the view of the city from the park.

And this is the view east. That is The Dalles Dam, one of the dams I will be working at.



Oh, and in case anyone needs it, the address here is:

338 West 21st St.
The Dalles, OR 97058