From Gray to Green: July 15, 2016 Cascara campground,

July 15, 2016 Cascara campground

We arrived in Fall Creek Thursday afternoon about 2, pitched our camp then back to Eugene to get MM’s iPad looked at the Apple repair. 5 hours later she had it working well and we were headed back to camp.

7/16

All in all a fine relaxing day for camping. I slept in till 8 and for once my back wasn’t aching when I awoke. I think the air mattress is better than the motel beds I’ve been sleeping in. We had our breakfast of hot coffee made on the twig stove, smoked salmon with sliced tomato and onion, and some watermelon pieces. After some time organizing our camping gear we went for a walk around the campground.

A beautiful campground overlooking a sea of grass- actually a marshy area left by the receding lake.

A floating dock is left high and dry on the grassy hill left at the former waterline.

Reminds me of the time when I went electroshock fishing with Alex in Florida.

I later learned in a discussion with Q and Gail that the lakes are managed and drained in anticipation of water flow, and sometimes they do not receive the planned water from upstream, and remain at low level until the rains return in winter.

The sign at the boat ramp bars entry to the grassy field which is the lake bottom in wetter times. Further out the lake still has water, but not enough for the shallow inlet which could stand another 10 feet of water.

The area seems wet enough by my standards- though they say that this area normally gets over 70” per year.

Whatever the issue with the water,

the shortfall of water in the nearby lake formed by the downstream dam is not enough to seriously affect this apple tree, with plentiful apples just beginning to blush.