As many of you know, the Columbia River gorge has two big fires burning on the outskirts of town. The fires are less than 40 miles from my house. Since the weekend we've had tons of smoke, horrible air quality and ash raining down on us covering our cars and boats...

The fires have been burning hot and FAST and actually jumped the Columbia River to the Washington side. A smoldering stick that was 8" long and an inch in diameter found its way to a gas station 2 miles away.

This isn't my picture, but gives an idea of what's happening.


Yesterday morning, I woke to the boat covered in ash, even though it's parked under the carport. Before I could leave for work, I took out the shop vac and sucked up as much as possible. I then had to break out the Vinyl Sauce to clean the ash that smeared onto the seats. Finally I threw on the snap cover because I had to get my butt into work... But you could see ash falling from the sky like snowflakes.

Last night, the winds shifted and the ash was MUCH less prevalent. I decided that my lungs could handle a little exposure and my wife, a buddy, and I took the boat out tonight. It was like having a DENSE fog, but it was all smoke. And with the river East of us being shut down to ALL river traffic, there were few commercial barges to be found. It was so empty on the river that it was kinda spooky. And the water was so smooth that I was able to slalom ski right from the boat launch on the main channel.

Yeah, I felt a little crazy and was just laughing at us playing on the river in the middle of all this. But that's how I roll. Make the best of a crazy situation.

Normally in this spot, you could see Mt Hood prominently displayed in the background. But not this week.


The one thing that took me by surprise was the surface of the river was COATED with burnt pine needles. They were everywhere, forming a dense film in many places. miles and miles of pine needles.




All in all, it was a crazy night. Yeah, air quality is rated as unhealthy, but I don't smoke or have asthma and won't suffer any lasting long term effects.

Motored back to the dock on crazy smooth water and covered the boat again for the drive home. Definitely an adventure.