Big adventure in Amberland

After climbing and a good nights rest, Amber and I were in charge of getting Mike and Elizabeth to the airport. They were flying back to St. Louis to be with the family because their mom was having surgery (the surgery went well, and she is currently recovering great). This was gonna leave Amber and myself on our own for a couple days, and most importantly meant I was gonna get to drive some- YAY!

We decided that since we were still pretty close, and because it had been one of the greatest places we had been, to head back to Bacon Creek. Home of the best tubing in the world. We had a blast and did just about everything you could think of. Sight seeing, mushroom looking at, hiking, tubing of course, and even a little wave train riding- that's right, that wave train.

This was about the most we saw of the actual city of Seattle, well that and the airport of course

On our way out of town

Bacon creek was just as scenic as the last time, and it was actually sunny this time around.

This view was just a little ways down from our campsite

One of the days we decided to go into North Cascades NP and do a hike for part of the day. We found one pretty close on the map that didn't look too long. We found the road leading up to the Thorton Lake trail at about noon. That was when our trouble began. Now you have to take into account two things with this story. First I don't drive the vanagon very often, and second this wonderful beast of ours has all of 67 horsepower. So we start up this gravel road that is supposed to take us to a trail head, and I'm having a little bit of trouble. The road isn't full so much of pot holes but giant dirt wave-train mounds. I have to keep the speed up to go up the hill, but I have to keep the speed slow so that our heads don't hit the roof going over the continuous line of speed bumps (I'm hoping Mike doesn't read this part of the blog). Finally we got to a point where I needed to put it into first to get up the next hill...and we were already in first- we decided this would be a good time to pull over and just walk the rest of it. After a quick lunch we were headed up the road at about 1pm.

Well we figured we had to be pretty close since we had been driving for a while, so we just kept walking and walking. Finally about an hour and a ridiculous amount of elevation gain later we arrived at the trail head-yay. This was when we found out that this short trail was actually 5 miles one way, we were thinking 5 miles total oops. But at this point we had already walked forever on the road, so we decided to go for it.

One of the many forms of moss we saw along the way- this one kind of reminds me of hair standing on end

View from near the top

Amber being Amber-no one else can do the bunny nose quite like she can

Finally we got to the lake, and it was beautiful

So we decided to take a quick dip- it was very refreshing =very cold, but nice too

and the water was super clear

Sun bathing or stomach crunches? You decide

So we had made it to the top, now we just had to get down, with an hour worth of daylight. Yikes! It had taken us about 3 hours to cover the 5 miles. Our only hope was that it would be descending the whole time. So we collected ourselves and literally took off at a run down the trail. Well I was jogging, Amber was doing this crazy power walk thing and leaving me in her dust.

Almost dark, but almost down

Somehow huffing and puffing and stumbling along we managed to make it back to the trail head in 1 hour. It was still light enough that we could read the sign at the trail head, and soon that too had faded into darkness. But at least we were off the trail now, and just had to walk on the road in the pitch black. Finally with a complete lack of depth perception, we saw those beautiful round eyes of the van glimmering at us through the darkness.

And then of course how could forget the main event- the creek

and the tubing

Amber donned Mikes helmet and life jacket and bravely tackled the rapids

You can tell this one is me because of the lovely pink life jacket and the constant scream


Amber trying to go hands free...for a little bit

And the all time favorite we tackled the river together

We had a really good time, and even went down some unexplored huge rapids

The day before we left the creek I had decided to have another look at the wave train that I had once been so happy to miss out on my kayak. I decided what the heck, I'm in an inner tube- I'm invincible!

It was the best tubing I had ever done. The waves were so big they dropped me down and everywhere I looked all I could see was water, then it threw me up to the next wave and the roller coaster continued. And somehow I manged to stay on the tube for the whole thing. In fact it was one of the smoothest rides I'd ever had- Amazing! Amber filmed the adventure although she also had the job of saving my life if anything went awry, see how responsible we are.

Of course what trip to bacon creek would be complete without a little mouse for company. Our little 4 legged eating machine friend returned once again. I thought there was a chance that the first time was just a fluke, but I think it's safe to say the mouse remembered us good and well. The first night I didn't even hear him, but the second night the little monster made sure his presence was known. Next morning a whole bag of trail mix and the m&ms were gone. Apparently this mice didn't like the raisins.

To break up the drive and so that Amber could see the ocean we headed back towards Seattle and stayed at Deception Pass State Park. I'm sure it was very pretty, but as soon as we left Bacon Creek things got rainy and foggy. So it was kinda difficult to say. Of course it was pretty in it's own mysterious fog enveloped way.

You can call me a dork if you want to, I really like the different textures in this picture

Amber Adventure was a thumbs up all around

Seattle and beyond Sept 24th-27th

Searching for a real bed and a hot shower we showed up on Mike's sister, Elizabeth's doorstep in Tacoma Washington. She and her family have just recently moved into a really nice house right on the Puget Sound.A sampling of the view from the house

One of the days we went down to the sound with Patrick and Katie. Mike was trying to teach Katie how to skip rocks, and Patric was having a really good time burying things and then digging them back up. Oh yeah, we saw some seals too. Every now and then you would see a head pop up and then disappear again.

Then we watched a pretty sunset and headed back to the house.

One of the reasons we wanted to stay near Seattle was that Amber was flying in to visit us. We picked her up at the airport on Sat (the 27th). From there we headed out of the city to let Amber have a taste of outside climbing. About 45 minutes later and without too much difficulty we found the place we were looking for. Then we wandered around in the woods for another half hour or so, and managed to actually end up where we were hoping. Not bad considering the directions didn't mention anything about the tromp through the woods. Then we started climbing

This was a neat climb called tunnel of love, where you actually climb through a hole created by a chokestone. The only problem was that the whole bottom part of the climb was really wet, which made it a lot less fun.


Amber stemming like a pro

The wall we were on was called interstate- and unfortunately that was what you heard a lot of, it was a pretty view anyway though.

It has become Mike's new favorite pastime to make a whistling alien noise- action shown here

That's a loooong way down

Safely back on the ground

I think Amber summed it up best when she described the climbing as a "horizon expanding experience". We had a really good time and even found our way back to the car without trouble.

We drove back to Tacoma to spend the night at Elizabeths and made a very yummy pizza for dinner.

The Ocean Sept 23rd-34th

Before leaving our free campground behind us, we decided that we should check out the Sul Duc river tube style

The water was a little chilly...

After the morning dip, we were on our way to the ocean. Passing through the rest of Olympic we made our way to Ruby Beach. It was a really neat beach, with all these little islands called sea stacks. It was very reminiscent of the movie Goonies.

I was trying hard to get to that island, it looked so close

but I couldn't quite make it although maybe I should have just gone for it, my knees got all wet anyway.

We were hoping to camp right on the beach, but the closed campground we found, was actually closed and the not closed campground was 14$. So we had to retreat further inland and find a nice free campground that we had to ourselves. Although the river wasn't nearly as nice as a few others we had seen, it was nice enough.

The next morning we planned to head back to the beach, but woke up to rain all day long. We decided that it was time to revisit civilization.

Olympic Sept 19th-23rd

After leaving the North Cascades and Bacon Creek we continued to travel west toward the coast. Right around sunset we got to the sound. Not really truly the ocean, but pretty darn close.

To cut out some time and gas money we decided to take the ferry over to Port Townsend. It was dark, so we didn't get to see too much, but it was neat anyway.

The next day we went through Port Angeles and were keeping an eye out for a bike shop. We found one on the main street and went in to so if we could find some good rides in the area. These guys made us want to move there. They talked about the really good riding, and how when they're not riding they'll ride there kayaks on the surf, and if the surf isn't good then they'll just go rock climbing. It sounded about perfect.

Unfortunately the riding that we found wasn't all that great , probably partially due to the fact we were almost run over by a couple of motorcycles, and then on top of it the trail had some very ugly clear cut sections.

That night we stayed near salt creek, and checked out the tide pools in the morning

Tide pools

For the rest of the day we decided to go find Olympic hot springs. It's about a 2.5 mile hike one way, and there are these really nice rock pools, the perfect temperature for dipping. There was also a very not hot-spring fed river near by. So after a nice soak, we jumped in the cold river too.

The waterfall before the cool dip

Enjoying the natural hot tub

That night it rained a lot, we got up and decided to try another trail in the area. Mt Muller was fantastic. After 3 loong miles up through pine forest we got to spectacular views. The only problem was that we had gained so much elevation and it was so windy that by the time we got to the top we were freezing. We had to boogie the next 9 miles shivering the whole way. All said, I would definitely like to ride it again sometime, maybe when the weather is a little warmer and less wet.

One of the many amazing views. That's looking back into Olympic NP, I think it's crescent lake.

And the way down, which was a blast

We got down just in time for sunset

After the ride, we headed down the road to a campground that was closed, but still open- meaning free. It was a neat place, especially so considering we had the place all to ourselves. It was so green and so full of life, including giant slugs, I took a ton of pictures. Some of which are below.

The only problem with Bacon Creek

So here we were at the most beautiful place I had ever seen. We had a nice dinner over the fire and were getting ready to turn in for the night, oblivious to the events that were about to change our lives forever.

We folded out the bed, crawled into our sleeping bags and started drifitng to the sound of water tumbing along the rocks. Right as I was on the brink of sleep, Michael exclaims
"Emilie, EMILIE"
"what"
"There was a mouse on my back, there was something on my back"
"WHAT? no you had to be imagining it"
"No, I felt something, was that you"
In a sleepy groggy tone "No, I don't know what you're talking about"
Comforted by my own ignorance I got ready to drift back to sleep- things calmed down, silence rolled in, until.... schmme shcmme schmee scratch scratch boing boing thump thump thump thump crinkle crinkle....

We both sat straight up in bed, grabbed our flashlights and beamed them around the car- nothing. Now I was on patrol, if there was a vermin in our bedroom I knew it was going to be a long night. Comforted by the fact that I was now on gaurd, Michael fell asleep, the little butt. He woke up 15 min later with me hunched over the food staring in every direction trying to spot the intruder. It was at this point I realized I couldn't take it.

I told him I was moving to the tent (we had set it up and put our bags in it earlier).
He said "no, no, I think he's gone, I'm sure it's fine just stay here"
"No, I can't I'm really tired and I know I won't be able to sleep at all"
"Just stay, it will be fine"
"No, I can't, I'm going" and I gathered up my sleeping bag, and pillow and ran to the tent.
I threw all the bags out and crawled in, ready finally for a quiet night.

About 5 minutes later I hear koosh-scwek, as the van door opens, then "hey let me in, I can't sleep in there with that thing alone"

So the mouse won- he kicked us out of our house, and had the whole place to himself, so in the morning, this is what we came back to...

The little monster got into everything. Among the list of the damaged included a package of cookies, 2 tortillas, and brownies that Vince had made while we in Bozeman. Not to mentioned he just pooped everywhere. In the cupboard, in all of our dishes, and then made a nest out of the toilet paper. This was war.

We stuck all the food into the big kayaking tupperware box we have and put it on top of the car. Then Mike contraped his finest invention yet- the perfect mouse trap. Large empty gallon jug of juice, with crumbled up cookie from the first attack- the hope was the little guy would crawl in to get to the cookie and wouldn't be able to get himself out at which point we would spring forward grab our trap and take it far far away ( of course this design only works under the assumption that there is only 1mouse...).

So we had a wonderful day, and once again settled in for the night. About 15 minutes after everything got quiet, about the time that Mike and I thought maybe the little monster had just run off, we hear... schmme shcmme schmee scratch scratch boing boing thump thump thump thump crinkle crinkle...

Lights go back on to search lights, and we are on patrol. And then- there he is, doing laps on the carpet- up above the trap....we hold our breath...he steps out onto the bottle...we lean forward... his nose goes in, front legs...and then....nothing he turns around and runs up one of the seats. Frustrated we sit back to watch the show. The little guy was running all over the place. We'd see him go in front of the drivers seat, and then suddenly he would pop out from behind the rear seat. And then once again nothing. We looked at each other trying to decide what to do.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I see 2 beady eyes peering over the top of the bed, he crawled up and started heading toward Michael. We both scream and shoot back, and he jumps off the bed in a panic and disappears again.

It was about this time that Mike decides he can't take it anymore.

"I'm going to the tent, come with me"

"no, no, I think it's fine, maybe we scared him off"

the look- "I don't think we scared him off"

"but I'm tired, lets just stay here"

"we won't sleep at all if we stay here"

"alright you're right, lets go to the tent"

So that's what we did, again. The mouse had won, again. Then, to add insult to injury we checked our trap in the morning, and the little monster had pooped all over the edge of the rim, and in the Lid- the nerve!

That next morning we had decided it was time to move on, and were sad to leave the perfect campsite, but very happy to leave our mouse problem behind us. We're pretty sure they or it had found a path in from the outside, and were just hanging out with us in the evening and then going back to there little holes for the daytime.

So we left with the bitter score being Mouse 2, Us 0.

This is just a side note, doesn't have a thing to do with mice- but we also saw some huuuge slugs around the site- this is one of them- they were really neat to watch.