Olympia National Park North

As I type this I’m just north of Olympia National Park, looking over the Strait of Juan de Fuca, watching various ships go by. We are in a county park campsite right on the ocean with Victoria Island, Canada on the other side of the strait. Unfortunately I can’t share pictures as we left the camera at Aunt Phyllis’s.
I never new counties had their own campgrounds but we’ve stayed in two now and they have both been superior to commercial, federal and national parks. Most of the federal and national stuff was built in the depression, prior to motor homes and trailers, so they tend to be 21’ long (way too short for us) and if you get a flat one you are lucky. The commercial stuff has all the amenities but views are hit and miss. The county parks on the other hand were built after the war and even get updated once every decade or so. They tend to have nice, long, flat spaces with some pull throughs, some full hookups and always, at least so far, fantastic views. What’s even more important they are not publicized so they tend to be empty except for a few locals? I’m going to try them whenever I kind find them.
We spent yesterday mountain biking on the Spruce railroad trail along Crescent Lake. Crescent is a beautiful, clear water lake cut out by glaciers with mountains rising straight up from the water almost all around. It’s a large lake but believe it or not on two separate occasions I actually saw trout in the lake while riding the trail. Still haven’t tried fishing from the kayak, this may be the place if we have time (so much to do, so little time). Most amazing of all Tracy mountain biked over 10 miles and didn’t hurt herself.
Today we went to Sol Duc Hot Springs. (You know you are a snob if you automatically pronounced that with a French accent; it’s pronounced Sole Duck). We did an easy 6 mile round trip hike from the springs up to the Sol Duc falls and back. The falls are pretty cool the river runs down, simultaneously splitting into four separate fingers taking a sharp right and dropping into a narrow rock crevice. The bottom of the crevice is very tumultuous, throwing a fine mist of spray up a hundred feet to the walking bridge from which you are overlooking it all. At the end of the hike we enjoyed a long soak in the natural hot springs followed by dinner at the campground restaurant. I had an excellent stuffed portabella mushroom with a roasted chile reduction sauce. The chef of this particular State Park Restaurant is a Texas Culinary Academy graduate who just happens to love the location.
However being the gourmand I am, I still must say nothing beats a beef hotdog roasted over an open campfire, with sweet, hot, mustard, a bun and nothing else!

Hoh & Astoria

For the last week we spent a few days on the eastern side of Olympia NP then headed down to Astoria for a few days. Olympic NP is unusual because it has beach, rainforest and alpine climate all in one national park.

The Hoh rainforest ranger guided tour was interesting. Hoh is a temperate rainforest (as apposed to tropical) which gets 140” of rain per year and has the highest biomass per acre of anywhere in the world. We learned how to identify various tree’s and saw the hall of mosses, a portion of the rainforest where the trees are so covered in moss that it actually forms a cathedral like hall. Weird and very humid.

We also did some more biking. Here’s a picture of an eagle we saw at South Beach in the NP and another of my stepmom and I with an old shipwreck in the background down near Astoria.

Astoria is the oldest continuous settlement west of the Mississippi. It is located at the entrance to the Columbia River which is known as the graveyard of the pacific due to all the shipwrecks which happen here. Literally hundreds of ships over the years have been wrecked due to the frequent 50’ waves, shifting sandbar and fog. The maritime museum is the best I’ve ever visited. The Coast Guard are considered heroes. This is also where the Lewis and Clark expedition first saw the Pacific and set up their winter camp. Here’s a picture of a column which commemorates the expedition as well a view from the base of the column overlooking the river mouth.

Unfortunately, here is also where my Dad and Diane leave us to head back to Reno. It’s been great having you with us Dad and Diane, we’ll miss you.

Bob and Phyllis's

Spent a few days with my Great Aunt and Uncle, Phyllis and Bob, in Woodburn, Oregon (just north of Salem). They are the two of the funest octogenarians you’ve ever met. Wish we lived closer.

Bob’s a real artist: photography, watercolors, etc. so every time I visit I try to con him out of a couple pictures. Got a cool painting of some goldfish and another of a green panther this time (Bob’s into a color phase lately). Also tried to weasel two paintings off his wall, one of some colorful trout and the other some frisky horses. Unfortunately my uncle Tim was there vying for them too. For now Uncle Bob’s keeping them right where they are. Come on Uncle Bob you know sometimes Tim annoys you; I on the other hand am the son of your favorite nephew. J Bob also took us to a state park which has a 6 mile round trip hiking path that goes past no less than 10 waterfalls. Here’s a picture of the Southfall.


Phyllis is a real sweety: spoiling us, arguing politics, and playing cards are some of her favorite pastimes. She’s also pretty fun to tease and vice versa. Let me give you a taste. We are sitting around talking about life, family, etc. when Phyllis out of the blue spouts out, “You know I think Clinton is the best president we’ve ever had”. The conversation just stopped, everyone stares at Phyllis and I burst out laughing. You see our conversation had nothing to do with politics or Clinton nor does she doesn’t really think that Clinton is the best president who ever lived. She just wanted to argue politics and she new that statement was something we just couldn’t let lay out there without a response.

Thanks for all the hospitality Phyllis and Bob! We particularly enjoyed the hot tub and pool! After all the boondocking we have been doing over the last few weeks, TV, telephone, hot tub and just some plain old civilization was just what we needed.

We made a date to see them again around December in Yuma, Arizona. They are snowbirds, spending the summers in Oregon and the winters on the Colorado River near Yuma. I’m already looking forward to it.

Say Cheese!

Went on the cheese factory tour and did some cheese tasting. Guess how much milk Tillamook cheese factory goes through in a day? One million gallons a day, 7 days a week. Milk trucks deliver 24 hrs a day. Now whose the big cheese?

Also did some tasting of brie, mustards, jams, sausages and wine at the Blue Heron a mile further down the road. The Tillamook extra sharp cheddar was good but Mmmh, I loved the herb encrusted brie and the sweet beer mustard on sausage. Tracy also gave thumbs up to a few of the wines. (Course she also bought a half case and put it all in the same drawer so the next time I took a corner slam, crash, door goes flying out and breaks completely away from the rest of the coach, but we won’t talk about that since apparently it’s my fault. I must remember to take all turns for the next 6 months at least 10 mph under the posted limit, so my wife can jam pack every drawer and space available with lead if she wants.)

Heres’ some more pictures of kayaking we did up a slough in Tillamook area. I love these Hobie kayaks. The option to pedal or paddle comes in real handy on long tours. I think we will end up using them more than the bikes. We saw more river otter and some birds of prey including an eagle but unfortunately couldn’t get a picture of the eagle. Haven’t tried sailing or fishing from the kayak yet. Plenty of time to get to that. (well maybe not considering we have been gone 5 weeks and are still in Orygone).



This last one’s also technically a picture of kayaking. Rivers and Sloughs have cool rope swings. Darling, wonderful, graceful, Tracy thought it was cool too; until this happened. Did you know there is so much torque when pedaling a hobbie kayak one can actually tow the other? Found out it’s true.

Written at Gauranty RV repair, Junction City, Oregon.

Where the heck are we?

Once we figured it out we found out we were at a place called Whalen Island. Apparently Whalen island is next to Sand Lake (like that helps). Oh OK we are outside Tillamook Oregon, now it’s perfectly clear. Hey I’ve actually heard the name Tillamook somewhere, don’t they make cheese?

Siltcoos

For the last couple weeks we’ve been out of range of cell phone, wifi, etc. at a Lake called Siltcoos near Florence, Oregon. This is wonderful area if you ever get to visit.

We stayed in a US forest service campground on the Siltcoos River which connects Siltcoos Lake to the Ocean. This river is also called the the Siltcoos canoe trail and is about 4 miles long with a small dam portage in between, very pretty. In addition to the beach ride Tracy already talked about we had another great day doing the trail up and back in our kayaks. We also enjoyed a bonfire on the beach, hiking the Siltcoos lake trail and later Cape Perpetua, fishing Siltcoos and the neighboring lake Teehontna (or something like that), visiting the sea lion cave, enjoying Old Town Florence and the fireworks on the 4th and of course playing cards with and generally hanging out with my family (I still haven’t figured out how my father cheats but no one gets a double pinochle that often).

The bonfire on the beach was so isolated Alan was worried we might starve and gallantly decided to sacrifice his brother Torin for the good of the clan.

There are lots of things to do in this area in addition to what we did. Some of the things we didn’t have time to do which sounded fun include: ATV on the sand dunes, take a sea plane ride, kayaking or fishing of the various other rivers and lakes (there are at least 6 of them within 15 minutes of Florence) and in Florence there is typical vacation area stuff including a small live theatre, a fairly large casino, etc. I highly recommend this area for a vacation despite the predominance of nasty, vicious, flying, bloodsuckers (a.k.a. mosquito’s).

Beach Ride

Hello all,

Well, we haven't updated our blog these past two weeks because most of the time has been spent with family. Even I do not have the heart to send family pictures!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! For those of you with children, I'm just kidding and keep sending me pictures.

Darren and I did go off on a few exertions and one became an adventure. Best I did not have my camera, I ruined my razor phone. We went bike riding on the beach, it was so awesome. We rode for miles without seeing any other people. It was like we were in some movie about the end of the world or something. This seems to be very common here, nobody goes to the beach and it is so beautiful!!

We were cruising right along, passing multiple sea lions sun bathing on the beach, when eventually we ran into a retired German couple who were lost. They asked us where they were, we answered we were going to ask them the same thing and we all had a laugh. When we found the trail they were looking for we stopped so we could mark it for them. By the time Darren got finished making his 20' sign out of driftwood, they caught up and it ended up we visited with them for about an hour. They were lovely people.

On the way back the adventure began. I tell ya, I just got a master's degree in something, what was it? Nursing? Gerontology? Cross Stitch? We are so lame. I guess you need to pay attention to the tide or something around here because it was really close to where we were riding before we stopped. And the wind!!! Doesn't it change direction when we do? Well, it should!!!

Darren tried real hard to get out of working hard on our return ride, but Tracy prevailed!!! He even walked down a trial head for about 20 mins. trying to find an easier way home. However, he came back with a harem, all from different States. He knew a little too much about them by the time he returned to me. I need to follow up on that. We see two sets of people all day and one of them has to be a group of 20 something hotties.

Anyway, we were in a lot of trouble when we came to the mouth of the river where it dumps into the ocean. It was no longer ankle deep, it was more than waist high. Let's just say my breast served as flotation devices (Jeff stop picturing), and I needed them!!! The hell with my couple thousand dollar new bike I'm saving myself!!! I hadn't been too concerned when we first reached the mouth because I figured I would walk around the deepest part. However, they have a lame ass law protecting these stupid birds and we couldn't go around the way I wanted, so I had to risk my life for a damn bird. Who's ever heard of a snowy plover anyway? Damn tree huggers!!

Anyway, my phone was in my pocket so if you want to reach me call Darren's phone at (510) 673-2556.