Back to Canada, well almost!!

We spent the first night of our San Juan trip camped at the Anacortes city campground, which was pretty nice, and went into town to the Rockfish for some tasty food and beer.  The following morning, after another trip into town for breakfast, we launched and headed over to Jones Island.  The motor over took a couple hours and we got to check out the central part of the San Juans.  Arriving at the camping dock we discovered that the place had gotten a bit more popular than my parents remembered.  All but one of the buoys and all but the loading dock space were filled.  After unloading the boat and setting up camp we were wondering if we would have to go through the pain of setting an anchor (the last buoy had filled) but then we noticed that the loading space where we were parked was loading only until 3 and it was 2.  After we had cleared 3pm and no one needed to use the space we headed out for a hike around the island.  Alexis found a water fountain with sufficient water pressure for any water needs.



Sitting around camp waiting for some water to boil we heard a noise on the hillside above us.  Turning to the sound we all watched in amazement as a sizable rock was rolling down the hill.  As the rock picked up speed it became apparent that it was targeting our camp kitchen and exciting things were about to happen.  In the battle between picnic table and high velocity boulder, the boulder had an unfair kinetic advantage, the results of which was a demolished kitchen area and one broken table.  We were fortunate that we had spread out over the entire campground (we ended up occupying 3 sites) and our kitchen was fairly far away from our chairs and tents.  The next day we toured around the islands and up the Juan De Fuca strait.  When we returned from our tour we all of the people in their giant live-aboard boats were amazed that we ventured so far and were worried about the weather and waves.  They did not seem like the explorative type of people, content sitting on the dock chit-chatting all day.  The weather improved and we enjoyed exploring the other half of our island.
 

We woke to a gorgeous day and decided to explore Sucia Island to the north.  Along the way Alexis practiced her modeling poses and we stopped in Friday Harbor where Alexis secretly bought the world’s smallest birthday cake for my mom.  We were going to camp another night or two but the marine forecast was calling for 20-30 knot (a knot being 1.51 miles for you non yacht club types) winds with gusts to 45.  We decided that sounded like no fun so the following day we headed back to Anacortes stopping on the way at Roche Harbor to see how the rich people live.  After walking around and spending almost $10 on two coffees we found that these were in fact not "our people".   We camped again at the Anacortes city park.  The next morning we went into town to check out the "Oyster Run", it should be noted that at the Oyster Run we saw no oysters and certainly nobody running.  We did see a lot of motorcycles and a lot of leather.

We had a great three weeks with my parents and appreciated that they let us take over their house for a while.  We are now preparing to leave my parents house (trying to get all of our stuff back into our truck--I think it may have expanded) for a week of backpacking in the Wallowa Mountains followed by 4-5 days in the Seven Devils area.

Poking around Oregon

After our trip on the Rogue we drove Garrett back to Portland so he could get back to his day job in Vegas.  Since we were already in the area we decided to spend a couple of days driving and camping in the Columbia River Gorge area.  After spending a few nights indoors and around so many people (well actually only 8 other people) Alexis and I both decided that we needed to get back to our simple life of homeless truck living.  We took the old scenic highway up the Gorge stopping at the mandatory waterfalls for a few short hikes, well that and a latte at Multnomah Falls.  We also stopped at Bonneville Dam to watch the salmon move up the fish ladders.  Our timing was fortunate as the king salmon migration was in full swing; we watched hundreds of king salmon along with silver salmon, steelhead, and one lamprey eel.  It’s pretty fun being eye-to-eye with the fish, they seem pretty surprised to see you but they do have bigger things on their tiny minds.

After the tour of the waterfalls and dam we headed for eastern Oregon via The Dalles, and yes "The" is capitalized as in the city of The Dalles--go figure.  Headed south from The Dalles we drove through some really pretty wheat country as we looked in vain for a place to pull over and camp.  Realizing that we wouldn't find a restful campsite in the wheat fields we headed for the eastern flank of Mt Hood and found a great little site in the woods.  We woke up and realized that we still had everything we needed for breakfast in our truck; after a nice breakfast we drove down to Hood River for a second cup of coffee. 

      

We has planned on doing a hike near Cascade Locks and spent most of the day hiking up to Indian Point and back.  Hiking up the 2500 feet or so to the point didn't offer many views except for the forest but the views from the top more than made up for it.  Driving back to Portland to visit with our friends Lincoln and Sara we stopped by the Bonneville Dam again, this time to check out the hatchery and the resident sturgeon Herman.  The photos don't do him justice but he is around 9 feet long; in the bottom photo you can just make out some really large rainbow trout (24") near him.  After a nice visit with Lincoln and Sara (and Berit and the new kid) we headed down the Oregon coast so Alexis could get some clam chowder.  Back in Corvallis we helped my parents prepare their boat for a trip to the San Juan Islands.

      

Goin' Rogue

After spending a couple of days cleaning up at my parent’s house we headed up to Portland to pick up Alexis's brother Garrett.  We then packed up the rafting gear and headed south to the Rogue River where my parents had planned their annual 4 day river trip.  Along the way we stopped at Rice Hill for ice cream.  The restaurant at Rice Hill is well known for their rude slow service and poor food but they do have great ice cream.  My mom and Garrett found out the hard way that if you want two separate flavors of ice cream you get a double cone or in this case a quadruple.  Garrett had some structural integrity problems with his cone, but after we scrounged up the 25 cents for a bowl, he was able to finish it off (I'm not so sure that he felt that this was a good thing an hour later).  The next day, after a couple large meals at the Galice Resort and a poor night sleep due to nearby campers partying into the wee morning hours, we launched in unseasonably hot weather with six rafts, 10 people, and one dog; Alexis, Garrett, my parents, Jon and Paula, the other Bob and Betty, Gretchen and myself. 



With the temperatures in the 90s we really enjoyed being on the water and getting a bit wet going through the rapids.  We all managed to bump our way down the Rainey Falls fish ladder (pretty typical runs, but not ours, can be seen here and here).  We spent the first night at Doe Creek at ate way too much food (this can be said of every night on the river).  We spotted two black bears across the river from us, but didn't have any problems with the bears in camp.  Garrett did decide that a tent might be slightly more bear-proof than just sleeping out under the stars.  The next day we again enjoyed the weather and I got Alexis to row for a bit.  She really got to practice her rock dodging as I didn't tell her where we were until she had rowed through Horseshoe, her first class III rapid!  That evening we camped at Doolog and spent a bit of time hiking up the river and then floating down in our lifejackets.  I learned how to properly tie a tie (when will I need this skill?) as the night was a formal occasion with ties mandatory for everyone, even the dog.

A quick breakfast the following morning had us on the water before 9, almost a new record.  We stopped at a few tourist stops including Zane Grey’s Cabin and the Anderson Ranch before heading down Mule Creek Canyon, where Alexis learned to high-side, and Blossom Bar.  Blossom bar is always exciting, but this time there was a drift boat lodged behind the picket fence.  All of our party made it though just fine and we celebrated with dress-up night and blended margaritas at upper Half Moon.  A late-to-camp group passed us after a couple rounds of drinks and we managed to do a pretty good stadium style wave for them.  The last day Garrett took the oars from my dad and Alexis from my mom, both had a great time rowing and taking in the sights.  A quick de-rig and we took off for some pizza and the return trip to Corvallis.

Return to the lower 48

After 3 days in Wrangell we discovered that we still had two more full days on the island.  We scouted around for more things to do; we had already taken in the local museum, totem poles, driven the entire road system, met the locals, picked and canned wild blueberries, and considered going to a movie (it started at 7 pm which was considered "too late" by Alexis). We did go and find some petroglyphs that we had previously looked for but were covered by high tide at the time.  We also found a trail that went to one of the highest points on the mountain.  Once again because of how wet the ground is the entire 4 mile trail was boardwalk.  It was a great hike but on the way down I had the bright idea of counting the number of stairs.  It doesn't seem that hard but an hour or two of hiking and counting later, we were over it.  We did finish the project and are proud to announce that the trail had 4174 stairs (each way) plus or minus 5%.  Our muscles in our legs that we didn't even know about hurt for days.  We spent the remainder of our time in Wrangell sitting at camp enjoying the views and solitude.



Back on the ferry after our 5 day stint in Wrangell we enjoyed being on the move again and seeing the coast line.  The first, and only, ferry stop during our 2 day trip to Bellingham was Ketchikan where we saw the Cornelia Marie tied up at dock (this is only exciting, and then only mildly so, for you Deadliest Catch fans).

The next two days on the ferry were great.  It was nice not to have to drive and to watch the scenery drift by.  Each night we would try to sleep under the heat lamps and I would get up early to get us coffee and watch the morning.  Alexis often forfeited her first cup of coffee as she slept in but that only meant that I got two!!



The second day on the boat we saw several pods of Humpbacked Whales, several more of Orcas, and a group of 100+ Dolphins.  I got some pictures of the Orcas and Dolphins but after I examined the photos they looked suspiciously like photos of plain ocean.  We also passed what might have been the brightest rainbow I've ever seen, and yes it was a "full double rainbow", man.

Landing in Bellingham was a bit of a shock, in less than an hour we saw more people, cars, and houses than we had seen in the past month.  We drove into Canada, for the fifth time, to visit the Ericksons, old family friends and my godparents.  They took us on a chair lift tour of Blackcomb and Whistler mountains.  The new gondola between the peaks provided great views and we got a bit of a hike in at the top of Whistler.  The late spring (I don't know if you can still call it a late spring in Sept.) was still evident in the large snow pack and the snow covered mountains.  It was a good thing that we got in a short hike because they fed us huge steak dinner and the following morning bacon and eggs benedict.  We had a great visit with them and then headed down to Seattle to visit with Alexis's friend Mary and her husband Brant.

Mary and Brant made us a great dinner of soup and cedar plank salmon.  The next day they showed us around Seattle.  We checked out several happy hours and then walked around the Capital Hill area.  We found an old brick clad water tower you could climb up in Volunteer Park.  The sunset views of Seattle were great.  After our Seattle tour we headed south to my parents house for a bid of relaxation and repacking.

This post may be a bit late... but better now than never!

When we last wrote a blog we were in Juneau getting ready to catch the ferry to Petersburg the following day.  Things did not go quite as smoothly as the preceding sentence might indicate.  First I got a voice mail informing us that the ferry we were scheduled to take had in fact had some minor mechanical problems (we found out later that it had been out of commission for several days and was out for a total of 2-3 weeks) and so instead of a 6 hour fast ferry ride we would be on a 24 hour ride.  For this privilege we also got to be at the ferry by 3:45 in the AM instead of 6, yeah!!  After we had sorted out the ferry issues we headed back to our campground only to find.......it had been evacuated because of a flood warning (see we weren't just complaining about a bit of rain!).  Lucky for us there was a cop there who let us in so that we could collect our camp gear and re-locate. 

The next day, after we finally woke up, we enjoyed the ferry ride to Sitka and then had our first sleeping on the ferry experience.  Lucky for us before we went to bed we found the ferry lounge and had a couple of beers.  The lounge was straight from the seventies and had very large signs saying "Tipping is Not Permitted" as all employees are state employees.  We slept out on the Solarium deck where they have giant heaters above you.  I felt a bit like a rotisserie chicken under a heat lamp.



We arrived in Petersburg early the next day and set about exploring the limited road system and meeting the islands 3000 people.  We were pretty much the only tourists and certainly the only out of state license plate around.  We spent most of our first day drying out and checking out town.  As we were drying out our gear we watched a bald eagle catch a pink salmon which it was unable to take off with.  The eagle spent the next several minutes walking up a sand berm, using the salmon as a snow shoe, until it had sufficient elevation to make a labored take off.  Lucky for us the there were several trails on the island that we made use of.  Because the ground is so wet (it actually squishes out water when you walk on it) all of the trails were board walk.  Each lake along the trail had its own shelter and row boat for people to take out; I guess if one of the boats disappears it won't be that hard to figure out which of the 3000 people did it!



We caught another early morning ferry over to Wrangell for a visit with the towns 2000 people and to check out the extensive 25 miles of paved road.  We had a great camp up on a bluff overlooking the water where we spent many hours watching the whales, fishing boats, and a young bald eagle.  As a side note we got to see the young eagle's second flight ever which was pretty exciting for us (I think your definition of excitement changes when you spend a lot of time with few people).  We drove to the far end of the island, 50 miles of gravel road, and I did some fishing and calculating how much gas we had in the truck after the gas light came on.  Luckily we were spared the embarrassment of running out of gas on an island with so few miles of roads.



Our third day in Wrangell we went into town and checked out the local museum and the restored tribal house of Chief Shakes.  There were also a number of interesting totem poles in town, one of my favorites had the beaver pictured below right.  Lucky for us we had picked up a couple of pairs of extra tuff boots in Petersburg, these were handy for walking around on the spongy ground and the extra benefit of making us look a bit more like locals.  It sure was one lucky week!!  Luckily!!