Leavenworth to Hood River

Tuesday, August 4th Ever hear of an Alphorn?   I saw in a brochure that a Alphorn player performed from a balcony at a hotel down the street from ours at 9:15.    After breakfast we walked several blocks to catch his concert.  Since we watched from across Highway 2, it was hard to hear the horn over the traffic.  But it was free, and it was the first time I had ever heard one.  Pretty cool!

The Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery just two miles out of town was our next stop.  In the Visitor Center there was display showing the life cycle of the spring Chinook salmon.  When the Grand Coolee Dam was built on the Columbia River in the 1930’s, migration of the salmon above the dam came to a halt.  The federal government established fisheries to help the salmon of the Colombia River.  We took a self guided tour and saw fingerlings which were about 4-5 inches and adult salmon just about ready to spawn.  Here at the hatchery they have naturalists who know when the salmon are mature and collect the eggs and sperm and fertilize them in buckets.    A truck from another hatchery was picking up fingerlings to take to their facility.   With the hot temperatures they are having trouble keeping the fingerlings in the cool 60 degree water they need for survival.  The sad part is that in spite of all these efforts through these hatcheries, the spring Chinook salmon is an endangered species. There was also a nature trail at the hatchery.  While on the trail, Frank said “There’s something moving over there in the woods.”  We watched. It was black and big.  “It’s a black bear!”  Frank whispered.   We froze and watched as the bear continued to eat.   I tried to get a picture, but was afraid to move closer.   He left, but we were able to catch another glimpse of him as we walked a bit farther on the trail. The bear lifted his face and looked straight at us.  He was too quick to get a picture.

In the picture above you can see the fish ladder the salmon must swim to get to the holding pond at the hatchery.  They swim this journey from May to July.   The wood platforms by the bank of the Icicle River are Native American fishing platforms.  From a treaty in 1855 they have the rights to continue  their tribal traditons of hunting for salmon which is their primary source of food.  Wish we had been visiting when they were actively fishing. Chelan and Stehekin were to be our next stops.    Stehekin is a remote town in the Northern Cascade National Park and a resupply town for thru-hikers on the PCT.  Unfortunately we had to change our plans because of a wildfire that was causing hazardous air conditions and evacuations in the Lake Chelan area. We headed south on route 97 to the Columbia Gorge area,  The Columbia River is the border between Washington and Oregon.  We stopped at Stonehedge which is located on a cliff by the Columbia near Maryhill. It is a full-scale concrete reproduction of the famous one in England.  It was built in 1918 as a memorial to the men from Klickitat County who lost their lives in WWI.  The founder of the town of Maryhill, Samuel Hill,  built this monument and he is also buried nearby. This area has a lote of wind turbines.  The hills by the river were full of them. Gotta get some rest for more adventures in the Gorge area tomorrow.  Goodnight!