Back from the woods

We awoke to rain Friday morning as did Eric & Cathy. We were still at home while they were in the woods trying to keep the important stuff dry. Fortunately, the rain only stuck around for Friday morning. Unfortunately, it brought about mosquitoes.

We left work early on Friday and took off from the house around 4:30. It took us 3 hours to get out to the campsite due to bad traffic. Friday night, we had a feast of marinated salmon and corn on the cob while swatting at the bugs that make you itch. After dinner, we took a walk down to Baker Lake and enjoyed the clear skies and mountains while sitting on the floating dock.

Saturday, I awoke before everyone else so i took a little walk down to the creek and then to the lake to take some pictures. By the time I got back, Cathy was up so we cleaned up from the night before and waiting until Eric & Tony got up before making breakfast burritos. After eating, we ventured off in the car to locate Rainbow Falls. According to the book, it was supposed to be some fantastic falls. We drove up to the site and couldn't find the waterfall or a trailhead. Granted, the view was fabulous, but the lack of falls was disappointing. After venturing around a bit, we found a trailhead and started hiking up. The trail went up and up and up and it felt like it would never end. Keep in mind that we were hiking in moist dirt & mud...let's just say we broke in our new hiking boots. After it got really steep and we didn't encounter the waterfall, we turned around. After reading the book again, we realized that the waterfall was so far away that we could only enjoy it using binoculars. We drove back to the campsite and I think we walked to Baker Lake again to check out other hikes. After getting back, we had halibut, baked potatoes and roasted vegetables for dinner. Before and after dinner, we enjoyed playing Yatzee! and Uno! After the games, we went back to Baker Lake to watch the Moon rise over the mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Sunday, we all slept in. It really is nice waking to the noise of a rushing creek. After getting out of tent, we made some breakfast, packed up camp and headed back to Baker Lake to rent a boat. The plan didn't work out and we have now noted that we should plan/reserver a boat the day before we want to go out on the lake. After we found that we couldn't rent a boat, we decided to hang out by the lake until we decided what we would do. While sitting under the trees, we all notice that there is a hornet's nest above us. A second after, Eric gets stung on the face. Ack! Fortunately, we found out that he is not allergic to hornets. That was a sign for us to leave Baker Lake. We drove up to hike to Blue Lake where we were attacked by black flies. This weekend was filled with bugs! It reminded me of Florida. After the hike, we headed back to Seattle.

Tony put up most of the pictures here. I took pictures of the creek, but those were left out. It's likely we'll camp here again next year.

This weekend was lots of fun. We are now organizing our next camping trip for labor day weekend.

I love living in the PNW.