6/28/2023 Washington State in June

Posted on June 28, 2023 by rvrrat520

We decided to take a little break in our visits to gas stations and stay put for a month. Being members of the Escapees RV Club, we have not experienced a stay at the Evergreen Coho SKP Park in Chimacum, WA, so that is exactly where we chose to call home. We can now say we have stayed at 18 of the 19 SKP parks, scattered between Washington and Florida. This was 1 of the 11 coop parks in the SKP system. The park itself was very nice with well maintained landscaping and facilities. It is in a good location, within striking distance of Port Townsend, Sequim, Poulsbo, Bremerton, and Quilcene, as well as having access in Port Townsend & Port Angeles to ferries to places like Victoria, BC and Coupeville (Anacortes area), WA.

SKP parks are notorious for many extracurricular activities. We got wind of a group hike activity on Sundays and jumped right in. A group of 7 of us tackled a 3.5 mile hike within Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island. The hike took us by numerous battery positions that were built at the fort in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s and used for national defense. Parts of the trail took us up on the ridge/cliffs and afforded beautiful views of the various inlet areas in and around Puget Sound as well as distant looks at Mt. Baker and Mt. Ranier, both very snow-covered.

One of our hike-mates mentioned we were here just in time for the Ruckus event taking place in Port Townsend later in the day. Ruckus is the pre-race get-together in town for the annual R2AK – Race to Alaska. We learned R2AK is a watercraft race, about 750 miles in length, from Port Townsend, WA to Ketchikan, AK. I say “watercraft” because racers use all forms of floating devices including SUP’s (stand up paddle boards), no motors are allowed. We wandered around the Ruckus, taking in the festive atmosphere and viewing the “boats” that were on display. The race was to start early the following day but we took a pass on attending the start.

Anderson Lake State Park is located next to the SKP park and contains several trails, parts & pieces surrounding Anderson Lake. We hit the “B” trail for about a 2.6 mile circle around the lake. The trails were fairly well maintained and marked. Trail “B” did not stay real close to the lake itself, but did feel like we were hiking a rain forest since tree canopy covered it completely and we hiked through heavy vegetation. There were tons of ferns, nettles, and goofy growing trees but no critters of note on this hike. Poor ol’ Anderson Lake is currently off limits for water fun – it is afflicted with a toxic algae bloom. I guess swimming laps is out of the question…

I guess getting water for coffee is out of the question then?!!?!

Our next little adventure was a mild road trip to Lake Crescent west of Port Angeles. We chose the Merrymere Falls Trail to do a short hike to the falls. It was about a mile and a half trek, round trip, on a well maintained trail through the jungle. I’ll let the pictures tell the story…

One day we made a chores trip into the area of Poulsbo; Costco, CVS, etc. We got some nice scenic views of Hood Canal with snowy mountains on the horizon, courtesy of the Hood Canal Bridge which is a floating bridge made out of concrete (?). I guess I shoulda took engineering in college to figure that one out…On the way home we passed through the area of Port Ludlow, where Jeanne had discovered a very short trail to Ludlow Falls. It is only a little more than a half mile round trip and is an interpretive trail (aka: has lots of signs describing foliage, history of the area and its uses, and history of the formations of the area). Since it seems the overwhelming theme of this whole spin through Washington is waterfalls, sign me up! Again, it felt rain forest-y with a complete canopy of trees and lots of green ground cover.

Another group hike found us meandering around Fort Worden State Park. I say “meandering” because it was basically a walk around the park on a paved, interior road. This particular 1.75 mile “hike” snaked its way in and amongst several battery positions more toward the interior of the park with not a lot of ocean views. Our walk was fairly level and easy but hey, any exercise is good exercise, right?

The Larry Scott Trail is a little over 7 mile long hike/bike trail we found nearby that snakes around the peninsula toward Port Townsend. One of the semi-clear, non-rain days we gave the bicycles a workout and biked the 14+ mile round trip. The trail is well maintained and well marked, crossing several roads and driveways as it winds through some pretty thick tree cover. There were a couple of pretty good, thankfully short grades but otherwise it was an easy trail. Unfortunately, the views were predominantly green growth with the only views of Port Townsend Bay appearing in the last mile on the trail.

On our previous group hike at Fort Worden we only covered a small portion of the hiking trails and by-passed the Point Wilson Lighthouse. We returned to the fort in between rain storms and did another walk to the lighthouse. As far as lighthouses go, Point Wilson is a bit underwhelming but still offers scenic views of Port Townsend Bay. We also explored another battery position that was close to the lighthouse, Battery Kinzie. It was interesting to learn that it required (51) men to operate each of the (2) 12” cannons, from loading to aiming to firing. After all, the guns weights were not measured in pounds but in tons and the shells weighed in at a half-ton. The Battery Kinzie had a pretty cool feature in that I could enter a section and explore an eerie, very dark downstairs walkway that led to another section of the battery. Someone had even scrawled some ghostly graffiti at the top of the stairs, posing the question, “What’s below?”

Our final Sunday group hike took us to the Miller Peninsula State Park. This hike was a little over 4 miles, round trip, again through heavy canopy and thick undergrowth. Critters were pretty much non-existent, but we did get to see some neat fungi/mushroom formations along the path. The trail ended at a large beach area and we got a fantastic view of the bay…NOT! It seems we had traded the on & off rain for daily doses of heavy fog (kind of a left coast staple). Oh well, we should enjoy the cool temps while they last, since we have planned our next destination to be in the heart of the desert southwest, currently experiencing 100+ degree temps.

Our time at the Evergreen Coho SKP park came to an end seemingly very quickly. The month of June just screamed right by us. It certainly helped that we had plenty of chores and repairs to work on in between fun times, such as swapping out the kitchen sink hardware (leaky valve), replacing the coach’s water pump, wash/wax the beast and toad, painting another load of rocks (#RVersrock) for nationwide distribution, and numerous shopping runs to the big box stores. Now it was time to batten down the hatches and hit the road to…well, you’re just gonna have to wait, until next post…

6/5/2023 Cruisin’ Through the North Cascades

Posted on June 5, 2023 by rvrrat520

Jacks up in Entiat, it was onward and upward, northbound. Next up on our temporary home list was the Osooyos Lake Veteran’s Memorial Park in the massive urban development of Oroville, WA (ahem, that would be about as sarcastic a description as can be made). The lake is fairly large and is situated as such that 5 miles north from our “home” at the park is the Canadian/U.S. border and the lake continues up into Canada. The park was not real big, but was a big time family campout location, being situated lakeside, and nearly filled up during our stay. I’m sure that it being the start of the Memorial Day weekend had something to do with the fill up, but one thing struck me as a little strange. A lot of the campers brought their boats with them, all shapes and sizes. But during our whole stay we saw very few boats on the water, and then only one or two small fishing motorboats. That was a real poser…

Our home at Osooyos Lake Veteran’s Memorial Park

The old town area of Molson caught our interest, so we ventured the several miles to take a gander. It was an old mining town in days of yore which succumbed to the follies of a good ol’ property dispute. It seemed a landowner claimed Molson was on his homestead property, so everyone abandoned ship and moved the “town” down the road a half-mile away. The old equipment and buildings are still scattered on the original site, I liken it to a very small version of the Bodie ghost town back in Kalifornia. You can walk amongst the “stuff” and even enter the buildings to get an upclose and personal experience.

We took a short touring drive out to Blue Lake and Wannacut Lake. Both lakes were pretty isolated but appeared to be fishing type lakes vs. water toy lakes. Nice views and a few critters later it was back to town. One other little excursion took us up the mountain to view a property in our ever-continuing search for a possible landing zone. It seems what is called the 9 Mile Ranch is in process of being chunked up and sold in 20 acre pieces and we found one with a house and barn already built on it. It certainly had nice valley views, but it just didn’t scream at us.

House for sale +20 acres. Hard views to handle…

As we casually headed toward and into the North Cascades N.P., our new home became the Winthrop/N. Cascade National Park KOA. This was a terrible park as far as KOAs go; not much room upon entering the driveway into a skinny choke-point at the check-in office, interior roads very skinny dirt/gravel with tight turns and trees overgrown creating top-side hazards for the MH roof, and thick tree cover which makes it hard to navigate into the sites and denies satellite/Starlink connection. The kicker was the WAY overboard excessively high nightly fees for this KOA. Yes, it was still Memorial Day weekend, and yes, there were non-stop things for the kids to enjoy. But for $110/night I would expect more of a resort type of park, a little more “refined” maybe. The prices did not stop the masses though, the park was packed, and hundreds of little “speed bumps”, I mean kids, shooting wildly out of control from behind cars and tents on bicycles (OK, stop it, that was a joke! I take my “speed bumps” seriously!)

Home at the Winthrop/N. Cascade N.P. KOA (photo after the hordes departed!)

The Hwy. 20 path through the Northern Cascade mountains seems to be popular with the hiking crowd, judging by all the hiking trails scattered throughout the National Park area. We thought we would make use of some of the trails, so our first outing was to find the trailhead to Rainy Lake, about 40 miles from Winthrop. We headed out (and up!) early one fine, clear morning. As far as the “and up!” goes, we climbed Hwy. 20 up and past the Washington Pass. The summit, Jeanne had learned, is the highest one in the Cascades at 5,477’. We left Winthrop with it’s expected 80 degree temps and upon arrival at the trailhead, we were about 4 miles west of Washington Pass, temperatures in the low 40’s, and the snow was so thick the road guys had not plowed/cleared the trailhead parking areas yet. We got out and got geared up for a hike anyway…until I found a sign near what I suppose might have been the trailhead (covered with snow). The sign warned of the dangers of a hike in the snow, advising wanderers such as we to carry our ice axes, pick axes, spiked shoes, snow shoes, skis, etc. It also mentioned we should be prepared to “self-rescue”. Well, mammy & pappy didn’t raise no fool and common sense is a terrible thing to waste. We did the ol’ “NASA, abort mission!” and resolved this adventure to being a driving tour. The views in the area were actually pretty spectacular, water leaking out of mountains everywhere and the views from the Washington Pass Overlook were awe inspiring.

After our return to base from the above unsuccessful mission, we regrouped and settled on a short hike closer to home. There is a suspension bridge over the Methow River near Mazama we chose to hike to, only about a mile and a half round trip and extremely easy & flat. Like all the trails and trailheads we have seen here in this area, the Tawlks Foster Suspension Bridge trail is popular with numerous families hiking and biking. It didn’t have that “Wow!” factor for us, but it is spanning the Methow River for a pleasant view.

A little local research and we settled on another hike to Falls Creek Falls, just a short 14 miles outside of Winthrop. Falls Creek feeds into the Chewuch River and there is a partially paved trail up the canyon, mostly alongside the creek, until it turns to dirt and veers away from the water, making some long sweeping switchbacks to gradually gain the altitude necessary to reach the top of the falls. “Falls” is plural; there are several falls along the creek. For the less than avid hikers there is good news – the first and most spectacular waterfall jumps up on you at about the 1/4 mile mark and is easily arrived at. After that, you can scale some short, steep switchbacks straight up the hill or take the long gradual gain switchbacks to see the other falls. Falls Creek Falls is not a gargantuan of a waterfall, but there was a lot of water raging down the mountain and it is still stunning as far as waterfalls go.

Before pulling our jacks we had to take one last stroll, this time a touristy jaunt around the town of Winthrop. It is a very small town with a kind of old West vibe, and it certainly was nicer strolling after all the holiday craziness had gone. We even stopped by to see another suspension bridge in the middle of town, the Spring Creek Bridge. The people in these parts of Washington sure like their suspension bridges…

Well, that concludes another episode of “Recreational Wanderers”. Until next post…

5/11/2023 Playing In The Columbia River Gorge

Posted on May 12, 2023 by rvrrat520

Continuing our trek northward, we made a short stopover in Bend, OR and a return stop at the Elk’s Lodge. Since the Bend Elk’s Lodge RV sites are E only, it was a short stay. Jeanne had a gift certificate for REI so we ventured on down to the Old Mill District on the Deschutes River so she could spend her money. We did a little walkabout and checked out the scenery there also. Being in a fairly good sized city, we needed to get a new set of shoes for the Jeep, so a stop at Discount Tires was in order. A little tip for ye who don’t live in snow country…April/May is a bad time to want to get new car tires here at Discount Tire. Everyone and their mother who run snow tires on their family ride seem to go to Discount to get the snow tires swapped out with the good weather tires. We waited almost 4 hours for our tire job! Oh well, the joys of full-timing…

A peek at the iconic 3 stacks of the Old Mill District

We managed to avoid the on again off again snow forecasts for the areas of Oregon we were in, but still got some good rain showers. We plugged on, our next stop being the Cascade Locks KOA at the Columbia River Gorge. A little bit of rain and cloudiness was not enough to discourage a little outdoorsiness. The area is permeated with hiking/biking trails, waterfalls, and overall great scenery along the river.

First order of business was a quick recon spin through the megalopolis known as Cascade Locks on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. The view across and down the river from the Bridge of the Gods was pretty cool. We also checked out the old historical locks in town, a set of locks from days of yore, no longer operating. In fact the lock doors aren’t there any more. But it gave us a straight shot down the river to the Bridge of the Gods.

The Wahclella Falls Trail was our choice for the first hike. It is a fairly easy 2+ mile round trip on a well maintained gravel trail with no real rock scrambling to speak of. The trail follows along Tanner Creek and actually accesses 2 separate water falls. The first one is Munra Falls. That was a neat “little” falls that is just a matter of feet off the wooden bridge along the trail. I say “little” with just a touch of sarcasm…Munra Falls is about 68’ tall and classified as a horsetail falls. A couple of more wooden bridges (well built, sturdy, well maintained, and solid) and we arrived at Wahclella Falls. It is a two-tiered waterfall, the upper falling about 50’ while the lower horsetail style fall is about 65’ and lands in a nice little pool area. We did hit this trail fairly early, right around 7:30 am, and found nobody else on the trail all the way to the end. But judging by the number of hikers we encountered on the return trip, it seems to be a fairly popular and busy trail as the day goes on.

The trail started out wide and clear anyway…

We made one road trip from Cascade Locks, a little over an hour’s drive to the area of Goldendale, WA. We crossed the river and drove Hwy. 14 along the Columbia River and got some cool views from that side. At the area of Little White Salmon River flowing into Drano Lake which flows into Columbia River, on Drano Lake in an area locals call “the Toilet Bowl” there were multitudes of small fishing boats trolling in a circular pattern at a tiny end of the lake. Kinda like the “Keystone Kops” version of a fishing tournament.

A view up river from the Washington side

Bonneville Lock and Dam just happened to be up the road from our homesite and Jeanne discovered they have a fancy visitors center. We graced them with our presence one morning just after they opened up. The dam is huge in the world of power generation and churns up the river in a pretty big way. There is a large fish ladder system on site as well, with a nice fish viewing window area at the lower level, below the water level of course (no duh!) Due to all the rain this season, the water was a bit, OK, a lot murky but still the fish are drawn by the back lighting at the windows so you can still get a glimpse of the power swimmers. The lock area was closed to the public, so we were unable to get a close peek at the massive lock system that elevates/lowers the big barges pushing cargo up and down the river.

These were guard shacks from WWII. These big power project dams were and continue to be high value targets for attack.

After a couple of hours at the dam, it was time to break out the bicycles for a two-wheeled road trip. The Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail runs right through this area, so we hopped on at the Bridge of the Gods and headed west. It was a nice, paved bicycle path which had some pretty healthy grades as far as pedaling goes. The path travels alongside Hwy. 84 and the Columbia River. At one point we crossed Ruckel Creek and got treated not only to fantastic views of the creek cascading down the mountain, but Jeanne spotted what I think was an Osprey’s nest in a treetop nearby. We got to see incoming and departing Osprey’s, very cool. We rode the trail to the Cascade Salmon Hatchery at Eagle Creek. A quick self-tour of the holding tanks and it was back to base. I have to hand it to the infrastructure folks of the state of Oregon. This stretch of Hwy. 84 we were on had a ton of construction activity going on, and all of it an improvement project for the Highway State Trail. It’s nice to see governments spending our tax money responsibly on projects to benefit We The People.

Starting off on our run down the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail

The Eagle Creek Trail was in our gunsights, so it was off and running (no, hiking) one brisk early morn. The trail length approaches 14 miles, one way, to the end at Wahtum Lake. Since Woodrow Wilson (the family ankle biter) has given up on family hikes, he gets to stay and guard Rosie (the bus). Unfortunately, we get to suffer in that our hikes must be limited due to said ankle biter and his peanut-sized bladder. This hike we chose to go as far as Lower Punchbowl Falls, which made it a 5+ mile round trip. The whole trail boasts 8 “main” waterfalls, with numerous small falls along the way. Our trip we got to see Lower Punchbowl Falls, Metlako Falls, & Sorenson Falls. The trail was well maintained with not a lot of signage needed (or so I thought). There is some minor elevation changes, the steepest bit was going down the mountain to arrive at Lower Punchbowl. There are a couple of very narrow stretches along the cliffside high up on the mountain where the Forest Service people have installed thick cables for hand-holds, those sections might not be suitable for the squeamish. But hey, I’m squeamish and I made it, breakfast still in tact…Metlako Falls and Sorenson Falls are in the same area however they are not visible together (twists & turns in canyon and trail, you get the gist). Sorenson Falls is said to be about 100’ tall and is the first one you will spot. A touch further on the trail you will be given a view of Metlako Falls. It is about 82’ tall and both feed into the same deep pool in the creek. All along the trail we spotted a myriad of small falls and leaking mountainsides. We were able to hike all the way to Lower Punchbowl Falls and do some rock/tree scrambling around that small area of canyon. The sad thing about it, (as we learned after our return) is that supposedly about 100 yards upstream we could have encountered another waterfall called Punchbowl Falls. The entire canyon and its stability were compromised in the big wildfire of 2017. People used to be able to walk the creekside to see those falls, but now some major rock scrambling or wading/swimming the creek is required. This would be one of those times a little signage would have been helpful. Oh well…Water break and snacks done, it was off on the return trip. We encountered only a few fellow hikers on our trek out, but quickly realized we picked a good time to do the hike because on our way back we passed a whole bunch of hikers headed up the mountain. This trail requires a $5 use fee, or in our case the America The Beautiful pass. I think there is a point where back country use permits are also required, but as long as we have the Woodster, we will never be in danger of needing one of those.

Our final excursion for this area we chose to hike Beacon Hill. It was across the river in Washington and described as the core of a volcano 848’ high. Over the years, the Columbia River has eroded the outer parts of said volcano, leaving only the core standing tall. The rock (as I call it) has some limited areas for mountain climbers to scale, but none were there for our entertainment. There is a trail to the top with an intricate system of switchbacks (55 to speak of, if my count was close) to help mediate the 800’+ elevation gain in the 1 mile distance up. The trail has a mix of sections made of concrete, rock/basalt, and some wooden boardwalks. It definitely will give you the willies if you have altitude issues, thankfully there is solid hand railing all the way. The trail and top give you sweeping vistas of this area of the Gorge and a long-distance overview of the Bonneville Dam. The hike took us a little over an hour to go out and back and again, we did this one early in the morning, no other hikers around. But once we started the downward trek, we met numerous upward bound hikers, one even had her dog along for the trip. I’ll let these pics speak for themselves, no captions…

Well, weather looking like it is improving, it’s time for a change of scenery. Stay tuned, until next post…

Circle the Wagons, Squaring the Circle, Circular Logic…

Posted on September 23, 2020 by rvrrat520

You get the picture, right? Circle? We basically left Idaho, “circled” back down to Kalifornia then back to Idaho (with Jeanne’s mom Yvonne in tow) to give Yvonne a little break/vacation from Anderson, CA. The “circling” went like this…

Our first stop after leaving the Cd’A Casino was the Columbia Sun RV Resort in Kennewick, WA for a few days. This is a very nice RV resort in the tri-cities area. We managed to make time for some drive around exploring as well as a bike ride along the Columbia River on the Sacagawea Heritage Trail and the Columbia Park Trail. During our bike ride we rode through a section along the river where workers were setting up for an upcoming event. In a unique response to the current bull$hit China virus hysteria, the workers were setting up assigned spaces right on the river for the upcoming annual air show that was about to be held over the river. The assigned spaces were for spectators to park their cars on (in good ol’ American “drive-in” fashion). We got some nice river views, including highway bridges and the Gateway Arch, Tower Beacon lighthouse. On our local drive we found the Bombing Range Brewing Co. which we just HAD to check out. The beers were OK, as was the rather large taco salad, and it is definitely a pro L.E. outfit.

From Kennewick we returned to Caldwell, ID to offload our bicycles, then continued south toward Anderson, CA. We overnighted at a brand new (in fact, still in progress) RV park in Burns, OR, called Quail Ridge RV Park. Quail Ridge is not much of what I would call a “vacation destination park”, but it does have FHU’s on a large open gravel lot. Since we had left Caldwell, we were plagued with smoky skies from all the left coast wildfires. We sucked it up and drove straight on through to Anderson, taking Hwy. 395 down to Alturas, then Hwy. 299 into Redding, smoky skies all the way. A couple of nights at the Win-River Casino and then it was back toward Idaho, trying to escape the ever-increasing burnt skies, with Yvonne riding shotgun. We initially wanted to drive up through Klamath Falls, OR into Bend, then over back to Caldwell. Those plans, like most well-laid plans, changed on the fly due to wildfires and road closures. We were forced to backtrack the way we came into Kalifornia. “$%#&*@!”

We were unable to find much relief from the intense smoke. Here is a bit of a montage of what we encountered all the way back into Idaho.

We overnighted at the Desert Rose Casino in Alturas, CA. This is a small, hole-in-the-wall casino but they do have a large flat back lot area on which they allow free overnight RV parking. Then it was on back to Quail Ridge RV Park for a 2 day rest, and finally back to Ambassador RV Resort in Caldwell.

Our home at Desert Rose Casino. Not a lot of neighbors…

Our whole time, so far, here in Caldwell has been cursed with smoke filled skies. With just a few days left, we will be making the return trip into Kalifornia. And right now, as it stands, our plans are in perpetual change mode. You’ll just have to wait…until next post.

9/12/2019 A Stopover in Vancouver

Posted on September 12, 2019 by rvrrat520

Jeanne had found out about a lot of stuff to do in and around Vancouver/WA & Portland/OR (both pretty much the same city, just divided by the Columbia River), so we set our sights on the Vancouver Elks Lodge for a few days’ stay. Unfortunately, the weather was horrendous for doing outdoor activities, lots of rain off and on. But we gave it the good ol’ college try. After our (5) hour drive and initial set up, first on our itinerary was to hit a brewery we had heard about (OK, our son Chad sent us on a beer shopping spree…) called Great Notion Brewing. We braved the absolutely horrible driving conditions (traffic, plus rain, plus drivers with HUA) and found Great Notion. They had a pretty good selection of brews and I found (3) porter/stouts to be worthy…Double Stack, Cake Party, and Hot Fudge Saturday. Unfortunately, they don’t distribute much, particularly the Cake Party and Hot Fudge Saturday, beers that are limited in production and usually “tapped out” fairly quickly. But at least I got a taste…

On another rainy Monday we ventured over to Ft. Vancouver to check out Officer’s Row. The U.S. Army “fort” built in the mid 1800’s was called Vancouver Barracks and later part of the Department of the Columbia. Officer’s Row was a series of some 21 residences for the officers and their families with the Marshall House and the Grant House belonging to various commanders of their times. The City of Vancouver took over ownership of the residences in the 1980’s and restored them. Today, some of the homes are working businesses, some residences. The city gives free tours of the Marshall House (lower level) and our docent did a very nice job of giving us a history narrative surrounding Brigadier General George Marshall.

Being the intrepid travelers we are, it was off into the rain again, this time to drive the historic Columbia River Hwy. and see some of the sights along the way (mostly waterfalls). First stop was the Vista House. It was built on a point overlooking the Columbia Gorge as a rest stop & observation point for travelers to stop and gawk at the scenery. The views were very nice. It was then onward and eastward where we encountered Latourell Falls, Shepperd’s Dell Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Wahkeena Falls, Multnomah Falls, & Horsetail Falls. The trail to the upper falls area of Horsetail Falls was closed, so we only got to see the falls that were next to the road. (Gee, I hope I don’t mislabel any of the photos, but if I do, go ahead and sue me!) We ended our journey along the Columbia River Hwy. at Clock Tower Ales in The Dalles. Clock Tower Ales is housed in one of the early courthouses and is now a tap room and restaurant. The beer was good, the food fair, and the building historic.

A look up the Columbia River Gorge with Vista House perched on the point.

When we finally got a clear day with minimal clouds we loaded up the Woodster and headed to the Waterfront Renaissance Trail, a trail along the Columbia River in Vancouver. We let Woodrow lead us on a couple miles of paved walkway along the river, watching a few of the fishermen catching whoppers out of the river. When we finished we dropped Woody off at the bus and headed into Portland to check out a brewery Jeanne found on line with some high end seasonal offerings, the brewery called Hair of the Dog Brewing Co. We had a nice pre-birthday lunch (her birthday happens to be this week on Friday the 13th…great!) and tasted some of the malts, barley, and hops they offer. Holy moly, I just added one to my top 4 brewers list. Hair of the Dog now occupies my top tier of breweries (my opinion) along with Evil Twin Brewing, Founders Brewing, and Firestone Walker Brewing Co. We had a great lunch to boot. May I suggest the brisket and potato/pasta salad with a wash down of their Fred From The Wood. Mmmmmmmmmm! Hair of the Dog also does a very limited production (sometimes just a dozen bottles per release) on a barrel aged brew they call “Dave”. “Dave”, as they have a couple of bottles there now, goes for upwards of $800 per bottle. It is about a 29% ABV Barleywine that has been aging in multiple barrels for over 20 years. I better get crackin’ watering that money tree I have…

Moving day came and it was off, southbound and down.

9/7/2019 Time Well Spent at Olympic National Park

Posted on September 7, 2019 by rvrrat520

So, Forks, WA was our chosen base camp for the west side of the Olympic Peninsula. We found space at the Forks 101 RV Park, right in the middle of town along Hwy. 101. The RV park was a grass field with FHU’s, pretty primitive showers/bathrooms, and basically no amenities/activities located on site. It is a bit overpriced as well, $50/night being their base rate, but at least they give a 10% discount to first responder retirees. It is centrally located to many of the features of the Olympic National Park. At Olympic National Park be prepared to do a lot of driving, similar to Yellowstone and Glacier N.P.’s. There are no interior roads to drive around inside the park, only spur roads off of Hwy. 101 which circles around the park.

Outing number one took us to La Push and Rialto Beach. I’ll tell you right now, don’t waste any time driving into La Push. It is a very typical Indian Reservation town, run down, nothing there, waste of time. We even tried to stop off at the one restaurant in “town” for a seaside beer, but were told they had a rule if we were going to order beer, we also had to order food. Good bye, La Push…We quickly headed for the other side of the river to Rialto Beach, but Mother Nature slammed us again. To walk the 2 mile hike down the beach to see the Hole in the Wall rock feature, it really needs to be anything but near high tide, which it just so happened it was at the time we were there, sooooooooo, no Hole in the Wall. We would have to save that for another day.

Looking down Rialto Beach toward the Hole in the Wall area, a couple miles and low tide away…

We headed out early one morning to hit the Hoh Rainforest along the Hoh River. There are 3 trails out of the visitor’s center there. Since Woodrow Wilson is not allowed on park trails, he had to stay home. The Hoh River Trail was automatically out for us, it is over 17 miles one-way and I don’t think the little Chihuahua-mix has a sufficient sized bladder for us to be gone that long. But we did take the other two trails, the Hall of Mosses Trail (0.8 mile loop) and the Spruce Trail (1.25 mile loop). The Hall of Mosses was eerily spectacular with some massive trees covered in moss, I don’t know if it is considered Spanish Moss, but very similar in nature. We also noted the chrystal clear nature of both the Hoh River water as well as the springs within the rainforest.

The Hoh River, on our way in to do the rainforest hike.

A quick lunch break and we picked up Woody and headed south to Lake Quinault. There is a 31 mile loop road encircling the lake, through more rainforest, with a couple of waterfalls along the way. The North Shore Rd. was part paved, part gravel, lots of thick trees, but not a lot of other views besides trees. Once we began the trip back on South Shore Rd. we quickly found Bunch Falls and Merryman Falls, both small but still scenic (c’mon, face it, waterfalls are pleasing to the eye in just about any form or size). On the way back home we stopped off to walk the beach at Ruby Beach. I guess the name derives from the appearance of the rocks/sand at some certain time of day and year, but at this time, that appearance was not to be. Still, the coastline at Ruby Beach has some stand-out rock formations and, like most areas around here, would be a driftwood hunter’s dream location. Mother Nature still laughing at us, the tide was up, taking away our opportunity to check out any tidal pools that are allegedly here at this location.

On the loop drive around Lake Quinault, the drive along North Shore Rd.

Getting another early start, this time on a blue-sky-sunny day, we drove out to Sol Duc Falls and hit the short 0.8 mile (one-way) trail to see the waterfalls. Before we got to the trailhead we came upon an area of the Sol Duc River called Salmon Cascades. These were beautiful cascades into some of the clearest pools of water we’ve seen. A few pix for posterity and we continued on to the trailhead for the falls. The hike was easy on a well maintained trail, through more rainforest and moss covered trees. Sol Duc Falls did not disappoint in the scenery department. Now, for those of you daredevil hikers out there, there are many other trails that are accessed off of this one as you hike past the falls, traversing many many many miles of rainforest terrain. These would be the type of trails used by back-country, overnighting back packers who are required to purchase permits for said types of hikes. We are not that level of hikers…yet.

A little hist’ry lesson about the Coho salmon and Salmon Cascade.

Since the weather gods were smiling on us we chose to head back to see Cape Flattery again, this time without the shroud of clouds. We got there with fairly blue skies and were treated to unobstructed views of that area that were in stark contrast to how we saw them less than a week ago in a heavy drizzle, clouds, marine layer, fog, you name the marine obstruction and we had it! Wow wow wow! Very nice! I even got to get a good look at what I previously described as “ghost island” from our first low-visibility visit to the Cape. Turns out it even has a lighthouse on it and Jeanne later discovered the island to be Tatoosh Island, a sacred island of the local Makah tribe of Indians.We topped the day off with “linner” at the By the Bay Cafe in downtown Sekiu, looking out onto the marina area and watching some of the locals cleaning their catch of the day.

A hearty welcome to Cape Flattery at Neah Bay from us wee little ones…

Since the weather gods were feeling generous with us, we made another return trip, this time to Rialto Beach but this time paying attention to the ocean tide tables. With tides low enough, we hiked down the beach to the Hole in the Wall. The sun did not want to come out to play, but the marine layer/fog stayed away as well, with just overcast skies and visibility good. The area of the Hole in the Wall is jam packed full of tidal pools at low tide and we got treated to some very colorful sea anemone(s), starfish, and even some well camoflaged fish swimming among them. The Hole in the Wall is just that – a large hole in the rock wall. You can walk through it and as you do, there are many little tidal pools with sea anemone(s) glowing in their brightness. All in all, we definitely got our money’s worth in the scenery department.

On the walk down to Hole in the Wall we saw whole flocks of pelicans dive-fishin’ along the shore.

Our last day in the area was, surprise surprise, another crappy weather day, so we just hung out and prepped for travel day. That about wraps up our stay here at Olympic National Park. Until next post…

09/02/2019 Our Time in Port Townsend, WA

Posted on September 2, 2019 by rvrrat520

We caught the ferry from Coupeville (Ft. Casey) to Port Townsend. It was our first experience loading our 16 ton bus towing the Jeep onto a ferry boat which I was a little apprehensive about. But all was well, after all, they are HUGE ferries. For the mere cost of a $90-something half hour boat ride we saved ourselves 200 miles of driving through some of the more congested areas of Washington state. It was well worth the price. But, again, no orcas, just a few porpoiseseseses…

Our first home on the Olympic peninsula was the Jefferson County fairgrounds camping lot in Port Townsend. Relieved we found space on the Labor Day weekend, we opted to stay at the fairgrounds until the holiday weekend was over. The Jefferson County fairgrounds is terrible as far as RV lots go. It definitely is not of the breathtaking scenery type of RV lot. The grass/dirt area for parking the rigs is extremely uneven and it takes a little effort to get level. I committed an RVer’s mortal sin; after finally getting level (used up all of my levelling blocks), we did a full set-up, pop-outs and all, before I went to hook up power. At the self-check in station it lists the sites with water, electricity, and sewer. We chose one of them, but when I tried to plug in I discovered the electricity offered was only a 20A 110 outlet. Shoulda inspected the power before set up, coulda saved me a whopping $5 per night…I ate the extra, being too lazy to load everything up again and relocate to the cheaper sites. Besides, with the (8) solar panels on my roof we don’t need their meager offering of 20A electricity…The sites here were stacked like cord wood, with very skinny travel lanes between rows of RV’s. But we had a base camp for the area…

Hurricane Ridge is just outside Port Angeles in Olympic Nat’l Park. We loaded up Woody and drove out to investigate the scenery. Being a National Park, in typical fashion Woodrow Wilson was not allowed on trails, so we nixed any trail hiking. I think that choice was made for us by Mother Nature anyway, it was an overcast day with limited visibility.

This could probably be a scenic view if we can lose the clouds…

On another overcast, drizzly day we took the chance and drove all the way over to Neah Bay to check out Cape Flattery, the N/W point of the lower 48 (not the northernmost, just the N/W most). It was still overcast and drizzly when we got there, but it was jam packed with visitors. We hooked Woody up and let him lead us down the 25 minute trail to several Cape Flattery viewpoints. Even in the thick mist, it was a pretty scenic area. As we left we decided we may just have to return if we ever get some fairly clear weather after we relocate to the area of Forks, WA, our intended next destination. So far, we are not fans of this end-of-summer weather in Washington. Also, not fans of the cell service/wifi we have experienced at the places in Washington we have been thus far.

The marina area of Neah Bay looks a little congested, don’t it?

We finally got a hint of blue skies, with some clouds, but we capitalized on it and did a walkabout around the downtown waterfront area of Port Townsend, sans Woody. Port Townsend is touted as “Washington’s Victorian seaport”, with many Victorian style homes on the hills overlooking Port Townsend Bay. The waterfront area is home to a great many older buildings from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, still in use by businesses today. We found our way to the Port Townsend Brewing Co. for a flight of their finest. Not a lot to write home about, but their “Peeping Peater Scotch Ale” was fairly tasty. Lunch time found us at Taps at the Guardhouse at Ft. Worden State Park. A unique little Pub & Eatery, some of the tables are held within the confines of a jail cell. Their wings were good, washed down with a Fremont Brewing “Dark Star” imperial oatmeal stout. One thing we have discovered, there are a whole lotta deer here in town. They pay no mind to us humans and you really gotta pay attention while driving around, they just meander out into the roadway whenever they wish.

A look at the backside of the waterfront from the waterfront (???)

That about covers our stay here in Port Townsend. Tomorrow we are off toward Forks, WA and the other side of the peninsula. Until next post…

8/29/2019 Our Time in Anacortes

Posted on August 29, 2019 by rvrrat520

Pioneer Trails RV Park was our chosen home for about a week in beautiful downtown Anacortes. The park was nice and spread out in the hills and trees and a good base to work out of. Our site was level gravel pull-through, FHU’s, but thick in the trees which put the kabosh to our satellite TV reception. And since they had no cable, I did not even try to catch over-the-air antenna reception and we “went commando” all week, aka: “unplugged”.

Our first order of business was some exploring, so we headed out toward Whidbey Island. Crossing the bridge over Deception Pass, we wanted to stop and give it a good look but quickly discovered the way of the world in the state of Washington. Just about everything worth sightseeing they charge a $10 day use fee. But the great state of Washington to the rescue! They offer a yearly Discover Pass for all state sites/parks for the mere price of $30. So we buckled and bought a pass (which paid for itself in the first 2 days for us). Just one of the ways they make up for having no state income tax I guess…We returned later to walk the bridge. In the meantime, we continued south on Whidbey Island to Oak Harbor. We strolled the “downtown” area and walked along the boardwalk/shoreline. Whidbey Island NAS is in/near Oak Harbor and we were treated to numerous groups of fighters flying our friendly skies. Continuing S/B on Hwy. 20 we cruised on into Coupeville and the Fort Casey area. We needed to check out the ferry terminal in Fort Casey that runs across to Port Townsend on the Olympic peninsula for our eventual escape from this area heading south. Ferry information and schedules in hand, Coupeville became our lunch stop. After a walk around town and the Coupeville public pier/dock we ate lunch at Toby’s, a little quaint bar/restaurant.

A look out on the bay at Oak Harbor. Got driftwood?

Our return trip brought us back to the Deception Pass bridge. We walked the bridge and watched a group of fishing boats below catch some fish. They were also being surveilled under the watchful eye of what was probably one of the local harbor seals. It was a very scenic view on a clear day.

Distant view of the bridge over Deception Pass.

A run to Bellingham, WA found us stopping off at the Trader Joe’s for a little shopping. We also found out there is a Bellingham Tap Trail so, twist my arm, we HAD to hit just a few of them. The whole trail consists of about 30 not just breweries but cideries and tap houses as well. Of the six we visited, we picked lunch at the Bellingham Beer Garden, affiliated with Twin Sisters Brewing Co. This turned out to be a great choice, both food-wise and beer-wise. Jeanne had their cauliflower tacos and I had the pork belly tacos, both outstanding! And the bourbon barrel aged Stouting Thomas was very good. We did find Bellingham to be a pain in the #&$% to drive in the downtown area – all the one way streets and the sheer number of drivers driving HUA made it a true chore.

A drive to the opposite end of Fidalgo Island found us driving the Washington Park Loop, a short loop in the park with ocean views. German immigrant Tonjes Havekost owned this area back in the 1870’s and his gravesite is on a short walking trail off the loop.

Rosario Beach is next to Deception Pass State Park. We walked out to the beach and a small tidal pool area. It seems the tidal critters were critically damaged during a low tide event in 1995 where some 1,200 human visitors trampled over the sea life in one day. Time is allowing the critters to return and we saw many tiny what I think are urchins. Also, a wayward red rock crab kinda crossed our “path” in the shallows of a nearby cove.

We met up with our friends Bud and Meredith (fellow Texans) when we relocated our homestead to the Fidalgo Bay RV Resort, still on Fidalgo Island. This was a bit different RV park from Pioneer Trails. Fully open sky, sites stacked like cord wood, views of the bay, and a nice bicycle/walking path that runs right through the park. There is a part of the path that is on kinda like a jetty with a footbridge over the channel which we used for Woody’s walkabouts. It provided us opportunities to see some of the local critters like harbor seals, blue herons, red rock crabs, a colorful starfish, and a whole bunch of clams “spitting” during low tide. Now, the last time we were with Bud & Meredith, it was at the opposite end of the world in Bar Harbor, ME. At that time, I can say I have never stuffed my face with so much lobster and steamed clams than I did then. Being on the left coast this time, substitute Dungeness crab for lobster and I can pretty much say the same thing. Mmmmmmmmmm…

One day we did a bicycle ride into town to wander their Farmer’s Market. It was relatively small as far as F.M.’s go, but we still managed to pick up some tomatos and tomatillos for future salsa. After hitting the market, we stopped off at a place called “Gere-a-Deli” for lunch and had some outstanding chow; Jeanne had a quinoa salad and I had a pastrami sandwich. I would highly recommend this place if you are ever in the area…

Bud, Meredith, & Jeanne leading the way on the bike path along the water’s edge.

We made a short trip to check out the small hamlet of La Conner. This was another quaint little seaside town, home to a cool little antique shop called “Nasty Jacks”. We strolled town and some of the plaza/boardwalk areas along the docks and ended with some nachos at the La Conner Brewing Co.

OK, so it was a little drizzly in La Conner

Bud & Meredith took us up to Cap Sante Park where we were treated to some pretty good water and island views, as well as snow-covered Mt. Baker. As far as views go, we also hit Mt. Erie right in the middle of downtown Anacortes. There are a couple of viewing platforms at the top, as well as non-developed platforms which are frequented by mountain climbers and rapellers.

An overcast day’s view down to the marina from Cap Sante Park.

Our big excursion here was a ferry ride over to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. The boat ride was just over an hour one-way, cruising through the islands, ever watchful for whale activity (but, alas, we got skunked). Friday Harbor was fun to cruise on foot, Jeanne and Meredith poking their heads into several of the local shops. We lunched at San Juan Island Brewery, of course testing out some of their brews, then ice-creamed our way back to the ferry. The scenery on the ferry rides was gorgeous, if you can stand to look at oceans, mountains, islands, and whole fleets of sailboats.

Bud & Meredith, mugging for the camera, with Mt. Baker.

Well, tonight will be our last night on the island. A huge thanks to Bud & Meredith for all the good times, good food, and good “tour guiding”. A special shout out to Bud & Meredith’s friend “Bull”, a commander from Whidbey NAS who was staying at Fidalgo Bay RV Resort. He smoked some pork ribs, jalapeno poppers, and corn for dinner one night, all of which were OUTSTANDING! For our escape we have reservations for the Coupeville/Port Townsend ferry to float us across to the Olympic Peninsula, then from there, the fun begins—to find a place to park it for a few days…on Labor Day weekend no less! But hey, that’s the fun part of full-timing, ain’t it?!? Until next post…

8/18/2019 Hiking & Biking Our Way Through the Northwest

Posted on August 18, 2019 by rvrrat520

We’ve not been real big on reservations thus far in our near 7 years on the road. But Florida, the northeast, and now the northwest are demonstrating that we may need to start relying more on reservations. The northeast and northwest have such short recreational seasons that we are finding it harder and harder to just show up and find space for Rosie the bus pretty much any time we like. So, we plotted out our course towards Anacortes, WA, location for our next meet up with friends Bud and Meredith, and the Butte KOA was next up on our list. This was a return trip for us, nothing new to see in the big town of Butte, but we stayed 3 days anyway. The KOA is kinda run down; grass dead, trees/shrubs needing the services of a “barber”, and interior dirt roads tight in some spots. It fits right in with the town of Butte, Butte being kind of an ugly, dirty little town. We did manage to find a Costco in Helena, about an hour’s drive away, so we took advantage and stocked up on supplies.

Butte in our rear-view mirrors, it was on to Missoula where we decided to stay at the Gray Wolf Peak Casino just north of town. They have 50A E with a communal water spout for 8 RV sites. They charge $20/night, but if you get one of their player’s cards they waive the $20 fee. Wow, since I have quite a collection of casino player’s cards already started, “Where do I sign up?!” We stayed 2 nights here and ended up relieving the casino of a few hundred dollars making it well worth our while. Montana has a strange casino system, to say the least. They have “casinos” at every street corner it seems. These are small buildings/businesses that are basically a bar with a few dozen slot machines. No card games. No table games. Just slots. Gray Wolf Peak is an actual Indian casino, quite larger than most Montana casinos with restaurant, bar, hundreds of slots, but this one differs from most Indian casinos in that it has no card games or table games either, just slots. We had a good time anyway.

Next on our itinerary was Haugan, MT and a place called Lincoln’s 50,000 Silver $. They have a dirt RV lot behind the business with 30/50A pedestals scattered around and a communal water spout for RV’s, and it is free for short term stays. Lincoln’s 50,000 Silver $ is an unabashed tourist trap of a business which touts itself as having Montana’s largest souvenir shop. There is a restaurant and bar, as well as a detached hotel and the RV lot. The bar has the walls covered with silver dollars mounted in boards, with an ongoing count total of over 75,000 of them. The restaurant is unremarkable and well not worth your time, effort, or gastric discomfort. And the “casino” consists of about a couple dozen slot machines only. The gift shop offers a strange mix of merchandise; some of the normal clothing, jewelry, knick-knacks, art, wall hangings, plus a variety of weaponry from knives to swords to battle axes to blowguns, metal “gladiator” style helmets, coins & silver, oh, and all the dope pipes you could ever want. The clerk tells me weed is not recreationally legal in Montana, only legal for medical purposes.

The main reason for our stay here was the Hiawatha Trail (RideTheHiawatha.com), a stretch of the old Milwaukee Railroad line converted for bicycling/hiking. Our friends Stacy and Jim Camara turned us onto this bicycle trail which meanders through the mountains of MT/ID border. It is considered the Crown Jewel of the nation’s Rail to Trail system and covers 15 miles with (10) tunnels and (7) high steel trestles, plus all the scenery you can handle. The St. Paul/Taft Pass tunnel is 1.66 pitch-black miles long and would definitely be a rough go without the required lighting instrument of your choice. The bonus here is that from the East portal trailhead to the Pearson trailhead (that covers 15 miles) it is about a 1.6% downhill grade. You can choose to do the round trip (the downhill half took us a little over 2 1/2 hours), or you can catch the shuttle bus back to the top. We did not have the time (Woody back in the bus) for the round tripper, so shuttle it was. You need to pay a fee of $12/person to use the trail, a booth is set up at the trailhead. The shuttle use is an additional $10/person. Even on a hot day, you may want to consider carrying a sweatshirt with you, the longer tunnels are a bit on the chilly side. The trail is gravel but plenty wide and in few places is a shared-use road with vehicles. Thank you, Stacy and Jim, it was a good time.

The East Portal start of the Route of the Hiawatha.

Bikes packed up, it was hasta luego to Haugan and onward to the Coeur d’Alene Elks Lodge for a 5 day stint. Unfortunately for us, parts of Idaho were experiencing wildfires northeast of us, so we got to enjoy the smoky skies that we miss oh so much from the past couple of years in the west. We used the 5 days to get chores done (had to perform that rare task of hunting down a laundromat for laundry), but we did squeeze in time to walk around the downtown/marina area and also take in the Kootenai County Farmer’s Market.

Welcome to the Coeur d’Alene Elks Lodge.

Jeanne discovered a special event at the Mad Bomber Brewing Co. They do occasional collaboration with local first responders to create original recipes and subsequent brewings, and one night they were having a release party for the latest brew, on behalf of the Kootenai County Deputy Sheriff Association, appropriately named KCSDA IPA. Live entertainment included a young man named Jacob Maxwell who I’m told was on a TV show called “The Voice”. The Mad Bomber Brewing Co. is a rather unique establishment. It was started by some EOD Army soldiers after their return from deployment and is extremely patriotic, pro-military, pro-first responders. It definitely packed ‘em in on the night we were there. God bless America!

Moving day took us to the Wenatchee River County Park for a 3 day stint. This was a fairly nice park alongside the Wenatchee River. It was, however, a bit noisy since it sits between Hwy. 2 and a very active railroad track (I particularly enjoyed the 2 train runs between 0300-0330 hrs…NOT!). We took advantage of this stop to give the bicycles another workout and ran a stretch of the Apple Capital Recreational Loop Trail (about 12 miles worth anyway). It was a fairly scenic ride through the Wenatchee Confluence State Park and along both the Wenatchee River and the Columbia River.

Our home at Wenatchee River County Park.

We wanted to give Woody some outdoor time so we loaded him up and headed into the tourist trap town of Leavenworth, WA. There they have a trail that runs through the Waterfront Park, Blackbird Island, and Enchantment Park alongside the Wenatchee River. Once finished with the trail, we headed back to the bus, planning to return later to play tourista in Leavenworth without the burden of having Woody along.

Jeanne and Woody head out along the trail.

Wenatchee has a Public Market, similar to the one we went to in Napa, CA, which is all enclosed like an indoor mall. When we went to check it out, it turned out to be a lot smaller affair than the one in Napa. We strolled through the market, Jeanne sampled some balsamic vinegars and we sampled some brews from the Wenatchee Valley Brewing Co.

The park we were in did not have space for us to extend our stay, so we moved about 5 miles down the road to the Chelan County Expo & Fairgrounds where they run an open lot with FHU’s for RV’s. Once we were moved in, we went ‘splorin’ in the big city of Cashmere. It is a dumpy little nothing of a town, many business buildings empty, home to Aplets & Cotlets, an apple confection manufacturing business and Crunch Pak, an apple processing plant. We wandered the “downtown” area, then found our way over to the Milepost 111 Brewing Co. to sample some of their wares. They brew a McC’s Irish Red that was OK, not outstanding, but palatable.

Our home at the Chelan County Expo/Fair. Bare lot but hey, FHU’s!

Woody wanted to do some more outdoor time, so we loaded him up again and headed outside of Leavenworth to find the Icicle Gorge Trail. It was a 5-mile loop trail alongside Icicle Creek with some very nice scenery. Woody took it like a champ the whole way. His attention was continually drawn to the many chipmunks we saw along the way…

C’mon, Jeanne and Woody! Let’s get this show on the road!

Once we finished the hike, we returned Woody to the bus, cleaned up, then made our return to Leavenworth to check out the town. Back in the 1960’s in an effort to increase tourism to the area, the whole town transformed itself into a Bavarian themed city. It was miserable to find parking anywhere, we ended up circling around through town a couple times before we found one parking spot far on the outskirts. We started with lunch at a place called Munchen Haus which we found on Yelp. With 1,073 reviews and a 4 1/2 out of 5 star rating, how could we go wrong? Well, the food was unremarkable, felt like eating a brat at the ball game. However they did serve what is called a German chocolate cake ale called Dark Persuasion that was pretty tasty. Gotta like the hint of coconut…The wait in line here was not worth the payoff. And they allow dogs in the seating patio area which it seemed EVERYONE took advantage of, not my choice for dining companions… The shops in town were touristy and crowded on the Friday that we were there. All in all, Leavenworth, WA would not be our choice as a vacation destination.

Looking down the main tourist drag in Leavenworth, WA.

Our grand finale while in the area was another hike on a Rails to Trails participating trail, this one called the Iron Goat Trail, about 50 miles west of Leavenworth. This trail runs a section of the old Great Northern Railway, built in 1893-ish (abandoned in 1929), as a means of transportation between St. Paul, MN, and Seattle, WA. We loaded Woodrow Wilson up and drove out to the trailhead in Scenic. The main trail is about a 7-mile loop, with a 3-mile tag into Wellington to the east and a much shorter spur into the Martin Creek trailhead at the west end. We chose the main loop out of Scenic. A suggestion for anyone choosing to do this hike out of Scenic. Do the loop clockwise. It starts through the lower section, then loops up to the upper section and finishes off with a mile long set of steep, downhill switchbacks. Counter-clockwise however starts one off doing the steep, uphill switchbacks first, which may turn out to be a severe quad/ham-burner, with the greater part of 6+ miles still to finish the loop. The trail is very scenic, at times looks sort of like rain forest, with several train tunnels and what’s left of the snow sheds that were built back then to cover sections of track as avalanche protection. A big caution to hikers on the lower trail section-stinging nettles are everywhere and at times the trail can be a little skinny-wear long pants and long sleeves. On the upper trail it was harder to find nettles. Otherwise, the trail was easy to follow, albeit a bit overgrown in some areas. We were on constant critter watch and although we saw none of the usual suspects (bears, elk, moose, deer, etc.), at least we did not get skunked-an owl was sort of stalking us, licking his chops as he caught sight of Woodrow Wilson.

Well, that will catch us up for now. Moving day tomorrow, onward and upward toward the Anacortes, WA area. Until next post…

8/3/2015 Oregon Coast and then back to Sacramento

Posted on August 3, 2015 by rvrrat520

Mill’s Casino in Coos Bay was a pretty nice set up. They give you the option of paying for a FHU site inside a nice, clean campground area, or you can dry camp in the very large, gravel overflow parking area. They still charge $15 to dry camp, but for a few days stay it was a good choice. The place is right on Coos Bay, in the middle of downtown North Bend, and the casino provides food and entertainment on site. We got to see a nice fireworks display over the bay, put on by the casino. A short hike in the hills took us to Silver Falls and Golden Falls in Coos county. Woody had a good time off leash and the falls were scenic as are most waterfalls you encounter.

Continuing north along the Oregon coastline, our next stop was the Chinook Bend RV Resort in Lincoln City, OR. This was a dump/dive of a “resort”. Dirt/grass sites, lots of long term residents in broke-down beat-up trailers/rigs in various states of disrepair. The park charged extra for just about everything they had. The park is right on the Siletz river which is popular with salmon fishing and they had a small dock and boat launch area. They charge $8 for the boat launch ramp, and in our case we have a nice inflatable kayak we wanted to take on the river, but they still wanted us to pay $5 to launch that. We toughed it out a couple of days so we could sightsee the area.

We stopped by the Boiler Bay lookout where, at low tide, you are supposed to be able to see part of a boiler from an old shipwreck. Well, it was not low tide, but we did catch a glimpse of a whale (or whales) cruising the coastline.

Wally the Whale cruisin’ the Oregon coast

Depoe Bay is touted as the world’s smallest harbor, and it appears to live up to that reputation. The area is basically a whale watching and deep sea fishing tourist area and you do not want to blink when you drive through, you will definitely miss it.

The Devil’s Punchbowl State Park is a beautiful beach area with soft sand, grotto-like rocky formations, and tidal pools full of the typical tidal critters like starfish & sea anemones. And of course, the namesake for the park, the Devil’s Punchbowl, has a nice overlook from the parking area above it where you can look into an empty “cauldron” at low tide and a partially filled one at higher tides.

Land locked fish during a low tide period at Devil’s Punchbowl State Park.

Yaquina Head National Area has a lighthouse and spectacular tidal pools. It is also a hangout for year-round harbor seals. The park has personnel overseeing the visitors as they wander around the tidal pool areas, and they are very informative about the geology and zoology of this particular area.

Drift Creek Falls was a nice hike up to a tall suspension footbridge overlooking the falls. We found it appears to be a favorite spot for locals to play in the water at the base of the falls, there were several families doing just that when we arrived.

When we got ready to blast off from the Chinook Bend campground, Jeanne was doing some of her classic blog and net surfing when she found an ad for some assistant camp hosts at a park in Olympia, WA – the Washington Land Yacht Harbor RV park. A phone call and we were on our way. This was formerly a coop Airstream-only park with campsites for Airstream members only, but they recently changed and began allowing non-Airstream members to stay in the RV sites. We arrived and got set up, all ready to stay through the month of August. During our off time, we got to take in some of the local sights such as the old Olympia Brewery building, the poor, dying Capitol Lake (closed since 2009 due to extreme invasion of some type of foreign snails), Tumwater Falls, and Mt. Rainier Nat’l Park.

Sadly, after our first week here, my (Charlie’s) mother had her second major stroke back in Sacramento, CA. Again, this one affected her speech, but she managed to recover quickly again. We remained in Olympia, planning to finish out our commitment then head back to Sacramento. However, one more week and my mother had her 3rd and most devastating stroke, leaving her half paralyzed and unable to speak. We left immediately and returned to Sacramento, where my mother was released home with hospice care and eventually she passed away at 6:30 am, July 31, 2015. She is in a far better place than we are now, peace to you, Mom, in all eternity, we love you.

So, now, life goes on. And our next destination is…

Road Trippin', Watkins Style

Prowled county roads for a living, prowling country roads in retirement!

Category Archives: Washington