Day 8 - Mt Adams, Washington

We decided to drive up into Washington today as it was a weekend and a lot of the hiking trails were likely to be pretty crowded.

There's a really cool drive into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Highlights from the day included seeing a cow elk cross in front of us and then Julz caught a glimpse of a couple more elk off in the trees including a small bull with his horns still in velvet-it was way cool!

Unfortunately we didn't get any pics as Jen only caught the south-bound end of the north-bound elk and the ones in the trees were moving away at a pretty good clip-the Big Nasty is pretty noisy and probably scares everything.

Here are some pics from today:

This is a Jay that was sitting outside the Toad this morning. He flew up in the tree to eat whatever he found on the ground by the picnic table:

Here's Mt Adams before we crossed the bridge into Washington:

This is the view going over the Hood River Bridge over the Columbia River:

Here's a closer view of Mt Adams from just outside the town of Trout Lake, Washington:

We then decided to see about hiking around the Conboy Lake Wildlife Refuge. The day was really hot and the majority of the hike was across what used to be the "lake" and the Boys were getting pretty heated so we ended up cutting the hike short and drove back out. Along the way, we did spot this little chipmunk sitting on a burnt stump along he road:

We also spotted this mama deer with her two babies but we didn't get a picture of them:

Driving the Forest Service roads through the GP forest, we came upon this waterfall just off the road that we had visited previously - still very beautiful!

This is the one (and sometimes 1.5) lane road out of the National Forest - Jen got a little nervous as we didn't have cell service up here and you don't see many other cars so we hoped we didn't have any problems with the Big Nasty - we didn't!

Here's an even closer up shot of Mt. Adams:

The Boys were excited to cross the bridge back to Oregon though:

Sun shining over the Columbia:

Tomorrow, we head west toward Detroit Lake and the Hackleman Old Growth Forest.

Day 7 - in the Shadow of Mt Hood

Left the coast around 9:45 for the drive inland to Mt Hood.

Made it through Portland with no troubles and soon found ourselves on I84 heading east towards Hood River. We soon were traveling along the Columbia River:

We did end up going through a tunnel on I84 which kind of  freaked out the Boys a little:

We came to the exit for Hood River and headed south to our campground. Not too far along, we came to see this:

We found the turn for the camp, registered and headed to our site. Julz was a little concerned as it was a very tight back-in site and the lane was very narrow to make the turns. After we had the neighbor across from us move his truck, we finally got the Toad backed in to her spot. We have to give props to a couple friendly neighbors for giving Julz some guidance on getting into the spot. 

The campground is quite beautiful and quiet with lots of tall pines and we can even hear the Hood River from our site.

We'll post some pics of the site later on.

Our next posts may be kind of brief as we are posting from the iPhone right now-we find it to be too much hassle to carry around the laptop all the time.

I will post more from Day 8 soon-we headed to Mt Adams in Washington.

Day 6 - Last Full Day on the Coast

We woke up to a bit of gloomy weather this morning - the mist was rolling in off the ocean and pretty soon, it was misting on the trailer. Not to be deterred and since we didn't get to take the Boys to the beach yesterday, we decided to head south to where we've stayed on our prior trips out here - Newport, Oregon. It was only about 20 miles down the coast from where we were so not too far.

We took the scenic route out to Cape Foulweather and stopped along the way to get some pictures of a cool bridge and the ocean:

 

As you can see, it started to clear up a bit as we headed south. 

We stopped at Cape Foulweather and Jen took this shot from the top:

As we were standing watching out, everyone kept commenting that there was a whale and finally, Julz caught just the end of the whale spouting (you have to look close though - the spout is just to the left of the big rock near the center of the picture and is just a little "poof"):

We then took the Boys to Agate Beach in Newport and they were sure excited to get out of the truck and run around - they both couldn't wait to get to the ocean:

Angus found what was left of a Dungeness crab shell and was giving it heck:

Dash kept trying to get the seagulls and other little shore birds but his leash kept him in check - guess he is a bird dog after all!!

Here's some pics of the beach:

We ended up walking over 2 miles on the beach and the walk back was very windy. We were almost sandblasted a couple of times! 

We finally made it back to the truck and drove a bit further down the coast to Seal Rocks. We took a couple photos here and then headed back:

We decided to call it a day and headed back to Lincoln City. We wanted to fuel up the Big Nasty  before we re-attach the Toad to head inland for the rest of our trip. We did make a quick stop at a little fish market along the road and picked up some Dungeness crab and some chowder for dinner. Quite tasty!!

Tomorrow we are off to the Hood River area - we actually are staying just outside the town of Hood River, Oregon in the shadow of Mount Hood! Can't wait to get there and do some more hiking around. 

Note: Our posts may be a bit more sporadic as this park does not have wi-fi (oh the humanity!!) so unless we can "borrow" some from a neighbor on an unsecured network, we may have to make a couple runs into Hood River to the Starbucks to use their wi-fi and you all know what a burden that will be - We'll just "have" to buy something - otherwise, it's just stealing!

Thank you all for reading along!

Day 5 - Hanging Out on the Oregon Coast

After a restful sleep knowing we didn't have another 500 miles to go, we got up and were greeted with a most fantastic view:

We got everyone up and ready to go and decided we would head up north. We wanted to pay a visit to the famous Tillamook Cheese! Along the way, we stopped at a little roadside place that has fresh fruit, vegetables, and sauces/jams/jellies. We were trying to decide if we could leave the Boys in the truck by themselves if there were places we wanted to both look in and thought this would be a good test. Since it was a little warmer inland where this was, we left the truck running with the air on for them and we shopped. All told we were gone maybe 15 minutes and the Boys were great! They didn't bark or get all crazy while we were gone so they passed the test!

We bought some fresh green beans, ears of corn, some rhubarb marmalade, Oregon berries jam, and several sauces for the fish we intend to buy out here.

We then headed onward to Tillamook to get some cheese. This time, it was much cooler since we were close to the ocean (around 66 degrees) so we left the Boys in the truck. We blocked the front window with our sweatshirts (Yes! It was a bit cold - especially when you're used to the Texas heat!) and left them to shop. Again, not gone long and the Boys did great!

We also ended up going to the Tillamook Country Smoker for some jerky as well.

Here's our haul for the day (except the beans & corn - I forgot to get a picture of those):

We then wanted to get the Boys out to the ocean and headed for Cape Lookout State Park. Before that though, we stopped at a little building along the side of the road advertising fresh fish and chowder. We were both pretty hungry and bought a tub of chowder and some Halibut and Chips. Yum - Great Chowder!!

We made it to the park and had our lunch at a spot overlooking the ocean:

We then took the Boys for their first close-up of the ocean:

Angus was pretty interested but Dash not so much! Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the beach as it was too steep and rocky so that will have to wait for another time - Sorry Angus!!

We then took them for a hike along the trail to Cape Lookout-here's some random pics from along the trail:

Here's a couple of us with the Boys on the trail too:

 We did see the following sign showing we were still on the trail:

However, as we got closer, we got a little worried:

Yikes! We moved along pretty quick after that and ended up turning back when the trail became too steep.

We did find this weird "plant" on the way out - not sure what it is but it was pretty interesting - looks like a dinosaur egg of some sort:

We headed back to Lincoln City and along the way got this shot of the ocean from a wayside spot along 101:

After stopping at the Safeway to pick up some dinner - salmon! we headed back and the Boys promptly fell asleep:

Jen then got this last shot of the sunset colors and the moon from behind the trailer:

We then turned in for the night - after watching a couple episodes of Dexter (Thanks Sarah!).

This morning, we are heading south along the coast to Newport and hopefully we'll get the Boys on the beach so they can get their first taste of the Pacific Ocean.

Day 4 - WE MADE IT!!!!

Left Caldwell, Idaho at 8:00 AM this morning and crossed into Oregon around 8:30. We were so excited to finally see this sign:

Cut off the Interstate just a little ways into Oregon and drove a US highway through Eastern Oregon. We had never been through this part of Oregon before and I guess it would be what is called the High Desert - lots of sagebrush and rocks with some grass - mostly brown now - here and there. We did follow a river through a canyon for awhile that was pretty:

Came out of the hills/canyon into some flat land - more High Desert with lots of sage and the road seemed to go on forever:

We started smelling a little smoke in the air and could actually see some of it floating over so we checked online to see where the fires were. Looked like there were some south of where we were at and the wind was blowing from the south so that explained it and we pressed on westward.

The Boys have been tolerating the long days on the road pretty well. They both are really good about drinking water in the truck from a bowl we have and also let us know when it's time to "go".  They also gets snacks along the way too. Here's Dash having a look around:

Angus is pretty much over it by now and perturbed at being woken up for a picture:

As we got closer to Bend, Oregon, the landscape started changing. There were trees and greener grass to look at and finally, we saw the mountains:

Then, we came around another bend and saw THE Mountain - Mount Hood!!

After getting fuel in Bend, we headed further to the West over the Cascade Mountains. We decided to take a road we had taken on a previous visit - figured out pretty quick that it might not have been a good choice to take a 34 foot travel trailer down. The road was really narrow and one spot had 11 miles of 6% grade. We'll just say it was an interesting ride but we made it without any dents, dings or scratches - although Jen might have left marks on the "o-sh*t" handle on the door!

Needless to say, we don't have many pictures from the "fun" part but here's one from before the road narrowed:

 After what seemed like forever, we made it down the mountain and into the Willamette Valley. This valley is very lush and full of farm ground. Farmers were out plowing their fields and kicking up dirt here and there. Here's a typical field:

We crossed over the Coastal Range without incident and made it into Lincoln City right at 6:00 PM. We checked into the RV Park and headed for our site. Unfortunately, it was a back-in site but fortunately, the Park Manager was up there and guided Julz into the space - backed right into the spot!   Our site overlooks the ocean! It is beautiful!! Here's our view from the back window:

Woke up this morning to a chilly camper though- think it got down into the 50s last night and we ended up putting the furnace on this morning to warm up the camper so we could take our showers.

Not sure what we're up to today - may head up to Tillamook for some cheese and stop at some of the roadside stands for some fresh fruits and veggies!

Day 3 - Almost there!

Left this morning from Green River, Utah - noted that we really didn't miss anything coming in the dark last night - really nothing to look at and kind of smelled like sulfur. We initially thought it was The Boys but when it didn't go away after rolling down the windows (and actually seemed to get worse!) we figured it was something in the air.

Here's a sample of what we didn't miss in the dark:

We went through a pretty neat canyon before we hit Salt Lake City later in the day though - interesting driving with the Toad. Julz has driven in the mountains before but never with an extra 7000 pounds pushing the Big Nasty along:

Made it through Salt Lake City without too much trouble - traffic wasn't bad but we hit there around noon so missed rush hour. There was a bit of construction and narrow lanes but we made it through without clipping anyone. We did see a small part of the the Great Salt Lake but wasn't able to get a good pic.

Entered Idaho not too far after Salt Lake City - quite a bit of agriculture up this way. Lots of hay was being grown - kind of strange to see fields of brown grass and then all of sudden, see these lush hay fields:

We made pretty good time through Idaho but did see the evidence of some previous wildfires that burned the area - think it was good that we weren't a bit earlier as it was pretty evident the interstate would have been closed as the fires crossed over:

We did cross the Snake River which was much wider than we thought it was. We had white-water rafted the Snake when we were kids with our parents but it was in Wyoming and the river had a lot more white-water and was narrower - it looked pretty docile from our view in Idaho:

We finally hit Boise around 6:00:

We ended up not going all the way to Oregon today like we had originally planned. We were intending to "boondock" at a Love's truck stop in Ontario, Oregon but the temperature today was in the mid-90s and it would have been much too hot to try to sleep in the Toad without the air on. We were able to find an RV park in Caldwell, Idaho, which is about 30 miles from the Oregon border. We are now in the Toad with the air running and the Boys are sacked out.

Tomorrow, we should make it to the Coast!

Total Miles Today: 550
Total Miles to Go: 522.5