Kerri and I spent nearly a week living like regular folk; inside a house, on a regular bed, with running water, electricity, and a daily hot shower. This, so I could relieve my sister and brother in-law from parent-sitting for a weekend so they could get away for something fun....
Kerri and I spent nearly a week living like regular folk; inside a house, on a regular bed, with running water, electricity, and a daily hot shower. This, so I could relieve my sister and brother in-law from parent-sitting for a weekend so they could get away for something fun. They thoroughly deserve it, as they in-home care for three of our two family’s parents, who are all quite elderly at this point. They are saints in my book. Among all my siblings, I am the only one with such a flexible schedule so whenever I can I try to give them a few days of vacation. When all that was said and done, and the true care-takers were back from the trip, Kerri and I were in need of a vacation ourselves. Not because of the stress a much as we had another weekend of it in just a few days. So we packed up the van and took off for a 3-day mini adventure before our next commitment.
First we had planned to go visit our favorite towns here in the Pacific North West, as we always do. But, Kerri was in dire need of NOT socializing or being near other humans, and my body needed some trees and to not be around other humans, so we turned to the east instead of west. The next thing we knew we were climbing into the forest of Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Here we were quickly able to pin-point a few forest roads we wanted to explore, the first of which came just before the small town of Darrington, WA. The gravel, and well pot holed road, brought us deep into the trees as we climbed higher by the minute. A few miles in and we pulled off to walk a very small two-track that lead off the main gravel road and found a gem of a place to camp. It would be a tight fit for Marcel, both width-wise at a particular point where the two tracks navigated between two trees, and height at two points with low hanging branches, but the obstacles did not stop us.
The two-track was only a few hundred yards deeper into the forest, and up hill, and made for a fun first-4WD-adventure. Although completely unnecessary, I even got to try 4-low, which is now my new best friend. The first set of low branches were small enough for us to push through. The second was a 4 inch think hunk of wood that required me to push it up using a dead branch while Kerri drove under it. No big deal. The hardest spot was navigating between the two trees, in which both of Marcel’s front (and rear) all-terrain tires had to run up onto the roots of said trees to squeeze between. At the end, and a tight turn-around and backing up into the only level spot rewarded us with this (below) for our first night out of civilization.
I know it looks like AI made this image, but it is actual reality
No solar. No internet. We just sat back and enjoyed the rest of the day and evening together. We could only stay that one night, leaving the following morning as Kerri did need log online. Our plan was to get to our next spot – which needed to be a larger clearing in the trees so we could get a Starlink connection – by late morning to get some work done.
A quick stop in Darrington to visit the local hardware store, grocery, and coffee shop, and we were on our way again. Turning to the south-east in Darrington put us on the perfectly named “Mountain Loop Highway”. At first it was a well paved road slicing through the trees along a river, but it eventually turned to gravel as the trees took over the blue sky once again. We ventured in and explored a few spots until we found likely the only clearing in the woods in all of Washington. It was, yet again, a couple hundred yards up another random dirt road. It wasn’t scenic, but we were not going to find better for a clearing, so we leveled Marcel as best we could and went to work.
[Ha! It was so boring it looks like neither of us took a photo]
For months we both have been complaining about not staying longer in a camp, but in the morning we moved once again. There is a stretch of this dirt road that runs along the river as it climbs the mountains before returning to civilization. There were numerous spots to camp in that stretch that I wanted to explore. Not 3 miles down the road from last night’s location was a perfect one for us, but we decided to keep moving to see the rest. Most were already occupied – it was July 3rd – and none were as glorious as the first. We continued driving as Kerri got more anxious, and depressed, that we left the best one and it would surely be occupied if we turned back now. After about a half hour, we turned back and rushed down the hill… potholes be damned! We both knew it was a lost cause, but were trying anyway. As we approached we saw the little SUV parked in “our spot” and we sank.
Kerri was giving me that look like it was all my fault, but I was focused on the fact that this SUV had not setup a camp at all. No gear laying around or setup. None could be seen through the back window. I got out of Marcel, walked up and tapped on the window, “Hi, are you planning to camp here tonight?” The response was a simple, “nope”. He had inadvertently been saving the spot for us! This spot faced the river, which had a clearing across it that allowed a spectacular view of the snow peaked mountains across the way. An enormous boulder, with two trees growing on top of it blocked us from rolling Marcel directly into the water below. Those tree roots provided near-perfect steps down to a level dirt beach with a fire pit made of rocks. It was perfect.
We relaxed while this local got his nature fix, including a little fishing. Once he left, we pulled forward, leveled out, and got straight to projects on the van (you can always tell the full-timers from the weekenders; we work on the van). We didn’t even try to get a Starlink signal, just did our thing until it was late enough to have a campfire, some drinks, and slept with the rushing river out our bedroom window. This spot really was an amazing spot. We both had no idea how it was not already occupied, just a day before the fourth of July weekend, as it was easily the best view of the dozens of campsites along the river.
Nestled under the trees, we could see the river from our second floor bedroom
During our evening campfire, over an hour into it in fact, while we are both sitting there sipping and chatting, a pair of eyeballs popped out from the rocks that formed the fire ring. My brain wasn’t comprehending this pair of eyes in the first milliseconds, but it hopped forward (closer to the burning fire!) and looked straight at me with a full on “what the fuck are you doing to my home?” look. It was a toad, about the size of my hand, covered in ash who must have wondered why it was getting so hot in his hidey hole under two large rocks. “Frog!” I exclaimed as I pointed into the fire with my trusty fire-poking-stick. Kerri hopped out of the chair while I, too tipsy to stand, poked at the toad trying to keep it from jumping straight into the blaze. Kerri used her hands to try to grab it, but it kept hopping, so she instead just tried to guide it away from the flames. He finally made it out of the fire ring, and she continued pushing it towards the river where it made it under a log and could cool off how ever it wanted. Poor guy, he had no clue what was going on, and almost became out dinner snack… not that I like frog legs.
