Our time at the Russian river

9 July 2017 (delayed post due to not having internet)

As I sit here at 0600, I can see the clouds breaking up, some blue sky, and the SUN! It got down to 48 degrees last night, which is only a few degrees less than average so far.

What the heck? I’m looking out the rear window and I see this big moose head bobbing across the back of our window, I lean forward to get a better look, and WOW it’s a big bull walking through our campsite!

Thankfully we have not seen any bears while here at the Russian river, but there is scat everywhere, and fish in the river, so we know they are here.

Yesterday it rained and was cool (52) all day, so we just hunkered down and had a relaxing day. I ran the generator for 2 hours in the morning to charge the batteries. We will get very little solar today, but we have enough battery power to last till tomorrow morning. No TV, intermittent internet, and limited phone service out here, so we are consuming very little power, just the furnace to stay warm (after all it’s “only” July).

On Friday, we took a 2.5 mile (one way) hike to the Russian River Falls. We are not experienced hikers, but were told by a Ranger it was a fairly easy hike. Equipped with our backpacks, hiking boots, walking sticks, bear spray, and air horn we got to the trail head, signed the log book and proceeded up the hill.

Lots of warnings about bear in the area, to walk in groups, and to make noise on the trail, so the bears can hear you. Many people have cow bells attached to their pack, so they “ring” at each step.

We were not that smart, our group of “two” made noise by singing our favorite songs and replacing the lyrics with “words” that we see along the trail. It was a lot of fun, and we even had other hikers join in as they “lapped” us on the trail.

One group had four or five little kids, and they questioned me about being Santa. I said “no, just a helper, but I know Santa and have been to the North Pole”. I then had their attention, so I told them to be good kids for their parents, and Santa will check his list for their names. They were happy. It was a neat little exchange.

As we walked down the trail we came across a pile of scat on the trail, just to let you know we were not alone. It was a nice hike through the woods, Ann Marie took lots of pictures of flowers, squirrels, and a few birds.

We arrived at the falls, and there are two wooden decks overlooking the falls. If you have researched (or visited) this area at all, the iconic picture of the bears sitting on the rocks on the falls catching jumping salmon as they try to make their way up stream. Yep this is it. KOOL!

Two exceptions to this iconic picture, there were no bears in the stream or the falls and the second run of salmon just got to the base of the falls. They were “resting” before continuing their journey. There were a thousand salmon in a small “pool” area below the falls and only a few salmon jumping up stream. Hard to believe that only 1/3 of them will make it to their destination.

We stood on the wooden deck for a while, taking in natures beauty. I tried to take the “perfect picture” of the salmon in mid flight up the falls. They seemed pretty lazy to me, I guess they were tired….

It was pretty cool. We stayed there for a while, we relaxed while sitting on a bench overlooking everything. We had some water, and had a snack before we headed back down the trail, singing our “bear repellent” songs, to where we left the BFT. Along the way we saw a Spruce Grouse walking on the trail without a care in the world.