Saturday, September 7, 2013
What's Up Next? Raising The Bar On Our Early Retirement Life!
So what are we up to next, now that our 2013 spring/summer travel has come to an end? Lots, you can be sure!
Our Lifelong Learning program kicked off this week with a Volunteer Opportunities presentation and luncheon. After two+ years in retirement, I'm feeling the urge to get involved and allow myself to be committed to someone and something other than myself and my family. After listening to the presentations, I found myself most interested in the Computer Education committee, and attended my first meeting yesterday. What an energetic, bright group of older people! The meeting felt similar to IT meetings I used to attend on behalf of my department when I worked, and I felt very much at home. The group's mission is to stay on top of what's being released in the marketplace, in order to offer training classes to the Lifelong Learning membership. I have a solid background in all the Microsoft and Google office products, plus social media, and will begin volunteering immediately in the Friday afternoon open labs, hopefully coming on line to teach a class in Word or Excel next spring term.
We have two racing events coming up - the Long Beach Half Marathon on October 13, and the two day, 100 mile MS Bay to Bay Bike Tour on October 19 and 20. I've already been ramping up my running program to include the necessary long runs for Long Beach, and Mike and I initiated our bicycle training rides yesterday, doing 33 miles on one of the hottest days yet here in S. California. Tomorrow we're riding 40 miles, and then will begin to do increasingly longer back to back rides on alternate Sundays and Mondays until the event.
On the Mondays we're not doing back to back bike rides, we'll be hiking 10 - 12 miles in a nearby state park to begin building mileage for our upcoming Wilderness Training Course (WTC) in January. The literature advises we should 'comfortably' be able to hike 10 miles in our local mountains, and although we're very well conditioned currently, having just come off of our two month RV'ing and hiking trip, we want to make sure we remain conditioned. We're also beginning to get invites from the WTC Meet Up group (to my surprise . . . I didn't know there was one!) to long hikes with significant elevation gain in the fairly nearby San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains. We just 'accepted' our first invite - a hike to the top of a nearby peak totaling 12 miles with 2900 ft of elevation gain.
And finally, I've returned to the gym to do weight training on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, followed by yoga.
Why do I push myself to do all these? Because I love, love, love the way they all make me feel both during and after, and because nothing beats feeling strong and energetic, particularly as I enter my 50's.
And if that's all not enough, I also start French I on Wednesday, move up to Intermediate Recorder on Tuesday, and return to Spanish II on Friday. I'm taking some additional classes as well, but these are the only three that will spillover to home, meaning practice, practice, practice.
I'm also up to my eyeballs in three fabulous books; two for my book club, and one for myself; Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, I, Claudius by Robert Graves, and The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. Seriously, if any of you are moaning and groaning that things in the world have never been worse, I challenge you to read any one of these books and report back to let me know which of the eras depicted seem better than the one we're living in now.
Today I'm making an Italian feast for some friends that are coming over for dinner and a game of cards. Links to most of the menu are listed below if you are so inclined.
Tamara's Italian Feast
Fettucini Noodles
Green Salad with Parmesan dressing
Garlic Bread
Chianti Wine
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| From the Food Network's website . . . hoping mine turns out similar! |
*I substituted eggplant for chicken, and used my favorite tomato pasta sauce in place of the lemon vinaigrette.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Planning Out A Multi Destination RV Trip
Now that we've successfully completed our seven week Pacific Northwest RV trip, I'm already hard at work on the two extended trips we have planned for 2014: a four week spring trip traveling through the southwest states of Arizona and New Mexico, and an eight week summer trip traveling through the northern plain states of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana. I did a lot of things right in planning our Pacific Northwest trip, which I plan to repeat, and made a few mistakes which I'll rectify this time around. Here's what I did, and what I learned in the process -
Our strategy this trip was to spend the afternoon of our first day in searching out grocery stores, gas stations, visitor centers and ranger stations. As I said previously, it ended up working out fine, but I felt rushed, and plan to spend more time doing this ahead from home next time around.
Regarding meal planning - I've learned that with regard to our small galley space, and limited storage, the simpler the better on these type of long trips. I came up with a list of 25 meals, many using prepared deli items like lasagna, pasta salad and quinoa salad, supplementing with a green salad and bread. Worked like a charm once I got the rhythm down of shopping every three or four days, buying only what I thought could be consumed before the next shopping trip. The other thing I learned was to keep breakfast and lunch very, very simple, eating essentially just two different meals for each, which allowed me to stock my dry pantry with a good two weeks of provisions. For breakfast we had either cereal with fruit, nuts and coconut milk (Mike), yogurt with fruit and nuts (Me), or pancakes and fruit. For lunch we had PB&J (Mike), cheese and crackers (me), an apple, and a few cookies. Our pre-dinner snacks were either veggies and hummus, cheese and crackers, pretzels and mustard, or chips and salsa, which I rotated weekly to try and keep things interesting.
And my biggest mistake? Buying gifts and wine to take home too early in the trip! I don't know what I was thinking when I bought a bag of gift chocolates, and a case of Oregon wine during our second week on the road. Taking care of both items the remainder of the trip turned out to be a major pain in the rear. On hot days we had to move the chocolate from our stacking pantry drawers to our very crowded fridge, and we had to move the wine from our SUV into the trailer at the start of each leg, and them back to our SUV at the end, as we prepared to fold down our trailer and move on to the next location.
Lesson learned for sure on that, which is why coming home from next summer's trip, we've already planned to visit Walla Walla WA, and the Russian River Valley, CA, two awesome wine regions, at the very end of our trip, rather than the beginning!
- Since we prefer national parks, monuments, etc. over cities, I began my trip planning by pulling out my national park resource books to see which we wanted to try and visit over the course of our trip. Using MapQuest, I then mapped out the driving distances between each to see what appeared feasible given the time frame, seven weeks, we'd allotted. For those parks that were more than 250 miles apart, our preferred maximum transition driving distance, I looked at detailed state maps to see what areas we might want to spend a couple of nights in to break up the drive into manageable distances.
- I then spent time on Trip Advisor for each location to find out how many interesting activities there appeared to be, and how they were rated. This helped me determine how many days to book our stay. Specifically, I searched within Trip Advisor by city and state, then looked for the "Things To Do" tab at the top of the searched city's results page. If there wasn't a "Things To Do" page, that was a good indication this might not be the ideal place for us to stop. We are not laid back RV'ers - we prefer a specific outing for each day of our stay.
- Next I went to RVParkReviews.com to start reading campground and RV Park reviews. My list of what to look for includes how quiet the park or campground appears to be, proximity to our primary activities, laundry facilities, WiFi, restroom set up, and hookups. I also paid attention to comments about what percentage of an RV park appeared to be occupied by year round residents, since our preference is to stay at campgrounds and RV parks that cater to tourists, sunbirds and snowbirds.
- And finally, I started calling to make campground and RV park reservations, keeping very detailed information in my Google calendar. I include address, phone number, dates booked, amount of deposit paid, and the remaining balance owed upon arrival. I also noted whether the park offered a Good Sam or AAA discount, so I remembered to show the appropriate card check in. I then 'shared' my Google calendar with family members. This gave them access to where we were on any given day without me having to make a duplicate document.
A side note: Some RV'ers prefer to make reservations on the go, rather than ahead. I can appreciate this approach, though it's not my particular preference. Either way, you'll spend about the same amount of time on phoning and making reservations. I choose to do it ahead of time, others choose to do it on the road. One of the reasons for doing it on the road is to wait and see what there is to do in an area before deciding how long to stay. Because I do so much research ahead of time, I can comfortably make this decision in advance of arrival.After all this, I'm pretty much done with the ahead-of-time details, and can start digging into the nitty gritty of what there is to do during each leg of our stay. I didn't do enough of this ahead of time going into our Pacific Northwest trip, other than for the national parks we were planning to visit. I have great hiking books for most of our national parks, and used them extensively during our trip. It was the non-national park days I should have spent more time on, so I wasn't so frantic in trying to gather information as we arrived.
Our strategy this trip was to spend the afternoon of our first day in searching out grocery stores, gas stations, visitor centers and ranger stations. As I said previously, it ended up working out fine, but I felt rushed, and plan to spend more time doing this ahead from home next time around.
Regarding meal planning - I've learned that with regard to our small galley space, and limited storage, the simpler the better on these type of long trips. I came up with a list of 25 meals, many using prepared deli items like lasagna, pasta salad and quinoa salad, supplementing with a green salad and bread. Worked like a charm once I got the rhythm down of shopping every three or four days, buying only what I thought could be consumed before the next shopping trip. The other thing I learned was to keep breakfast and lunch very, very simple, eating essentially just two different meals for each, which allowed me to stock my dry pantry with a good two weeks of provisions. For breakfast we had either cereal with fruit, nuts and coconut milk (Mike), yogurt with fruit and nuts (Me), or pancakes and fruit. For lunch we had PB&J (Mike), cheese and crackers (me), an apple, and a few cookies. Our pre-dinner snacks were either veggies and hummus, cheese and crackers, pretzels and mustard, or chips and salsa, which I rotated weekly to try and keep things interesting.
And my biggest mistake? Buying gifts and wine to take home too early in the trip! I don't know what I was thinking when I bought a bag of gift chocolates, and a case of Oregon wine during our second week on the road. Taking care of both items the remainder of the trip turned out to be a major pain in the rear. On hot days we had to move the chocolate from our stacking pantry drawers to our very crowded fridge, and we had to move the wine from our SUV into the trailer at the start of each leg, and them back to our SUV at the end, as we prepared to fold down our trailer and move on to the next location.
Lesson learned for sure on that, which is why coming home from next summer's trip, we've already planned to visit Walla Walla WA, and the Russian River Valley, CA, two awesome wine regions, at the very end of our trip, rather than the beginning!
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Home! And Would We Do It Again?
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| The Sierras are in there somewhere! |
Since our entire game plan in Mammoth Lakes was to go hiking, and the air quality was clearly not going to be compatible with that, we decided to go ahead and cancel our reservation, and just continue on home. Some 650 miles, and 14 hours later, we arrived. It felt very strange when we walked in the front door, and I don't think we were necessarily excited to be home, but we were certainly relieved to have the long day's drive behind us.
Today has been consumed with laundry, grocery shopping, going through mail, cleaning and putting away our trailer, washing our SUV, and unpacking. Tonight I'm making black bean burgers and grilled potatoes, which we plan to enjoy while watching a Redbox DVD, 42 - The Jackie Robinson Story.
Whew! So would we do it again? Oh my gosh, yes. We had the time of our lives. We visited dozens of national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, lighthouses, state parks, and historical sites, seeing and learning things about our nation, and this amazing planet we live on in the process. We had countless encounters with interesting people, tried dozens of new eateries, saw and picked wild berries everywhere we went, hiked almost 250 miles, kayaked, biked, saw all kinds of wildlife, came in under budget, and even managed to each lose five pounds in spite of pretty much eating whatever we wanted during the entire 7 weeks.
Of course, now that I'm back home and not surrounded by miles of hiking trails, I'll have to go back to counting calories, but it was fun while it lasted!
Life will now take a different turn as our Lifelong Learning program gets ready to start. We have volunteer training this Wednesday, with the fall semester kicking off next Monday. Between now and the end of the fall semester in early December, we'll continue to RV on the weekends, but other than one RV trip to San Diego at the end of September, we'll be Orange County bound until then. (We have big plans for our 6 week winter break, never fear. We'll spend or time between semesters traveling to Key West, Ecuador, Palm Springs and Malibu.)
The one big lesson I learned from our Pacific Northwest trip was that I really needed to do a little more research on what to do during each leg ahead of time. I spent a lot of time researching RV parks, and the overall places we should visit, and it was time well spent. Next time I'll spend the same amount of time researching the specifics of what we should do, so I can avoid taking time during each leg to do so. Our strategy, which worked pretty well but was time consuming, was to set up our RV site, then head to the closest visitor center or ranger station to get information on what there was to do. It worked out just fine looking back, but I felt panicked at times as I tried to figure out our game plan, which I didn't particular enjoy.
And there will be a next time. In 2014 we are planning to spend four weeks traveling through the southwest in the spring, and eight weeks traveling through the northern plain states in the summer. The research for it all has already begun, and it looks like both trips are going to be amazing. :-)
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| Home, a little leaner, and ready to do it all over again! |
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Chilly Crater Lake Nat'l Park, Plus Trip Financials
I'm sitting here in my warm, snug trailer after a long, very chilly day yesterday at Crater Lake National Park, and life seems very, very good. I always go back to my favorite Ernie Zelinski quote from his most excellent book on retirement, "The Joy of Not Working"
When you do that which is hard, life becomes easy. When you do only that which is easy, life becomes hard.First the hard part of yesterday - we had to set the alarm in order to wake up early enough to make our 9:30 Wizard Island boat tour reservation in the east section of Crater Lake National Park. We had no real clarity on how long the drive to Cleetwood Cove would take, nor how long the strenuous one mile hike from the parking area down to the boat docks would take, so we doubled the time estimates we were given just to be safe. That meant we needed to leave by 7:30 AM, which is not necessarily early in the 'real world,' but a bit early out here in RV land, where every activity takes a bit longer due to limited space, storage and resources.
It had stormed the prior day and night at Crater Lake, so when we arrived at the Cleetwood Cove parking area, the boat check in kiosk was working absent all electronic devices. The storm, which brought wind, rain, hail, thunder and lightening, had apparently knocked out all power in the park. We had booked ahead, and had a reservation number, so we were OK, but the poor folk that were hoping to buy tickets in person had to go all the way down the steep one mile trail to the very cold and windy boat dock area, wait around to see who might have booked remotely online overnight, and then hope there would be room for them on the boat. And if there wasn't? Then they had to return back up the very steep one mile trail to their cars.
We knew it was going to be cold, so we were layered up good. I had on six layers to be exact: long work out top, tank top, short sleeve top, thin running jacket, and a thick North Face jacket topped by an REI rain jacket. Plus hiking pants, hiking socks and shoes, gloves and a hat. Mike was dressed similar.
The hike down was gorgeous, but the boat dock was good and cold. And windy. The lake looked really rough, and the docked boat, small and completely open to the elements, looked very vulnerable. One couple standing next to us bailed on the spot and left to go get a refund.
I was torn. Bail or not? I really wanted to tour the lake, and we were very much looking forward to our three hour drop off on Wizard Island, where we could hike to the top of an ancient volcanic cinder cone, but was it worth possible loss of life? (In my mind at least, if not the tour operators!)
Ultimately it got down to what it always gets down to for me - would I regret it more if I gave in to my fears, or if I didn't? Drats. I knew the answer - clearly the tour operators felt they had the situation in hand, and I needed to suck it up and go.
So we did. And it was cold, windy, wet and scary for about 30 minutes. The wave action was significant enough to send sprays of water sailing over the front of the boat, dousing passengers. We'd been given plastic rain covers, which helped somewhat.
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| I'm scared, but I'm smiling! |
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| At the summit of Wizard Island, Crater Lake in the background, White Bark pine tree to the left |
We've been pretty much repeating that pattern our entire trip - push hard, then relax slowly. Or do that which is hard, after which life becomes easy as Mr. Zelinski so wisely says.
Which is also why I think we're coming in so far under $100 per day budget after 6 1/2 weeks, with just one week still to go. We're so relaxed after pushing hard all day at whatever physical activity we've planned, we're content to relax, eat and be entertained with low cost activities like books, DVDs and card games back at our trailer.
Here are our numbers so far, including our upcoming three nights in Lassen Volcanic National Park, where lodging has already been paid, and the gas tank filled for the drive, and where our misc spend should be close to zero based on planned activities:
Lodging, 48 nights: $1,897
Gas, including 3000 towing miles: $900
Misc, including all costs other than groceries*: $1,357
Total for 48 nights/49 days: $4,154, or $84 per day
*Misc includes all activities, parking fees, restaurant meals, snacks, ice for cooler (which we stopped using two weeks in), bridge toll fees, and laundry. It also includes wine tasting fees, but not the actual wine purchases. We budget wine purchases to Entertainment, not Travel. It also doesn't include some purchases related to the trailer itself, such as a 50 amp converter we needed at one RV park, or our hiking and biking equipment, such as a new bike helmet for me after mine broke, a new bike lock after we left ours behind accidentally during one leg, and new hiking boots for Mike after his old ones wore out. Those got charged to our Hobbies category. It also doesn't include the WiFi jet pack we purchased, or the usage cards. Those got charged to our Electronics category.We feel we lead a pretty plush life in our RV, so there is no question the above costs could be reduced by making different choices for Lodging and Misc than we did. But our Gas costs might actually be too low for some, depending on what you drive and/or tow. We get a pretty decent 20 MPG when towing, if we are careful to keep all tires at max PSI.
Today our plan is to hike around Diamond Lake, right across the road from where we're staying, about 11 miles altogether. Then showers, laundry, and a nice dinner out at Diamond Lake lodge to round out the day (estimated dinner costs already included in above misc figure).
Tomorrow we re-enter California on our way to Lassen Volcanic National Park, then onto our beloved Mammoth Lakes from there, after which we return home next Tuesday, one week from today. We're ready, if not willing. It's been an amazing, amazing trip and we both agree we've been changed forever by it. More on that later.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Why Life Is Wonderful, Really
It's been interesting meeting such a variety of people these last six weeks on the road. We're consistently drawn to the people that seem excited about life. We've met fledgling young backpackers, older experienced backpackers, Canadian cyclists, Europeans enjoying and hiking in our national parks, full time RV'ers, families on vacation, couples on vacation, and single retirees out and about on their own. Each one has been exuberant about life, leaving us permanently committed to living our lives with the same optimistic attitudes.
Conversely, we've met a variety of people that appear to be very unhappy about life. One memorable encounter occurred on the ferry ride we took to Victoria, Canada some weeks ago. On a beautiful summer day, with a glorious day of touring ahead, the senior citizen retirees we were unfortunate to sit next to could find only negative things to comment on. How lousy the weather had been, how expensive things were, how rude people were, how difficult travel was. Mike was patient and kind, letting them talk on without responding. I, on the other hand, immediately got up and went out on deck to get away from the negativity.
All four of us were tourists, all four of us were experiencing the same weather, the same costs, and the same people, but the manner with which we chose to filter them couldn't have been more different.
I've long held the belief that most of us are as happy as we make up our minds to be. While visiting with Bob and Betty Lowry of Satisfying Retirement last week, Bob joking asked if I was really as excited about life as my posts seemed to suggest. I said, yes, absolutely, because that is how I elect to approach things - I focus on the positive things, and dispense with the more unpleasant things as quickly as possible. It's not that I'm under the illusion that my life is perfectly rosy, it's that I'm under the illusion life really is rosy most of the time if we allow it to be.
I guess this is my long winded way of saying that my blog posts will rarely focus on life's less pleasant aspects. They are there, but so what? You deal, you dispense, and you get back to your rosy place as quickly as possible.
As I once heard explained, and which I work hard at everyday, "Yes, you need to deal with things in life, but you don't need to be upset as you do so. You just deal and move on."
So, as we break down in rain today here in Eugene, OR, preparing to move onto Crater Lake National Park, I'm appreciative that our stay here is on a concrete pad and not dirt, so we'll remain clean, even if we get a bit wet, during breakdown. I'm appreciative that having just washed our SUV and trailer here yesterday, the rain won't leave them as dirty if we hadn't, and that we got our hiking and biking in under sunny skies yesterday and the day prior.
It's kind of nice to transition on a rainy day. It's a built in excuse to go slow, hunker down, turn on the heater and curl up with a book. Were we to arrive in sunshine, we'd be hard pressed to let that good weather go to waste.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Discovering New Passions In Oregon
I'll provide a synopsis of what kept us so busy below, but one of the nicest things that happened this leg is that Mike and I spent lots of time together hiking around the area, and as so often happens when we are out in beautiful wilderness, we felt inspired to make some exciting changes in our lives once we return home. We want to begin backpacking together, and we want to explore become national park docent volunteers. The first pretty much right away, the second a little later, beginning summer of 2016 most likely.
I know what you're probably thinking . . . 2016? Who plans that far ahead? Well, businesses do it all the time in order to maximize their corporate growth and development potential, and we do it to maximum our personal growth and development potential. By laying out rough goals a few years ahead of time, we have a reason to start working backward to determine how they'll be achieved. That then ends up providing some terrific ideas for how to structure our lives.
Like our decision to spend time in France in 2015 as an example. A few days after we return home, we start our Beginning French class, which I've volunteered to coordinate. As a coordinator, I'm responsible for opening up the classroom, and making sure the instructor has the technical items she'll need to conduct the class. So one future planned trip ends up begetting two new opportunities for personal growth and development that will last for close to two years. (Plus by volunteering to be the coordinator, I'm committing myself to actually attending!)
With regard to backpacking - This week I received an email from a friend alerting me to a backpacking preparedness class the Sierra Club will be putting on this winter, and the dates work out perfectly. We have no conflicts during the entire ten week period of the course, which includes classroom training on trail safety, first aid, using a compass, water filtration systems, and a whole lot more, plus four backpacking trips. So we're signing up, planning for a springtime on-our-own first backpacking trip. That's about four months of personal growth and development all told, plus a whole new lifestyle to explore once we're finished.
And the national park volunteering? We met two senior citizen docents that were traversing some of Mount Rainier's more popular trails to lend assistance, answer questions and keep on eye out for anything out of the ordinary that might need to be reported back to the rangers (like animal sightings, geologic activity, etc.). Mike and I were both immediately intrigued, and we made a point to stop by the visitor center after our hike to pick up some volunteer information. We talked about it while we were out hiking this week, and agreed we could definitely see ourselves spending a summer volunteering at one of more national parks, hiking and exploring on our own during our 'off' times. Since we already have multi-month travel plans for spring/summer 2014 and 2015, the soonest we can pencil it in is 2016, which we've done. In the meantime, there are several science classes on outdoor wilderness at our local university we'll be exploring once we get home. Plus a class on first aid. All good to have in our backpocket once we're ready to move the national park volunteer idea forward into action.
So, much to plunge into once we return home, but we still have two glorious weeks on the road until then, which we fully intend to enjoy. And in the meantime here's what we did this past week that kept us so busy:
(My apology for the absence of links. I'll add them when we have better WiFi, hopefully at our next stop.)
(My apology for the absence of links. I'll add them when we have better WiFi, hopefully at our next stop.)
Thursday - Drove from Packwood, WA to the Sandy River RV Park in Troutdale, OR, and easy 150 mile drive along Highway 12 and Interstate 5. Settled in and explored the park, which is located along the Sandy River, and an easy two block walk into charming, if a bit touristy, downtown Troutdale. The only negative was the terrible WiFi, which finally sent us shopping to buy a mobile jetpack, along with some pay-as-you-go usage cards. It works great, but we've been rationing our WiFi usage, which is one of the reasons I've been delayed in posting.
Friday - Drove along Historic Columbia River Highway, stopping at lots of points of interests and waterfalls along the way. Hiked a total of about 9 miles.
Saturday - Took MAX light rail from nearby Gresham City Center into Portland. Explored the Portland Saturday Market, the Pearl District, shopped at the amazing Powell's City of Books, had beer flights and lunch at Deschutes Brewery, and visited Pioneer Square. Portland is a really cute, very compact and easily walkable city. We enjoyed our day there, though we agreed we prefer natural wonders to manmade wonders.
Sunday - Ran 6 miles here in Troutdale, then cleaned up and left to visit Oregon City, known as The End of the Oregon Trail. Had a delightful time taking the free trolley, visiting the interpretive center, riding the scenic elevator from lower Oregon City to upper Oregon City, and visiting the amazing Williamette Falls. Traveled onto the Aurora Colony, an early utopian city first settled by Dutch pioneers. A fascinating day!
Monday - Hiked 9 miles along the Eagle Creek trail, passing dozens of waterfalls and crossing several high suspension bridges along the way. We then visited the Bonneville Fish Hatchery, followed by the most excellent Bonneville Dam, where we took a tour. Both are absolutely free, and extremely interesting. We then raced back home to shower and clean ourselves up for dinner with Bob Lowry of Satisfying Retirement, and his wife Betty. Just as I suspected, we hit it off like a couple of pair of old shoes - comfortable and already broken in! I already felt like I knew them both, and vice versa I suspect. I do have to say though, that Bob is much funnier in person than he permits himself to be in his blog!
Tuesday - Made blueberry pancakes using blueberries I'd purchased at a roadside 'honor' fruitstand. (You self pay into a box, as the fruitstand was not manned.) Hiked 6 miles out of Cascade Locks along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) to Dry Creek Falls and back. Continued the PCT across the infamous Bridge of the Gods into Washington and them back across to Oregon. There is no lane for hikers/bikers along the bridge, you walk in the traffic lane, staying as close to the rail as possible. It was a blast!!! Afterward we took a wonderful two hour cruise along the Columbia River on the Columbia Spirit. We ended with a salmon dinner in Troutdale, an absolutely picture perfect Pacific NW day.
Wednesday - Left at the crack of dawn for the 120 miles one way drive to Mount St. Helens National Monument, and we're so glad we did! We hiked over 10 miles from the Johnson Center Observatory, seeing wondrous things in the park along the way, plus enjoyed two excellent films back at the visitor center. One was about the explosion itself, the other focused on the amazing resurgence of plants and animals in it's aftermath. A long but very, very worthwhile day.
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| The Washington Side. See the PCT emblem on the right? |
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| Crossing the bridge over the Columbia River right along with automobile traffic |
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| Our excited High-Fives afterward, back on the Oregon side. (With the PCT emblem still on view in the background!) |
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| The charming sternpaddler we rode aboard for our cruise up the Columbia River |
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| Magnificent Mount St Helens |
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| Midway through our Mount St Helens hike, on Henry's Ridge, overlooking tree-filled Spirit Lake, with Mount Adam appearing in the background. It was a surreal moment for us both to be here. |
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Hiking In Wonderland At Mount Rainier National Park
Well, we're back at it. Mike's new hiking shoes appear to be working magic, and we are once again enjoying long hiking days. And just in time to enjoy what surely must be one of the most gorgeous days Mount Rainier has seen this summer. The photo above was taken yesterday toward the end of the Lakes Trail out of Paradise Visitors Center in the SW section of the park, hiking counter clockwise. Just like the ranger we spoke with promised, everyone else appeared to make a beeline for the uber-popular Skyline Trail, while we had the equally fabulous Lake Trail practically to ourselves.
It's been our experience that even in the most crowded parks, if we stay away from the most popular trails, or get onto them early in the morning, we can usually hike away from the crowds within just a couple of miles.
But back to the Lake Trail hike. What a gorgeous, gorgeous trail, and how fortunate we felt to be hiking it. Every time we thought we'd reached the max of what nature had to offer up, we'd turn a corner, and a new vista would appear that would knock our socks off all over again. Here is my best attempt at documenting what we saw as we went along, though they all fall far, far short of the real thing.
For our second day in the park today, we focused on the Sunrise area, in the SE portion of the park. A hiker we'd met yesterday promised it would deliver an entire different feeling than the lush Lakes Trail hike did.
Because our first day of hiking had been so unbelievable, we actually had low expectations for our second hiking day. So that fact that this hike delighted us to our cores was particularly sweet. Our route, again counter clockwise from the Sunrise Visitors Center, took us to Frozen Lake, surrounded on one side by a glacier, to the base of a tremendous glacier, then through a section of barren scree, before dropping us into a flower filled meadow that wandered past a lake before returning to the Visitors Center.
I love the feeling of being spent after a vigorous hike. It's akin to the way I used to feel when getting home from work,, other than the complete and total absence of stress. It's the best feeling in the world, and always sets me up for a completely satisfying remainder of the day.
Sidebar comment: Actually, it's very different from when I used to get home from work those last few years. Instead of feeling brain dead and exhausted, I feel relaxed and invigorated. Big, big difference.
Our stay here at Packwood RV Park has been very pleasant. I wasn't sure about this park at first, the only one I booked on this trip that had less than steller online reviews, and rolling into it on Sunday was initially of some concern. The sites were basically spread helter skelter across a dirt and grass open area, and the bathrooms looked really rundown. However, the owners had added WiFi since we booked, the other RV'ers appear to be super friendly, the showers are good and hot, and we got to see elk wandering through the RV park almost every day. Plus, we can see Mt. Rainier from our site. Turned out not to be such a bad place after all!
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| This is from the RV park's website - I couldn't get to my own camera quick enough to snap a photo. |
Rain is projected to roll in tonight, so we've packed away all of our outdoor items to make tomorrow's breakdown as easy as possible. We're off to Portland, Oregon in the morning, where the Columbia River Gorge, the city of Portland, and Bob Lowry of Satisfying Retirement await.
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