Salmon River/Welches Oregon - Gretchen and Clara - Week 35 - September 6 to September 12, 2021

At last.....the time for Clara and Gretchen's birthday backpacking trip arrived.  It had been postponed for about 6 weeks because Gretchen got sick in July.  We decided to go to the same place that Eric and Jude had gone to and also Logan.  It's a good place - only 1.2 miles, the trailhead is about an hour from home, and our tent sites are perfect......practically at the river's edge.

The girls quickly learned the fine art of making cairns.

Their first one!!!

Turned into many more

They created Cairntopia with all kinds of buildings, included a palace, a castle, a temple a swimming pool and others.....  This one was their most elaborate one - must be an apartment  They made cairns for hours.  The arch cairn in this photo was made by a previous camper who had exceptional skills.

Dolores went swimming

And she practiced with her new pot and stove and BIC lighter.

I took my fishing rod and creel, and we gave fishing a try.  Gretchen had cast a line before but Clara had not.  They each improved their casting skills....but unfortunately (maybe fortunately because my hook removing pliers have vanished) .....No bites....nothing!  Their casting skills really improved!

We went to the campsite where we'd stayed with Jude and Eric.  The girls liked playing on the big log but not as much as the boys had.

Our tent site was lovely

For my lunches I had crackers and fish.  Good thing I had been rotating my stock.

There are some big trees in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness

On our way home we stopped at the Sandy  Dairy Queen and then went to the big park to eat.  All in all, it was a great trip - - worthy of repeating...but maybe to Top Lake or Alder Flat next year.

This week in a tag team effort, Dad and I did all of the grape juice.  We figure we did 24 batches and canned about 168 jars of the "finest" juice ever.