First Camping Trip of the Season

Hello All!

This Memorial Day weekend Dan and I had the wonderful idea of taking a mini-road trip down to the eastern side of Oregon for some camping and hiking. I pretty much left the planning to Dan – which in hindsight was maybe not the wisest choice but I wanted to see what he came up with. I also was not really in the “plan a trip” mood after the backpack robbery fiasco.

What ensued was probably not the ideal way to spend memorial day weekend… but we sure did learn what NOT to leave to the last minute in the future.

We started early Friday morning and arrived at a campsite around 11am just beyond the Washington border. This was after unsuccessfully checking two other campsites that were full up. Yea…on memorial day weekend we thought we could just show up and find a site. That was a mistake. Turns out, hundreds upon hundreds of people had the same idea about how they would be spending their weekend. We did eventually find a nice little campsite though and by the afternoon we were headed to our first hike! I would say our spirits were still high.

When we arrived to our mountain of choice (Dog Mountain) the sun was out, and although it appeared to be a tad windy we were both fully committed and excited about the hike. Wildflowers and majestic views awaited! So we booked it up the 3.5 mile trail and came out to a completely socked in, windy summit. It was soooooo windy we thought we were going to get blown off the trail at one point!!! We turned around probably an eighth of a mile away from the true peak, because we are very responsible adults who don’t f*ck with mother nature. One highlight of the hike was when Dan helped rescue a windblown hat from a tree. Good times.

 

Me pointing to Indian Paintbrush (a type of wildflower). Everything else is Balsamroot!

When we got back to the car the weather hadn’t improved exactly, light rain was starting to begin. But we were pretty sure it would pass – and with some time to kill we went to a brewery that was actually really awesome with a good beer selection. Also they had this amazing painting of a unicorn sheep. But that isn’t relevant to the story I guess…

As it turned out, the rain did pass and we were able to enjoy camping night numero uno. Although, as a side note, when we arrived back at our reserved site something (or someone?) had removed our ticket and turned over the board back to “Open”. No one had taken over, but how friggin weird is that?? On the first night, I also got to try out my backpacking paint kit. What do you think?

For day two Dan had a “plan” to go to the Painted Hills. Mind you, we did not have a camping site… but we weren’t too concerned with those details at this time. The Painted Hills are a really cool geological landmark, and it was really pretty… but not reaaaalllly my cup of tea. Too many touristas, not enough hiking. We did all the trails and in about 3 hours and then it was off to the next activity, but where to? Yea I’m not sure Dan knew the answer to that question either. This was when attitudes might have taken a nose dive. We spent the next few hours looking for a place to stay because, as we had already established yesterday, every site was full. At this point the weather had also taken a turn for the worst and it started raining…in 45 degree weather. Perfect for camping. As a last ditch effort, we checked out some free camping sites in the National Forest and Hallelujah! We found a decent site. But at this point making dinner was out of the question (rain) so we went into Bend, OR for dinner and to check out a brewery. Food and beer sure does wonders for the soul. We made it back to the site before nightfall and set up our tent and hit the hay.

Panorama from Painted Hills

Unsurprisingly, that morning we decided to cut our trip short and spent Sunday making our way back to Seattle - with a stop at Smith Rock for some hiking and Portland for sustenance.

So was it an ideal trip? Nah. But did we learn from the mistakes? Yes. Will I ever leave all the planning to Dan ever again? Probably not.

Hopefully, our next trip is much better!!!!

Until next time,

Love you all!