Mount St. Helens From a Distance

We've got a few days in the vicinity of Mount St. Helens and it's over 50 miles one way from our campground, so we started out with just a little taste today. We drove 5 miles to the Mount St Helens Visitor Center, just East of Castle Rock, WA. Turns out this visitor center is run by the state park system and charges $5/per person to watch their video and tour their info center...we decided to pass on that. Tomorrow we'll head in to the Johnson Ridge Observatory at the end of the road and at the base of the volcano where our Interagency Pass will get us in for free.

The visitor center did provide us access to a few trails, for free. First, there is a one mile wetlands loop just outside the visitor center; second, a short walk East from the parking lot takes you under the highway and in to Seaquest State Park, where there is a campground and several miles of forested trails. It is beautiful here! Behold...

10am on the wetlands trail and it's still cloudy...
This was a railroad bed during the heavy logging days.

A little grooming...

Bright splashes of spring here and there...

Just a few lilies on the verge of blooming

 

Another lush forest to stroll through!
I LOVE all this green!

It's awesome when you stop for a potty break and see something you wouldn't have seen otherwise!
These are monotropa uniflora, aka ghost plant or corpse plant.

The sun came out while we were in the forest so we headed back to the wetlands for lunch...
and the mountain was out!

Tomorrow, my friend, we will give you our full attention!

A Week in Portland, OR

We've spent a week in what just might be our favorite big city, Portland, OR. It's vibrant, green, edgy, and charmingly old all at once. There's always something to do, be it a hike in the massive Forest Park or a myriad of smaller parks scattered throughout the city, exploring unique neighborhoods, visiting brew pubs, seeing live music, any kind of shopping you need to do, tax free (we love the Columbia Outlet Store on Tacoma St.).

Here's a look at some of the things we did during our stay in Portland. We've visited this city several times before so I am always on the hunt for new places to explore, this time was no exception.

South East of Portland lies the community of Milwaukie, home of Bob's Red Mill, world famous makers of whole grain products. They give factory tours on weekdays, free samples included, and just down the road is their store and cafe where you can buy every single product they make, even in bulk form. Their story is fascinating, they've faced many challenges during the past 40 years, but their commitment to quality has made them the outstanding brand they are today.

Also, if you like Dave's Killer Bread as much as we do, Dave's uses Bob's Red Mill products in their breads and took over Bob's old factory space right across the street from Bob's store and cafe. Dave's has a retail store there too, so you can stock up on their fabulous bread as well!

Bob traveled Europe looking for old grinding stones, we are posed next to the first stone mill.

Bob's Red Mill Store and Cafe.

We visited the small but lovely Leach Botanical Garden. John and Lilla Leach traveled the world in the 1930's collecting botanical specimens and ultimately left their estate to the City of Portland. A few trails wind through the beautiful gardens, creating a peaceful oasis in the city.

Pretty trails crisscross Leach Botanical Garden.

Vancouver, WA sits just across the Columbia River from Portland, OR. Oregon boasts no sales tax and Washington no state income tax; as you can imagine people take advantage of this situation so there is a lot of commuting between the two cities.

I discovered a unique urban trail in Vancouver, the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail. This paved path winds 8 miles through the city, sometimes in dense, lush, green forest, sometimes through meadows with ancient apple trees, sometimes making convoluted turns across city streets to connect to the next section. We biked the whole trail using this excellent guide to navigate the quirky transitions along the way.

Lush greenery surrounds you through large swaths of the trail.

The forest opens up to pretty meadows.

This was the noisy part, crossing over interstate 5.

Glimpsed through the trees, an egret shimmers on a cotton covered slough.

I mentioned Forest Park at the top of the post. This 5,000+ acre urban forest contains about 70 miles of trails, right in the heart of Portland. During this stay we hiked the Linnton Loop hike in the North half of the park.

Many of the trails through Forest Park look like this.

A chance meeting on a trail in Eastern Oregon tipped us off to a new (to us) brewery, Burnside Brewing Company. Our fellow hiker recommended the Sweet Heat, an apricot wheat ale with scotch bonnet peppers! The bartender told us that beer changes all the time due to the heat of each batch of peppers, and though tasty, we decided it was just too spicy to drink a whole pint...so we had an excellent IPA and some delicious fried pickles instead.

Those cornmeal fried pickles were yummy! Good beer too!

One day we hiked in Whipple Creek Park, a small forested beauty of a park just North of Vancouver. I always feel like I am in a fairyland as we walk through these lush forests, practically dripping with green, mossy goodness!

Old grist mill being engulfed by the green.

For our last hike in the area we headed to Camas, WA, a cute little town on the East edge of Vancouver. The Lacamas Creek hike is an in-town, city park hike that feels like it's out in the woods; winding up and down gentle slopes through gorgeous green forest along creeks and lakes. The trail was fairly busy on this beautiful summer Sunday, but not overly so; I imagine on weekdays it's a very peaceful place to be.

A lovely, slow section of Lacamas Creek

Tiny, burbling Washougal Creek.

We've thrown in visits with old friends who live in this wonderful city and coincidentally happened to stay at the same park as fellow full time RVer and blogger Suzanne of Take To The Highway fame. We've had near misses with Suzanne for months, so it was great to finally make a connection. We hit it off instantly and enjoyed a couple of evenings together, dinner at home one night and an excursion to a fun tiki bar, Hale Pele, and a pub with live music, Laurelthirst, another night. Very much looking forward to our paths crossing again, perhaps even later this summer.

Fun drinks and atmosphere at Hale Pele with Portland Bob and Suzanne.

One thing we discovered, it's not so great spending the 4th of July in a metropolitan area where fireworks are legal! Fireworks are fully legal in Washington and some are legal in Oregon and on the 4th we experienced many, many HOURS of constant booms, bangs and pops by the thousands. Even the air had a pervasive scent of combustible material...the thought of the environmental impact was disturbing. Next year we'll try to be in a less populated area...

There aren't many RV park options around Portland, we stayed at Columbia River RV Park. This is a big park, everyone is lined up in neat rows with about 12 feet between rigs, it's very clean, good 4G Verizon signal, sometimes okay park wifi, the location is very convenient, there is airplane noise from nearby PDX, and the weekly rate is very good at $168. This place works well if you are visiting Portland.

Sunset over Columbia River RV Park.

Tomorrow we head into Washington for a long stretch, almost two months. First stop, Castle Rock, gateway to Mt St Helens.

Wrapping Up our Stay in White Salmon, WA

What a great week we've had in the Columbia River Gorge! We've visited the area in the past and had already hiked many of the waterfalls and visited sights on the West end of the Gorge so this time we focused our attention on the Eastern end and mostly the Washington side.

One benefit to this focus area was the ability to avoid wet weather. When scattered showers were predicted in White Salmon, we just drove a few miles East and had blue skies with a smattering of puffy white clouds...perfect!

On one of those potentially rainy days we checked out the Klickitat Trail, just 10 miles East of us in the sunny little hamlet of Lyle, WA. This 31 mile Rails to Trails path includes 10 miles along the Wild and Scenic Klickitat River. (This excellent link details each section of the trail.) We chose to start our hike at the Fisher Hill Bridge.

We walked about three miles up river before turning back and were pleasantly surprised by this trail. After the first half mile the trail changed from wide gravel rail bed to single track, often hardly looking like a rail bed at all. Judging by the number of fishermen, the fishing may be pretty good. There will be a blackberry explosion here in a month or so, I'd love to return with a big bucket!

The Klickitat River flows through a deep gorge at the Fisher Hill Bridge.

What is that strange contraption on the far bank?

It's a screw trap used to trap young fish for tabulation purposes.
Salmon and lamprey run in these waters.

Doesn't look like your typical Rails to Trails trail does it?

On our last full day we had sunny skies and a good bit of wind making it a perfect day to check out the wind water sports this area is known for. I don't know if this was a typical summer Sunday, but the "beach" was crowded and we spent a good long time watching folks windsurfing and kitesurfing, marveling at the strength it takes to operate these devices and the amount of time and effort it must take to get good at these sports.

The shore was a riot of colorful sails.

The beach is a spit of sand in the Columbia River.

This structure seemed to be for large boats to tie up...but this little monkey scaled it easily...

...and fearlessly jumped off to much fanfare from the onlookers.

The beach above was adjacent to Hood River's Waterfront Park. Though not as fully developed as Bend's Mill District, there was a riverfront walking path, a unique kids playground, concert lawn, a restaurant and Pfriem Family Brewpub, where we stopped for a delicious pint.

Pfriem Family Brewers.

Bridge RV Park has been a good location for our week, though the noisy highway 14 right outside the park is a big turn off. If we were to return we'd request a site on the back row, furthest from the highway, but closest to the train tracks. The other problem with this park is it is impossible to walk anywhere unless you want to walk on the highway. The park is right on the Columbia River, and there is a tiny path through a massive blackberry patch to access the river.

River access path from the RV park.
In a month or so you'll want to walk this trail with a big bucket for blackberries!

View of the bridge connecting Hood River and White Salmon from the RV park river access point.

Though there are no cherry trees in the RV park, there are lots of cherry pits on the ground;
this is how they arrive!

We enjoyed watching the bald eagle nest right outside the RV park,
and even caught the whole family hanging out together!

Today we move on to Portland for a week where we'll catch up with friends and hunker down for the holiday weekend.

A Day in Hood River Country

Hood River, OR is one of our favorite places; it's got a charming downtown, it's pretty with lots of greenery, mountain and river views and beautiful old homes, and it's a fruit growing capital of the country. The Hood River County Fruit Loop is a good way to immerse yourself in this beautiful countryside. Stone fruits, berries, apples and pears are big crops here, though we've arrived too early for most of them. Still, the drive itself is gorgeous and many farm stands sell items year round such as honey and jams and antiques.

First though, we needed to stretch our legs. The Hood River Visitor Center tipped us off to a neat little hike nearby that overlooked the fruitful valley, they called it the Handy Little Hike.

The hike up to the ridge was through a tunnel of green.

The view from the ridge was amazing, fruit orchards as far as the eye could see
and Mt Hood peeking out from her blanket of clouds.

Back on the Fruit Loop we stopped at a couple of farm stands and even though we didn't purchase anything we enjoyed the bounty hanging from the trees.

Apples were originally the largest crop around, but a severe freeze in 1919 damaged trees
prompting a transition to hardier pears.

Cherries are on the brink and just beginning to be picked depending on the warmth of their zone.

Pears are the biggest crop around here; these have a ways to go.

Our favorite stop on the Loop was at Cascade Alpacas and Foothills Yarn and Fiber. Alpacas are incredibly cute and we arrived just hours after a new one was born! The yarn store was just as wonderful and I was able to buy my daughter some wool, she spins and dyes her own yarn, check out her Etsy shop,\: Stitched Bliss.

Just hours old, this baby alpaca stole our hearts!

Everyone was interested in the youngster, it's got a sibling on the other side of the fence.

I just love their faces and they look so funny having just been sheared!

Hans had some company while I explored the yarn store...

Making our way back to Hood River, it was time for some beer! Full Sail Brewing gives tours four times a day so after a pint in their brewpub we took their brief, free tour.

Full Sail Brewery

Thursday evening is farmers market day in Hood River, where we picked up some delicious Cascadia Creamery cheese. Then off to Double Mountain Brewery for beer and pizza. This came highly recommended to us by several RV friends and they were spot on. Double Mountain rivals our favorite breweries in Bend, absolutely worth the stop!

Every one of these beers were complex, full bodied, and delicious!

One of the best thin crust pizzas ever; crispy, not too much cheese, fresh toppings.

And this was just one day in Hood River...!