The Dry Side of the Cascade Mountains

We start the day leaving Hood River and traveling to one of the Columbia’s tributaries, the Deschutes River, and the dry side of the Cascade Mountains.  That sounds contradictory---a river in a dry area.  But mountains block the moist air that forms over the ocean and provides rain on the west (ocean) side.  The clouds carrying that precipitation are rarely high enough to make it over the mountains, so the east is dry...and we're heading east.

Just five miles from Hood River, the average rainfall drops from forty inches a year to fourteen inches a year. 

The Dry Side of the Cascade Mountains

Hiking on the dry side

After our morning hike, we stop at The Dalles for lunch.  This was the area that developed as pioneers migrated across the country only to be stopped by Mt. Hood and the raging Columbia River. 
From here we go to the Historic Columbia River Highway, a scenic highway built in the early 20th century. 

This road was the vision of entrepreneur Sam Hill (yes, there really was a Sam Hill).  Hill was an attorney whose early practice focused on railroads.  When he moved to Seattle in 1901, he started to act on his theory that transcontinental transportation would require more than trains.  He advocated establishing good roads: highways that would not only facilitate movement across the country but would also maintain and respect the natural environment in which they were built. 

Hill and others began to plan the Columbia River Highway with a trip along the anticipated route.  Remember the early pioneers who had to use ropes to lower their wagons down steep hills and extra animals to pull the wagons up?  Hill encountered similar circumstances as he traveled from Portland.

Engineer Sam Lancaster  designed the Highway so it adhered to to Sam Hill’s vision: expedite travel without harming the surrounding beauty.  Engaging Italian stonemasons to try to replicate the designs of European roads,  the team created tunnels and installed rails that did not interfere with nature. This was one of the first US roads built on a cliff face and was the first “scenic highway” in the country.

Unfortunately, I have no photos from this hike.  Not sure what in Sam Hill happened.  I have a feeling that I was so excited about hiking on volcanoes, especially knowing that we were on our way to Mt. St. Helens, that everything else seemed secondary to me.  I regret that now,  but this site can give you more information and some great pics.  http://localadventurer.com/rowena-crest-viewpoint-oregon/

Our route takes us over the  Rowena Crest and alongside the Tom McCall preserve. On a section now closed to motor traffic, we walk the final miles into Hood river, back to the rich vegetation on the rainy side of the mountains.  Lush forest growth reminds us we've gone from an area with fourteen inches of rain a year to an area that gets forty inches.  and dinner. :)

A Little Timberline Trail, A Little Orchard Walk

Our first hike is just two miles along the Timberline Trail on Mount Hood. We’re about 6,000 feet high and our guides have chosen a fairly easy route covering only a small part of the trail.  The Timberline Trail actually goes all the way around Mt. Hood for over thirty-eight miles, and much of it is strenuous and demanding.  But our first hike is just a ‘warm up’ for lunch.  A warm-up with staggering views....

 View from Timberline Trail on Mt. Hood

Along the trail we have beautiful, cloud-shrouded views of the world that extends beyond Mt. Hood. I love these vistas where the earth meets the sky.  It is one of those great ‘perspective moments’ for me.

And in stark contrast to the vast world ‘out there’, the world at my feet...small, bright, colorful flowers forcing their way through the rocky soil.

Phlox

We return to our van to go to Parkdale for a picnic lunch.  From there, we go for our second hike--more of a walk-- in the Kiyokawa Family Orchard, rated among the top ten in the country.  We walk three miles along cherry, apple and pear trees with an inspirational view of the mountain.   So far,  it’s beautiful, easy hiking and.... at the end of the orchard walk there are fresh picked cherries.   I think they may be the best cherries I’ve ever tasted.

 Cherry trees in Kiyokawa Family Orchard

We proceed to the town of Hood River to settle in before dinner.  Hood River is, according to our guides, the wind-  and kite-surfing capital of the world.  I’ve seen windsurfing.  I’ve never seen kite-surfing (also called kite-boarding).  I don’t think I could stay upright on a surf board unless it were on dry land (which kind of defeats the purpose).  So I am very impressed by the kite-boarders of Hood River.  And also impressed by the sight of their bright kites against the hilly backdrop.

Kiteboarding- Hood River

If you’re interested in seeing kitesurfers in action, check  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_4f65pCA6Y .

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This Kiyokawa family’s forebears were among the 120,000+  Americans of Japanese descent interned in camps during World War II after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the government became anxious about the potential for espionage.  About 60% of those interned were U.S. citizens.  The Kiyokawa family rebounded from that to establish one of the country’s top orchards.  In 1988, Congress awarded internment survivors $20,000 as compensation for that violation of civil rights.

Mt. Hood from Kiyokawa Orchard

Mt. Hood--Our Adventure Begins

Our Country Walkers group meets in Portland, Oregon and we drive through farmland to the first volcano of the trip, Mount Hood, 11,235 feet high. 

Mount Hood

The Lewis and Clark expedition opened up this area of the country after Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase. The explorers arrived at the Columbia River in October, 1805, eighteen months after leaving St. Louis to search for the ‘Northwest Passage’. Their venture established a US claim on the northern Pacific region and a basis for relations with the Native population.  Sacagawea and her  French trapper husband facilitated this by acting as interpreters and guides.
 
The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery --thirty three people--were the first from the United States to confront the Columbia River's turbulent waters.  These rapids were bigger, faster, and more hazardous than anything they’d ever seen. They negotiated their way through some of the whitewater to briefly set up camp near an area today known as The Dalles.  The region had been a Native American trading area for many years.

Western migration 2,000 miles across the Great Plains followed not long after Lewis and Clark.  By 1838, pioneers had set up a trading post along the salmon-filled Columbia River. In the 1840s, the US established Fort Dalles to protect settlers.  Reports of fur trade and agricultural possibilities spurred more people to go west.  A trickle from Missouri had swelled to 1,000 emigrants in 1843. In 1845,  three thousand people, with their livestock, made the trip.

Most of the travelers were using ‘prairie schooners’, wagons smaller than the famous conestogas.  When Samuel K. Barlow and others arrived in 1845, they found The Dalles crowded with earlier pioneers who had faced the roiling river and the formidable Mount Hood---and gone no further.

Barlow and others began clearing a road through the forest, an alternative to going down the river.  Ascending hills demanded additional animals to pull the prairie schooners.  Going down steep hills was even worse. Pioneers tried using ropes tied around sturdy-looking trees to control the wagons' descent.  Or they tied trees to the backs of wagons to slow them down.  These measures didn't always work as intended, but they dug into the already steep slope, creating chutes.

 Because my photos and accompanying notes of this stop are a little unclear, I’ve 

  added this photo from http://tinyurl.com/s-usda-gov-recarea-mthood

At the base of the towering Mount Hood, we stop briefly at the Laurel Hill Chute, a two thousand feet treacherous drop that was an one of the alternatives to the impassible Columbia River.


Many pioneers watched their belongings crash to the bottom of the chute, losing almost everything when they were already within sight of their goal.

 

Laurel Hill Chute on the Barlow Road

And yet this was a little less risky than the Columbia rapids. Not much.

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