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