Backpacking Trip to Navaho Pass

This past weekend I went backpacking ("backpacking" referring to camping on foot) with friends in Navaho Pass, which is in the eastern fringe of the Cascade Mountains. Fabulous weather and gorgeous scenery -- check out all the photos.

Memorial Day Weekend: Camping at Bullards Beach State Park in Oregon

A couple of weeks ago Sarah and I joined our friends Ethan and Stefanie and two of their friends for a camping trip based in Bullards Beach State Park in Oregon. It turns out that it was far enough South (9 hours!) that it was almost in California, and more importantly, the weather was nice. We spent three nights there before working our way up the Oregon coast on Hwy 101 -- with the completion of this trip Sarah and I have (at one time or another) driven all of Hwy 101 through Washington and Oregon. Lots of adventures abounded, including relaxing on the beach and holding lion cubs. See all Michal's photos plus Sarah's few token images.

Mt. Ellinor

While Sarah was off doing the wine thing, I took myself to Mt. Ellinor over on the Olympic peninsula. I took the trailer and spent the night at Potlatch State Park, taking some photos late at night and again at sunrise. Then I slept some more, got up and hiked Mt. Ellinor with Tetley, and poked my way back home afterwards. See the photos.

Photo Updates

I uploaded photos from both our Labor Day Leavenworth Camping trip, and from my friend John's visit to Seattle the following weekend. Enjoy!

We made it!

Yay for making the 10:35 ferry on the way to the Olympic peninsula for camping on the beach! As you can see, we were one of the last cars onto the ferry, parked at the back with our very own cone to show for it. Of course, this means we were also one of the last two cars off the ferry on the other side, and stuck behind the long line of ferry traffic. But it beat waiting an extra hour for the next departure.

Bend and Beyond

We drove down to Bend, OR (see Sarah's pics) with the trailer last weekend to see Carrie and do a bit of exploring. We didn't end up spending much time in Bend(see Michal's photos) itself, except for breakfast on Friday morning before hitting the slopes. (We highly recommend the Ocean Roll for tasty goodness.) Michal and Carrie hit the slopes of Mt. Bachelor while I relaxed with a book in the lodge. Then we packed up and hit the road for another two hours to Umpqua National Forest, just north of Crater Lake. We went in search of hot springs, but found several other things as well: snow in the pass, an awesome campground, a fun canal and an incredible waterfall. After spending the better part of Saturday in the hot spring quest and enjoyment, we drove back towards Bend.
The combination of snow conditions (in April!) and the Beetle kept us from both the lava casts and tube, so we detoured to the High Desert Museum for a couple of hours. They had a desertarium, which made it way cooler than most natural history museums. We then spent some time on the loop around the visitor center (which was still closed for the season) of Lava Lands National Monument.
To wrap up our trip, we made one final stop on the return ride at the Crooked River Bridge not too far north of Bend. At the gorge there, three bridges cross the river: one old highway bridge that's now visitor friendly, one new highway bridge, and one railroad bridge.
Not bad for a long weekend. Thanks for hosting, Carrie!

New Pop-Up Tent Trailer

Last weekend we purchased a new pop-up tent camper. It's a 1980 Coleman model which had a broken lift that I had to repair this past week. (It was really just 20 feet of 1/8" wire, but it took so many different tools, almost all of which I already owned!) This past Saturday night we took the trailer to Dash Point State Park, near Federal Way, located about 20 miles south of Seattle. This was intended as a test trip, to see how waterproof the old canvas is (the body itself is in great shape, but the canvas is showing its age). The thinking was that if it was absolutely miserable we'd be able to pack up in the middle of the night and come home in under an hour. Well, it turns out there are a few tiny leaks which need to be plugged, but it makes a wonderful home away from home. It packs down and tows very nicely, but expands to have two double beds and a table and is quite roomy. An added bonus is that with the electricity hookup at the camp ground, we were able to get a space heater to keep the temperature almost near 60 while it was freezing outside.

Sarah has the photos at her Smugmug site.