August
August was challenging. There are things that have/were a huge part of my identity that I've had to let go of. I'm usually really good at letting go of things but this time it wasn't so easy for some reason. Maybe because there are so many things I lost due to the pandemic and being one of the few people that still takes precautions. I think there's only so much loss one can experience before it feels pretty overwhelming.
August was also great. I escaped to the coast during one of the heatwave/bad air combos we had. I took the bus to Astoria, rode to Ft Stevens and camped there for two nights. I spent my days riding around the park and birding. It's incredible spot to bird and even better with the fall migration getting started. I ran into a few people I've met through birding which is always fun and there was someone I vaguely knew from the bike industry camping at the hiker/biker site with his kid and we had a great time chatting about bikes, nature and the ways we can have a positive impact on the environment. On the last day I rode my bike south, stopping in Seaside to do a bit of birding before continuing on the Cannon Beach. I spent several hours scouring Haystack Rock before I finally saw one Tufted Puffin. I then caught the bus back to Portland. The bus was pretty full with many people heading home from a day trip to the beach. So happy to see so many people using this great resource!
I spent the last week of the month in SE Oregon. I signed up for an ONDA trip to Hart Mountain to do some stream restoration. It's a very long drive from Portland so I spent a night at Summer Lake Wildlife Area. I had the whole place to myself and got up in the morning, hopped on my bike and birded the loop around the preserve. I wasn't sure what the water levels would look like in a drought year in late August but there was a great mix of water and mudflats which makes for fantastic birding.
I then headed up to Hart Mountain to the Antelope Hot Springs. The campground was effected by the Warner Fire and the flooding that happened last winter. The rains flooded the campground so it's been completely redone. I got up the next morning and again hopped on my bike to go explore some of the unmaintained roads around the refuge. Those roads were in pretty rough shape from the flooding so I didn't make it as far as I was hoping but I did a nice 40 mile loop and got to see a huge herd of Pronghorn, my first Sage Grouse and a really cool rock formation.
Thursday everyone started to arrive for our work and I spent the day recovering from my ride and going on a brief cross country walk in the hills above the campground. Friday we started out work building some Beaver Dam Analogs(BDAs). At some point, all of the beavers were eradicated from Hart Mountain and there's a really need to alter and slow the water flow from the streams on the mountain. Once there's enough habitat on these waterways, there's a plan to reintroduce beaver to the area. This will improve water retention and reduce seasonal flooding. It was a lot of fun to basically play in the streams and gather what we needed to create the BDAs. We formed them out of dirt, mud, rocks, grasses and sedges. There were many jokes about resource management and Settlers of Catan.
As usual - doing something with positive effects, especially something like building BDAs where you can immediately see the water change, was so good for my soul. The excellent company and lack of cell service certainly helped too!
