Solar Power, Sea Lions, Set-Netting

Huntley Park, Gold Beach Oregon

Have had more inquiries into our Solar Setup in this campground than ever before.  So I figured that others who are not here ‘might’ be interested too.  As I have mentioned before, we have the Go Power! GP-PSK-120 120W Portable Folding Solar Kit with 10 Amp Solar Controller purchased through Amazon.  They have two portable versions, 80W and 120W.  The nice thing is that the controller, which is needed so you don’t over charge your batteries, is built into the back of the portable units.  All I do is set it up and hook to the batteries, and make sure it is “on”.  There are many options to connect to the batteries…either through ring terminals, clamps, and there is a trailer connector for those who find that easier.  We use the clamps, as shown to the right.  I did use the terminal rings, but I found it hard to keep the connector clean even though they come with a cover.  I ‘could’ tie down the cover each and every time I travel, but that is just a pain compared to using this clips. 

This is the “controller”, which is attached to the back of the solar panel.  It is simple in its use, but the newer models have an even better controller on them, and you can buy the newer controller to replace this one…which we are going to do.  The orange button is the on and off, and also used in selecting the type of battery you have…sealed, gel or flooded.  You need to have it on, with the red light in upper right corner lit, for things to work.  That part of this controller is fine…but the lights to the left…the Temp (temperature) light, the “PV” light, and the Batt (battery) light are the problems…they are HARD to see.  I don’t know if you can tell that the PV and the Batt are both “green” in this picture…imagine trying to see that outside, while the panel is pointed into the sun. The NEW controller, shown to the right, is a better controller, and provides much more information, including voltage, and current battery level, and percentage of battery capacity.  It is also much easier to see, according to the reviews.

To replace, you simply unscrew the four connecting screws for the red and black wires, remove from the solar panel (it is glued), glue on the new one, and connect the red and black wires.  We have been able to run on our batteries and the solar for the past three days, although tonight we ran the generator for 90 minutes to charge everything up to a higher level.  All the while we power two computers, two kindles, two cell phones and the aircard, besides the “stuff” that runs on electricity in the motorhome such as the refrigerator (propane but also needs 12 volt), the carbon monoxide sensor, the propane sensor, the toilet, and the lights as we need them.  So far our batteries have remained at or above 12.2 volts.

Took a walk up the river to where many people go swimming…but I beat the swimming crowd, except for the three sea lions out in the river.  I was told the day before that sea lions were seen along the river by a local…so I am taking his word on them being sea lions and not harbor seals.  I was not expecting to see them, but I heard the splashing and well, there were three of them.  Below you can see two of them together…never could get all three in the same picture.

As I got to the swimming area, I came across some set-net fishermen. (below)

Of course, last year in Alaska when Skruffy got sick, we took her to the Soldotna Animal Hospital and Dr. Meezie Hermansen saved Skruffy’s life.  Meezie is a Vet by choice, she is a fisherman…a set-net fisherman…by birth.  She still commercial fishes for a month each year…only a month because that is how long Alaska will allow the commercial set net fisherman to fish.  However, Oregon does not allow set-net or gillnet fishing…and that is when I saw the patch on this guy’s arm (picture right).  The group is counting fish in the river, working for the Oregon Wildlife Department.  They catch, measure, weigh and release.  As I watched, two different jet boat tours came by, stopped to watch, and asked how the “fishing” was going.  They said they were doing good in the morning, but the last six tries did not catch very much.  In fact, during the two attempts I witnessed, they only caught one Steelhead.

They gather the net up into the boat with one end “set” upon land (in the hands of one or two people), head up stream letting out the net, work their way over to the other side still letting out net, work their way back down stream letting out more net, and then head back to land still letting out net.  (In the picture above, they are headed back to land to the pickup truck.)  Once there, they attach the end of the net to the truck’s tow ball, and it drives up the bank about 20 yards.  They unhook, and then the truck backs up to the spot where the boat took off from and they attach that end to the truck, and it runs parallel to the river for about 20 yards.  After that, everything is done by hand, pulling in the net, trying to capture the fish.  Once captured, but still in the water close to shore, the fishery biologist (I am assuming he is a biologist) weighs and measures and lets them go.  I enjoyed watching the process…thinking about our “Favorite Vet”, and how she does this out in the rough seas of the Cook Inlet, Pacific Ocean, in Alaska, sometimes in very extreme weather conditions. 

Rainy Day Pictures

What a sharp contrast a day makes!  Two days of bright sun, today is colder, damp, and windy.

The birds are all huddled on this side of the wood debris, shielding themselves from the wind…until something comes along and…

…off they fly.  Don’t know what scared them, but it did not take long for them to settle down again.

Saw the Sea Lion again, this time it hung around in the same place…comes up for air, goes back down, comes up, goes down…  I think he must have been catching some ZZzzzs down under.

These Redhead Ducks tried to see how many ducks can fit on a small piece of dry sand….but the Heron, upper left corner, would have nothing to do with them.

The above 9 second video shows the Redhead Ducks shooting along the water.  I watched them for many minutes today and in past days…it is so neat to see.  I wish I had the camera going when nearly the entire group of ducks shot from the middle of the river the sand bank, that was cool.

Of course little missy (Skruffy) just had to come along with daddy (that's what dogs do when you say, "You want to come along girl?") … but she did not want to get her head all wet.  Having her on my lap, keeping her covered, and trying to keep the camera dry while taking pictures is what I call “A Fun Hour”.   

With moving day tomorrow, I told Marcia I would take her to dinner over in La Push.  Now La Push has one restaurant, and the reviews are a bit difficult for this place.  It is called Rivers Edge Restaurant, and it has no website.  There are reviews in Yelp, Google, and other places…and they were hit or miss.  For the most part I told Marcia that most of the reviews liked the view from inside, liked the food, but the service was “hit or miss”.  I would say that this sum up our experience. 

The food was real good, but not much “homemade” type of stuff.  But it is quality stuff, for that I give them credit.  The view from the inside was real good…had it been a nice evening with a nice sunset it could not be beat.  But the service was hit and miss.  Blond lady that sat us was very nice and pleasant.  The rest of the staff were more “dull” with their attitude.  As a former restaurant manager I once again saw a place that could be a gold mine, but those running it don’t know how to make it such.  However, in a town of some 300 people, it could be worse.  Overall we were pleased, and we would return for the food, especially the Clam Chowder Soup which was real good.

After dinner we went up to “Beach One” (they have three beaches, one, two and three).  The wind was such that I could hardly get out of the door.

Again, sure a big change from two days ago!

These two guys were out there “trying” to body surf….I think they need some lessons from my Cousin Barbara’s son Matt…

…who surfs along the Northern California coast and just about anywhere else he can take his board.  (picture above was taken in 2012 along coast in San Francisco)

Tomorrow we are off to South Beach for a day or two…then we need to get some electricity again.

Hoh Rain Forest, Pics of more Critters

We took the nearly hour long drive up to the Hoh Rain Forest, just to find out that dogs cannot go on the trails, and the temps up there were hitting the ‘80s.  I went into their small visitor’s center, got a little info and confirmation about no dos on the trails, and walked a small trail while Marcia waited with the dogs in the car with the A/C going.  Now normally you would think that a place that gets 140 to 170 inches of rain each year would be safe to take and leave dogs in a car…but not today.  It may rain up to 14 feet each year, but that does not mean every day.

   

You don’t have to walk far to see the effects of so much rain on the forest.

The growth is everywhere, and fallen trees become ripe places for new plants to spring up from, like the roots of this fallen tree.

And they have Sitka Spruce Trees up there, and they too grow very large.

Near the entrance to the park is, or should I say “was” what they called, “The Big Spruce”, one of the largest Spruce trees in the world…until December of last year when it snapped during a wind storm.

I found a path that took me to where the top of the tree fell, and you can see the mangled mess leading back to the now stump of this once awesome tree.

I think Marcia would have been more disappointed except just two days ago we left what seemed to be our own little rain forest, or as she called it, “An Enchanted Forest” before moving to where we are now.  With one big difference, very few people compared to the rain forest we went to today.

Much of the drive after leaving highway 101 is along the Hoh River, which is a glacier feed river from Mt. Olympus.  Due to other mountains being in the way, we did not get a look of the peak of Mt. Olympus at all…a bit disappointing.

As we were leaving the park there is a pond on the right hand side.  Something caught both of our eyes….

…what the heck is that?  At first Marcia thought of a Beaver…but as I got out an looked around the answer became very clear.

DUCKS!  Here there are five with their butts up in the air, an done is the normal sitting position.  It was amazing how much they kept digging their heads down under the water…it was a bit amusing.

   

After we had been home for awhile, ran the generator for a couple of hours, I went back out in search of the Beaver….and I saw two this time in that same pond!

Fairly certain this is a beaver too in the Quillayute River where we saw Otter yesterday.

I am pretty sure this was a small family of Beaver which had crossed the river just a little before I got the shot above. They all seemed to duck into the cover to the left of where these four were taken.

This time I saw about five different Heron, but all my flying pictures were blurry since the sun was covered with that ocean cloud bank.

This one here was the best, showing the Heron in the far left, and all those dots in the water are ducks.  (click on the picture to see a larger version)

   

I also saw one or two young Sea Lions in the River.  I think this is two separate ones, but the pictures were taken a good half hour apart.  This is “not” what we saw yesterday when we saw Otters playing…the swimming behavior of these Sea Lions was totally different than yesterday’s Otters.  I did a bit of research and found that both Otters and Sea Lions are to be found in the area, although the Sea Lions don’t go up the river much past this area.   That pretty much wrapped up another good day…tomorrow it might rain.