A mighty fine day here in Oregon today. Woke up to bright sunshine this morning and the sound of lots of diesels cranking up nearby. It seems that a bunch of the big diesel bus motor homes were going to be leaving the park today, and they all seemed to want to get out ahead of the other ones. I just rolled over and went back to sleep until a more civilized time.
    That still gave me plenty of time to get up and shower, have a nice breakfast and check email, fb and the comics though. By 11:00 I had taken out the trash, removed the extension mirrors off the truck, something I should of done days ago, and then packed up the truck for a short road trip back up the Columbia River Gorge to the east.
   The destination for the day was Multnomah Falls, a small rest area right in the bottom of the gorge where a beautiful waterfall is located.  The falls, there are two of them, actually three if you count the little one on top that you can't see from the base, drop in two major steps, split into an upper falls of 542 feet and a lower falls of 69 feet,  with a gradual 9 foot drop in elevation between the two. That brings the total height of the waterfall to 620 feet, the tallest in Oregon and the 137th highest in the U.S. (Wikipedia).
   I just like it because it is beautiful, and today was a great day to see it even though the cleft in the mountain is so slender that most of the sun never actually gets in. Lots of people there of course, but I still managed to get some pretty good pictures I think. I'll try to post a few in a day or two. It is a short hike from the highway up to the base of the cliff where you can see both waterfalls at once. I'm glad I had my 14mm wide angle lens with me, otherwise there would of been no way to get the whole thing into one shot. As it was, I took multiple photos of the lower water fall as it poured out from under this arched stone bridge that spans the creek there. The bridge was built in 1914 by stonemasons from Italy that a gentleman named Benson had hired. Ergo... the bridge is now known as Bensons bridge.
    The trail leads on up the cliff sides on a series of switchbacks until it gets to the view point of the higher fall. Really beautiful up there looking at the cliff side with the mist from the water and all the moss and ferns growing from the cracks in the rock. The trail goes on for several miles more and eventually leads up to the top of the cliff where the other small fall is. I walked the trail more than 35 years ago, and while a neat experience once... I have never felt the need to do it again since then. Maybe one day when I have someone along who has never done it before.....
    I came back into town after that and stopped at a Barnes and Noble store to see about picking up a new day planner for next year. I am finding that there are already way to many dances and trips already planned for 2015 and I am afraid they will all get muddled up some how. I found a nice large day planner like the one I have this year, as well as a desk calendar and then a smaller day planner that just has the whole month listed instead of each day on it's own individual page. I think I will end up using that one more than all the others.
    Below are some more photo's from the road trip I took last Monday to a museum like  site out near the town of Elsie Oregon.

Camp 18 near Elsie Oregon - Oct 13, 2014

Another Dolbeer style 'donkey engine'. This one was actually manufactured by a company  in Portland rather than being thrown together in the back shop of a logging company. The vertical, wood fired boiler is the big piece on the left with all of the winch's and drive machinery on the right.

A close up of the drive piston on the side of the donkey engine shown above. This piston would take steam from the boiler behind it and through an alternating valve would change the energy from the steam into a back and forth motion that would then turn a side wheel on the winch drum. Very similar to what a steam locomotive did with its side rods.

A couple of head blocks that would of been used on such things as spar trees and on the boom ends of various types of log loading machines.

Many more head blocks just laying around.

The loading arm on the spar tree. The spar tree was often located on the top of a hill and was the first tree to be worked on when a forest was going to be cleared. A lumber jack would don his boot spur's and harness and rope his way up the tree, lopping off limbs as he went, until he got 150'-200' above the ground. Then using his axe he would 'top' the tree, chopping the last 20'-80' off and start rigging up various pulley's, lines and cables to be run to various parts of the forest. One main line would run down the hill to another tall tree at the bottom and from that line a pulley would be attached along with a cable that would stretch up the hill to the top spar tree and then on to a steam donkey. Once a tree was chopped down and de-limbed a 'chocker', a guy who attached a chain around the log and then to the pulley cable,  would hook the log up and when ready, the steam engine would start pulling on the cable and the log end would rise, sometimes completely off the ground, and head up hill smashing everything, and anybody, in its path. A very dangerous way to do things, but one that is still used to this day in really steep country. This spar tree actually has a log loader rigged on one side of it. Logs would be brought in from various locations to a central log yard, and then this contraption would pick them up one at a time, swing around and deposit them on the back of a truck or onto a railroad log car.  

A couple 5'-6' diameter Douglas Fir logs that are just laying around. It really gives you an idea of the sheer weight of the material you are working with.

In a building they had built in memory of loggers who have died at work, and there have been a lot of them just in that area of Oregon alone, they had a bunch of old axes and chainsaws on the floor and hanging from the wall, including this two person chainsaw. The bar has to be about 5'-6' in length and I have no idea how anyone could hold on to the end with just the peg hand grip and not think about the destruction spinning just inches from their hand.

An old road grader, probably used on a site that used trucks to haul the logs out of the woods. I was entranced by all the wheels that were used to adjust the angle and height of the blade.

A side view of the road grader showing the blade and some of the front end.

Last night I posted a picture of a modern version of this contraption. This is called, appropriately enough, a pair of big wheels. Hooked up to a team of 2-10 oxen, mules or draft horses, it would back over the end of a large log that had been elevated, hook a chain around it, and then drag it out of the woods by brute force.

Another impressive piece out there was the log building this guy had built to house more exhibits and to also function as a restaurant. Made out of logs he or is sons had logged and then de-barked by hand, it is one of the better made log structures I have ever seen. Out front to greet the people heading in for a meal were several wood sculptures made out of sections of single trees, and carved mostly with chainsaws.

A look at one of the two support posts holding up most of the weight of the roof. Above it is the single 85' ridge beam that spans the whole interior of the building. At about 3' in diameter, it was estimated to weigh about 25 tons when first installed. The two front doors are old growth fir, 4 1/2" thick and weigh over 500 pounds each. It is a massive building that's for sure.

Last picture... I found this picnic table, and several others, out back waiting for a nice day for people to sit at and eat their lunch. I'm thinking at least 20 people, and all of their food, could fit here at once and not feel too crowded.

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