Columbia Slough ride

November 25, 2023

It’s cold and foggy this morning! It’s down around thirty when we get up, and there’s a decent frost on the ground that’s still hanging on when I come back after breakfast. I think this must be Portland’s first significant freeze of the season.

Too cold for Rachael to want to take a thirteen mile hike today, so her plan is to head over to LA fitness this morning for one of their cycle classes and then go out again for a shorter walk in the afternoon. Before she leaves she agrees to not risk reinjuring her back by trying out every machine on the floor before her class starts. And after she’s back we spend a half an hour sitting next to each other on the couch near the space heater, alternately poking at her wonderful new Forerunner 55, staring at its poorly written user’s manual, and cursing in frustration until we finally solve the code and get the display screens set up to her liking. And later after it’s warmed up enough she does get out for that walk, a mere 7.5 miler this time, up into the hilly western reaches of the northwest district.

This is our second pass at the Forerunner 55, actually. We spent a similar period of time last night trying to figure out how to reset its language to English, since for some reason it came out of the box speaking Spanish. An interesting challenge, trying to find the right remedy working with a poorly written manual written in English and a device whose displays are all in Spanish.

For myself though, I decide that once the day warms up enough I want to drive out to the Columbia River with the bike and take some sort of ride along the Columbia Slough. Its been a couple of days since I was last on the bike, my coughing has abated enough that it feels like time to test my health again, and the best parts of the slough are ones I can’t easily get to with a car or on foot.

As I drive, I turn on KMHD and anm amused to have the first tune aired be another Ahmad Jamal number, just as it was yesterday. Must be a sign - we should be looking for a Jamal piece for one of our videos soon.

I don’t really have a plan in mind, but one forms as I drive. I decide to park the car at Broughton Point, bike west to Smith-Bybee Lakes or maybe as far as Kelly Point, and then return. There are four or five different spots I’m interested in stopping in at along the way, but I’ll decide what I’ve got time for as I go.

After leaving the car I bike west, staying to bike paths and side streets wherever possible - including, for the first time, pushing my bike along the footpath behind the new condominiums off the end of Bridgeton Road. It’s a short walk, and pleasant enough if you don’t mind walking through an army of Canada geese and getting goose shit on your shoes, and I like that there’s a good sized flock of gulls just across the channel to scope out as I go. I suspect I’ll do this again when I’m out this way in the future, but probably not with Rocky.

A few glaucous-winged gulls, off Hayden Island.

After crossing under the freeway I’m soon up on the berm east of the railroad bridge, now on a part of our regular cycling route through here. I’ve got my eye out for birds of course, but today all I come up with here is an American goldfinch. It’s a short but attractive path though that I always enjoy, with a fine view east toward Hood and broken ones north to Saint Helens and even Rainier.

This is interesting. This is the old Wahkiakum Ferry, that ran the service across the Columbia at Puget Island from 1962 until it was replaced by a larger, more modern one in 2018. Since then it’s been moored here, at a salvage spot in the channel across from Hayden Island. It’s just been floating here for the last five years, until now. Since the last time I was here though its hull has been repainted, so there must be some plan for it.

Here’s what it looked like when I first saw it here in 2019. I remember riding this ferry a few times, at least once with Rachael on our bikes.

Its name has been painted over, so I’m sure it’s being renovated. I’d always assumed it was here to be scrapped. I wonder what its next chapter is?

The Oregon Slough Railroad Bridge. This is the southern half of the Burlington Northern/Amtrak bridge, across the Columbia, broken in the middle by the tip of Hayden Island.

Looking across the tip of Hayden Island, we can see the other half of the bridge which crosses the main channel of the river.

There are a couple of walk-in spots I like to check in at Smith and Bybee Lakes. The first is the small trail out to the Smith Lake Canoe ramp, a place that puzzles me because the water is always so far out that I can’t imagine it as a canoeing spot. I’ve been here when there are some interesting birds close in - yellowlegs, sandpipers, various ducks - but today everyone is so far out that all I can really make out are the herons and egrets.

The great egrets and herons are large enough to easily identify at least.

The other spot is the Interlakes Trail, which has a few nice viewing spots. It’s a place I’m always conflicted about though, because it’s paved and long enough that I’d prefer biking it but it’s marked as prohibited to bikes. It’s always virtually empty though, so every now and then I’ll bike down slowly and keep eyes and ears alert for walkers so I can hop off and push until they’re passed by and out of sight again.

It’s another mild disappointment today though as the only birds close in are a few mallards and shovelers, even though there are plenty of them congregated in the distance. The best sight today is a nutria that I see swimming and diving nearby who then comes up and sits on a submerged log while he grooms himself. There probably aren’t many nutria fans out there, but Rachael and I both like seeing them.

At a viewing deck along the Smith-Bybee Interlke Trail.

There are quite a few birds on the lake today, but nothing close enough for a good look. Coots, widgeons, teals, who knows what else?

A female shoveler, an easy bird to recognize from that big plank hanging off the front of their faces.

My best look here comes when this nutria who’s been diving for something and then swims over and poses for me atop this submerged log.

It’s starting to get on in the afternoon by now, so I turn back short of Kelly Point and bike east along the slough. I’m thinking at first that I’ll take the spur off to Force Lake when I’m past the golf course and maybe pick up a few more species today, but by the time I get there the sun is getting low on the horizon. Shadows are starting to cover the bike path, it’s getting chilly, and I definitely don’t want to be caught riding a mile on Marine Drive without a light after the sun’s gone down so I just head back to the car except for a few essential stops.

Something big must be happening at the Heron Lakes Golf Course, judging from the few thousand spectators crowded around hole 17.

If it were warmer or not so late in the day I could wait for a proper bird cloud to hide the mountain, but this will give you an idea.

I’ll bet those lucky passengers are off to someplace warm. Spain maybe.

Today’s take (18): rock dove, American crow, golden-crowned sparrow, great egret, little egret, great blue heron, green winged teal, American widgeon, shoveler, American goldfinch, glaucous winged gull, belted kingfisher, common merganser, hooded merganser, double-crested cormorant, American coot, mallard, cackling goose.

Today's ride: 17 miles (27 km)
Total: 17 miles (27 km)

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Patrick O'HaraEven though you're not on tour, I still look forward to reading your journal. Now, I give more than a cursory glance at gulls and shorebirds.
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