Fog

I think I've talked about fog before. I've had foggy mornings, taken cool pictures of fog. But man, the fog this week, it's different. It's Fog. It's this fog that, when I'm walking up the hill to lock the gate and take a deep breath, I feel like I'm drowning, the air is so wet. Fog that freaks everyone out, that makes people turn around cause it creeps them out so much.

This morning, when I left for work, it was about 28 degrees. My car's warning light was telling me that I had a flat tire. I didn't, I checked them all, but the cold temperatures had lowered the pressure. I couldn't stop to fill them up, or I'd be late (I filled them all on the way home tonight, so don't worry). The roads were ok, but once I got over the south Salem hills on I-5, the fog came in. Nobody on the highway was going more than about 50. I almost missed my exit, I just couldn't see anything. And it was worse when I was on the farm roads. No visibility and no lights whatsoever.

When I pulled up to the ferry and stepped out, I almost slipped and fell over. The road was totally iced over. Freezing fog. Between my car, opening the gate, and stepping onto the ferry, I almost slipped 5 times. And the ramp to the ferry is a 14% grade, very steep. I had a hard time opening the gate, since the moisture had gotten into the parts and frozen the metal. It was nuts.

I don't mind fog when it's dark, for the most part. You can at least see headlights on the other side of the river, telling you there's a car to go get. During the day, the headlights aren't bright enough, or people don't have their lights on. The fog didn't clear until about 1pm. And until about 11, it was so utterly foggy that I had to park the boat in the middle of the river, the only way to see both sides. And that freaks me out. It's just an odd feeling, you feel the water and hear it more. The engines aren't on, you're just sitting there, drifting slightly in the middle of the river. And you have to be constantly vigilant, constantly looking back and forth, since it's still quite hard to see if there's a car there or not. My eyes are actually tired tonight, from peering into the fog so much. These two pictures are of the east and west banks, taken from the middle of the river. See how difficult it still is to see the cars?

The fog cleared around 1, but then around 4, it started to fog back up. I was reading my book at one point, and looked up 5 minutes later, and suddenly, just that quickly, I couldn't see anything at all. It felt like the fog had swooped in and just eaten up the whole world. I could barely see the trees 10 feet from the boat.

This evening, a mom and her maybe 11 year old daughter came across, then back a bit later. Their car was parked right in front of the cabin window. The daughter hung her head out the window for most of the trip, and when she pulled her head back inside the car, I could see, from 10+ feet away, the dew drops all over her hair. The fog was that thick. Truly, there just aren't words for how thick the fog was. The feeling of not getting enough air, of wanting to constantly cough out all the moisture from my lungs, was intense.

And tomorrow is supposed to be the same. Freezing fog, that builds up on everything, adding a thick layer of ice even to spiderwebs.

I will say, I think I'm starting to figure out how to stay warm. Today for example, I wore wool socks, silk long underwear bottoms, jeans, a cashmere turtleneck, and a thick polar fleece. And I was chilled a few times, but for the most part, I was fine. The cabin is heated, but it's drafty, and I'm still going outside all the time.

And while I'm posting interesting pictures, this guy comes across pretty often. This was the first time I tried to snap a picture of his cargo. He said he had 6 calves in the back. Poor things all squished in.