Alpine hike, waterfalls and camping in Mt Rainier

I'm gonna try something new this time. I usually sit a few days after the adventure has been completed and I've had a chance to decompress and then write all the stuff I can remember that I thought was worth sharing.  This time I'm gonna try to keep a log as it goes. So here I am typing on the computer when I should be cleaning out the van. I have so much to do today to make this trip happen. So much planning and preparation goes into a big trip when you want everything to be just right. I have been googling and reading and viewing and planning for weeks on this. Then comes menu and gear lists. Then you gotta put it all together. I staged all our gear yesterday. I'm bringing too much stuff.

Why a mini-van? This is why. 

Day 1: When I'm done typing this I need to go get MORE stuff. Last minute items like milk and eggs and I need to replace Atreyu's good hiking socks, the ones I replaced the last time we went on a big trip, dog food and stuff like that. After that it'll be pack it up and get the van loaded. I'm hoping to get it done quickly so I can get a nap in, as is customary with these big trips I got less than 4 hours sleep last night.
Noon. The van is packed. People have asked me, why buy a minivan, actually they said it more like "seriously dude... a minivan?" This thing is packed for the apocalypse, and in no uncertain terms if the big one hit and the van was all packed No Problem (as long as I could get out of the city with it intact....). Our team could fo sho survive the whole summer, plenty of time to build permanent set up for the cold wet months. Tangent: If I could choose the best time of year to have a bug-out scenario, this time of year would be be it, tons of easily identifiable wild edibles about to start popping up and plenty of time to put in a few summer crops before cold comes back. Side note, this dog is seeing me pack up the van and is all the way up my butt. No Luna, I'm not gonna leave you behind.
1pm. All packed up. Seriously, we are bringing WAY too much stuff. BUT... Then again. It IS car camping we are allowed to be comfy. I'm gonna wash some dishes and clean up around the house then fill the tank and my coffee cup and go get the rest of the team.

**The idea to 'write as I go' rather than all at once didn't go as planned. More on that later.**


Get the team and were on the road by 4. Hit a little bit of traffic on the way but make it to camp by 7ish and set right up at site A-18 in the Ohanapecosh Campground. Home away from

home for the next few days. We 
picked a spot, set up on a bluff over looking the river. Get camp all set and make some quick and easy dinner. Franks and beans on the stove. Get settled in and just spend the rest of the evening relaxing by the fire before bed.


I always seem to wake up early in camp. I get the fire going, and get coffee on. I found an old, new to me, aluminum percolator at a yard sale and that is bubblin away before too long. Luna and I are running around and playing tag for an hour before anyone else is up in the campground. Breakfast is small, just bacon and eggs, bagels and some fresh cantaloupe slices. MAN..... I forgot the cream cheese. Clean up at our leisure and start our 'day two' portion of the adventure. Our first stop is the "Grove of the Patriarchs". A short easy stroll over a cable bridge and on a boardwalk through an ancient grove of giant trees. The walk is beautiful, a gentle stroll just about anyone could manage, the bridge is a little scary but totally safe and the boardwalk is good for keeping the little ones on the trail and on target. I'd say the whole walk, including the full loop comes in just about 1 mile. Atreyu did OK on this walk, he wanted to stomp though the brush and run around a lot. But he was impressed with the size and scope of the grander trees, as we all were. After the grove we head over to "Paradise", a mountain top resort and visitor center near the top of Rainier. The drive over is spectacular, a 23 mile drive took us over an hour and a half because I drove hella slow and kept stopping to take pictures. Fawn was starting to get irritated.

Fawns idea of camp chores.

Natural curiosity

One of many I had to stop and take.

Paradise was cool. It was 60 degrees and sunny when we were there and the snow was 12 feet deep. We didn't do a whole lot up there the first trip, I got some info for a few hikes I wanted to do, we got coffees, checked out the gift shop and played in the snow for a while. On the way back to camp we stopped at Narada Falls for a peek. Man being lazy is tiring. So we just made up a few brats with sauteed veggies on the grill and hung out in the hammock, I baked chocolate chip cookies on the fire. Fawn and Atreyu took it easy and I went for a walk. The campground started to fill up around dinner time and we got neighbors on both sides.... ugh. But everyone was quiet even if they were giant groups of people. And we chilled out with some hot tea and listened to the river go by.

Silver Falls

Moving right along. Up super early again. Bubblin away..... its nice to not have to boil water, then wait for coffee to steep just to have the coffee be cold by the time you get to drink it. A lazy morning with oatmeal and fresh corned beef hash and cheesy toast. Luna loves camping because she knows we don't want to keep leftovers. And off to a walk. 2.5 mile loop that includes a stop at the Ohanapecosh hot springs and Silver Falls. The hot springs are cool but you can't soak in them, sorta unimpressive. The falls are amazing and you might never guess they were there until you're right on top of them. The river runs blue/green, wild and fast. It cuts a hole in the side of the mountain and seems to break through the rock into the ravine where it boils and churns. There is a sight and smell and chill in the air when your standing over the bridge that makes you feel like your both an interconnected part of the world and yet such a small part that if you were to be swept away it would be just like erasing you from the memory of the world. After our big walk we head back to camp and make a late lunch/early dinner. Burgers and mac-n-cheese, told you keepin it simple. The fam lounges around while I do camp chores (cleaning up and cutting wood) then I went for a stroll just to find some peace and quiet. After a long nap we do a quick trip into the little town of Packwood, which is just a short drive outside the park.

Luna St.Helen Mae

A couple little quick things about Packwood, super cute little mountain town. The people all seemed super friendly: I got into a chat with an old timer, the girls at the coffee shop were in good spirits even just a few minutes before closing, and the lady at the visitor center let me come in for a minute even though she was technically closed. Beer was limited choice and expensive. They seem to have a lot of tourist attraction events. We refill coffee cups and buy a sticker, some fruit and a beer for around the campfire.

We roll through a National Forest campground on the way back to camp. Atreyu has a hard time going down for bed tonight and finds it more fun to bite and scratch me in the hammock, which Fawn (hillariously *cough, cough*) takes photos of instead of helping me but he finally wears down and goes to bed and Fawn and I chill by a ripping fire.

Sunday morning comes, and I couldn't be more excited. Not because its the last day, for the sake of what my plans are. Breakfast is granola and coffee ( I just gotta say one more time that the  percolator was awesome) We do the last of our clean up and put camp away.   **I often will pack away most of whatever we aren't going to use on the last morning the night before. **   Do the scan for ANY bits of garbage, not just ours (rule #1) and pour a gallon of water on the fire (rule #2). Back up to Paradise. I'm gonna do an alpine hike WOOHOO!! #Excited. Fawn and Atreyu plan to play in the snow and snuggle by a fire with some hot cocoa until I get back. I originally wanted to do a 5 mile loop that went past several glaciers, but they were only allowing permitted climbers through 80% of the section as there was huge avalanche danger, so that left really only two options, I talk to a ranger and we look at the web cam at the top and I choose the hike that is more likely to offer me a view. I decided to walk the "Vista Loop Trail" 1.8 miles trudging through the snow to a lollipop with a short vista off shoot, that looks out onto the Nisqually Glacier. Not another soul on the trail. **Lollipop is an out and back hike with a loop at the end. ** I realize after 3 steps I should've brought trekking poles with me but I'm determined. My reward was a view that renewed my faith. I was literally brought to tears. Looking out over the valley at waterfalls and creeks below literally seeping straight out of the bottom of the glacier and becoming the Nisqually River. In this moment I thought about all the things in my life that I was thankful for, I took time to reflect and to just be present like I haven't done in a very long time. I was blessed to be in that space and in that time. That view was something I never knew I needed and will never forget what it gave me in that short time I was there.

The rest of the trip seems fairly small in comparison thinking back on it. The whole thing was such a grand adventure and yet the whole of it was swallowed by just a couple of minutes.

The rest of our trip was more good stuff. I met back up with the team and we decided to head out from there. We stopped for lunch at a little roadside place,  IDR the name.... but the food was good and we got a great piece of pie togo. We stopped at Ike Kinswa state park to stretch the legs and let Atreyu and Luna get some running time in. After that we beat feet home. Tired, dirty and groggy. Unload the van, begin the process of resetting the gear and eat some pie.

A few reviews:

We did end up buying a new tent for this trip. I didn't want to have the review take up a lot of room in the post itself so I saved it for now. We bought the Coleman Flatwoods 2, four person tent. We were looking for something affordable and spacious, and we got it. I can say resoundingly I would NOT recommend this tent, unless.... your ONLY specifications are affordable and spacious. You can find this tent at most common retailers ie: Target, Walmart, Amazon. We got this tent hoping it would be of similar quality to the last Coleman tent we had, but no. This tent is poorly designed. It would be a great starter tent for someone with little to no experience that want something that easy to put up and will only be camping in summer weather months. It says this tent is tested to 35 mph winds, I wouldn't trust that at all. Trey had so much as simply leaned a little on the side and it looked that it would just cave in. I gave it so much as the most gentle tug and the poles bent right in. The door is cool looking but awkward and difficult. The fabric looks pretty good but I'm not sure I'd bet the dryness of all my gear on a whole trip to this tent. Coleman doesn't even sell this tent on their website. When I took it down the poles retained the bend a little.... that really makes me nervous. I mean my family is supposed to sleep in this thing. It'll do fine for this summer but I'm not going to mess around and keep this thing for long.


Ohanapecosh Campground: I saved a review of the camp for last because I have a lot to say about it TBH. So first impression. Cramped. I guess you might expect that from a place that boasts 2 million visitors a year and most of them come in the same 2 months but do the campsite literally need to be right on top of each other. No privacy what-so-ever. No quiet, even when it was quiet. There were only 3 loops (A-B-C) open in the campground even though they had 8 available. The loops that weren't open looked like they would be even more on top of each other in some areas. When everyone started to build all the fires for the night there was a visible haze all through the valley the camp was in. Granted, I also built a fire but isn't that the point, isn't everyone going to, didn't they know that when they started developing the campground... The sites all had fire PLATFORMS instead of pits, which is cool because it made them easy to cook on and it kinda made it necessary to keep the fire smaller so one wouldn't get too hot sitting next to it. The fire platform also had a grill top that came down and could be cooked directly on as well as a flat iron space that doubled as a heat reflector when it was up and a griddle when it was down. I did near all of my cooking right on that griddle, just threw down some foil and went to town. It worked out perfectly. I don't think everyone else put that together. Each spot had its own bear box, which totally defeats the idea of a bear box to me, 200+ campsites all with metal boxes full of food less that 20 feet from the nearest tent... I mean just tell people they need to keep their food in the car.... The encampment also had flush toilets and potable water but no showers, if your going to charge $25 just to drive into the park and another $20 a night for camping and then smash us all in together like sardines can we at least not have to smell each other. I mean we were all sitting by the fire all night and hiking all day, sweat happens, not to mention "camp diet".  I don't want my random stranger neighbor to smell me anymore than I want to smell him. The last little thing, because I wasn't paying enough attention, (or because it's 2017) is that on the map of the campground and all the pictures seem to have the little wifi symbol soooooo... I thought there was wifi. There isn't, they have a amphitheatre and that is what that symbol means. Yup... I did that, that is why I went back to original format.

The thing that bothered me most of all though was the lack of empathy for dogs. This is important to know if you go to any national park (all that I have been so far) dogs are not very welcome. They can stay in your camp and in parking lots, but not on ANY trails, not even just one around the outside perimeter of the camp, you can't leave them in your campsite unattended and you cant leave them in your car.... My dog is part of my family, we try not to let her walk off trail, we don't let her chase critters and we clean up after her. Whats the big deal? C'mon Parks system, lets get at least one dog friendly trail per campground... huh? Thanks




HEY!! I Got an idea!! I'll send this tent to one person who either subscribes, shares or comments on this post. One entry per person per thing you do.  So FREE TENT to one lucky winner. If I only get one person to enter we will know who will win. I'll pick the winner as soon as I replace it. LOL.

Gorgeous coastal weather in the PacNW and an ice cream adventure.

Quick overnight trip out to the coast with the family on a Friday. Fawn and I took Atreyu and the tent and set it up at some free spots near the Tillamook Forest Center. We headed out early in the morning and went out to Sauvies Island, Fawn had an interview (GODD LUCK!!) so Atreyu and I strolled out on one of the many gorgeous wildlife areas for a bit. We watched the day begin to get warm, saw an eagle, a blue heron and a bunch of fish and even heard a couple of otters playing in the water.

As soon as Fawn was done the team headed out for our little trip. Even though we were out super early in the day it was still a super nice Friday so we decided to set up camp first. We got out and all set up by noon, and collected wood and built a fire and cooked our lunch. We had a nice picnic lunch with a couple of brats from the butcher and mac salad. Pretty yummy!!

After lunch we jumped back into the van for a lovely afternoon at the coast. We made the mandatory stop at the Tillamook factory for Ice Cream cones. I had a two berry flavors waffle cone, Fawn had Huckleberry pie cone and Atreyu had a double chocolate kiddie cone, and of course he wore a fair bit on his face.  The factory is building a new visitor center, so there is no tour right now, but they weren't going to go through the summer without dolling out the scoops and the cheese samples so they have a temporary space set up, still nice.

Fawn in her natural habitat.

https://www.instagram.com/mcfiddley/

A few miles north of Tillamook is the town of Girabaldi Oregon. There you can find the Barview Jetty Park. They have a campground and beach access. Super pretty campground and location was ideal of course but spendy, and it looked like they would nickel and dime you to death, pay showers and all. We couldn't have asked for better weather it was sunny and warm out on the coast. Our team strolled and scrambled out over the boulders to the end of the jetty and then back down onto the beach for a while. This trip was about a year anniversary of the first time we took Luna to the beach and she has come so far. Last year at this time we couldn't have let her anywhere near other dogs, or people or anything that moved very quickly. This time she and I jogged a half mile up the sand and I let her run back to Fawn completely on her own, without one worry. So proud of that dog.

We stopped at "Fishermans Korner Restaurant" for dinner. They advertise "The best Fish & Chips in Tillamook county" I do have to say if thats true, I feel kinda bad for Tillamook county. The food was ok, but nothing too crazy awesome. Not like it's something to blog about... I've eaten a lot of fish & chips at the coast and my personal belief is: there is better out there...  Atreyu had a little bit of a tough time sitting still, he was so tired...just.. couldn't.. sit stilllllllllll....AND....... he fell asleep on the drive back to camp. I snuggled him into his bag so Fawn and I could enjoy a quiet evening with some fudge cookies, hot tea and reading by the fire in camp chairs and the hammock.

Early to bed, early to rise. I was reminded why some people talk about "camping weather". Got up in the morning and didn't even bother with a fire, just hot water on the stove for coffee, and some granola cereal for breakfast. It was just plain warm and comfortable. Atreyu had baseball practice so we booked it back to town, stopped for bagels and a coffee refill on the way (way harder than I ever would have thought).

We did have a fairly seriously loss on this trip. Our Coleman 4 person tent had a pole splinter. I managed to hold it together with some masking tape for the overnight. We got this tent for free and have been using almost every time we went car camping since. I would just replace the pole but the truth is its got a couple little tiny holes and the fly isn't as reliable as it once was so probably best to just replace the whole tent. It is open and spacious. We are looking for suggestions that are affordable and sturdy with at least 55sq feet floor so we can take it out with plenty of room to stretch out inside or snuggle in if its raining or anything. I do need to replace this soon as the Rainier trip is coming up in like 2 weeks and we could easily spend the few nights in the smaller tent, since Luna isn't coming with us but its more comfy with room to change clothes and stuff.

The perfect spot, amazing night, and a great walk.

     Totally on a roll!! Another adventure in the books. Headed out from Portland to my go-to area and hit up a short overnight backpack trip. Atreyu and I took our two buddies Asheville (my buddy) and Cheeri-O (his boy) and walked the first couple miles of the Salmon River Trail.

     Our plan was to get on the trail by like 11 am.... uhm nope. Met up at their house at 9 and they are almost ready, take the big boy seat out of the van and load the packs into Ashevilles car. Had to stop back at my house since I left all of the perishables for the whole crew in the fridge. OOOPS. No worries. Back to the road. Jamming some Grateful Dead on the way. We stopped at a spot for quick lunch while we let the biggest rain of the day pass.

     The trailhead.... at 1...... Salmon River trail. So Ashland needs to work in the morning and were not going that far in since we have the boys but we're keeping track of the time. We walk a bit and take a nice long break at a neat little rocky outcrop on the river. Some snacks and get the packs off. About 45 minutes later we pack back up and do the rest of the walk. We talked to a couple older women on the trail that were blown away by Atreyu (4 yrs) and Cherri-O (6yrs) carrying their own packs, they give us the skinny on a nice camp spot they saw on the way. It was perfect, our goal was Rolling rifle camp, but we didn't make that one. The spot we found was just too good. The clearing was plenty big enough for the boys to run around, there was a spot to hang the hammock and a tent for the other guys. The spot is well loved and well cared for (YAY for rule #1). There is good river access, a bench made from an old log and a work table out of a stump. Perfect spot. We straighten up the fire-pit, set camp and collect wood. Fire gets going pretty easy and this evening is looking NICE. Dinner is cooked on the MSR stove with my new cook pot, a GSI 1 liter. The pot is great. I love it. Small and light enough to carry in but big enough to meet most of my needs on the trial.
The cook pot holds exactly the perfect amount of water for making 4 bowls of ramen noodles with chicken and veggies in it. What I do is crunch up the noodles in the pack and pour pre-cooked chicken and par cooked broccoli and carrots into my bowl and the fill with hot hot and cover with a lid for a couple minutes. As soon as the noodles are soft dinner is ready. As a treat for the boys I packed in a couple of graham crackers and chocolate frosting cookies (thanks for the reciepe mom) and a few marshmallows. As a treat for the dads an couple of "Left-Hand Milk Stout." Yum.

     Get the boys ready for bed. Atreyu and I slept in the hammock and Asheville and Cheeri-O stayed in their tent. The coolest new piece of gear I've been the most excited for in a while goes up over the hammock. I bought "The Party Fly" by Bear Butt. This fly is AWESOME! Its super light and easy to work with, it drizzled all night and oh-so-cozy dry.  The price was so right on. Bear Butt is a smaller company still and so they actually responded to my tweets, lol that was cool, but I recommend checking out their line of stuff. This fly is a solid 5 stars so far. The experience of sleeping in the hammock needs some work though. I wasn't super ready for it. I tried using my sleeping pad and my old down bag. It was just a little cold. I know Atreyu was a little cold cause half way through the night he climbed up and slept on my belly to keep cozy, I do love cuddles. I bet a good wool blanket would have been better choice than the sleep system I had. I hear they have hammock quilts that are good choice, but I don't know anything about them. *Hit me with some good info.*

     Get a fire going in the morning to warm up and do some oatmeal and coffee packets. I make my own instant oatmeal blends at home. It costs less and I pack them into plastic sandwich bags I can reuse. One thing I really like doing is putting dried fruits in the oatmeal. I'm not a big oatmeal guy so the more flavor the better, besides its more nutritious that way anyway. If you use dehydrated rather than freeze dried they will (at least partially) reconstitute in the bowl and become warm and mushy fruit. So far I like bananas and blueberries the best.

    Clean up the camp and pack up. Clear away a couple of fire rings that aren't necessary. And hit the trail back down.

   Quick overnight but so nice. The ride back to town was a little insane trying to keep two super-over-excited, not worn out enough boys from going crazy in the back seat. Put this one down as a win boys and girls. This trip was great. 

Remember to share, like and comment. All that good stuff. Im starting an Instagram that'll be public and only have adventure photos. Right now the name is Woobley McFiddley but I'm gonna change it to reflect my camping dad nickname, Otter.    https://www.instagram.com/mcfiddley/

Hotsprings, Waterfalls and Faerie Magic. Three weekends, three trips.

   Its been a couple weeks boys and girls. I've got a couple little trips to talk about and some new gear I'm excited to tell you about!!!

   Wanna tell my readers, all 4 of you, that I appreciate you taking the time to read the blog. If you find it interesting enough do all the normal stuff you do to support someones hobby, let me know you're there (like, subscribe, comment, share) and keep reading.

 BAGBY
    I have a couple of adventures to tell you about. Brought out a regular participant in our adventures who we shall from now on call: Sparky, and her new-ish partner we shall call Everest. I have opted since this trip to give everyone nicknames, not just the core team, the intials aren't as cool. So Fawn, Atreyu, myself, Sparky and Everest, as well as Luna (our sweet boxador) all pile into a van for Friday overnight, get out on the road early enough in the day and strike out for Bagby hot springs. A little more than a hour from Portland. No trouble on the road, the van is going along and the music is playing. Everest enjoys napping in the farthest back row it seems. Its one of the first weekends the road up to Bagby is open and so we have the place pretty much to ourselves at first. We get pick of the litter on campsites, the campground and trailhead share an entrance. Very handy if you want to soak and not drive after. The campground is in a great location and that about the best thing you can say about it. The sites are all mostly pretty small and uneven, they just have the standard table and fire pit. Just one pit toilet for the 20-ish sites. AND it wasn't easy to pay for camping, bring cash, the host came around in the morning to collect, and it was at least 8am (#ninja...?). We jump right onto setting camp and got a fire going and cooked and ate 3 course dinner. Salad, followed by roast chicken/veggie/potato foil packs over the coals and for dessert obligatory s'mores. After dinner, an evening stroll in the twilight up to the hot springs. If you've never been to Bagby, I recommend it at least once. The water comes out of the spring VERY HOT and fills giant tubs made out of dug out logs. You add water from a drawn well or a nearby cold creek to make it bathable. There are 10 or so tubs in all half of which are good for a single person or a couple, and several that are group size. The amount of chill and nudity one will see up here depends on a lot of factors but I have been here many times, all times of  day and night or time of year, and not once had the place to myself. Truly an experience.
   We get in a good soak for a bit, and after a while a Friday night teen party team all show up, a common occurrence here on a weekend night. This makes it feel less chill and family friendly so we hit the trail backdown. I spend the most of the walk, in the dark, back down the trail keeping Everest on his toes by scaring him and telling him all about predators of the PacNW. It was a fun walk. We chill by the fire for a bit and hit the sack. CoooOOOOLD night. It IS in the mountains and it was super early in the season for this region.
    In the morning we do coffee and break camp. Get into a long conversation with the host who proceeds to tell me her whole story. WHOLE STORY. The only part pertinent to this post is that they are doing piping and flow improvements to the springs to help the tubs fill faster and more efficiently. If you go up there, don't break the piping....
   We hit the road and grab a bite on the way, Everest treated for breakfast. Thanks dude! It was a great overnight and the team we went with all gets along really well. From Portland this trip is super easy to get to and makes a great shoulder season getaway for an easy trip. This place is a heavy use area in the summer and early fall, expect to wait fir a tub and to limit your soak time as others will be waiting as well.

*Pro-tip. Do NOT LEAVE ANY Valuables in your car at the trailhead parking lot. Even thought here is a host living right there people have broken into cars with some regularity here in the past. I had my wallet stolen out of the glove box when we went for a backpacking trip at this trailhead.



ZIG_ZAG    Trip number two. Overnight at my go-to overnight spot. This location near Zig-Zag Oregon is like 40 minutes from my house. I love it and within a 5 square mile radius I know of 15 or 20 different locations for camping here. The core team: Fawn, Atreyu, Luna and myself head out for a quickie throw up the tent night. Bare minimum. BUT!!! NEW GEAR TO TRY OUT!! #SoExcited. We set up our trail tent and got a fire going. Hot dogs and marshmallows. Fawn and I splurged and bought a hammock, kinda like a spring gift for Atreyu and I got a new sleeping pad for my bday. The hammock, a Eno Double nest is super easy to put up and the straps (SOLD SEPARATELY) gave lots of places it could go up, no problem and is super comfy. We didn't sleep in it overnight but Atreyu thought it made a great swing and he and Fawn found lots of time to just relax in it.
  Chilly night but my new pad (Therma-rest, ProLight Plus) was oh so comfy and was easy to set up and pack back down. I'll still use the heavy ones for car camping I think, at least some of the time , just so I don't risk messing this one up as fast. I can't wait to take this out on the trail.

   In the morning we have some hot drinks and cold cereal, clean up around the campsite. RULE NUMBER 1 Always leave it cleaner than when you got there, especially those free sites, they can get trashed sometimes pretty bad and the forest service will close them. Besides 15 minutes of picking up liter is cheaper than paying $22 a night.... I will never understand how its no problem to carry in a 30 rack of ranier to a remote campsite but somehow the empty cans weigh too much and have to be left behind.We jam on out of there and head for home and back in time for lunch. Easy peasy.

The short and skinny on the ENO. I'm taking this thing backpacking, in conjunction with my ultralight tarp it seems like it will be at least as easy to set up and maybe hella more comfy than my ultralight tent set up. But it doesn't weigh less and it doesn't take up less room in the pack than my ultralight tent. For sure less than my family backpacker but that is for 3 people and still comes in less than 4lbs.


LATOURELL FALLS
   This day trip is another super short drive from my house. City of Portland is well located to outdoor activity if nothing else. The day required a walk and I wanted to try the full pack weight out and put in a couple of miles anyway, so we headed up the Gorge on a beautiful Saturday morning. The weather was perfect for walking in the woods: sun shining, not too hot, not too cold. Just right. We decided on Latourell falls loop. This loop comes in at just under 2.5 miles and has a waterfall at the start and at just past the midway point. There is less than 700 feet of elevation gain and lose on this trail. I wore a full overnight pack and Atreyu wore a pack that had some snacks and his full rain suit, I knew he wouldn't need it (gotta keep raising the weight) and a few emergency essentials. Fawn carried the our newest pack, a great day bag by North Face, the Borealis with stuff for Luna (lazy dog doesn't carry her own pack.... yet), and a picnic lunch. A wonderful hike, not too long for Atreyu, who carried his pack the whole way with minimal breaks. And the upper falls were great as you walk under them and get spray all over. If I were being picky, just for my readers *I Swear!, I'd say there were a lot of people on this trail and so you never really felt any solitude, but it I understand with the nature of the hike and proximity to Metro, and there were very few places to stop and have a break. Only one or two benches along the way, and not too many mini side trails for a vista or a place to sit, you couldn't really just pop-a-squat anywhere either because the trail is fairly narrow in most places for the amount of use it gets (a pro mostly... I know). So just be aware if hiking with little ones here.


I am super excited to be getting ready for lots of trips in the near future. You'll get to read about our trip to Mt Rainier soon. I'm taking the boy on a daddy and son Otter and Atreyu only backpacking trip this week . And My buddy and I are putting together a canoe trip that'll be a couple of nights in the near future. Make sure you subscribe so you can get notifications as soon as new stuff goes live. I have no shame and self-promotion is not beneath me. If I can get this blog going and in some magic way it lets/encourages me to camp and/or write more, I'm all about it.





Eno Double

Nights under the stars, days in the desert. Cottonwood Canyon

Let me start by saying that there is nothing in this world quite like the high desert in spring time. The dessert is lush and green. Yes. Lush and green. The spring brings tufts of grass, and wildflowers, and trees that take decades to grow but a few inches, and prickly things. All beautiful.

The core team (Atreyu and Fawn) and I did two nights in the Cottonwood Canyon state park on the banks of the John Day river, just a bit south east of The Dalles OR. We pulled in around 5-6 on Friday and set up. It's super windy here so set up your tent on the leeward side of the provided shelter walls. These will also give a little shade in late hours if the sun is blazing. We had a little dinner and settled in to watch the stars from the door of our tent with my boy all cozied in his bag with his head laying in my lap so he could see.
The thing you might not expect is the cold. Year round it gets cold at night.

On Saturday we woke up and made windy breakfast, oatmeal bar and coffee. I LOOOOOVE oatmeal (#sarcasm), but it is good for you, especially out in the wilderness. Sticks to your ribs. I had a small stroll over with a group of adults(!!!!) for a guided bird walk. Cooler than it sounds, actually. Then the three of us packed some day bags and wandered into the desert. 1.5 miles each way along the river down the "Hard Stone Trail". It was beautiful. Theres a super nice spot overlooking a bend in the river with a bench. Trey managed to walk the whole distance down and back with minimal breaks and carrying a pack, (BACKPACKING IN THE NEAR FUTURE!!!) a picnic lunch and back to camp.

Dinner was a mish-mash of chicken legs, rice and broccoli. Followed by marshmallows toasted, not burnt, with melted chocolate on top. I never saw a kid so content as in that moment. Another 1.5 miles loop around the park and settle in. Sitting by the fire as twilight grows in the canyon, with the river rushing by and a warm fire. Sitting, and talking into the darkness.as the stars peek out and the moon shines so bright you don't even need a flashlight to see.

Remember what I said about cold at night? Well... we woke to frost. On everything. But I got a fire going and we had some hot breakfast. We packed up and soaked up some sun before heading home. Stopped in a little diner, marys pancake house or something, in The Dalles, another quick stop at a playground and then home.


No reviews of gear this time, nothing new to report on that front. However I'd like to do a review of the campground. How wonderful is this time of year. So perfect. A couple things. It is cheap only $10 a night and there is firewood but it burns out very quickly, and no fires for late spring all through summer. But I'll bet you could find a couple great spots to splash in the river once the level goes down a bit. Are you a star gazer? You couldn't do better than this park on a new moon in the summer. Complete unobstructed view of the whole sky without so much as an inkling off light pollution. But Id make the recommendation of bringing your stove to cook, or better yet just bring lots of snacks and fresh fruit. Stuff that doesn't need to be cooked or kept cold. Whole watermelon, oranges, apples kiwi, those kinds of things. There is no ice anywhere to be found here either. Not for miles. There is literally no store open after 5 for a 30 minute drive. Last pro-tip here: I bring extra ground cover for under the tent and maybe don't take off your shoes and go running around barefoot. It is the desert and a lot of the plants are super sharp. A hole in your tent or your foot wouldn't be pleasant.

Until next time...

Hoh rainforest, rainy beach day, hot springs, and a vampire home-town.

Our "Car Camping Dad and Team"  had the great idea of heading out into the temperate rainforest in the very beginning of spring. This gave us the most beautiful, and wettest, adventure in my life so far.

Tuesday, March 28th 2017: The trip begins. Of course we leave an hour later than we wanted to. But were still on the road by 10 am. We hoofed it into the campground on day one. Very few stops. We considered for a minute renting a cabin near our intended campground until they quoted a price for a night, and we would've blown our whole trip budget in a few hours.... sooooo... no.

The first night we stayed at Kalaloch campground. Right on a bluff, right at the edge of the beach. It was super rainy. But it was one of the most beautiful oceans I've ever seen. Wild and free. Waves rolling and crashing on a beach completely bathed in dense fog. Surrealistic. That first night we built a fire using one of the home-made fire starters we made and some wood we bought along the way. It would've been way too wet to try to get a fire going with collected wood. We cooked some quick easy camp food and snuggled in for the night.
In the morning it was still pouring. We broke camp and headed to the next spot. On the way we found a few treasures. We saw "Duncan, the worlds largest red cedar tree" and we stopped in Forks WA. Yes 'that' Forks. The town is basically one main street (101) running through it with a few residential side roads.... but near every store had some reference to "Twilight" in the window. Between Duncan and Forks we stopped for a walk in the Hoh rainforest. The "Hall of Mosses" was literally the most breathtaking mystical and magical walk I've ever been on. We took the simple .08 mile loop through lush dense rainforest that felt easily as if it had come straight out of a fantasy novel full of wizards and faerie folk. With mosses blanketing every surface and the rain coming down,  every tree branch dripped with rain and puddles turned into ponds and ponds became streams. If I had to choose the place to spend all the rest of my days from here until the last I could choose with ease as the memories are still fresh of what will always be the forest by which I will judge all others from now on.

Our original itinerary had a planned swing and stop over to La Push, because the beach there is supposed to be breathtaking but the pull of the hot springs was too strong.

We drove through 18 miles of the most awe-inspiring road I've ever driven to get to Sol Duc hot springs resort. Sol Duc is a series of man made swimming pools fed entirely by a natural hot spring. The resort is basically the hot springs and a handful of cabins. Our campground, surrounded by near untouched old growth forest, was just a couple hundred yards up the road it had all the basic amenities  a campground usually has. We spent several hours at the hot springs before heading back to snuggle in.

The morning of day 3 we have a leisurely breakfast before we pack up and clean up, Fawn futilely tries to reorganize the van, and we hit the road. Side trip over get in a little stroll and picnic along the Elwah river and some great photos of a lake and snow peaked mountain. We have a quick stop in the town of Port Angeles before scooting to our last nights rest. In the idyllic town of Port Townsend we stay at a little shady motel (Port Townsend Inn) that has a pool and wonderful location. We have a delicious dinner at "Lanza's Restaurante", and a terrifically decadent chocolate torte from "Sweet Laurette" across the street. Some pool time for the kid and settle down. Morning brings the most basic continental breakfast and cartoons while we pack up. On the road we stop at Fort Worden state park, at the very NE tip of the Olympic peninsula. We had a nice early morning stroll and beach combing beautiful stones along the beach and out to the very tip of the peninsula. Saw some otter tracks and a golden eagle on a perch.

The last stop on the trip was a town called Paulsbo. We had some questionable lunch in a super cute/ touristy little "nordic" style town. Home was both welcome solace from the road and a reminder that the trip wasn't nearly long enough.


We bought two new pieces of gear for this trip I can review:
First review comes from Atreyu, who got a new brand new sleeping bag, 'Nodder by REI',  of his very own!! He said it was just warm enough, not too warm and it was super cozy and that it was easy to get in and out of. Its a cool bag it has a built in stuff sack so you can cinch off the end as it kind of adjusts to your kid as they grow. Its rated to 20 degrees, which isn't bad because if we were camping in any colder he'd be in my bag to keep extra cozy anyway, and its synthetic so it would do pretty good even if it got wet. The weight is good, I think it comes in just about a pound and a half, but I would have liked if the cinch sac was also a compression bag. I think I could squeeze this thing down pretty small but in its built in bag its about the size of a vollyball. I'd call this a sweet value at around $80 as long as it holds up to the test of time.
The second item we brought for the first time was new boots for Fawn. Atreyu and I found a pair of waterproof Sorel boots on clearance (about $70) in Fawns size. I think these particular boots are more for snow but they did a great job keeping her feet warm and dry. She only once mentioned her toes getting cold and not once did she even get damp inside, even though my tried and tested hikers (that I've never had water get through before) were throughly soaked though after the rainforest walk. I can honestly say that if they had been much more money I wouldn't have picked them up but I'm so glad I did. Fawn seemed positively thrilled with them throughout the trip even though it was cold and rainy most of the time.

Bonus mini review!! Our friend Scott let us borrow his canopy. 10x10 "weekender". Did great. was easy to put up and take down by myself, a little tough to get back in its original bag (but thats not unusual), and gave us some space to keep ourselves and our gear dry during the 24 rainiest hours the Hoh has seen the whole season. This thing really made all the difference, the trip might have been near unbearable if it weren't for having a basic dryish place to hang out.


P.S. If any one has any questions about any of the gear we use/have used in the past, about menu planning, places we've stayed or want to stay please fell free to ask. Comments are awesome. Also if anyone wants to make suggestions about adventures or gear let me know. I also have a wish list on Amazon if anyone wants to see the types of things we need to get or to update, I'll gladly take suggestions on brands of gear you see there, Im always willing to try something new out and I can write up a review in a blog.

Cabin in the woods, totally not haunted.....

What a beautiful weekend!! All Thanks to our friend family, The LJS team.

The weekend started out with a longish drive. Not to worry, it wasn't because I got lost this time. We head down to a cabin near La Pine, just a bit south of Bend, in the high desert. I love the high desert. On the way we stop for, possibly the worst ever, burritos. Literally only after having traveled about 10 minutes outside of town, as it goes....always... The road is forgiving over the length of the trip however, 4 hours south and east with a stop at a rest area that has one of the most beautiful sights, a 300 foot deep canyon. Arriving at the cabin, an old guard station, just after dark was a little creepy at first. It felt like the forest was watching. For realz. But inside it was super cozy and it warmed right up once I figured out how to get the lights and heater going. Build the boy a PB&J sandwich and wash him up for bed.

Team LJS arrive a little over an hour after we got there and we all settle in. Wine, fireplace, good friends, cozy cabin and relaxing after a long day make a good combo for chilling in and having nice quiet conversation. YAY KIDS SLEEP SOMETIMES!!!!!

A small late night episode, uhm..... I kinda put the propane lantern on low and it set off the CO detector in the little bedroom, so we had to air it out and sleep in the living room instead.... (don't worry nobody died).

Trey woke up early so he and I sat by the fireplace for coffee and water. Breakfast was nice J made some challah french toast and we all got a little exploring in and built a fire in the fire pit and pretty much perfect lazy morning. I helped the boys build a little bit of a fort, which of course means they wanted to do it but I ended up doing all the work and then they were no longer interested. Of Course.

The afternoon saw a short (mostly) pleasant stroll, a quick jump in the river off a little bridge (OMG COLD) and then everyone had a nap while I started dinner and collected firewood. I found a great spot where it looks like they recently did a control burn and there was a lot of easily gathered wood. I love low hanging fruit. I made a reasonable chicken noodle soup, from scratch of course, and grill cheese and ham melts for dinner. I really loved the convenience of a full stove.  The weather was just about perfect all day. We had a nice evening and night sitting by a big warm fire. Atreyu fell asleep under the stars, by the fire, in my lap. Magical. I did not set off the CO detector a second night.

Day two: Little late start but a big blueberry pancakes and eggs breakfast then clean up and pack up. Hit the road and get turned around going the wrong way to go to the Newberry Volcanic Monument, google it, well worth the side trip if you're in the area, but I wouldn't make this a destination trip. There was a 9 mile bumpy drive each way to the monument, a mile walk on a paved path throughout the lava field with lots of gorgeous vista. I wanted to hit up the "High Desert Museum" but we missed out on that one this time. We stopped in Bend for lunch, everyone was hungry so we made a poor choice...... "The Beach Hut". The food was ok but overpriced. And everything was served on a frisbee and they had surfboards for tables... *reminder* Bend is in the middle of the desert. We parted ways with Team LJS and we went on a small side trip to the town of Sisters. What a cute little town, fun food and shops. We had some strudel and ice cream strolled the harvest fair. Hit the road home, took the road less traveled and safe and sound in the driveway about 8.

My review of the cabin: I really liked the convenience of the cabin, it was much warmer and spacious than a tent, good when its super cold out at night. It had some modern amenities like stove, lights, heat and refrigeration, but lacked running water which was not too bad to deal with (we brought a bunch and boiled some from the river). I think it was a little spendy and I would preferred the outdoor fire pit was closer to the cabin and more like a fireplace with a bbq top on it for the trouble, thats the kind of touch that would have made it an outstanding spot. This particular cabin was right at the head of  popular trail and parking area so it was a little busy. The Fall Creek does literally bubble right up out of the ground at the cabin so it was a unique place. Overall I'd give it 3.5 stars. Well worth second try at another cabin. We will be sure to invite LJS to come!!