Last Sunday, my friend Mary and I took her mom's canoe for a spin on the Columbia Slough. The 60-mile-long Slough runs south of and parallel to the Columbia River on the Oregon-Washington border. We launched the canoe about five minutes from my house.
Having heard what the Slough has been through over the years, I was expecting to see fluorescent-green industrial waste steaming on the surface. Bodies of forgotten murder victims floating by. Halliburton executives standing on the riverbank and laughing at us. But the Slough was actually looking pretty good. Kudos to the Columbia Slough Watershed Council for giving a shit and working to restore the Slough to some semblance of its original state, the way the Chinook Indians knew it many years ago.
One of the Slough's many Great Blue Herons.
More pics below the fold.
I was hoping for a fight, but the heron chose flight.
Spine on Slough.
This bald eagle has a nest nearby.
Cliff swallow nests under a railroad bridge. The babies haven't fledged yet.
