Chimacum, Washington

We are finally out of the rain forest and into civilization. We are dry camping at the Escapees park in Chimcum, WA. with Jan and Chuck. We said our goodbyes to Dick and Beth yesterday and wished them good travels. This is a picture of Dick and Beth at Mt. St Helen's. Here are some writings while we were at Iron Cree campground.

September 3, 2009

We are at Iron Creek campground, South of Randle, WA.,and still have no internet. So I will copy and paste this later. We have been here since Sunday and plan on staying until Tuesday after Labor Day. This camp will be very full this weekend; we are lucky to have a spot. Dick and Beth Miller are with us; they came in on

Tuesday. We have huge trees all around us (solar does not work here) with lots of ferns and moss. Yesterday, the four of us drove up to Mt. St. Helen’s on the North side where it blew in 1980. Forest road 99 is a memorial road with lots of pullouts for views and information on the eruption. The vegetation is coming back a little but it is pretty barren. Lots of down trees, ash and rock. Today, Dean and I stayed home and did a bike ride while Dick and Beth went to Mt. Rainer. Tomorrow we are going to the really big flea market in Packwood, WA.

September 7, 2009

We are still at Iron Creek CGand we are beginning to feel like ducks! It has rained here for three days and nights. Tomorrow we leave and all four of us will be ready. Dick and Beth will head East and we will head West.

Friday we went to Packwood and spent all day at the flea market. It was almost as big as Quartzsite. Didn’t buy much but it was fun looking. The picture below is of Beth with her best purchase - wine glasses!

Saturday because of the rain, we stayed in our rigs. Beth and I did some beading. Sunday Dean, Dick, and I went for a little drive to Iron Creek Waterfalls and to Randle for generator gas. We have both been running our generators about 6 to 8 hours a day because we have NO SOLAR.

Mt Rainer, Washington

Here I am at the laundromat at Morton, WA. I have already spend almost $20 in quarters and I haven't begun to use the dryers. Oh well, that is one of the downfalls of traveling. Thank goodness Dean and I did a lot of the laundry at our previous camp in Idaho.

We are staying at Iron Creek NFS campground in the

Gifford-Pinchot National Forest south of Randle, WA. It is a beautiful campground and we have decided to stay thru the Labor Day weekend.

Yesterday we traveled over from Yakima. We dropped our trailer at a golf course and drove into Mt. Rainer National Park. The mountain was beautiful. Yesterday was clear and sunny so it was a good timing to see the mountain because today is cloudy. We drove into the south side and visited the Paradise Visitor center. Being Sunday, there were a lot of tourist there. But the drive was wonderful. The forests here are so lush with moss and ferns everywhere. We did short hike onto a trail where trees were huge and over a thousand years old.

I have already started picking blackberries which grow everywhere here. We are in contact with the Millers and might meet up with them this week.

Saturday night at Walmart

We are at the Walmart in Yakima, WA. Tomorrow we are going to try and find a campsite around Mt. Rainer. Since we have not had internet for the last four nights, I thought I would catch up. Here is the message I wrote on Thursday in Idaho.

August 27, 2009

Here we are again without internet or phone service. We are at Wilderness Gateway Campground in the Clearwater National Forest, outside of Lowell, Idaho. We have a beautiful spot in Loop B of the campground and paying $4 per night (with the Golden Age Pass). On the way over from staying in Butte we stopped at Lolo Hot Springs for a soak and at the Lolo Pass Visitors center. We found this campground and decided to stay for a few days.

Yesterday we got out the bikes and did a 45 ride around the CG. The weather is absolutely wonderful. Not many campers here at all. Today we hiked up Trail 221 into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area. We only hiked about 40 minutes in because it was mainly up switchbacks and Chica was with us. Tomorrow we are going to hike along the Lochsa River to an old Forest Service building. We are spending our time reading, working on projects and sitting by the campfire. Life is good!

On Friday I hiked along Hwy 12 to the historic Forest Service Station about 2 miles from camp. There are about five historic buildings that survived the 1934 fire. The "combination building" was very interesting - combination of cooking facilities, office, and supply room.

The rest of the day we spent in camp doing laundry and reading.

Dean has turned in to a good laundryman. He washed clothes and kept them in the sun all day. What a guy!

Walmart in Butte

We are staying at the Walmart in Butte. For the last 8 days we have been without internet and phone service. We left this morning and are heading west. Yesterday we did a beautiful hike along a roaring creek and picked wild raspberries. The following was written while we were at our camp outside of Red Lodge, Montana. The picture is of Richard, Carol, Dean and I having lunch at Cooke City.

August 21, 2009

We do not have service at the boondocking spot in Red Lodge so I am writing this and then copying later. What a gorgeous spot. We are camped between two creeks in a large open field. There are a few rigs here but everyone is spread out.

Richard and Carol came with us to Red Lodge for the first 2 days. This was their first trip in his fifth wheel and I think he learned a lot from Dean. On Tuesday we went into town and toured the Beartooth Nature Center, which cares for injured and abandoned animals. It was a beautiful facility. Red Lodge is a really neat town, it even has a ski area. On Wed., Richard anCarol left to go back to Emigrant.

Dean, Chica, and I have been doing long hikes, reading, talking to other campers, and enjoying this beautiful area. Yesterday we went back into Red Lodge and played 9 holes of golf. We were pretty rusty since we have not been playing much but we had fun. Then we had a delightful lunch at the Beartooth Backcountry Restaurant. Dean is really getting into these buffalo burgers.We have had happy hours with a couple from Nevada - Dean and Lenita Brouillette. They are fellow boondockers and full timers.

The weather has been wonderful the last few days.

These are pictures of our campsite and the creek that was next to our trailer.

Emigrant, Montana at Richard and Carol's

We are in our last day at Emigrant. Dean and Richard have worked on his fifth wheel all week. Tomorrow Richard and Carol are going with us to boondock for a couple of days.

We have been busy during our stay. On Thursday we drove into Yellowstone and then over Beartooth pass. We saw one bear, 2 moose, a herd of Mountain goats and over 1000 buffalo. The elevation of Beartooth pass is over 10,000 ft. so the scenery was fantastic. We stopped at a great café in Cook City for lunch and then we stopped at Tower falls in Yellowstone for Willcoxson ice cream.

On Friday, we got the long awaited tour of a shelter built by the Church of Universal and Triumphant, 20 years ago. Charlie Hull, an 82 year old retired schoolteacher and church member, took us through the shelter. He has worked on the shelter for 6 years. The shelter was set up for 91 people to live for over a year. There were supplies everywhere. And these supplies have been there for 20 years! There were also clothes, toiletries, and personnel items in the different 6X8 bedrooms that each member paid $8500 to occupy. There are three levels – lower floor with a huge furnace (which has never been used) and generators, a middle level with bedrooms, showers and toilets, and an upper level with a fully-stocked kitchen, library/gameroom, and lavish living quarters for the owner of the shelter. The entire shelter was made out of steel tanks welded together and 12 - 20 ft of dirt on top. It is several thousand square feet. Needless to say, it was very fascinating. The picture above is Richard, Charlie and Dean standing on top of the shelter.

Saturday, Carol and I went to the local Farmer’s Market ,which had five tables set up. I bought some organic veggies. We drove to Gardiner and on to Mammouth Hot Springs. As we entered Yellowstone we spotted some bighorn sheep on the hillside. In Mammouth Hot Springs there was a herd of elk on the lawn of the hotel. We have seen a lot of wildlife this

week! And we again had Willcoxson ice cream! Watch out Blue Bunny.

Today we went to Chico Hot Springs and had a wonderful brunch. We are going back tonight to soak in the hot pools. Tomorrow we leave for Red Lodge.

These are the Mountain goats just inside of Yellowstone. They were very far away,up on a ridge.

The weather has been cold and rainy all week.