LAKE EASTON WA

#3 WITHIN OUR 100 MILE RADIUS

Staying within our 100 mile radius, we accepted our friends Shelly and Lizette’s invitation for a camp out at Lake Easton. They had initially planned this weekend for our Rainbow Riders camp and bike outing on Lopez Island. That plan was made way back in pre-Covid 19 days. Having to trash that plan, once campgrounds were opened up, they offered this option closer to home and for fewer days. Susan and I are the only ones who took them up on their current plan. Others missed a great weekend on the lake and in the woodlands.

We arrived midday on Friday and as it turned out, Shelly and Lizette would not be arriving until Saturday morning. Susan and I took advantage of a fairly nice but cloudy day to ride around the campground, Susan with fly fishing gear in tow.

Not really expecting to catch anything, Susan was happy to at least cast in a line a few times. Here she is geared up of course...



...and casting. It may look like a strange “cast”, but it is a specific kind of rod for a specific kind of fishing. Don’t ask me to explain that.

Nothing there to catch, so we moved on through the rest of camp. There are many campers here, more than we expected to see. It is a clean and nicely kept campground and the lake is of course inviting for anything, including just looking at. Across from us, in the distance, we found this train bridge in the mountain setting.

That would do it for our first day of adventure. The following day brought the sun and blue sky, and Shelly and Lizette. We all packed our lunches, got our bikes and selves geared up and took off for a ride to Roslyn. At first we were on the road through the town of Easton.

Relic of a train car along the roadside.

A store was once in operation. I think that has been gone long before Covid 19.

In just under a mile and a half we were at the outskirts of town and entering onto the John Wayne Iron Horse Trail.

The masked riders were ready to roll.

Oh, I didn’t mention that this trail is not paved. The starting picture makes it look much more pleasant to ride on than it actually is. There is gravel of some sort all along the way. Occasionally the gravel is deep enough to grab your rear wheel and slide you to the side a bit. I know one must continue to spin one’s wheels through any gravel, and I did this successfully so had no falls. However, lumpy, gravelly, stone strewn trails as you may recall, are not my favorite places to ride. I hate them.

We were duly warned of railroad tracks.

And of Elk in the area. The elk on this sign was the only one we got to see.

There are a few bridges that cross creeks and small rivers, and at least one of those offered the deepest of the gravel!!! I would walk that one on the way back now that I knew about it. And yes, we would be riding this 8 mile stretch of the trail again on our return. 

This bridge took us across the Yakima river, you can see some of our blue sky and a few fluffy white clouds, and three of us on the bridge.

After what seemed to me and interminable amount of time on this unpaved marvel, we reach land and enjoyed pavement riding for five miles, into Roslyn.

A friend’s mother (who became our friend as well), Peg Phillips, played the part of Ruth Ann in the tv series “Northern Exposure”. Most people who live near Seattle or someplace near or in the PNW are familiar with this tv show that was mainly filmed in Roslyn. The town was the main setting for the show, and at the beginning of each episode was this mural.

We found a small park where we could have our lunch, sat our distance apart for some chatting and eating, and headed back to the dreaded trail. We have each been to Roslyn in the past and there was nothing going on, nor any place we would feel comfortable going into for a refreshment even though this county (Kittitas) is in phase 3 of the pandemic opening phases. I so enjoyed the five miles of paved riding back to the trail. 

I told Susan afterward that (even though I did have a bit of a melt down halfway back along the trail) I was glad I rode it, but not glad that I had to ride it! Now I can say I have ridden on the Iron Horse Trail ;’-).

ONALASKA WASHINGTON

I imagine that not many people have heard of this town. I have only seen it on a map, and possibly heard the name a time or two — why, I don’t know.

You can read a bit about it ...

HERE

We are surrounded by mountains and hills here and a bike ride was looking doubtful. We did get the one ride to the state park the other day but I did not expect we would get another ride. Susan however, used her trusty old GPS and routed us on a nice country jaunt. I say ‘nice’, but boy of boy did we do some climbs! Fortunately we have our pedal assist bikes and could make it up those long and steep hills. I doubt that I could do it otherwise.

Starting from our campground we get a view of some mountains and a lake. We however, are not going in that direction. 

We are in a very rural area with many farms and farm animals to entertain us as we struggle up some hills or zoom down the other side. That seemed to be the theme of the day — struggle to gain ground and fly down the other side to lose what we had gained. Folly I say.

This next one is a rather mundane thing to take a photo of, but I was intrigued by the big tong-like marchine moving these bales of hay.

Onalaska does not have much of a town. There are a few burger bars, a church and a fire station.

We rode past this old building that we felt looks like it could have been a rooming house back in the day.

Our destination was the high school where we would pull up a piece of lawn and have our lunch.

They are the “Loggers”...

The ONY way...

We ate our lunch at this commemorative rock...

Across the road from the high school is the School District office, and the elementary school. There were hearts in the windows with supportive words for the students.

Difficult to get photos of the hearts with the reflection of the sky behind me. But the sentiment is shown.

This is it for our week and we will head home tomorrow. We have another plan for next week so I will be back then with more fun ;’-).

Stay safe and well everyone.

LEWIS COUNTY IS IN PHASE 3

We are doing some RV camping here in Lewis County which is in Phase 3. The two of us, being of sound mind and old bodies, keep ourselves in some fashion of a lesser Phase. We definitely keep our distance, wear our mask when near anyone, stay at our own shelter (RV & Screen Tent), and eat all our self prepared meals at our own camp. So — we feel we are being quite safe. We seldom see anyone other than the workers at camp wearing a mask.

Our first riding was from our beautiful stay at Elkamp. We did the 10 mile loop into and around the fishing town of Mineral. One of the perks of riding bikes is that you see, or notice, so much more than if driving through a town. We found this gem right next to us on the ride.

A little piece of history that we would not have seen at all because there would have been no reason for us to drive through the town. Though the buildings and cottages look a bit old, run down and forgotten, Susan says she thinks it is still a viable fishing town in the season.

Could not resist this old red truck that stood out so brightly. 

The next day had us venturing in the other direction from camp. Brian and Tom (owners) had told us of a “paved road” that would afford us a ride around Alder Lake. Well, they said there were a couple of gates locking entry to that road, but we could maneuver our bikes around them.

Here we maneuver..

Susan checks the map, and at first it seemed it would be a good road to take us to the lake. 

After much slipping and sliding through wet packed pine needles, running over strewn tree limbs, and squashing through muddy puddles, I had had enough excitement and was not having fun. I was sorry to abandon Susan as I know she does not like riding alone in the “back country”, but I simply could not continue.

On my return (to maneuver on my own) I walked much of the way and heard a crack and a thud as I also saw this old mossy tree fall 20 steps (I counted them) in front of me. I told Susan 20 more steps later and “I COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED”. At the time, for some reason didn’t want to take a photo. Susan took this one on her way out. Note the “paved road”.

I took myself back along the road toward camp and continued on to do another loop through Mineral. Had a lovely ride for myself.

 Old farms stand in the foothills.

The deep blue sky provided a perfect backdrop to show off Mount Rainier splendor.

After our three night stay at Elkamp we headed for Thousand Trails Camp near Mossyrock WA. Still in our 100 mile radius ;’-). We are not spokespeople to tout the wonders of Thousand Trails. To me it is more like a parking lot for huge RVs with a couple of smaller ones and a few tents thrown in. It must be quite fun for families who want to sit in one place, kids wander around, adults socialize, eat and drink. Closed for now are the swimming pool and club house which we would seldom if ever use. There is a fishing pond here that just reopened the day we got here. Lots of families line the banks to fish, and it is not enticing to Susan. The only activity that is convenient is to walk around the campground on unpaved roads. Cannot even bike around as, not only it is limited in distance, but the roads are full of pot holes and rocks, and much uphill and down. 

Though these couple of photos make it look so nice and wooded, that is deceiving. We were fortunate however to find a spot that had front view of the Christmas tree farm where no one could park in front of us.;’-)

Screen tent gives us a “Day Room”. Those are camp sites behind us but due to the recent shutdowns, and mid week, they are empty. Would be awful if the camp was at capacity — which they often are.



RV gives us our “Evening Room”. Note Susan’s fireplace.

On our first day at TT we packed up the RV, leaving the tent ready for our return, and drove to Ike Kinswa State Park for a bike ride. The park is a really nice one and we would consider staying there sometime in the future. Much more our preference to Thousand Trails, but we have that free membership until October, so will use it as much as we can.

Lewis county reminds everyone...

We biked the paved roads through the campground and got a good look at the sites we would choose when we return. We continued onto the highway for a short distance to find a back road that Susan had to cajole me into climbing! What can I say, I’m a wimp.

Recall the photo above of Mt. Rainier. This day we got to see Mt. St. Helen’s.

Good for Susan to do that cajoling as it was a delightful ride. And we would not have gotten to see this shop any other way.

Or this curious goat.

This catches me up with blogging! Yesterday was a gloomy partial rain day and we stayed at camp. This morning is damp and drippy looking. We hope to ride sometime as it clears up, and I will hopefully have more to blog about. We head home tomorrow, but have that 100 mile radius to work on ;’-)

Stay safe and well everyone.

THE RV IS CALLING AND WE MUST GO

Nearly three months pass before we can even think of doing any trips in our RV. Staying Safe at Home and all parks and campgrounds being closed was not working in our favor for some Spring adventuring. When parks were eventually allowed open for ‘day use only’ Susan and I jumped at a first opportunity to go somewhere, anywhere. We drove about an hour north of home for a day at Bayview State Park which is right on Padilla Bay and a lovely setting. We parked here for the day and rode our bike to and around Samish Island. We do this route fairly often and always enjoy it.

We stopped for some sights along the way, and watched this ship sail by.

Rural fences seem to attract me.

And anything bicycle always gets my attention.

If we were happy with a one day outing — how about two? A few days later we drove up the Mountain Loop Highway and found an open ‘dispersed camping’ spot right on the Stilly River. This is an area where people can camp free and of course there are no amenities and the sites are very small. It is beautiful in this area and we enjoyed dinner and spending the night here. We had done a short bike ride earlier, and though it was short, it was a delight to be riding in a place other than my neighborhood ;’-).

You know how it is — zero night leads to one night leads to two nights. As more parks and campgrounds were beginning to allow camping, we were soon out for two nights of camping at La Conner. Until sometime in October we have our free membership to Thousand Trails Campgrounds, so took advantage of the one in La Conner. It is the place we stayed and celebrated this last Thanksgiving. 

We did our ride to the Tommy Thompson Trail that leads into Anacortes, but did not have time to go into town (we had our RR zoom meeting later that afternoon).

At the start of the bridge we were entertained by several harbor seals. I tried to get several photos but the lighting and my less than quick view finding hampered getting many. I took a chance and simply clicked the shutter at one point and got at least this photo.

Once home from this trip we began the plan for our current adventure which we are now enjoying. Susan had this great idea too draw a circle on our state map of 100 mile radius from home. Until it is deemed safe, and we are feeling more safe and comfortable to travel further, we plan to explore everything we can within that 100 mile circle. LaConner was before we drew the circle, but can be included in our exploration, so our current adventure here is #2. Great plan for us.

Susan had somehow discovered a private campground a bit south of Tacoma in the town of Mineral WA. That was our destination for the first three nights of this week. We would then continue on to another spot for several more nights — that will be determined as the days progress.

To read the story and see more about it, click the link.. It is a great place that we hope to come back to.

HERE

Elkamp at EASTCREEK is a gem.

The sites are well enough distanced from each other to give privacy, the bathrooms and showers are ‘private’, as in one person at a time, and are cleaned and sanitized several times a day. There are spaces for RVs as well as a few tenters, and when we were here there was only one tenter, and four other RVs. During the week camping is always nice. 

The campground is a forest like setting.

Many old growth trees.

The stream runs through it (I guess that is east creek), but unfortunately no fish in it for Susan to catch. I guess it is more of a “look and release”.

Rather than make this entry any longer and more difficult to post with the limited wifi (my hotspot), I will end this one and write more about our riding around Mineral in my next post.

Stay safe and well my friends.