Fort Stevens State Park Overnight

Outing from Portland to Fort Stevens State Park – near Lewis and Clark’s winter camping grounds. Along the Columbia – thru Astor, site of early trading post….5 tankers cruising toward the mouth of the river. A coffee stop.

To campground – in tall pines, next to beach… with an intermittent drizzle .

But we viewed the moods of the Pacific before spending an indoor evening listening to the pitter patter of rain ….not very entertained by an ancient Robert Redford movie.

stormy cromer hat from UP

Down the coast to grand beaches at Seaside and Cannon Beach – coffee stop – clam chowder for lunch. They make their chowder with razor clams, so it is very sweet – finely diced carrots and onion, and often thyme - very thick and creamy.

Took fish back to Portland – the first of the spring Chinook salmon is coming down the river - $28 a pound. Dungeness crabs - picked meat $24 - and tiny delicious wild shrimp.

In Oregon

Northern California looking a little more wintery…Mt. Shasta a shivery white peak above. But still valleys of spring. Oregon crossing – hilly, rugged - up, down and around - green valleys full of cows - beef jerky for sale , java huts

Lunch, lunch – Mott always putting in a plug for Subway which is everywhere (one of those bones of contention) - and that is my LAST resort. Just in time a hamburger joint appeared. A very good one….

To the Oregon coast – Our visions of being ensconced in sand dunes did not pan out. A reach to our preferred site, so settled for a State Park north of Coos Bay with OMV capacity – a dune buggy haven. Boys around campfires polishing their vehicles. I asked the BLM host how far it was to the water and she said - 2 miles , down the corridor over 40 foot dunes.

The fog rolled in, the vehicles revved up and we took solace in our pile of oysters. Just as we were to pull into the campground, Mott had seen a sign for oysters and we loaded up – a local variety and a Japanese variety the grower was experimenting with. Nearly impossible to open, but buttery - Mott has wounds.

Trying to find a piece of local fish was a trial. No one could think where a fish market might be…but Safeway, that had Tilapia and sheiz from Viet Nam , frozen Atlantic salmon and Alaska cod (it’s very lean, she told me - really good for you) also had tiny Dover sole fillets –billed as fresh and wild. Success – and with sautéed oysters atop ……butter, tarragon…..

We lit a campfire – and as the fog moved in, it diffused the light from the “street lights” – it seemed almost like real camping.

But it’s only 8:15…

More Geology from the West Coast where the earth's Plates collide

Mount St. Helen from tourist center february 23, sorry its hidden

Mount St. Helen 1980

More on the geology of the world.

From the mount St. Helen visitor center.

The 1980 eruption of mount St. Helen is a result of the continental plate (pacific or Ferolin) subducting (going under) the north American plate (see chart) in the late Devonian era (370 m years ago, see previous posting) . It took a few years but the results were spectacular as the side of St. Helen turned into a world class mud slide and changed the terrain for miles, and the ash from the eruption spread around the world and aided or reduced global warming (unsure which).

St. Helen’s eruptions in the past thousand years can be tracked by reading tree rings from the ancient douglas firs found in the Cascades.

Pangia is formed by the early Permian age (280 m years ago, see previous posting) and starts to break up in the late Jurassic (130 m years ago) so the dinosaurs lost their land bridges starting their extinction. Note India’s location of S. Africa (Madagascar) and its swing to the North as time evolved.

subduction begins 130m years ago

tree growth rings show volcanic activity in recent time

subduction creates volcanos all the way to New Mexico

mount St.. Helen erupts 1980
Pangia formed 370 m years ago

(Devonian era) note India in S. Africa and no Atlantic Ocean

Earth after 370m years of plate movements, dinosaurs lose land bridges, go extinct, Cape Cod becomes ocean front.

Triassic to Jurassic 215- 150 million years ago on Pangia (mllg)

early 21st century

Problems with Continuing education

Mllg notes on. . .

The Geological evolution of New Mexico from 500 mn years ago

Notes mllg feb. 10, 2010 following are notes of UNM lecture and note takers (mllg) interpretation of what he heard.

Mid Cambrian age, 510 mn years ago, no plants, all life forms were aquatic.

Mid Ordivician, 470 mn, mountains eroded from wind and water, rivers extended to coastline carry sediment from mountain erosion.

Early Silerian, 430 mn, more erosion, southern ocean in south half of new Mexico, sediments deposited. Sandia mountain in Albuquerque is formed and was edge of southern ocean

Late Devonian, 370 mn. Green plant life appears, ocean coast line forms from southwest to northeast, and ocean in north from arctic.

Earl Mississippi, 340 mn, Ocean deposits on old rock on Sandia mountain, layer of limestone formed, still present on east slope of Sandia.

Early Pennsylvania, 310 mn, ancestral rockies in Norheast form red bed sandstones, Pangia (earth) forming as central land mass, which will eventually break up into plates to form Africa, Eurasia, south America, Antartica and Australian, and North America, Canada arctic. Equator runs through present day new mexico. Atlantic ocean will form from separation as they spread apart.

Late Devonian, 370 mn, pacific plate collides with continental plate under new Mexico

Early Permian, 280 mn, Pangia (this is us !!!) assembled, no Atlantic ocean, sandstone canyons (monument valley, Chenley forms) the great Permian reef formed (oil men watch with interest as Permian basin consolidates to catch Permian basin oil which will be developed as dinosaurs die several million years in the future).

Early Triassic 240 mn, Oceans in NM recede, mountain ranges to West Texas to Appalachians push sea back. Start of dinosaur , river sediments flow to NM.

Late Triassic 215 mn, dinosaurs evolving on Pangia, New Mexico flat, no mountains.

Jurassic 150 mn, dinosaurs developed, NM arid climate, no mountains, sand stone layers, Navajo sandstone deposits, Zion. When they die their body parts liquefy and flow to Permian basin (note taker’s theory)

Late Jurassic, Pangia starts to break up, pacific plate subducts continental plate, mountains start forming in Montana. Plates of Africa, Eurasia and south America start separating, forming Atlantic ocean, Carribean. Intense compression from pacific plate forces oceans and land eruptions north south across Arizona/NM

Cretaceous 120 mn, New Mexico becomes covered in ocean

Late cretaceous, oceans arrive in NE NM, dinosaurs concentrate on Pangia as single mass, plates are starting to break up, dinosaurs trapped as land bridges disappear.(note takers supposition)

Eocene 50 mn, Sea gone in New Mexico, many earthquakes, compression from Ferolin plate which is between pacific plate and continental plate. Angle of subduction changes from 50 degree to 15 degrees forcing pressure for land to rise, sangre de cristo mountains, formed in New Mexico, Bryce lake (canyon) formed with trapped ocean water, many lakes formed. New mexico start to take shape as we know it. Colorado and Arizona form cool national parks.

Oligocene 30 mn, ferolin plate stops subduction, compression relaxed on land in New Mexico, calderas formed from huge compression relaxation, many volcanic eruptions on New Mexico.

Rio Grane rift formed as split in earth crust break and sediment from Sandia fills in Rio grande rift, sediment formed 2 miles thick over Albuquerque. Rio Grande rift becomes dominant feature in earth as we know it. (New mexico breaks North America into 2 parts at Rio Grande !)

Miocene 20 mn. Basin and Ranges form, volcanic activity slows. Calderas (hot magma reservoirs) under Socorro NM will one day cause magma to flow there, but it will not erupt in explosive force, it will flow.

Note: Geologist (lecturer) recommends that when it happens, and it will happen at any moment and is overdue, that we head there with picnic lunch to watch.

shttp://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/Text_WUS.html for reference see this site. If someone questions what I have written, they are right.

Reno to Sacramento

To leave the Tahoe Mountains, the highways banked with 8 feet of snow, and suddenly find yourself enjoying spring was surprising. Lush and green, we followed the Sacramento Valley north – with rows of fruit and nut trees, livestock grazing in impossibly green pastures.

You can imagine how early settlers – especially those homesteaders leaving North Dakota and Nebraska – thought they had found paradise. We felt that way – (so why do we want to live in Albuquerque? - oh… yeh..) It looked fertile, in a very pretty way. We wandered up a secondary road to the Interstate, slowly climbing as we traversed north.

And lunch? We lucked out again - English-style fish and chips – and fish tacos. I have never had a fish taco, was surpised that the fish was fried, but delighted by the spicy remoulade sauce. We sat outside and basked in the 70 degree weather

Arrived at Lake Shasta – camping again – not a great site – interstate noise, train noise. We aren’t reading our guidebooks carefully enough….