Week 26-Salmon River - Jude/Eric & Abby/Ruby -June 27-July 3, 2022

Two more birthday backpacking trips this week.  On Monday and Tuesday I took Eric and Jude up to the Salmon River just a bit east of Welches, Oregon in the Salmon Huckleberry Wilderness.

Hardly any distance up the trail, you come to this peaceful place where there is a log jam and lots of big logs to play on.  The boys like to stop here...they want to eat lunch, but I tell them we have to wait till we get to the campsite.

I call our campsite "Hidden Campsite" because you can not see it from the trail.  To get to it you have to go down a steep slope, through a crummy campsite (crummy because there is only one place to pitch a two-man tent....on a slope), then go over two big logs down a trail by the river...and you're there.  This is what I did right away.

The boys headed right away to the river's edge.  Last year the water was much lower and the access to the water and a "field" of rocks was much easier - they built cairns all the time.  But this year it was harder to play in the water.  Throwing in logs and slabs of bark was the favorite activity.

They caught a poor minnow and reluctantly released him later.

And giggled in the tent.

We did some fishing - and it was just fishing, not fish catching.

On Tuesday for a day hike, we went up to the BRIDGE which is so fun to play around.

At the bridge there is a big log jam which turns into a massive play structure in the woods.   The boys spent a lot of time climbing and hiding.

Finally we headed back to camp, packed up and were on our way to the car.  Since I was coming back in just one day, I left the tent at the site...so I wouldn't have to carry it down and then back up.

We got lunch at Dairy Queen and went to the park in Sandy to eat.  I was so hungry that I forgot my phone in the car and didn't take any photos of us enjoying our lunch.

On Thursday and Friday, I took ruby and Abby and kinda repeated the previous hike.

Got to "Hidden Camp" and, wow, the tent was already pitched, and it was lunch time.

It was time to play in the water

And try fishing

Looking for rocks

'

We made a day hike up to the bridge.  It didn't seem to offer the same mystery as it had to the boys - the girls couldn't see the wooden play structure in the woods.

Returning to camp we were stunned to find that a tree had fallen directly upon our tent.  Ironically, it was the tree to which I'd tied our clothes line and to which the water bag for the filter was hanging.....just like when the tree fell at Alder Flat.  It would have been really ugly had we been inside the tent and exponentially ugly had it been in the dark of night.

The tree broke off right at ground level. With my fingers I could feel remnants of the tree below soil level.

After assuring the girls that scary things can happen to anyone at anytime.....and that we did not have to go home immediately, it was decided to go back to the bridge and play.  This time, at the bridge, the girls decided to go downhill toward the river where they found amazing things that the boys had missed by going uphill.  The "Hole to Hell" also called the Portal to Doom" was the most exciting.

But mostly, it was more rocks and the river.

We left the Portal of Peril, returned to our campsite, packed up, and ate lunch on the grass of the Subway at ZigZag.  It was a great trip....except for the fallen tree.

Logan came over and helped some more.  Here he is vacuuming the floor of the basement in the pool table room.

Here he is unearthing some metal object buried in the hillside of Sector 2.

Yea - it was a wheel from, maybe a wagon or lawn mower.

Dad learning, for the first time, how to put hydraulic fluid into the wheel motors of the zero turn mower.

Ahhhhh - July 4th and the Ward Pancake Breakfast

Fourth of July Festivities at the Manor

And - yes, that was another good week.