Elk Rock Cleanup

Today was our annual, sometimes biannual, service project at Elk Rock Island. About 5k upstream of our boathouse, Elk Rock Island is the tip of an old volcano that represents a unique habitat in the Portland area. In co-operation with Willamette Riverkeeper and the City of Portland Parks Department, we've gone to Elk Rock for the last four years to do trash pickup and habitat restoration.




Looking upstream from the north shore of Elk Rock are the cliffs; this is probably my single favorite spot on the river. Because of the hard basaltic rock, the river can't erode the cliffs or the island, so the flow here is deep and fast.



Looking downstream into Milwaukie Bay. We row past this spot often and it's cool to contribute to the upkeep of a part of the river on our regular stomping grounds.



The group, post cleanup. Obviously the Ivy pulling got to us after a point. I've always enjoyed this event as it's a good chance to catch up with team members in the late fall, when contact is limited. The only downside today was the late notice for the event limited the size of our group; still, we got a lot of good work done.