RV Travels with Dakota Duo: Week 3 - June

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.