Week 3 - June - More new trails

Monday - June 16   Went to breakfast with Sherrie and Cedric before they left to continue their trip.  We went next door to the RV park - they have a bakery/cafe with great breads and meals.  It was hard to say goodbye, but we knew they were off to see new territory and we had to go to work.  Brian sent us out on errands.  We went to Sandy to pick up the new keys, then on to Gresham to get new mower tires, to the office store for special clips and picked up groceries on the way back.  It rained most of the day, so a good day to be out and about.  That night we met Chris and Leslie at the bunkhouse and played foosball and watched TV.

Tuesday - off to Molalla - another BLM park about 40 miles southwest of us.  Richard and Vivian, the park host couple that were at the park since November, went with us to show us around.  A drizzly day again.  Molalla is a park along the river with some tent camping sites, no facilities other than vault toilets and water spigots. The Molalla River Recreation Area, is located approximately 10 miles southeast of Molalla in Clackamas County, offers easy river access and opportunities for picnicking, swimming, camping, whitewater boating and fishing.  Our BLM office maintains the park, there is a camp host couple staying nearby at the shop site.  We were there for the day to put new clips on the campsite posts and check on some of the campers.  There is a fourteen day stay limit and there were a couple campers that needed to be asked to leave, as they had stayed for the limit.  We found one, three families camping together and they were going to move that day.  Another campsite had a mother and five kids - we visited with them and found they were moving to Oregon City and just enjoying the area.  These kids were true outdoor lovers, their campsite was somewhat muddy from the rains and they were running around in bare feet!  And camping in tents - not for me!  Done at the park, we stopped for lunch at a small cafe in Molalla and then headed back.  We had a nice visit with Richard and Vivian - they have traveled to Alaska, Montana and other areas of Oregon, so we enjoyed hearing about their travels.  A rainy night again, I went up to the bunkhouse and watched a movie to have a break from the rain noise on our roof.

Along the Molalla River

Tent campsite

Campers at Molalla

Wednesday - The sun was shining!  Our duty today was to clean the fish viewing window.  Gary decided he would put on a set of waders and climb down a ladder into the stream to see if it was possible to do a better job with the cleaning brushes. I helped him lower the steel walkways and get the ladder in.  Brian came down to help, it helps to have three people, because one needs to be on the viewing side to direct the scrub brush activity.  Not much luck cleaning it this way, there needs to be a better brush head available to accomplish it.  Gary's waders leaked, so he had wet shoes and socks when he was done.  That night we grilled chicken for supper and had a campfire.

The armour for the job

Fish window cleaning

Thursday - Our first day off, so a hiking we will go.  We went and hiked the Salmon River Trail, a five mile hike along the Salmon River just south of Welches.  It was a nice sunny day and all along the trail you are hearing the soun of the river as you hike through the trees.  We saw several people fishing, met others hiking and then watched some rock climbers on the part of the trail that goes along the road.  We found several trees with hollowed out trunks, reminding us of the story "My Side of the Mountain" and Winnie the Pooh's house.  When we were done with the hike, we decided to drive up the Lolo Pass Road, a back way around Mt. Hood.  This road becomes rough in places past the summit.  It goes on to reach Lost Lake, a large campground/resort with a beautiful lake.  We stopped there and hiked down to the water, then went to the general store there and had ice cream treats while viewing the lake.  Leaving there, we followed the road and reached Hwy 35, which goes north to Hood River or returns south around the east side of Mt. Hood and back to Hwy 26 to reach our park.  A great day, we saw a lot of new territory.

Old Salmon River Trailhead

Salmon River beauty - this tree was sticking out over the water

Cedar stump - too large too get his arms around

Tree house - Pooh was not home

Rock climbers

Forest trail beauty

 

Lost Lake view

Lost Lake view from General Store porch

 












Friday - more new adventures.  We drove past Government Camp and found the turn off for the Pioneer Woman's gravesite.  This site is right on the Barlow Road trail, where the wagons of pioneers traveled to reach the Willamette Valley of Oregon.  Across the road is the Barlow Road Trail and we followed it up a mile to the top of Barlow Pass.  We clearly saw where the pioneers traveled in their wagons through this section of forest.  At the top of the pass, we continued hiking down the other side of the mountain on a rough forest road that followed the trail down to Devil's Half Acre.  As we hiked back up this section, we realized how hard it must have been to drive their wagons up this side of the pass and then have to go down the other side.  We have read that they hooked fallen trees behind their wagons on the way down to help them go slower down the trail.  Very interesting, we were glad we found this area to explore.  After the trail, we stopped for a bite to eat in Government Camp.  Supper and a campfire finished the day.

Pioneer Woman Grave sign

Pioneer Woman's Grave

Barlow Road wagon trail

Walking in the path of the pioneers

Original wagon trail marker

Sign handcarved in 1933 at top of Barlow Pass

Historic marker at pass

Rough trail then and now

Saturday - another hike.  The plan was to hike the Top Spur Trail and the meadow, Mt. Hood view loop.  The road up to the trailhead was the roughest and narrowest yet.  We avoided the potholes as best we could.  There were a few cars at the trailhead when we got there.  We headed up the trail, it was a continual hike up on a rocky trail.  At the top, we came to an intersection of trails and a sign.  Here you were to fill out a Wilderness Pass, attaching one copy to your pack and putting one in the box.  The form filled out would tell the rangers where you were hiking, when you started and when you planned to return.  This could be important for finding those hiking and tent camping along the trail, if someone did not return when they were expected.  At the intersection, we visited with others that were looking for our trail - they ended up turning right on the loop, we went left.  So we were now on the Timberline Trail, heading for the views and wildflower meadows on the loop.  A total hike of about two miles by the time we would be back at the car.  As we kept climbing and walking and as time passed, I kept looking to meet the hikers that had turned right - we should have met them on the loop.  My Captain kept encouraging me on, telling me we would be there soon.  Finally, I had him look at his phone (he has an app that tells us how far we have walked) and he reported that we now had hiked 2.5 miles.  Apparently we missed the loop turn!  I agreed to proceed a little further and up around the bend in the trail we walked out in to an open area with an incredible view of Mt. Hood right in front of us!  There we came upon three young men, who we had seen in the parking lot, who passed us on the trail earlier with full packs for camping overnight on.  Gary talked to them and they showed him on our map that we had hiked way past the loop turn and were up on Bald Mountain Ridge overlooking McNeil Point.  No wonder I thought I was going to die - we hiked up about an extra 2000 feet elevation!  We were now at 5100 feet.  But, the view was amazing and not everyone gets to see it.  The good Lord rewarded me for my suffering.  We sat and ate our snacks and took a lot of pictures.  From that view, we saw three waterfalls and the start of the Sandy River- all from the glaciers melting on Mt. Hood.  On the largest waterfall we could see the water moving - like slow motion.  Heading back down the trail - it was easier going down - we met a young man hiking that told us how to look for the loop trail turn that we missed.  We found it and went across and came upon the meadows of wild flowers (on the steep side of the ridge) and also saw more Mt. Hood views.  A great trail for all to see amazing views, but we saw even better views at the top that day.  Heading back to the car, we came upon a young man hiking by himself that had already hiked 13 miles that day and was headed further yet before dark.  Wow!  We got back to the parking lot to find it filled with cars - a lot of hikers were on this trail by late afternoon.  We were tired, our two mile hike ended up being more than six miles.   We went home and started a campfire - ended up roasting hotdogs over the fire for supper that night. 

Hiking along the Top Spur Trail

Wild flowers in the forest

Glacier waterfalls on Mt. Hood

The Mt. Hood valley view from Bald Mt Ridge

At the top - Bald Mt. Ridge - Mt. Hood behind us

Wild flowers on Bald Mt. Ridge

The loop trail with flower meadows - narrow on quite a slope

The view of Mt. Hood from the loop trail

Friends, Work, Hiking

Sunday - June 8   Mass at 8:00, breakfast and then work in the office.  After lunch, our friends, Erin and Michael arrived.  They are camp hosting this summer at the Bonneville Dam, which is north of us on the Columbia River.  We showed them around the park, hiked the trails and visited with our boss and other camp hosts.  We enjoyed having them here.  That night we had a campfire and Anne & Dick, Leslie & Chris joined us.

Monday - Wednesday - Working days.  We did our cleaning jobs, helped with key inventory, Gary painted the office bathroom floor, ran office errands in to Sandy, mowed again and worked on raking/trimming around the park.  Wednesday night we went to the Barlow Trail Roadhouse for supper - they have home made specials - Gary had their chicken and dumplings.  Back home we enjoyed another campfire.

Thursday - a nice day, so we went and hiked the Still Creek Trail.  3.2 miles, it was a nice hike, with a boardwalk through a wet Cedar grove.  Afterward, we drove back and found the Summit Graves and Summit Meadows on the Barlow Road.  In this cemetery, several pioneers were buried.  The headstone is for Perry Vickers, a toll keeper at Summit House on the Road in the 1870's.  The Barclay baby was  buried there and nearby is the Baby Morgan memorial.  Another pioneer woman was buried there too, in 1852.  Across from the cemetery are the Summit Meadows.  The pioneers were eager to arrive there, the meadows replenished the livestock and inspired the travelers to push on to face the final trials of the Barlow Pass, Laurel Hill and the Zigzag Canyon before they reached their Willamette Valley destination.  Back home, I made an apple pie and peach crunch dessert for the going away party we had that night for the seasonal park worker, John.  It rained that afternoon and evening, so the men set up a canopy to grill under and we had the party at the office.

Still Creek along the trail

Huge leaves (sorry, don't know the plant)

Looking up from under the big leaves

My trail guide on the Still Creek trail

The bridge at the start of the trail

Summit Graves - Perry Vicker's stone

Summit Meadows and Graves signage

The plush Summit meadows

Friday - Rain today.  We stayed home and caught up on our book work and mending.  There always seems to be projects to do at home - including working on keeping the blog up to date.  (You can see I get behind on that!)  After supper, we watched a movie - we are enjoying movies now and then that we digitized, since we do not have TV reception in the motorhome here in the forest.

Saturday - We went for a hike in the park in the morning - it was misting but not raining then.  We visited with the group that was having a wedding and reception that day in the Salmon River Shelter and amphitheater in our park.  They had it decorated in a tropical theme.  We did take firewood down to them - we thought it was chilly out, but they had shorts on.  True Oregonians!  Then we drove to Government Camp and visited the Mt. Hood Museum there.  A lot of exhibits with history about the mountain, the ski clubs, the climbers and the Forest Service.  Afterward, we walked down the street to the Ratskeller restaurant for lunch.  It was windy and cold, reminded us of November in South Dakota.  Then back home - stayed in for the night.

Bear display at the museum - the only bear we have seen

Sunday - Father's Day  Rain again, we went to Mass and then did laundry while we were cleaning at the office.  Mid-day, my cousin Sherrie and her husband Cedric, came to see us.  They had attended a wedding the day before in The Dalles, OR.  They came to see us and then were continuing on to the Oregon Coast and south for sightseeing before heading home to Nebraska.  We had a great time, showed them around our park and then drove them up to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood.  They enjoyed seeing the lodge and reading the history of how it was built by the CCC and the history of the mountain.  We sat in the Ram's Pub there for a bite to eat and watched as the rain turned to snow flakes on the mountain.  June 15 - snow in Oregon.  We headed back our way and had supper at the Zigzag Inn, before coming back to the park.  We were able to have them stay in the park bunkhouse for the night, so we watched TV and visited with them there until bedtime.

Cedric, Sherrie and me

June Begins in the Mountains

Monday, June 2  - back to work.  We had driver's training - (because our driver's certification certificate had not arrived in the mail), we drove with our boss into Sandy for work errands - then he could approve us for certification to drive the BLM trucks.  In Sandy, we dropped off tools for repair and then had a cup of coffee at the "Ant Farm", a local non-profit coffeehouse.  Their mission is to help train youth in life skills.  There we met a fellow motor homer from Sandy, we told him about RVillage and got him signed up.  Brian introduced us to two business owners from the Mt. Hood area, it was interesting to talk to them about the history of the area.  On the way back we stopped and cleaned the restrooms at Sandy Ridge, the nearby mountain bike trail park serviced by the BLM. Gary did some mowing when we were back at the park.

Tuesday - This morning as we were having breakfast, we heard a woodpecker outside.  Gary went out and found a Pileated Woodpecker working on a birdhouse, so the pecking sound was amplified.  The woodpecker then flew to a log on the edge of the ball field and soon wood was flying from all over from his pecking.  Gary was able to get great pictures - hard to do usually, the Pileateds' are very elusive.  This woodpecker is one of the two largest in the country, very distinctive by their loud call, huge head with a red cap and this one was about 14 inches long.  Back in to the office, Brian had me help him start the key inventory process.  We worked all day on the keys, I was buggy eyed from comparing one key to another for all those hours.  Gary went out and mowed, it was one of the few sunny, dry days.  Late afternoon, we went home and packed a bag for going to Salem - we were going there after work on Wednesday.   http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/pileated_woodpecker/id

Pileated Woodpecker

Look how big he is!

 Wednesday -  all the camp hosts had fee booth training this morning.  We went to the entrance fee booth and worked through the procedures for collecting fees, using the cash register and balancing our receipts at the end of our shift. Not necessarily a safe job, while we were there we had a lady drive in and up on the curb in front of the booth.  The day before, a lady had gone off the entrance road, down in the ditch and hit the welcome sign that shows the parking fees.  She said she was trying to get her coffee cup and got distracted.  Luckily she was not hurt.  After training, we checked out, cleaned up and headed to Salem for the weekend.  Gary had to be at the Elks Club late afternoon for a membership interview. When Marilyn was off work at 7:30, we went out for supper and then over to Nick's house to see them.

Distracted driver hits park sign

Thursday - Right away we went out for and exercise walk and then had breakfast.  Marilyn was exploring with us today, we drove up to Portland to see some sights.  We went to the river walk there, hoping to see the Navy ships that were coming in for the Rose Festival weekend.  Unfortunately, we were too early - they were arriving in the afternoon.  We were able to see a big Coast Guard ship,(The Alert) a Canadian sailing ship, the USMC Oriole (we talked to their crew - they had sailed down the night before) and there were some river patrol gun boats used in Vietnam that Gary toured.  We saw the lift bridge gates go up, no boats, but we think they were practicing for the Navy boats to come. By then it was lunch time, so we walked up to the Thirsty Lion Pub & Grill and had coffee and sandwiches.  Then we drove up to the famous Portland Rose Garden, located on one of the hills in Portland.  Somewhat like the tulips, there were rows and rows of every kind of roses.  It was beautiful.  The Rose Festival and Parade was taking place the next three days, but we did not want to fight the crowds to see all that.  There was a great view of Mt. Hood from the gardens, but hard to get pictures of.  We really enjoyed walking around seeing all the colors and variations.
Leaving there we headed southwest out of town and drove back to the Salem area.  We saw fruit stands and a cheese farm, we decided we will have to go back for them.  Close to Salem, we took Marilyn to the Red Hawk winery we had visited before.  With the clear day, we could see the three mountains from their yard, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens.  We tasted the wines, Marilyn joined the wine club and then sat and had a glass in the picnic area.  Awhh, retirement!
Back to the house, we relaxed with G&M and grilled burgers for supper.

Coast Guard ALERT

Drawbridge Up

PBR Boat and Royal Canadian Sailing Boat

Vietnam PBR Boat

Thirsty Lion lunch stop

The Rose Garden view from the top of the park

Brilliant pink

Variegated colors

Red plus more

A beauty

Portland Rose Garden

Mt Hood from the Rose Garden

Red Hawk Winery enjoyment

View from winery

Friday - Gary and I walked again, Marilyn had a hair appointment early.  We worked on our computers for advertisers at the house, then drove to the BLM headquarters in Salem to pick up supplies for the park.  Afterward, we met Marilyn and did a Costco run.  Back home, G&M went with us to the Willamette Cheese Farm.  You drive in past the working girls (the dairy cows) and go into the little cheese shop on the farm.  We tasted about twelve different cheeses, they make different variations of Fontina, Cheddar, Havarti, Gouda and Jack cheese.  Very good, some had herbs, some had fruit, and there was a white cheddar with cinnamon that we liked.  That evening, we joined their friends for supper at Cafe 22.  It was a nice evening to sit outside and the fresh strawberry shortcake special was delicious!  After supper, we went to Nolan's ball game and afterward helped G&M take the kids home to their house to babysit, so Tyler & Jen could go out for supper.

Saturday - The two Garys headed out to run errands for the masonry business, Marilyn and I went for a walk and then ran some girl errands.  We shopped for birthday presents for Piper, she was two today.  Back at the house, we packed up our things and went and got our groceries bought to take back home.  Then we went to the big birthday party for awhile before heading back to the forest.  It was fun to see all of Jen's family there.

Piper - Age 2  (We gave her the shades)