#175 One night Longview boat ramp boondock, It was pretty but there was a security guard

This place was pretty but there was a security guard that came by pretty often. It seemed as though overnight parking was not allowed but not quite forbidden. This made for a sleepless night

After Astoria, we did not go north into Washington State because we kind of toured it extensively the year before. When we left out from Chimacum the year prior we were kind of racing towards Thanksgiving to get our truck engine rebuilt. We even said we don't have time to go to Portland so this year we had time to do anything we wanted to and did. We went east following the Columbia River down a pretty rural road on purpose. I'm looking at maps to see where we cross over. I could see that as we left Astoria went across the big bridge and got on up a little bit onto a road called Highway 4. It's a little road that will take you in the direction of Portland but following the Columbia River. One of those things that disturbed me is as I look to my left and it was a moonscape from logging.

I had to come to terms with the fact that yes we do cut lumber in this country because I saw a lot of it. I know we need lumber so I can't say no logging. It's just that I like to see them do it the right way. What I saw was not the right way. When they are good stewards they harvest a tree crop and replant it. What I saw was just a clear-cut for as far as the eye can see. There was a bunch of trashy-looking stuff leftover piled into clumps one would assume that it was to be burnt later.

I wondered where are all the new seedlings that the planted after the cut. It also had that gray aged wood look in these debris piles that made me think 10 years ago. I wondered whats the dang deal? Down the road near Portland I asked a Ranger so what's the deal with that? Why do they get to just clear-cut and leave it like that for 10 years?

I told the ranger I understand clear-cuts and I also understand that it takes time to replant and redo but I saw no sign of this.

The ranger told me that what I was describing is when you clear-cut a tract then you go back with some like bulldozer type machines and cut the ground level. It’s a bit like you're planting a farm. You'll see thousands of little tiny seedlings that are an inch tall and then 30 years later they're going to mature. They harvest it and begin again. This is what you do but only if you're participating in the forestry program. She said here's the ugly truth is a landowner you’re are allowed to clear-cut your land walk away and move to Miami. Nobody cares. There are no rules on how much how you badly you can abuse your land and rape on it. They might fine you if they notice at all if your practices require a silt fence near a waterway. That totally bothered me.

So, going back a bit this is a little what I saw on the north bank of the Columbia as we left out of Astoria. We headed on down and we had already planned on what we thought was a boondock in Longview. I think it might have been a Walmart in Longview that was advertised.

As we got close, I saw the Longview boat ramp on the right and it was a huge complex with a large parking lot. I thought we would enjoy the rural feel of this place more than the Walmart in town. Boondocks like this are cool and there's almost never any security. That was not the case here.

A guy in a little security truck that would ride by at dusk and just kind of get near your rig but not stop. I assumed he's going to talk to me but he never did. They would do this about once an hour and you would feel you were in so much trouble but they never really knocked on the door. It was what we call an acceptable boondock, but not exactly. It was kind of a sleepless night wondering if we were in trouble.

I parked near enough to the grass to where Bert our cat could wander into the woods. It was more like a grassy area and he had a good time.

Early the next morning we went down to the Walmart to hang out because I didn't sleep that great. After we settled in a manager came out saying we don't mind you parking here but you can't park here in this manner. You're blocking the flow of traffic. I hadn't noticed but I certainly was so I fixed that and we got some sleep, had a meal, and moved on. We had made a reservation at a place south of Portland