Trod Bogs Sadly – Oddstray's Blog

September 10th 2015

Sudden change of plans:

Got an email from the guy I (Simon) do some consulting work for from time to time. Turns out he got a new contract, and he needs me *now* to set up a system for it. I asked ‘Can it wait until the 22nd?’. ‘No way, can you do it tomorrow?’. ‘I’m in a rain forest in North Western WA – with at best an Edge connection, and the only way I can even have a dialog with you is by SMS text – so no, you can’t have it tomorrow.’

So we’re in Portland OR, and I’m flying to SD tomorrow, and back again on Sunday. I could have said ‘eff off’, but he’s a nice guy, and we’ve done some great work together since 2011.

Did he know we were ‘not available’? Yes.

Did I warn him that I couldn’t do this work remotely? Yes.

Did we talk about finding a substitute? Yes.

So, bottom line is that we missed a few sight-seeing spots today, which was annoying, but with a the quick out and back to San Diego tomorrow, it doesn’t impact our timeline all that much.

September 9th 2015

We went to the Hoh rain forest. We were short-changed. It didn’t rain.

On the way from Port Angeles, we side-tracked on Hwy 112, which was very pretty, and teed with the strangely named ‘Old Sappho Pysht Road’, which has got to be one for the records.

We checked out the RV Park app, and there were two, apparently located near where the Hoh rain forest NP was. But we stopped off in Forks for some lunch and to check out the museum. Very good, by the way.

It turned out that the ‘Hard Rain Cafe, Mercantile and RV Park’ was the only one of the two that was open, and it was OK, except for no dump facilities. We used. ahem, stealth disposal methods.

It was amazingly warm here and at the rain forest.

Pictures of moss:

Since we have been deserted by the internet for the last few days, we’re going to roll those days up in a single post.

In typical blog manner it’ll be earliest ‘last’

8th September 2015

Quiet morning, B did laundry for us and I swabbed down the trailer.

Then we headed out for Hurricane Ridge, fearing that fog or clouds may get in the way. For the most part, magically, they didn’t.

Olympic National Park is awesome.

Pictures:

Glacier

Deer

View from Hurricane Ridge

7th September 2015

There was no dump station at our campground so we had to drive to the mother-ship cg to get rid of our waste fluids. I must have been a bit enthusiastic in opening the valves, as I broke a plastic end of the black tank handle. It works just fine, but needs replacing. <Muse whether one can get metal ones, or even fabricate one?>

We didn’t have far to drive. We were headed for the Olympic National Forest, in particular, Port Angeles, so it was pretty relaxing, rolling down the hills, and up and alongside Hood Canal. Wow, this is just so beautiful. The sun had come out, temps had warmed up, what could go wrong? Surprisingly, nothing did 🙂

We pottered around Port Angeles, trying to find a campground that we thought was OK, and ended up at the unlikely named ‘Big Al’s RV Park’. Mostly long-timers, but it just felt better than the other places we looked at. And there was a Safeway just right there, too.

We headed down to the harbor to have a look around, and, holy smokes, that’s Canuckistan, right there! Victoria, B.C. 17 miles away by ferry. And CBC Radio (sounding a lot more intelligent than most US offerings). This is so cool.

I video skyped my pal in San Diego to show him Canada, and his reply was, ‘I’ve been there,’

<shrug>

Then we went up the Elwha valley to discover that they had taken out an hydroelectric dam to let the salmon get back to their spawning roots. I guess this is good for the salmon, but not so much for green energy. Fish ladder, anyone?

That’s Canada, over there.

Busted dam: Salmon 1, everyone else 0

6th September 2015

This is getting a bit predictable. Guess what, we drove all the way along the winding road to get to Mt St. Helens, and what we saw was fog.

Mt St Helens in the fog

What shall we do? We went back to Elbe, and took Hwy 7 North West, and saw some dams, and hiked a few trails.

Le Grande Dam

Alder Dam

And we had baked potato stuffed with ham and cheese and butter, cooked on the camp fire.
5th September 2015

We set off early East along Hwy 706 towards Mt Rainier. We can definitely state this, – there are a lot of trees around here. I’ve never seen trees standing so densely close together anywhere else. Anyhow, we continued increasing in elevation, but couldn’t see much because of all the trees!

Made it up to Paradise, where there was fresh snow on the ground, and very chilly temps, and were engaged by a very cheery Forest Service (or maybe Parks Service) volunteer, who enquired whether we were going hiking. ‘Where’s the coffee?’ was the reply. Actually, she was really helpful, with all sorts of ideas about things to do and see in Washington State.

Mt Rainier was socked in with with fog and clouds.

We continued on to the White Pass entrance, stopping occasionally for meagre photo opps.

Back we went to Elbe, hoping, hoping for the sky to clear, which it never did. Hot dogs for lunch, which was a minor compensation.

B had signed up for the ‘Mt Rainier Scenic Railroad’, which was neither terribly scenic nor anywhere near Mt Rainier. But it was fun, and the logging/railway museum at Mineral was well worth it.

For dinner we had burgers from ‘Scale Burgers’ in Elbe. Greasy and huge. What’s not to like?

The camp fire ban had been in effect since June, and today, TaDa, it ended. The campground sold huge bundles of firewood for $5, and the fire was good and warmed against the dampness. That, together with an evening of eclectic blues from KPSU radio in Seattle made for a splendid evening.

Pictures:

This would have been a photo of Mt Rainier, if….

We stopped by the side of the road to admire the fog, and a deer and a fawn just ambled by, right next to where B was standing.

4th September 2015
Off we set from Plymouth Park on I-82 heading North West. We were a little surprised by the rolling brown hills – what we had expected was pine trees and a craggy landscape.

Which we got later. Turning onto Hwy 12 at Yakima, we got the pines and the craggy, in spades, and it continued all the way over White Pass, where we got snowed on.

Arriving at Alder Lake Park, we were redirected to ‘Rocky Point’ campground, an few miles back down the road, near the sleepy town of Elbe.

We settled in at the camp site, and it was raining. And there was a camp fire ban. I doubt seriously if you could get a campfire started without some potent petrochemicals.

We were musing that we weren’t doing our usual ‘stuff’ when we got to a campground – putting up lights, pinwheels, lanterns, etc. We decided that it was because, this time, we are ‘camping to travel’, rather than what we mostly do, ‘traveling to camp’.

Beans test: We’ve established our standard for baked beans, it’s the UK version of Heinz baked beans. They can be obtained from Fresh and Easy, Major Markets, Cost Plus and others.

However, we only brought one can on this trip. Reluctant to use it, we’ve been trying others. First was some generic brand of chili flavored baked beans. Horrible!, thin and weak sauce and the beans were not simply ‘al dente’, they were kind of hard. Next up Trader Joe’s baked beans. After adding a little tomato puree, some Worcestershire sauce and black pepper, they were most certainly edible. Next up, Van Camp’s Pork & Beans.

Pictures:

We went to Eatonville for some supplies, and, believe it or no, this was the best picture of Mt Rainier we got in the whole time here.

The live-in volunteer had weed-whacked a trail down to the ‘beach’ at Alder Lake (which was very low). The tree stumps are Alders which were cut down when they created the lake in 1945 or so. Apparently, when it’s very low, the old buildings that were engulfed by the dam can be seen.

B achieved a most amazing result today. She self-assigned the task of finding somewhere to stay, not too far from Mt Rainier, this (Labor Day) weekend.

I thought to myself, ‘You’ve got to be kidding, all the Seattle peeps will be out bbqing and partying before the cold weather arrives!’

But she did it, she found a place on Alder Lake, that’s pretty good for Mt St Helens and Rainier. So, we’re set for the next few days.

Today. we left Homedale and stopped at the local lumber yard, where reputedly, they fill propane tanks. Except, they’d lost the keys. There are two words for the guy who tried to recover the situation – incompetent bumbler. The contrast at the Flying J in Caldwell was remarkable. Took about 2 minutes and we were done.

Then we spent most of the day driving north west on I-84, through wind and rain (darn, now we’re going to have to wash the trailer again!) to the delightful Corps of Engineers Plymouth Park campground at Plymouth, WA. Because we have a ‘Geezer Pass’ TM (National Parks senior pass), it’s half price $12 – woohoo!

We decided that we needed some real food, so we hopped back over the bridge over the Columbia river to the little community of Umatilla, and bought some stew ingredients, and I made beef stew. Yum, that hit the spot.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day on the road, but we, at least, have somewhere to stay for the next three nights.

Oh, and welcome to Beth, my boss at San Diego County Parks. Hi Beth <fx: waves>

Pictures follow:

Yesterday, Tuesday, we started the drive towards Washington State. B. had phoned to get a prescription fulfilled at Costco, Boise, and I had an urgent need for English Breakfast tea from Trader Joe’s.

We had used the RV Parks app to determine that there were not very many places to stay near Boise, but there was a place in Homedale that was highly thought of, so we reserved a spot.

Off we set up I-84, diverting to Trader Joe’s on the way. Ooops, parking monitor doesn’t like trailers, even though it’s 2 pm on a Tuesday afternoon and there’s plenty of space. Well, then, no point in going to Costco, which might have the same rules, may as well go to Homedale and come back to Boise. The turn from Idaho 95 was on to ‘Industrial Drive’. B and I look at each other in dread. We persist, and it turns out that the park, Snake River RV Park, is right on the river (bug alert!), and really well kept, and with big spaces between RV’s. Good prices, too.

But we had to go back to Boise, via Camping World. On the way, we saw a huge tail of traffic westbound on I-84, the way we would expect to return. By the time we got our bits of shopping done, it was 5 pm, and whilst we took an alternate route back to Homedale, it still took an hour and a half to cover 45 miles. Time for a beer!

Pictures follow: (all courtesy of B)

The first campsite we’ve been to that is all lush green grass, no gravel, no dirt, no pad. And they use a lot of (river) water to irrigate it. This is not some place in California.

Snake River from the campground

More Snake River

31st August 2015

We set off to find the City of Rocks. We found the entrance to the trails but no pictographs or petroglyphs or cairns. Oh well. But we had fun hurtling across 20 miles or so of dirt roads, dust getting everywhere.

We set off to find the Ice Cave, found it, and decided that it was too darn commercial, so passed on that.

We set off to find the Mammoth Cave, and that, too, was all dressed up in silly commercialism, so we skipped that too.

Well, we washed the trailer earlier, and now she’s clean for the first time in a long time.

After all the fun not visiting places, we washed the Xterra in one of those ‘do-it-yourself’ car washes. Suds all over the place. Great 🙂

30th August 2015

When we arrived here in Twin Falls, Idaho, yesterday, we kind of decided to chill out, get some supplies and start the local adventures today.

First off, we went for ‘Balanced Rock’. It’s a State Park. It also has a picnic and camping area which, if it had red rocks, and was well marketed, and was in Utah, would have tourists flocking to it.
The Balanced Rock is a mile or so from the picnic place. It’s amazing. It’s tons of stone held up by this little piece of connecting stone. You’d think a slight wind gust would blow it over.

Then we went to look for the Hagerman Fossil Beds (National Monument). Er hem, this became a trail of discovery (not). The Garmin GPS was happy to find the ‘place’ for us, but insisted that we spent an hour traversing dirt roads in the middle of nowhere to get to it (note: ‘it’ is not an ‘it’, it’s a wide area of trails with no particular focus). So we ditched that and headed to the town of Hagerman, and the Fossil Visitor Center. Which was closed.

OK, 4 miles back down the road we saw the sign for the Fossil NM and the Oregon Trail, so we headed back there. Now we’re getting somewhere!

What we find is the Oregon trail, with, apparently, the original cart tracks in the hillside. A Wow! moment. The fossils, fuggetaboudit…

Then, later, we do Shoshone Falls, amazing; I.B. Perrine Bridge, what a setting; Dierkes Lake and Centennial Park, OK-ish.
Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls

Snake River downstream of the Falls

I.B.Perrine Bridge

The ‘Twins’ of Twin Falls
But then we headed down a dirt road (no outlet), in the Snake River valley, to discover amazing waterfalls just sprouting out of the cliffs. Outstanding.

Read the sign leading to the town of Blackfoot, ID.

Intrigued that anything in this little place might be world class, we headed straight there.

So it turns out that the lady at the museum said that there isn’t any other potato museum in the world, so this place, rightly, claims the title. Well worth the $2.50 admission fee, it’s a darn good museum. If you are out of state, you get a free ‘Hungry Jack’ packet of nearly instant mashed potato, which we had with Atlantic Steelhead trout and peas this very night. Not bad at all.

We’re camped at Rock Creek County park in Twin Falls, ID. Water and Leccie for $15 a night. It’s an old landfill that’s been converted into a ‘model’ RV park. Pretty nice it is, too.

Tomorrow:- Shoshone Falls, Balanced Rock, Hagerman Fossil Fields and whatever else we find.

Plus, we might take a brush to the trailer, it’s filthy on the outside (until now, no-one has let us wash it). The Tow Vehicle isn’t too shiny either.

28th August 2015

Today, we drove out of Yellowstone National Park, losing elevation slowly, and ending up in the township of Arco, Idaho (not the fuel company, it doesn’t even have an Arco gas station!). Arco is distinguished by being the first community in the ‘non-communist’ (their quote) world to have electricity provided entirely by nuclear fission – the nearby nuclear research facility was the source. We’re at Mountain View RV resort, which is an extremely clean and tidy facility, for very little money (especially with Good Sam discount).

On the way, we stopped at Blisters BBQ, in Rexburg, ID. Located inside of a gas station store, this place was outstanding. Pulled pork slider, waffle fries, bbq beans and a quarter chicken and a drink for $10. Very tasty.

After getting set up at Mountain View RV, we headed for the Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve. It has a small campground which looks like a lot of fun – but hand-pumped water, so no filling of tanks.

You’d think that nothing would impress after having 3 days of Yellowstone, but, not true, the narrative and the views were impressive:

Campground set in lava

Spatter cones

Climbing that thing is farther and steeper than it looks

A view from the top

Somebody taking a photo inside a spatter cone

26th August 2015

Today was plagued by selfie-taking hordes on tour buses! Plus, later in the day, we discovered that a huge length of the road south of Mammoth hot springs had been completely ripped up for miles, causing huge traffic delays. Finally, Laundry.

Despite the above, Yellowstone continues to amaze us.

Sulfur cauldron
Upper Falls of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon

Looking down into the abyss

Lower falls

Lower Falls again
Inspiration Point

Mammoth hot springs

25th August 2015

Busy day – worn out at end of it. We have a bunch of video material, which clearly works well with the dynamic action of the steam and bubbling and water falls. WordPress doesn’t seem to like the ‘.mov’ file type, so mebbe we’ll have to put them on YouTube and leave a pointer here. Hope the stills work.

Fishing Bridge, with B looking on. Ironic that actually fishing from the bridge is no longer allowed.

West Thumb

More West Thumb
Old Faithful
Perspective – Old Faithful and crowd

Biscuit Basin
More Biscuit Basin

Firehole Lake Drive

Firehole Canyon Drive
Gibbon Falls
More Gibbon Falls

Porcelain Basin