October 15-16, 2013 Fort Stevens and Astoria Washington

Fort Stevens was first built during the Civil War to protect the Columbia River from invasion. It was an earthworks fort and it was completed the day after the surrender at Appomattox. In 1890’s they  updated it to this huge cement fort.

We biked to Russell Battery.

Russell battery. John got a flat tire on his bike here, so he had to walk back, take the car and buy a new tube and change his tire. We biked back to the rest of the fort, but it was closed by then.  John on the bike path.

Lovely fall colors in the trees with lichen and cool clouds. John on the bike path with more of the lichen trees.

Cool clouds. The bus at Fort Steven State Park campground.

Huge ground squirrel in camp. Today we biked back to see the rest of the fort. John looking into the powder magazine.

10 inch gun and a 5 inch gun.  The fort exchanged fire with a Japanese submarine during WWII. It was decommissioned soon after that.

The Rogue Brewery is on Pier 39. We had to drive across this wooden bridge over the river to get to the brewery. We had appetizers and a drink on the deck in the sun on the river. They had ale floats, does not sound good. The bottle on the right is all the ingredients for a beer, all you have to add is water. John preferred his already brewed.

We had dinner at the Wet Dog Café and Brewery. It was happy hour so they gave John this huge beer. They even had beer ice cream. We didn’t have any. The moon rising over Astoria.

Sunset on the Columbia River. The ships are lined up to leave. The Columbia Bar where the river meets the river is so treacherous that they are required to have a bar pilot to lead them out.