Whetstone Mountain and Beyond - third camper trip - November 5-6

Last summer Natalie and I hiked a very difficult trail up to Whetstone Montain (I published a post about this memorable hike on this blog).  Whetstone Mountain is a terrific destination as long as you can go on a clear day with sun and a blue sky.  In conditions like that there is  360 degree view, and one can see all of the mountain peaks in Oregon and the southern Washington Cascades.

After hearing about his place, Camillie also wanted to go but I wasn't willing to do the hike anytime soon - unless trail crews had come in and cut through the nearly million trees that had fallen across the trail.

But wait...upon review of the map, there are roads that go clear up the mountain side to the trailhead.  So there was a way to get there - Camille, Rado, and I decided to make the trip.  There are two roads that go to the trail head - 7030 and 7020.  A description of the trail I found on the internet said./to take road 7030.

Our plan:  leave Oregon City about 3:00 which would get us to the Bagby Hot Springs parking lot where we would park Rado and then leave early in the morning for the trailhead.  Everything was perfect.  We entered the parking at dusk and....there were about twenty cars already parked there.  Hmmm - must be a pool party going on up at the springs.   I didn't really want to park there and deal with the noise, etc that might occur later on in the dark of night.  So we did a u-turn and entered the Bagby Hot Springs Campground.  Talk about dark.  We entered the deep dark woods and looked for a spot that I could easily back into and then drive out of in the morning.  Camille and I had a nice dinner of fried chicken and mashed potatoes and maybe some cho-muffled-covrd-muffle-nutricious organic almonds with some kind of thick salt.  After dinner we read to each other a Richard Peck  book called The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail"

Come morning, we headed out, check the parking lot (no cars at all) and headed up Road 7030. I had checked the map previously and 7030 seemed to take an easy urving path up the mountain.  Road 7020, on the other hand, made pretty much a straight line up the mountain that had manny squiggles. I inferred that 7020 was way to steep and too curvy for us.

Road 7030 is good.  The mist is clearing, I can see blue sky, and the sunshine is peeking through the trees.  It is going to be a perfect day for sightseeing on Whetstone Mountain!!!  Our wishes have come true!  Then suddenly we rounded a corned and our hopes and dreams were dashed.  I could see a barricade with red and white strips guarding what no one wants to see on a one lane mountain road.  The road was gone.  Well - not all of it.  At least half remained.  Upon observation we could see that a big tree had toppled to the downhill side of the road and that the roots had ripped up the gravel and rain water had finished the job.  There was about a four foot crevice in the middle of the road.

I explained to Camille that this would not work for us ..not today.  Perhaps if a T-Rex were chasing us, I might ask Rado to sacrifice himself to get us around the washout.  But for now I needed to back down 

the road until there was a wide enough spot in the road to turn around.

So now we were heading back heading for Elsewhere.  I didn't want to try the steep and wiggly road 7020...I think I was scarred by the easy road 7030.

Back to the parking lot and we decded to: Go Soak ourselves

Looked around a bit

Ate at a yummy lunch at the trailhead

with Hershey bars for desert

We'll try again maybe, if in my lifetime, the road is repaired, or a\ crew clears the trail.

Long Beach, Washingtion and vicinity - Nov 2-4, 2015 0 Our second camper trip

Are you wondering why we chose to go to Long Beach Washington?  It was purely to walk down memory lane.  As kids we both went to vacation on Long Beach with our respective families.  We may have even crossed paths on the streets of Long Beach.

Dad and family would go to Long Beach and stay in some cottages, owned and rented out by a family friend named Warren Yeoman.  They were called the Kozy Kottage Kabins (could also be a different name, but Kozy was part of the name).  Dad, his Mom and Dad and sister would go clamming on the sandy beach for which the area is renowned.  Then they would clean the clams and make chowder.  We found the cabins where they stayed.  They were pretty cheap accomodations  sixty years ago so you can imagine what they are like now.

Front views

And back view

Yep - definitely scrapers now.

An interesting anecdote - After Dad and I were married but before joining the church (we were investigatos, though), we went to Long Beach either in April or October with his mom and dad.  We know the month because the tv was turned on and General Conference was being teleivised.  Dad's dad said, "Now, if I were ever to join a church, I'd join that one because they do what they say!"  That was kinda wierd - Dad and I gave each other a knowing look.

I would go to Long Beach with my family whenever we came to Oregon during summer vacation.  My Aunt Edythe and Uncle Wes were there, and my Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Bob and cousin Edward, and my mom and dad and brother Jan.  I don't remember the house at all but we cleaned the clams in the back yard.  I have two memories of staying there.  There were single beds for the kids that had metal frames - the head and foot boards were each a single piece of metal pipe rounded at each end.  One summer we were playing on the beds (probably horsing around).  Lying on the bed I would lift my legs up clear over my head and balance on my elbows and then flop my legs down.  One time my feet came crashing down on the pipe at the end of the bed and my heels smashed mightly on the pipe.  I never went to the doctor but I'm sure I fractured my heels.  I limped for a long time and had a nasty burning sensation in my heels whenever I stood up.  Another silly memory was also with beds.  I would push the beds kinda close together and suspend myself between them - a leg and an arm on one bed and the other leg and arm on the second bed.  Then I would dangle there - yeah kinda dumb.  One of my aunts asked me what I was, and I answered that I was a crippled potaskin.  Apparently that was hilarious to the adults becasue they ribbed me for years, to my great embarrassment,  about being a Crippled Potaskin.  Actually, I'm pretty sure I meant to say I was a crippled protestant.  Yeah - still dumb.  But I think I knew I was a protestant because my mother really didn't like Catholics and Elizabeth and Bob and Edward were Catholics.  Pretty random memories of Long Beach.

The place where I stayed was just two blocks away from Dad's Kozy Kottage.  My house has been scraped and there is now an empty lot.

As we drove into town Dad asked me if I remembered the frying pan.  I paused a minute, pulled up long ago memories and visualized this - 

It was still there, but it is no longer metal but paper mache.  Dad says that sometimes the pan would be put over a big fire and clams would be fried.

So---the friyng pan was in the yard right next to Marsh's Museum, which is still there in all it's glory!

Oh my gosh!!  Marsh's Museum was a child's heaven!  We would go in there and spend hours lookng and playing.  It is just the same now!  Imagine the best collection of beach junk possible and add in sexy signs, and old time pictures and statues and salt water taffy.  Imagine the penultimate beach curio shop, and this is it.

The two headed calf was still there and so was the half man/half alligator petrified creature along with all sorts of other freakish things.

Dad loved the automated musical instruments and was stuffng in dimes and quarters with great excitment

And my favorite (and still is) was the baseball game.  I was so good at it!

Well, we finally had to leave as the proprietor started giving us wierd looks, probably thinking, "look at those wierdos who are trying to relive their childhood.

We left and walked along the street and Dad saw "his" bakery

And we went and parked on the beach sand, ate lunch, and took a looooong walk...till I said, "ok let's go".

So much for fond memories.

We left Portland, drove north to Astoria, ate lunch at a Safeway Deli, crossed over the Columbia River on the Astoria Bridge, and accidently found a section of the Lewis and Clark National Park called the "Dismal Nitch".  

Dismal Nitch is the name of a cove along the lower Columbia River in Washington State, where in November 1805 (do the math.....210 years ago almost to the day!) Lewis and Clark and their men were forced by a severe winter storm to take shelter in the cove.  They were stranded there for six days.  Clark, in his journal, said it was a dismal place.  It is part of the L & C Natl Park which also includes an area at Cape Dissapointment and Fort Clapsop.

It is also a rest area along state route 401 just east of the bridge....not very exciting but it was a great place to park the camper for two nights.  "No tents, no camping.  Please limit your stay to eight hours".

In the morning we woke up to a great view of the mighty Columbia

Here I am pretending to be either Lewis or Clark (can't decide who to be) pointng the way to go

We found the actual cove where they huddled in the rain.  We know it was the real place because there was a a little park (no camping, no fishing) with a gravel path and an elaborate monument with a metal bas relief of the company suffering on the beach.  It was really neat to walk in the actual place where those guys had camped,

No trip over the Astoria Bridge would be complete wthout photos of it - think of approaching a roller coaster at California Adventures

We went to Cape Dissappointment to visit the Visitors Center of the L & C Natl Park

but it was Tuesday.  Closed on Tuesday - go figure.  So we went on a hike.

Dead Man's Cove

Well - there is beach access.  You just have to go down a steep hillside.

And then up the hill to the lighthouse.

We decided to drive as far north on the penninsla as we could.  On the way we came to the Long Beach Cranberry Experimental Station.  I bet you didn't know that cranberries have been an important crop in the area for years.  

Cool museum telling you everything you need to know about the history and cultivation of cranberries.

And fields of cranberries testing new varieties and techniques

Heading further north we came to 

which is basically a game refuge for Snowy Plovers which come to this cove in April and May by the thousands to feast upon beach yummies.  No Plovers in sight now.

Our final activity was going to the Columbia River Maritime Museum which was really great.  Great displays about the Coast Guard - I even want to join up and become a Rescue Swimmer or a Coxswain of a Life Boat (Dad wants to be a Pilot for ships going over the bar, a cake job that earns big bucks) - and everything else imagineable that may have something to do with the mouth of the Columbia River.

We ended up taking a tour of the Columbia, a lighthouse ship.  What an awful boring job.  The ship would be anchored permanently five miles out to sea with the mission to warn ships about the dangerous passage ahead.  It was decommissioned in 1979 and replaced by a "robot" buoy. 

Summer - 42 days on and 28 days off.  Winter - 21 days on and 14 days off.  No computers to surf the internet.  No net flix.  Just books and bingo.  Shoot me now.

And then back to Portland.  

 

Our very first Camper trip - October 15, 201

We had such an enjoyble time in Scotland driving around in our Camper Van that we decided we'd like to try to dublicate the experience in the United States.  What we enjoyed was the freedom of going where we wanted to go and the relatively inexpensive accomodations we used (read RV parks or campgrounds). We didn't like the camper van we rented other than it drove wel and got us safely where we wanted to go.  It was pretty uncomfortable since we could not stand up inside it, there was no usuable stove unless you could cook outside, and the tiny refrigerater was inconveniently located under the bed.  The worst was that when it rained in Scotland, which was almost every day, we were stuck inside the camper.

We knew we had to have an improved method of transportaton/accomodation.  And so was born the........tah dah!!  Meet "Rado" our 2015 Chevy Silverado LT, 3/4 ton pickup and his trusty pal a 2015 Pastime 840 LT camper, suitable for two adults and 2-3 grandchildren.

Now, where to go on our first trip??  The choices are nearly endless.  We ended up chosing to go to a portion of the Barlow Road just a bit south and east of Mt Hood.  I had been to this area twice before.  Once when Malcolm had been an Eleven Year Old Scout, and our patrol did the Hiking Merit Badge.  The hardest requirement was to complete a 20 mile hike in one day, which we handily accomplished.  To this day I wear the "Barlow Trail Commemorative Patch" on the front pocket of my scout shirt.  The second time was when I took Evan and Bjorn on their birthday hike to Catalapa Lake which was just a short hike on a steep trail away.  We searched for some geocaches, but I was the only one who seemed excited about being on the historic Barlow Road.  But, the REAL reason I wanted to do the Barlw Road is because i was hopeful that the large trophy size elk had migrated from the mountains south of LaGrande to the mountains south of Mt Hood.  Our goal was to fnd sign of elk (hoof prints and p__p) and return and report our findings to Travis.

Yep - our first trip - note I am holdng up one finger in commeration of this event.

Dad got sucked into the vortex surrounding Joe's Doughnuts in Sandy,  I will admit that I could not resist temptation.

We are on the B Road or in a campsite, doesn't really matter as thee were no other cars or people for miles.  I think Dad was looking for a geocache.

And...our first lunch in the camper.  We started making a list of things we forgot to put into the camper.  You can see that I'm eating my salad with tongs - the doughnts were long gone.

We started to drive north on the Barlow Road and came to this big pool of water - hmm - drive through or drain.  So Dad got out and reverted to a school boy and played in the water.

Here is proof we were on the Barlow Road - as if you needed proof.

A few photos as we went north

It was getting late so we decided to find a parking spot; turned around and headed south.  In just a bit we came upon this actual pioner campground just in time for sunset.  It was the only relatively flat place for miles where the pioneers could easily cross the White River

Rado in our spot for the night.  This was a real USFS campground with numbere sites and picnc tables' we had no neighbors.

In the morning I got up and went exploring the area for sunrises and sign of elk

A good sunrise pictue.  Look in the center of the river.  Do you seek the riffles?

The riffles were reallly cool.  They must have been formed because of little sand bars in the river.  They were right there in front of me and then suddenly....they vanished and the water was smooth.

Oky - now I need to find signs of elk.  I found some cow pies, but no elk p__p (I'm trying to be delicate); hmm, perhaps some super big elk hoof prints...no just cow hoof prints.  There!!   In the sand by the river!!

Yeah, I know - not an elk.  I was hoping for bobcat or cougar or maybe a lynx.  But, Travis tells me it is a simple, common, run of the mill coyote. So I can return and report to Travis that the Eastern Oregon elk have not migrated to the Barlow Road.  We still need to search.

We continued traveling south on the road looking for three geocaches.  Found one in a wooden drain pipe and one at Faith Springs, where the Pioneers replenished their water supply.

Faith Springs.  One hand poining to the sign and the other to the rivulet of water.

Pretty soon we came to a humongous tree/log/roots that were blocking the road (sounds like the hunting incident).  ATVs had made a steep and sloping path around it, and we could have done it if necessary - like a T-Rex chasing us!  We decided to go back.  This caused a bit of a prolem because it is a one lane road, so Dad backed down hill for, he estimates, about a mile.  I walked ahead of him right on the edge of the road so he could safely judge how far away he was from slipping down the hill.  I have no pictures of this part of the trip - how interesting would be pictures of the back end of a camper and ruck anway.

By the time we got to a wide spot in the road where we could turn around, we'd had enough excitement for our first trip.  We learned a lot on our first trip.  I'll remember to bring utinsels, a hot pad, salt, shovel sugar, butter more electronic hookups.