The Washington Ending You've Been Waiting For

Our crossing back to Washington from BC was in Osoyoos. It took about 40 minutes total because one of us mentioned the lettuce so we were checked.

Man, it was hot in Omak so we decided to head towards Winthrop. I found a free campsite on Freecampsites.net that was between Twisp and Winthrop that we had to ourselves. It had clearly been in the line of a forest fire - likely last year - as there were burned trees all around.

In the morning we decided to hike the trail we could see from our camp site. As we were hiking it we realized that it wasn't actually a trail but a fire break that had been created to contain the fire that burned trees on one side and barely touched some on the other side. You have to look closely at the pictures to see that.
















We decided to hike Blue Lake Trail in the North Cascades National Park along the route.  We were pleased to get a close but safe encounter with a mountain goat and kid. That picture you also have to look carefully to see the kid's leg behind the protective adult.

Blue Lake was your average beautiful Mountain Lake with tall cliffs protecting it on two sides. The hike is less than 5 miles round trip and only 1200 ft of elevation gain so not a hard one, but very pretty. We fully recommend it.

Somewhere after our hike we decided to drive the Cascade Loop route since we were almost half way anyway .  We had plans to hang with a friend in Wenatchee too, so we continued around, stopping in Gold Bar for some great Mexican food, before camping with the "dirtbag vanlife climber crowd" at another free campsite in Index, near a very popular climbing wall.

In the morning we cruised up to the Wellington Ghost Town trail at Steven's Pass before heading into Leavenworth for a little breakfast and heading down to Wenatchee. We weren't going to meet up with our friend until the next day so we decided to head up to Lake Chelan.

The campgrounds near there were either stupidly expensive or full, but we were able to connect with another friend and wine taste at the same time. When we were done we headed to another free camp area in Ancient Lakes in the Quincy Wildlife Recreation Area. Wow, was that place great! The pictures don't really do it justice.

We departed there in the morning and headed north through Ephrata and through a canyon with lots of beautiful lakes and eventually made our way to Grand Coulee Dam before heading back to Wenatchee.

We were still early to meet our friend so we found what was supposed to be the best dive bar in town - Wally's - which did not disappoint. The beer was cold, the fries were tasty and the people watching was just right.



We then headed to Michelle's for the night where she made us a wonderful dinner.  The swimming pool was refreshing, much red wine was drank and we all stayed up too late. The slow morning sped up after some breakfast as we unfolded our bikes and Michelle rode her one piece model on a 10 mile paved trail ride. The folding bikes did well on their maiden voyage. The top speed was maybe 20 MPH which is plenty fast for folders.

Some pool time and showers followed the ride and we headed west to Roslyn for the night where we got to listen to a thunder and rain storm while watching a Harry Potter movie inside the van. The campground was nearly empty in the morning, but we were warm and comfy all night.

We puttered along from Roslyn to Snoqualmie for lunch before deciding to check out a free campsite near Crystal Mountain, Buck Creek Campground. This one is next to an old airstrip - Ranger Creek State Airport - with tons of room to camp. We almost had it to ourselves - enough so that no shower tent was necessary in the morning. The night was another Harry Potter movie while the storm raged one.

That left us needing to head out to grab our mail and a couple of other errands in Tacoma before heading to hang with another friend in Seattle for the night. Jill, another Gonzaga friend, was nice enough to make us a tasty dinner and we were treated to great wine and conversation with her family for the evening.

Once we arrived at our current pet sitting location we had driven a total of 4190 miles, been in 7 National Parks, spent time with friends from Vashon, Gonzaga, and work associates, and met people from Holland, Canada, North Carolina, Maine, Montana and Washington of course.

The van and the way it was packed made great sense and we were not stuck looking for stuff or with stuff in our way even though we are still packing around things we won't take on the real trip, so it is difficult to see this trip as anything but a complete success. We learned that the van doesn't like the higher speed limits in Montana. It ends up costing us about 2 MPG driving there.

More soon. Peace.

Revelstoke , WIne Country, Oh, And That Bear

We departed Wayne and headed straight to Revelstoke to begin the solo part of our trip. The drive included thunder and lightning and some heavy rain along with tons of sun. We arrived in one piece and found a campground where we could do laundry and shower without any setup.

The campground was nice and our neighbors on one side were an older couple from Marysville, Wa. and a young couple from Holland who rented an RV were on the other side. The young couple needed an easier way to make their dinner and our big cast iron pan was the answer. We ended up hanging out until someone told us we were talking too loud for after 10 so we broke it up.

In the morning we packed up and headed to a city park for a walk on a paved trail. At our turn around point we were on a walking bridge and spotted a black bear swimming across the river back where we had to walk to get back to the van. We proceeded cautiously, but were fine making it back.








We heard from friends and others about Canada's wine country in Kelowna and parts south so we took our palates and went to see for ourselves. The trip down to Kelowna can be made an easy way or a path less traveled way so we opted for the path less traveled way which included 2 ferries and some waiting. The last part is up and over some mountains and we were ready for grub when we arrived.

Our paid campground for the night will not make the recommendation list any time soon. The place was tight and dirty and their WIFI was only within X number of feet of the office. Other than the resident ducks and it's locations next to the beach, there was nothing to write home about.

The morning after we found a park in West Kolowna with a nice little trail and got in a nice walk followed by a jump in the lake. We decided that we had too much driving to do to go crazy wine tasting, so we stayed in West Kelowna which is more manageable and picked 3 to see.

My Washington wine palate was surprised by the reds available there and we bought more than we could legally take across the border, but we risked it anyway. That story will be in the next post.

More soon. Peace.

Dinosaurs, Scary Dinosaurs, More Dinosaurs and The Upstairs Neighbors

We made it to Calgary after a stay in the parking lot at a casino between Canmore and Calgary. The lot was very quiet and we slept great. For the record, we have slept in the van every night we weren't staying with a friend. We had yet to deploy the rooftop tent prior to Calgary.

Our mission in Calgary was to reunite with a friend from Gonzaga and meet his family - thus dinosaurs. A couple of old guys reminiscing about stuff neither of them has the brain cells or need to remember.

We were certainly not disappointed as they welcomed us with local craft beer and a fantastic dinner that included a beer can chicken and veggies from their garden. Without admitting to any crimes, it was widely reported that a good time was had by all.

We awoke in the morning heavy headed and realized it was raining. I busted out a double batch of pancakes for us and we packed up and headed to the high desert to a place called Drumheller to visit their dinosaur museum. It was certainly the best dino museum I have ever seen - thus the scary dinosaur reference in the title.

After the museum we drove a little farther to the town of Wayne for a music festival called Waynestock. There are supposedly 11short one-lane bridges in a very short distance to get to Wayne, but we only counted nine. There were tons of people our ages or older at the festival - thus the third dinosaur reference.

The music was fun enough that we decided to stay and camp out over night even though we hadn't planned for it. We decided to stay in the van with most of the family of four staying in the rooftop tent and Rick in his truck- he snores. Thus the reference to the upstairs neighbors.

After a night's sleep that was good for almost everyone - sleeping in a truck sucks, and when the kids steal the blankets it can be cold - we packed up and headed for breakfast before parting ways - them back to Calgary and reality and us on to Revelstoke BC for a night or two.

We hit rain as we neared Banff and it continued on and off until we came down out of the mountains to Revelstoke. As I type we are having a beer while our laundry is drying. We are comfortably under our awning with our mosquito net deployed.

Tomorrow we will explore and decide whether we want to stay another night, but likely not in the campsite which was good for laundry and showers, but when we can we prefer to wild camp somewhere less traveled.

More soon. Peace.