Author: Tim

Graduate of the accounting school at the University of Georgia and now a real estate investor and agent. I have loved to travel since I was a kid and have dreamed of traveling full-time since then.

The return to the lower 48 begins

Leaving Denali, most people head to north to Fairbanks or south to Anchorage. But we wanted to see some nature so we decided to head east and take the Old Denali highway. It’s about 130 miles of gravel with a few sections of asphalt. The worst part was for the first 70 miles the road was so rough we could only go 20 mph max. Sometimes we were going so slow the speedometer was at zero. The worst part is because it was so rough Zygi couldn’t nap so we had crying and screaming to go along with bumpy road. We did find an amazing camp area at the old airfield (Yes it REALLY was shutdown there was abandoned equipment in the middle of it and fire rings everywhere, plus a new strip a quarter mile a way). Anyways it had gorgeous views of both the mountains and a glacier. It was one of my favorite campsites of all time. Unfortunately, Victoria disagreed because of the bugs (what bugs;). It was so amazing because not only did it have a great view of the mountains and glacier, but we were all alone, out in the real middle of nowhere, no road noise, no neighbors. It’s nice to camp with just the family.

Luckily the next day the road started to improve (if I was to do it again I would approach and leave from the east). However the next day I noticed someone looking at my trailer wheels odd. I took a look myself and they seemed closer than my other side. I thought it was because we were parked on a hill. Turns out the buckle the holds the leaf-springs on didn’t just break but brought some of the frame with it. We noticed when we were smelled burning and stopped at a rest area, our tires were touching. Time to call shops on a Thursday again, a week out they say. Victoria managed to find not only the AAA rep in the area but that same shop was happy to take the business on Friday. We arrived at about 5 pm behind our trailer. Lucky for us at not extra cost some mechanics agreed to stay after and finish it that night as they were worried they would be too busy to look at it the next day. I was surprised at how young they were, the two of them couldn’t of been older that 18. But they did a great job. Three hours later we were ready to go, a little less than $300 lighter but happy for it. This was back in the town of GlennAllen and the shop was named GlennAlenn Fuel, I highly recommend them.

The next day we were back on the Glenn highway heading for Tok. (You have to go through Tok either way you enter or leave Alaska as the junction is there). We found a nice little rest area near a river to spend the night. When we first pulled in, we were the only RV there. Then I had an interesting thing happen when another RV pulled in. Where did they park? Directly next to us , with their generator running, with the rest area having room for maybe 15 RV’s. I asked him about it nicely, he smiled, an hour later he parked on the other side. That’s like the first rule of camping, unless your camping with friends of course, you park away from others. By the end of the day, it looked like an RV park at that rest area.

Next we passed through Tok and turned onto the Taylor highway. We stopped by the famous town of Chicken. Chicken is a tourist trap that didn’t used to be maybe ten years earlier. Didn’t matter Victoria loved it for the name. There isn’t much to Chicken. The town is all dirt road. There is a saloon, and a handful of gift shops. We camped at the Walter Fork BLM Campground ($5 with America the Beautiful pass discount.) I liked the river at the campground. I skinny dipped (no one around) along with skipping stones, I had at least a 15 hopper in there. Nothing like bathing in a mountain river like God intended. All these roads were gravel but decent gravel, you could run 40 or 50 mph down it no problem unlike The Old Denali Rd. The was a lot more assents and descents than usual for up here but when it takes you to the Top of the World Highway, it’s worth it.

 

Denali National Park

In this article we circle back to Anchorage where we meet up with a friend before heading to Denali National Park. We only stayed in Anchorage for two days at Centennial Park. Victoria knew a fellow travel nurse, Regina, from Savannah and so we planned to meet up after arriving to go hiking. There are hundreds of trails of all types in the Anchorage area. Regina also allowed us to have items shipped to her home before we arrived, which was a huge help to us as it can be very difficult to find a lot of items up in the north.

Victoria and her friend Regina

Unfortunately the breaks on the trailer had decided to stop working, not good when your driving in the mountains. So I tried to make an appointment but most businesses said they were a few days to a week out. Luckily we found Midstate in Anchorage which agreed to at lest take a look. They are electronic brakes and are apparently quite cheap and easy to install so we got all new electrical connectors and brakes for about $700 (seemed reasonable, have no idea) for our dual axle trailer and we got it done that day which was important as we had to keep moving on.

Leaving Anchorage we got a late start so we stayed at the South viewing area along the Parks highway. There are no hookups at the viewpoint and it was $14/night. There was a really nice boardwalk that took you to two different viewing areas. After a couple nights we decided we wanted to get closer to the mountain so we drove to Cantwell and boondocked by a creek, a really nice spot we found on I Overlander. There was a beaver dam and each morning we watched them working. We also had a excellent view of Denali when it decided to show itself the day we left.

We were excited about going to Denali, until we actually got there. I realized that it is my least favorite National Park. Reason being first off the bus and flight system is elitist and completely un-family friendly.  You can’t drive any further than 15 miles into the park.  If you want to go deeper they make you take a bus.  You have a choice of 6,8, or 12 hour bus rides.  The cost varies from $60 up to $200 (approximations) per person depending on if you want the bus ride narrated or not.  The bus doesn’t take you to what I would even consider the base of the mountain. It needs to be setup up like Zion or the Grand Canyon where you drive IN to the park, and then take buses around. It’s a terrible setup all around. The only way to get a decent view of the mountain is to helicopter in, which is several hundred dollars an hour, then being Denali it’s booked for God knows how many weeks or months in advance, and then it ,may be cloudy anyways… The apparently great view was beaten by nearly every other mountain on the way up or down here because they’re up close and personal.

In Denali National Park

What we actually did in Denali park was drive the 15 miles in or so that they allow.  We couldn’t do the moderate sized hiking trail near the end of the 15 mile turnaround point because the small parking lot was full.  We therefore turned around and did a short 1.5 mile trail and then headed back to our awesome campsite.  The beavers are cool at least.

Walking a short trail

Denali maybe an amazing mountain to read about, rising from 300ft to 20,300 ft unlike say Colorado where mountains start at 8,000 feet. Unfortunately it and the and the mountains in the area cause near constant clouds to block the summits as they create their own weather. I was told they only have two clear days in June. We were therefore very lucky when we got a full clear view of the mountain the last day we were there. Even the people who ride the bus in 8,10, 12 hours apparently get less of a view of we did for FREE (na na na na boo boo).  It is an impressive mountain, but it is kinda overrated.  It is so far away that you don’t get that “WHOA!” feeling like you feel when you can get close to a giant mountain, like Mount Rainer.

Denali zoomed in

Next up we head down the old Denali highway, making the first leg of our long journey back to the U.S. For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to take the old road, its only 130 miles of gravel…

-Written by Tim and Victoria collectively, pictures by Victoria

We had a run of bad luck…

We usually write every three days or twice a week but unfortunately we had a serious of unfortunate events just before Whitehorse and in Whitehorse. Lovely town, I don’t believe in luck or fate, but we had a bad run that’s for sure. The day before we arrived in Whitehorse I was having problems with the RV batteries. I was trying to troubleshoot while the most God awful mosquitoes ate me alive and then had battery acid spilled on my favorite jacket. I have to special order it from China, only $25 when a name brand on would be $100. After about eight hours I got the batteries working, not really sure what I did, but they were fixed so I left it. Especially since the mosquitoes are so big they literately take skin off, I don’t itch my bites and I had scabs all over.

The next day we made it into Whitehorse and my refrigerator promptly notified me it was at 50 degrees. I’ll save you the details but again it took another 8 hours (at least no mosquitoes in Whitehorse) and then ended up being a $15 fix with changing out the only spare part I carry, a thermistor. Talk about lucky, well, somewhat lucky.

The next day was the worst, some of you know I use electronic cigarettes. We were in a grocery store parking lot walking in to buy groceries. I had two spare batteries for the electronic cigarette in my pocket along with my keys. I had never heard of it happening but keys or other metallic objects can short out batteries, these are special high power batteries like your call phone but meant to release peak power quickly. Well one of the loose ones shorted, exploded in my pocket like a firecracker. Luckily there were many bystanders around to help. I ripped the burning pants off my thigh and was walked by security to sit down. The manager of the store came out and brought a case of bottled water to start pouring over my burning flesh, as instructed to do by the 911 dispatcher.. Initially I didn’t think it was a huge deal. But as it turned out I sustained second degree deep burns over 30% of my left thigh, front and back. A few weeks in a hospital (which I hate) is the usual treatment. Victoria said the could take care of the wound unless it gets infected. So I went to a clinic and got a powerful antibiotic cream and an oral antibiotic.

A couple days after the burn we decided we would head for Anchorage as it is in the states and is by far the largest town around if there were issues with the wound. Unfortunately as we ascended a hill leaving town the tuck started shifting funny and then we smelled burnt plastic (burnt out resistor causing the smell and low transmission fluid from a leaking gasket. We only had gotten about 2 miles out of town before we had to turn around. It was high noon on Friday so we had to wait till Monday before the tuck could get work done.

Over the weekend while the truck was in the shop, the solar panels stopped working. We couldn’t believe it. Solar panels are the most reliable thing on a an RV, usually good for ten years at least. I tried calling around and no shop would be able to see me for another week (This time of year is the busiest). I ended up finding an retired old man who didn’t advertise that would help me. After about two hours we found out the problem was a bad connector. We got it reconnected and BAM amps into the batteries, hallelujah. He only asked for $150 but I gave him $200 (Canadian) for getting it done that day even though I helped the whole time (it was good for me).

When we got the truck back we were set to leave. Whitehorse is a really cool town I highly suggest anyone in the area check it out. Mountains and wild life all over. We kept telling ourselves we were lucky to be in a big city with all this bad luck hit us instead of out in the boonies. My wound is healing nice, thank God. Now that it’s growing new skin, believe it or not the itching is worse than the pain. It actually woke me up yesterday. Benadryl regularly and a Zyrtec help but not completely pills take care of it. Cross your fingers all the bad luck is behind us.

Driving along the most scenic highway in North America

We made it to Alaska! Well not really, only for a few hours…read on. Stewart, BC is off 37A, a little 65 km detour off the Cassier Highway described as one of the most scenic highway in North America. From Stewart you can get to Hyder which is part of Alaksa the good ol’ US of A! It is interesting that there is no border crossing to go back into the US here but you have to go through customs to cross back into Canada. Luckily it was really simple, we were only asked a few routine questions and they scanned our passports. They don’t stamp US passports when you enter Canada unfortunately as I’d like to keep my collection going and get Zygi’s started.

Entering Hyder, Alaska

We took our time driving down 37A, it was breathtakingly gorgeous. The snow capped mountains rise on all sides and there are literally hundreds of water falls. We passed by Bear Glacier and took some pictures. We arrived at Clements Lake Recreation Site which was described as having spots for 5 RV’s. This time I took the bike down the dirt road to see if there was a spot for our huge rig. Success! We found one of the most scenic spots we had ever seen. It was facing a small lake with a huge, steep mountain in the backdrop. We could see several waterfalls coming down the mountain and we could even hear the largest one from 1000’s of ft away! There were only three real camping spots, only one of them big enough for anything more than a truck camper or something similar.

The next day we took a drive to see Salmon Glacier, the only glacier in the WORLD that you can drive to see the summit. We drove across the border to Hyder, Alaska which is described as “The friendliest little ghost town you’ve seen.” We first stopped at the bear viewing platform. A nicely build elevated platform about a river where bears come to feed on salmon. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any bears because the salmon had not made it down to the river yet (we were 3 weeks early). The man that was working there smelled like dirty old laundry but he gave us the automobile tour brochure that gave a little history about the area along the way to the glacier. There was a lot of mining done here and still is going on. The road to the glacier was a long, rough, gravel road full of large potholes. We were warned that the graters had not been on the road yet but we decided to go anyways. We had to see the fifth largest glacier in North America. The drive up itself was shockingly beautiful with beautiful steep mountains everywhere, tons of waterfalls, and clear blue lakes and a milky white river (glacier feed rivers are white from the rock being ground down). The road was about 20 miles but somehow Zygi managed to sleep on the way up despite the rocking and shaking of the tight truck suspension.

The next day we hung around the lake and enjoyed the view. It was another warm perfect day. I swam to the platform in the middle of the freezing lake. We also broke out the kayak for the first time on the trip and took Zygi for his first ride. He liked climbing around on it until he barrel rolled off it. He was upset for a bit after that but Victoria calmed him down. Unfortunately after we put his life jacket on he started balling and didn’t stop crying for the entire ride (which was a short one). We let him play with the jacket afterwards so hopefully after a few more times he’ll be used to it. Any suggestions on this will be appreciated.

After a couple days we decided to move on even though we could have stayed there all summer. It helps to know that the next place we’re going is going to be just as spectacular. Hasta luego mis amigos

Putting miles and mosquitos behind us: Our first week in Canada.

After Vancouver we realized we were a bit behind schedule. I wanted to be at 1500 miles driven and we were only an 1000. We had been driving around 150-200 miles a day since leaving Modesto. So we decided we needed to pick it up a little. After leaving Vancouver we drove 250 miles to a town called 100 Mile House to the aptly named 100 Mile House Municipal Park. No utilities (not that we needed any) but there were trash cans and it had a water tap to fill your tank. Someone came around every few hours to collect the $10/night fee. It was nice and there was a short walk to a waterfall and a large beautiful park. The camp spot was quite nice backing right up to a creek with lots of trees and space. Unfortunately Victoria was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and she couldn’t even take the short walk to the waterfall so we left the next day.

Taking a break at one of the rest stops

I should mention that in Canada they have free parks that you can camp at called Recreation Sites. They don’t have any hookups but they are FREE. There are also municipal parks and provincial parks but they have a fee although some of them have hookups. Our goal is to camp for free as much as possible since the gas is ridiculously expensive here at about $5 a gallon. We have been using Backroad Mapbooks as our guide for finding these sites. I bought the whole British Columbia set for like $180 Canadian. Sounds like a lot but the commercial campgrounds can be anywhere from $30-$50 a night. So they will pay for themselves in a week.

Backroad Mapbooks

The next day we drove another 200 miles to the town of Prince George, the largest city in Northern BC. We needed to have the truck battery looked at because the truck wasn’t starting like it should in the morning. I only had those batteries a little over a year so I knew they were under warranty. Low and behold Victoria found an Interstate Battery store in Prince George! Unfortunately they were closed for the weekend by the time we arrived. So we were stuck at a commercial campground called Bee Lazee Campground. We needed to do laundry and take long hot showers after two weeks of navy showers. Plus Victoria vacuumed the truck out, I didn’t think it was dirty but man it looked better afterwards. It was a decent park other than the lady was a bit rude who ran the place and at $35 a night Canadian (about $30 American) I expect better service. Victoria said she had hotter showers in Mexico. Anyways I got the truck to Interstate early Monday morning and sure enough one battery was bad (Replaced for free) and the other just was hooked incorrectly (they placed the battery in the center rather then fully to the right so it didn’t seat all the way down) both of which the guy fixed for $20 Canadian.

Bee Lazee campground

Recreation sites are very similar to National Forest primitive campgrounds in the United States. It can be a good bit of work to find out if our rig will fit. It seems to be a 50/50 chance on if the rangers know much about the campgrounds and roads to get to them. The roads are often dirt and gravel and often you just have to go with your gut. We had initially picked out Bulkley Lake Recreation site. When we turned off the highway the road seemed ok at first but then it came to a dead end but the road continured into a narrow forest road. Victoria said “Hold on there! You better go check that out first.” After a like mile and a half of rough road I ran into a gate, and I thought, “thank God we did come down here.” On the way back I noticed a map and the trail to the campsites was so over grown I would have had to machete my way in, much less drive a 35ft fifth wheel down it. This was really disappointing as we’d been in the car since 8am and it was 5 pm, luckily the sun doesn’t really set till 11pm here. We had a plan B though, Chapman Lake Recreation Site which was another hour and a half away. We also realized that we can’t fully trust that when the recreation site is listed to be ok for RV’s it doesn’t necessarily mean LARGE RV’s.

Even though I’m so tired of driving at least it has been scenic. It’s like you think you’ve seen the best and then there is something even better around every turn. So finally we make it to Chapman Lake and we picked out a nice large spot with grass over looking the lake. It was such a pleasure to see after traveling 10 hours. There was a little dock and yellow wildflowers all around. There were only like 8 sites and we had the entire campground to ourselves.

The first day we just chilled by the lake as it was warm and sunny. I had my folding rocking chair out, Victoria was laying out, and Zygi was running around on the tarp watching Marilyn play fetch. It was a nice relaxing day, well needed after the long drive the day before. I should also mention that with the incredible amount of day light our two 100 watt panels really pump out the energy. So we can watch TV all day and night if we wanted and charge all our other devices and not worry about the power. The only thing I used the generator for so far was to use my laser jet printer (I just have a 1000 watt inverter). They must draw an incredible amount of power because I have a 2000 watt generator for backup and it really revs up when the printer first starts.

Someone used magical voodoo to position these rocks like this.

The next day we tried to do some hiking. I say try because the first trail went to a lake at about 3 miles but we only made it about one mile because the trees blocking the trail were too numerous and large, especially with Zygi on my back. So we then went to another one that was nice and and open, Ski and snowshoe trails in the winter and hiking trails in the summer. Unfortunately they had record snowfall this year and so the trail was like walking on a peat bog, it reminded me of our hiking in Florida. In fact it was so much like Florida that the bugs were actually worse. For some reason the mosquitoes seem to have a thing for Victoria. She said it was the worst hike she ever did. So again after about a mile we turned around and said lets go enjoy the lake before we have to leave, which we did.

Hiking near Chapman Lake

I have to mention that we have never seen so much wildlife so close in the wild. We saw two black bears on separate occasions right along the road, We saw a bald eagle quite close and then another that chased him off. We saw two foxes cross the road and countless deer. It was/is amazing, we’re are really getting far into the wild now. On most trips I’m really into the actual activities, hiking, biking and camping, but the driving is so incredibly scenic it’s an activity on it’s own.

Nest up taking the Cassier highway to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK on a road called 37a that is supposedly the most scenic in all off North America (I’ll give you a hint, it very well may be.) See you then.

O Canada! Crossing the border into Vancouver.

We wanted to camp close to the border to do some last minute shopping, get the tires rotated and organize the inside of the RV better.  It was an all day drive for us coming from Riffe Lake to Ferndale, Wa.  We didn’t get much cooperation. The roads were mountainous, there was hundreds of traffic lights, and then when we made it to the highway it was bumper to bumper even though we took 405 around Seattle. Anyways we did finally make it to Silver Reef Casino. There were a number of other people camping out there and they also had a free dump and freshwater fill, so it was a good place to prepare to cross. We had dinner at the buffet one night. Zygi made a mess with the oyster crackers so we left the waiter a big tip.  We felt like we were in the movie, “The Hangover”, walking through the smoky casino with him in the front facing baby carrier.

We got up and left early for the border, we crossed at Lynden because we read it’s not used a whole lot. There was only one other person there and they were seriously checking his car out. I was thinking “Oh boy were going to be here for a while”. Luckily it only took 30 minutes or so. They checked to make sure I gave them the correct serial number on our shotgun and went through our passports and that was it. They didn’t ask for Marilyn’s paperwork or search the RV. Easy peasy, like every border crossing for us so far(crossing my fingers).

Downtown Vancouver

We then went and camped at another casino, Starlight Casino, just outside of Vancouver so we can drive in and see what some people say is the most beautiful city in the world. I agree with them. The mountains and the city planning are both just stunning, one natural and one man made.

We parked the truck a couple streets away from the 22nd street stop and caught the train in to town.  First we went to Chinatown and bought the best falafel I ever had, weird I know. Then I went to a congee restaurant, it’s basically rice porridge with meat or other things in it that is usually a breakfast food. They also use it for baby food in Asia. Anyways, it was fantastic. I’ve loved it since eating it every morning in the streets of Thailand with the locals for breakfast. It’s not something you can find a lot of places. We then got some fantastic Dim Sum and that was as much as we could eat.

We then walked to Gastown, an upscale and historic area. It was beautiful to walk around. Unfortunately we went down one wrong street (Hastings) and saw the homeless problem that I’ve heard so much about in Vancouver. Luckily it was only a small area and it seems lately the west coast has been cleaning up their cities somehow. I for one am glad as it chases off a lot of tourists. We then walked to Canada place which is basically their cruise ship terminal. There are some neat educational displays about the port and train yard.

All in in it turned out to be a fantastic visit to a fantastic city.  Vancouver reminded us of San Francisco but we both agreed that we liked Vancouver better.  Vancouver seems more affordable and cleaner, especially when comparing the two Chinatowns.  The homeless are confined to one area instead of spread about the city.  Even the suburbs feels urban because they don’t allow building single family homes. Instead there are several high rise apartment buildings and town homes.   It really is a cool city.

Riding back home on the train

Up next, driving through some of the most beautiful mountains in the world.

Written by Tim and Victoria

Riffe Lake and Mt Rainier

After Portland we found an awesome spot on Riffe Lake that was beautiful and surrounded on all sides by mountains. It was a pretty popular spot as it seemed a lot of locals came out for the day and to camp.  It is also a landing zone for hang gliders. It was entertaining to watch them glide back and forth so quietly in the air.  They made it look easy!  The boondocking spots are just a mile or two from Taidnapam Park where we also were able to dump and get more fresh water for $5….Well actually it was only dumping but we sneakily got some fresh water too, leave a comment if you want to know how.

We went hiking around our campsite. Apparently the water level on Riffe Lake is low at this time and we were hiking around what appeared to be old building foundations.  Was there a town buried under the lake?  There were big trees that had fallen and made for some cool photos.  We were trying to hike to an old cabin but every time we tried to find the path to it, it disappeared! We called it the Blair Witch cabin and said forget it.  It was too creepy how it kept disappearing.

The drive to the Nisqually enterance of Mt. Rainier National Park only took about 40 minutes from Riffe Lake.  At first we felt like we were driving through West Virginia as we passed by some of the locals homes.  Once we reached the park we had some gorgeous views.  When we got to Paradise visitor center it started snowing and we couldn’t see the mountain at all. We ended up going for a hike on one of the only trails open (which was covered in snow) and let Zygi play in it. Unfortunately all the footage we took for Zygi’s first snow experience got deleted because of my Chinese fleece lined pants. The skin on my thigh touches on my phone in my pocket and ended up resetting my phone because it tried to unlock it to many times.

We also went on a hike to The Grove of the Patriarchs which had some absolutely massive trees. They were Douglas firs, western hemlocks and western red cedars. Some of them were 1000 years old! We haven’t seen trees this big since we saw the Sequoias in California. It was a beautiful hike and we probably would have had it to ourselves but they were training seasonal rangers that day and they were sitting along the trail interviewing each other. It was still amazing, there is just something about trees like that which really impresses you. Victoria says she can feel the energy coming from the old trees.

We never got to see Mount Rainier.  She hid behind the clouds the whole time we were there.  Even on the day we left we saw a tiny glimpse of the behemoth but not the whole mountain. We were a little disappointed, but we had a good time anyways.  We got to play in the snow with Zygi and saw some giant trees.

Can I get a ride?

Next up, crossing the border into CANADA!

  • Writers: Tim and Victoria
  • Photographs, mostly Victoria’s but I took some too, with her directions, lol

 

Portland Part 2

The last time we were in Portland we wrote a bit about how we loved the city but that the quantity of bums and how aggressive they were really spoiled it for us. I have to say that I don’t know if they cleaned it up but we didn’t have anyone aggressively bumming from us. Yes, there were still some bums and some tents but it didn’t feel like they were everywhere. We were really excited to come back and get some awesome street food and a nice hot shower at the RV park.  We also needed to pick up some stuff we ordered from Amazon at one of the many Amazon lockers they have in the city.

On of the trains downtown

Portland to me is one of the coolest cities in the west coast, awesome food scene, giant bike lanes, and good public transit. There also happens to be a very nice rv park in a good location to stay at, called the Columbia River RV Park. It’s next to the river and is only a mile from the closest train station and a mile and a half from a park and ride. You can also drive downtown and park pretty cheaply at the city run parking garages if your only going for a few hours, it cost $5 for around 3 hours. Parking garages make me feel glad not to have a 4×4, we just made it in with our antenna scraping each beam.

Besides all of the awesome restaurants Portland is famous for a foot cart square downtown where you can get good, cheap, authentic food from about 10 or 15 different cultures. Victoria heard about Nong’s Khao Man Gai for it’s famous chicken rice. Then we went to Persian Sofreh to get a Gyro type wrap, it had authentic lamb meat with some delicious homemade tzatziki and hot sauce. It was also much easier to split. The we were full so we went for a nice walk along the river and then came back, still full, and got some stuff to go. I got some rice porridge aka Congee at Bao Bao.  Congee is serve all over southeast Asia and China that is usually breakfast food, and sometimes baby food… Anyways it’s simple but fantastic and is not served at many places so I had to get some while I could. Victoria went to a Korean food stand and got her favorite, spicy chicken teriyaki, she just can’t say no to it.

Later that day we went and met up with an old college friend of mine and his wife. I hadn’t seen him in probably ten years, we lived on the same hall, 2N, in the freshman dorms in Russell Hall at the University of Georgia. We went to Beachside Brewery and I had a cider and Victoria had a pilsner. For food, we got a pretzel (Which was good but not $9 good…) and a Cuban sandwich which was good but didn’t real remind us of a Cuban sandwich. Not enough pickles and mustard and the bread wasn’t pressed. We had a great time and Zygi did pretty good for his first brewery experience.  Unfortunately none of us took any pictures (I guess we were enjoying ourselves too much).

I was impressed with how thick the roots were on the tree.

Next up is Mount Rainier National Park.

Celilo Park – Train Horns and Wind Storms on The Columbia River Gorge

Since Memorial Day was coming up and we don’t make reservations we had to be a little creative in where we could stay. First I tried all the national forest campgrounds in Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington. There were 500 campgrounds including primitive. Amazingly every single spot in all 500 parks was reserved for the weekend. So then we started looking for first come first serve sites. We’d be arriving on a Wednesday so we’d beat out most people for those spots. Unfortunately there were very few spots, maybe 6 total, some of those a ways out of the way for us. Then I came across a COE park called Celilio right on the Columbia River Gorge, it looked beautiful, nice trees and grass in an area that is pretty desert like, they said they had spots for 30 or 40 campers and they were all first come first serve. It sounded perfect but there was one warning, there were two train tracks about a 100 ft from the parking area and since the entrance crossed the tracks they had to lay on the horn as they passed.

When we got there on Wednesday there were only only three other campers that were there and we got a pretty sweet spot where the back half of the trailer would be shaded by trees but the solar panels at the front would still get light basically all day. It was a pretty nice sunny day with maybe only 10 mph winds when we got there and and we walked around and checked out the park.  It has a set of bathrooms but unfortunately the water spigot is chained shut. One nice thing that they offered were free life jackets to borrow they even had one Zygi’s size, so we planned to go kayaking.

Unfortunately the weather changed for the worse the rest of the time we were there, it was generally pretty sunny but unfortunately the winds were a steady 20 to 30 mph with gusts to 40 mph for the next few days. The Columbia River Gorge is famous for it’s wind and therefore famous for it’s wind surfing. In fact someone had set the sailing speed record on one of them in the Gorge, clocking in at over 70 mph. However a few years ago that was beat by a 75 mph run done by a specially designed carbon fiber racing sailboat. Anyways we did get to see some of the wind surfers but it seemed like it was even a bit much for them some of the times. Therefore with our solar panels cranking out more energy than our batteries could take we figured we’d take some time and enjoy a bit of tv (I’ve got all of The Amazing Races on my hard drive 😉

After a day or two of that we were bored and were able to find a spot where there were enough trees and bushes that if you were sitting down you could get out of the wind. I setup a tarp on the ground over there and let Zygi zoom around and play with the grass, sticks, pine cones, and rocks. It was a great way for him to let out some energy.  Zygi didn’t seem to mind the trains too much. Sometimes one would scare him but then we would say, “Chooooo Choo!” with a smile and he would be ok.

 

We attempted to visit The Dalles Dam. Victoria had read on tripadvisor that you could take a tour of the dam and ride on a train from the visitor center. Unfortunately when we arrived the dam visitor center was closed and we didn’t get any dam tour.  After a quick google search, we then discovered that they didn’t offer the train ride anymore since it derailed with a few tourists on it. Sooo we just decided to walk around the dam visitor center and take the dam trail as far as it let us go.

We did have one successful day while visiting the area. We decided we needed to get away from the wind and trains and check out Tamanawas Falls. It was about an hour drive but well worth it, even on Memorial Day weekend with hundreds of other people. On the way, we saw magnificent views of Mt Hood since it was a clear day. We hiked 3 miles out and back to see Tamanawas Falls. It was pretty cool because you could actually hike and sit completely behind the falls. That part was too rocky, slick and steep to climb with the baby so Victoria stayed behind while and I climbed back there and got a few photos for her.

The classic northwest forest was amazing to be in after days in the desert looking part of Eastern Oregon. Even with all the people, we were able to find our own area of the river to have lunch by climbing down off the trail a little bit. It even had a little pool area where you could get in the water. Unfortunately it was the coldest water I’ve ever been in, straight snow melt from Mt Hood. My feet and calves were numb before I had the chance to go any further so I just rinsed off there and got out carefully so as to not hurt my feet. We both loved the trail and I can’t imagine how much nicer it would be on a calm weekday.

After staying five days so we could avoid any problems with finding a spot we were ready to leave and I had a friend I wanted to visit from the old college dorm days, Ron from 2N! Therefore we decided to stay at an RV park we had stayed at before in Portland. It’s a very nice park just off the river and only a mile from a light rail station to take you into downtown. Next up, our return to Portland!

He get’s his feet from his dad…

Bulls Bend CG: Drivin’ Down the Scary Dirt Road to Heaven.

Victoria was looking for a boondocking spot near Bend Oregon using the Days End Directory and was having trouble finding something that sounded good. So I broke out my Oregon Benchmark Topo Map book to look up the National forest and BLM land in the area to see what they have for primitive campgrounds or even dispersed camping. I found an awesome sounding spot called Bulls Bend Campground in Deschutes National Forest. They said it would fit up to 50 ft trailers, had excellent cell service, was rarely used, and was beautiful as it was on a particularly tight oxbow in the river so we would have water on three sides of us.

We first stopped in at La Pine St Park which offered free dumping and fresh water.  I can’t rely on the gauges since they have never worked but I can now kind of tell how much water we have (70 Gallons)  based on the sound of the water pump but nothing I can do about the grey tanks (20 gallons each), the black tank is huge (70 gallons I believe) and we can go weeks so we don’t worry about that one. It’s no fun to run out of water or fill up your grey tanks when you’re out in the middle of nowhere. We conserve our water, shower every few days or wash off in the river or lake if we’re by one. Sometimes we will use that water for washing the dishes.  We honestly probably could have made it but why chance it when it’s free, and pretty much on the way?

Then it was time to head down to the campground. There was a nice large gravel road that we turned on, but wait a minute they have it gated off…  I talked to someone else who was doing the same thing and he said they lived there and came out all the time and the gate was never closed. He however did mention there was another way in and he didn’t want to try it in his 4×4 Toyota and 20 ft bumper pull. So after several very awkward turns around (I’ve gotten much better at least) we found the road in.  It was very narrow, just wide enough for our trailer and we had no way to know if we could make it. Was it tall enough? Was it wide enough the whole way? Did the turns have enough space? Was it all hard packed or were we going to find soft sand? We tried to call the ranger station to ask these questions but conveniently they are closed on weekends, very helpful…

We sat there for a good five minutes discussing what to do. Victoria didn’t want to go, I said screw it I want to stay here and we’ve been looking for this place for an hour. The whole way it was just tall enough that we got a few light brushes on the roof, just wide enough that we on a very light brushes on the trailer, just rough enough that we weren’t sure if our dishes would still be in the cabinets and the turns just wide enough that if I was any longer we would have sideswiped trees. But we did make it!  We had a beautiful spot on the river and the only visible damage was a plastic piece pulled off the bumper which I quickly screwed back in to space.

A view of our camper looking back from the river. Even with the trees we got plenty of solar power.

There was only one other person staying there in a jeep.  We saw some other people drive through all just in cars not another RV in sight much less a 35 ft fifth wheel, lol. The spot was beautiful and the oxbow was so tight that at one spot the river was ten ft away from itself. We thought about getting the kayak out and just floating it, do the 10 ft portage and do it again. Unfortunately we didn’t have a life jacket for Zygi and the current was running strong, so we decided against it (We bought one in the next town so we’ll be ready next time).

So we mostly just hung out on the river and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Even being parked in the woods we got plenty of solar power, no generator needed, as designed (I do have a 2000 watt champion inverter generator just in case, I’ve had to run power tools off the generator before but that’s the extent in 3 years of living on our fifth wheel). We also had excellent cell service as mentioned so we could talk to family and friends, post/work on articles, and plan our next spots. We also walked the closed road. There were four small trees blocking the road. It might take a half day for two rangers to clear. The least they could do was post a warning on the website that the main road is closed and that large RVs are not advisable except for the brave ;).

Beautiful baby

After a 3 days and nights it was time to move on, we had to get somewhere well in advance of Memorial Day since we don’t make reservations 6 months or a year in advance.

Next, The Columbia River Gorge till the Memorial Day Holiday is over.

  • Author: Tim
  • Editor: Victoria
  • Photographer: Victoria