Warrior Point

"In their way hither they had passed two Indian villages on the west side of the river and had been joined by a hundred and fifty of the natives in twenty-five canoes. To avoid any surprise they dined in their boats; this precaution, however, was unnecessary, for on some trivial presents being made a trade immediately commenced, in which the Indians conducted themselves with the utmost decorum. No attempts were made to pass the line drawn on the beach, excepting by two, who appeared to be the principal chiefs, and who were permitted to join the party. These seemed to be very well disposed, and inclined to communicate every information, but unfortunately for our gentlemen, a total ignorance of the Indians' language precluded their profiting by these friendly intentions." -From the Center for Columbia River History.


A couple Saturday mornings ago G and I were up and out into the crisp fall morning, for the hike to the northernmost point of Sauvie Island. Cross the bridge, stop and buy your parking permit from the little store, drive out until the road turns to gravel, go past Collins Beach, keep going for another two miles until the road ends in a parking lot. Climb the gate, walk across the pasture of friendly cows, and you can begin to pick out the former road heading into the Cottonwood forest.
We ended up abandoning this trail about 1/2 mile in as the river was very low and we realized we would be able to walk all the way up the beach, which was a great decision. Lots of frogs, clams, and other river critters. Plenty of beachey things to look at, and views of all the Cascades from Rainier to Hood make this one of the most beautiful stretches of beach I've ever walked.


About halfway to the lighthouse, we came across this cool little shipwreck.






















The town of St. Helens, Oregon, across the entrance of Scappoose Bay.



















This little guy was the only bright point of the hike out through the nettles. On our trip back out we realized that if we hadn't walked to the Point along the beach, we probably wouldn't have made it all the way. Late September means the blackberries and nettles are in full force, in some places we chose to tromp through the nettles instead of the blackberries. I learned to like the sting...
There were at least four of these little frogs in the tree, but the little bastards are hard to take a picture of.