Bridgeport, Washington

Good morning, my friends. Yesterday’s drive was pretty easy. Just about 90 miles, and almost no traffic. We’re in the hinterlands, and so there’s not a lot to see. We passed by a few barns.

And sadly, this big burn scar. This must be fairly recent.

And this was pretty much our view for most of the day…wide open spaces. The landscape is barren compared to what we saw just last week. The arid climate doesn’t support much in the way of growth.

Here was something of interest. Take a look:

This large collection of satellite dishes belongs to the Brewster Teleport, also known as the U.S. Electrodynamics Earth Station. Sounds pretty sci-fi, doesn’t it? They were built in 1965 by COMSAT (Communications Satellite Corporation) following the Communications Satellite Act of 1962. It was among the first major satellite earth stations in the United States.

It features over 55 antennas, including 16 dishes ranging in size from 9 to 30 meters each. It is operated by U.S. Electrodynamics, Inc. (USEI) and supports GEO, MEO, and LEO satellite traffic. (Don’t ask me.) The site is also home to an 82-foot radio telescope dish that is part of the global Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), used for deep-space astronomy. 

And why here? The location was chosen because it sits in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountain range, which naturally shields the sensitive receivers from heavy precipitation and radio frequency noise coming from major metropolitcn areas like Seattle. 

Who knew? I love finding this kind of stuff when we travel. And have I said lately how much I ❤ the internet?

We traveled alongside the Okanagan River for a distance. As we reached our final destination, I believe we saw its confluence with the Columbia River.

Soon, we crossed a bridge spanning the Columbia River. To our left (and out Mike’s window), we could see the Chief Joseph Dam. It’s a concrete gravity dam operated by the USACE Chief Joseph Dam Project Office and the electricity is marketed by the Bonneville Power Administration.

The dam was authorized as Foster Creek Dam and Powerhouse for power generation and irrigation by the River and Harbor Act of 1946. The River and Harbor Act of 1948 renamed the project Chief Joseph Dam in honor of the Nez Perce Nez chief who spent his last years in exile on the Colville Indian Reservation. Like the immediate upstream and downstream dams, Chief Joseph does not have any form of fish ladder system installed, and therefore, does not allow the passage of migrating fish. In a conversation with the camp host when we checked in, progress is being made to begin building a fish ladder to one side of the dam (if I understood him right.)

Construction began in 1950, with the main dam and intake structure completed in 1955. Installation of the initial generating units was started in 1958 and completed in 1961. Ten additional turbines were installed between 1973 and 1979, and the dam and lake were raised 3 m (10 ft), boosting the capacity to 2,620 MW, making Chief Joseph Dam the second largest hydroelectric power producer in the United States. The vast majority (80% on average) of the power from Chief Joseph dam is sent to the Everett area of western Snohomich County via the Bonneville Snohomish substation. However, power produced at the dam is not only used in Washington, but also in Oregon, Montana, Idaho, California, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada.

We’re planning to take a drive up there today to have a look at it. Up until yesterday, I didn’t know this dam existed. Looking out my window, I could see this.

After crossing the bridge, we were here.

The area that is now Bridgeport was settled in the late 19th century and originally named Westfield. Some of the earliest settlers in the area were Chinese miners extracting gold from the banks of the Columbia River. Developers purchased the town in 1892 and renamed it Bridgeport after where they had come from, Bridgeport, Connecticut. The city of Bridgeport was officially incorporated on March 21, 1910. The biggest economic boom to come to the city came from the building of the dam. 

The town’s old sycamore trees, which lined the main street, were in sad shape but instead of being cut down, chainsaw artist Jacob Lucas has transformed them into incredible sculptures. We saw them as we drove into town. We’ll take a walk up and down here today to get a better look at them. They’re hard to see in the image below, and so I’ve marked them.

This is a lovely city park, and we have the place to ourselves. We got Smitty out for a walk right away. A public road runs alongside our rig, and he wasn’t happy about the occasional car going by.

We’re just about 50 yards from the river, and there is a boat launch there. Sorry, my friends. No swimming. Put your beach towels away.

Walking out to the end and looking north, it looked like this.

Looking south, it looked like this. You can barely see the dam near the middle of the image below.

In this next image, I’ve zoomed in to get a better look.

And here’s one of the sculptures right here in the campground. Cool.

It’s a very nice park, and we’re in a good spot.

It was a nice afternoon, and so we sat outside and had margaritas.

Smitty joined us on the veranda.

Across the road from us lives a huge covery of Gambel’s quail. They kept us entertained for a good part of the afternoon. I was able to capture this one when he ventured close enough to my camera’s lens. There must be hundreds of them. Looking to where they’re congregated, there is a lot of movement.

Sadie helped me write this post, but she refuses to pose for a picture. She’s consulting an agent to see about creating a contractual obligation wherein she scores kitty treats whenever her image is used in any sort of promotional materials. We can hardly blame her. Would you give away your image for free?

Okay, so Mike has scoped out a nearby McDonald’s. Sometimes we just needs us some Egg McMuffin. And as I mentioned, we’ll head up to the dam today just to have a look-see, and then we’ll walk along the main drag and have a look at the tree sculptures. We really have nothing else planned here, and there are no hiking trails to speak of nearby. There is a path that goes alongside the river for half a mile, and we’ll probably check that out. 

We still have two days here. If I’m remembering right, when I planned this trip, I was trying to get us to Lake Chelan. I grew frustrated when I couldn’t find a place to stay that was closer than an hour’s drive away. Finally, I gave up on the idea of seeing it, and added those two days at other stops along the way, this being one of them. And that’s just fine and dandy. A chill day is always welcome, especially this late into a trip.

There should be plenty of time for slow-stitching over the next couple of days. It seems like a good time to get to it. Have a good day, Everybody.