Late Spring

I am told this has been an unusually wet and cold spring. The Rose Festival happened over Memorial Day weekend, but none of the roses had bloomed yet. Apparently it was not folly for Becca and I to attempt to go to the garden during her visit. Last year they started blooming in early April. Though that was the earliest on record. This year is the second latest so far.

The security guard at John Day told me that typically by this time of year we would be having 90+ degree days. I don't think it has climbed out of the 70s yet (as of Memorial Day Weekend)

On top of the cold, there was been a ton of rain. Water levels are very high. On our way back from Prineville, Becca and I had to take an alternate route because the John Day river was too flooded for smaller cars to pass. When we did cross the river later on, you could see the tops of trees sticking out of the river.

I suppose one of the nice things about the dams is that they work very well as flood control. The water levels in the Columbia are higher than usual, but no one is in any danger. They are just spilling a lot more than usual. Which actually helps the salmon smolt get downstream, though it also increases the gulls' chances of nabbing them.

The picture below is of the nav-lock peninsula at the John Day Dam. This is one of the areas that we do our observations from. When I was setting up this post I noticed that I don't have a good comparison picture to show you how much higher the water is, so I will just have to try to explain.


See those rocks sticking out of the water on the left side of the picture? Typically those stick out about 8 feet. There is normally a nice wide beach there as well. But it isn't a big problem, because we can just stay on the concrete wall that the picture was taken from.

As I said, it is not a big problem and no one is in danger, but unfortunately that is not true for my shelter. In the pictures below you can see that there is a bit of a stream running through the shelter. It had also taken a bit of a beating from waves by the time these pictures were taken.


Since these pictures were taken I am told all but the outside supports has been washed away. But that's also not such a big deal. Pretty soon it should be summer here (or so I hope), and we won't want to shield ourselves from the wind anymore. I am looking forward to rebuilding. It will be a lot easier if I am not worrying about the wind. It is no mean feat to build a windproof barrier using only oddly shaped pieces of driftwood.

And here's a picture of Becca taken at Prineville Reservoir. They also had a bit too much water there.


EDIT: I first wrote this post on Memorial Day. This past week I worked at John Day again. I took some more photos. These new photos are as of 6/5. The water has gotten a lot higher and I hear it hasn't peaked yet.

Compare this photo to the first photo in the post. They are taken from basically the same spot. This is the increase on the already very high water level. It has destroyed all the plants that used to make up that little cove.


Many of the native fishermen's platforms have taken a beating. Some were built high enough, but more than a few have floated away.


The shelter isn't such a great place to sit anymore.


At this point, it is totally gone, replaced by extremely fast growing seaweed.


Here's a picture of the little catwalk I have to walk down with a wave breaking over it. Most of the time they just spray upwards, but occasionally they hit at an angle and send a lot of water over the top. I almost got creamed by a wave last Friday. On Sunday I got sprayed pretty thoroughly.

Fortunately, to the left of the catwalk is mostly solid ground. There is one section with water on both sides that makes me nervous every time, though. Also we wear life-jackets at all times on the navlock peninsula, so I'm pretty safe. It's my electronics that I worry about.