Skyline Hike - Mt. Ranier National Park

We almost didn't make a stop at Mt. Ranier. Our hostess in Yelm (see previous post) convinced us that we could hike at Mt. Ranier in the morning and still drive to Olympic National Park to camp for the evening.  We were a little concerned that the summit would be cloudy, but the sun came out, the wildflowers were beautiful, and we had a great time!

This "halo cloud" was gone after about an hour or so

the highest we got on the hike

Bend, Oregon to Yelm, Washington

Scenery and stops of interest. Made some new friends. Though God certainly shows His glory through creation, His most special creation is people, and this part of the trip reminded us of that.

Last one on the planet is in Bend! We felt very nostalgic and had to stop.

Sunset at Cascade Locks, OR on the Columbia River.

Terry with Terri, our camp host at Cascade Locks. We don’t believe in coincidences but in blessed encounters. This gal turned out to not only be from Knoxville and went to the same high school and junior high as Terry, but was actually the aunt of Terry’s high school girlfriend! And to top it off, she had also lived many years in Fayetteville,AR! We had a great time meeting her and marveling at all the connections, and she even treated us to breakfast before we pulled out! And we’re now friends on FB!

Multnomah Falls. Thankful for someone not so afraid of Covid that they can touch our cellphone and give us a “real photo” instead of yet another selfie! We thought the falls along the Columbia were beautiful and impressively tall, but for sheer charm we preferred the falls of the N. Umpqua. Less pavement and people.

Portland City Hall. Boarded up but otherwise looking OK. We were expecting more of a war zone, but downtown Portland looked pretty good. It was a very pretty city. We did see a lot of homeless. Maybe they show up more because they literally set up tents in plain view.

This is the big Black Lives Matter display in downtown Portland.

A sign of the times. One if many Bigfoot sightings.

Mt. St. Helen’s. This blew up 40 years ago.

Yet another waterfall near Yelm.

Stayed in Yelm with Sue and Daniel McGowan. Sue is a good friend of my sister Ann and was such a fun host. Any friend of my sister’s is a friend of mine! And as Sue pointed out, we are sisters in Christ and therefore family anyway! A special treat was playing duets of hymns. Yes, these pianos are outdoors on the shore of a glacier-fed river! Something I never expected to do. Since Covid, Sue and her husband have organized an outdoor spot for the arts and worship by this river in their backyard. How neat is that?! 

Waterfalls of the North Umpqua

Our camping neighbors at Kangaroo Lake spoke very highly of the waterfalls along the North Umpqua River.  We spent an afternoon in search of waterfalls.  Each had something unique.

The first stop was Clearwater Falls. This was not really a hike but a short walk.  The cascade was very pretty with all the bright green moss.  

Next up was Susan Creek Falls.  It had an upper and lower portion.

After that came Fall Creek Falls (compare to Fall Creek Falls in Tennessee that we visited a few weeks before).  It also had an upper portion and a lower portion.  I'm pictured sitting at the bottom portion.

And Terry climbed up near the top of the upper portion:

The last fall we hiked to was Toketee Falls.  It doesn't look this way in the photos, but it was getting close to dark, so this was the last waterfall we saw (and also the tallest on our hike).  

One thing we noticed about these falls is that there is SO MUCH WATER!  And this is the dry season! There are also lots of blowdowns in the rivers and so many interesting rock formations (I assume because they were formed by volcanic activity).  This was one of my favorite days of hiking.  After getting heat exhaustion and throwing up on the previous day's hike (a first for me), it was great to just have some more leisurely hiking in the cool of the day.  

Rogue River/Crater Lake

Thanks to some fellow campers at Kangaroo Lake, we secured a actual map of Oregon (so handy when there's no internet) and got some great advice on places to go.  This was a section of our trip when we had planned to be spontaneous.  We had no camping reservations, though we did plan to see Crater Lake at some point.  

So we did our first camping on a national forest back road (near Union Creek, which had a great little restaurant and ice cream shop). Crater Lake was not far away, and it was awesome! Our highlight there was a hike to Mt. Scott - all the more awesome because of the reminder of Scott. We also hiked to the headwaters of the Rogue River (which flows out of Crater Lake) and have ended up seeing many waterfalls on this scenic river - including a beautiful waterfall in this little town we drove to because it has the only internet for miles around. Just happened upon the waterfall.

Crater Lake was almost deserted during the week, at least until noon. We did not even have to pay to get in. Most people here are hiking with masks on all the time, which seems a little over the top, but we just put ours on when we see someone coming.

The water was cold!

Great Fire on the Mountain burger in Union City

Breakfast by Crater Lake

Headwaters of the Rogue River.  I was sick on this hike.

Waterfall in Prospect, Utah

Somewhere in the Shasta/Trinity Forest

 I'm recording this here just as I put it on Facebook during our trip:

Day 6 - Somewhere in the Shasta/Trinity Forest

We had planned to be spontaneous for the next few days. I know that truly spontaneous people don’t even “plan” to be spontaneous, but we are both planners who like the IDEA of spontaneity. Our campervan even has a hashtag on the back that days “detourism.” We had some of that today.

We did not have any reservations for tonight. We chose a campsite called Gumboot as a potential stop because it had a great hike very close. Google maps showed us the way.

However, when we arrived after about 5 hours of driving, that spot was not a campsite at all but a complete dead end. We had no internet and no paper map. We found a gal a few miles away who called a hiker friend on a cell phone. He knew where the real Gumboot was - not THAT far as the crow flies but over two hours of driving away (thanks,Google maps). A different local suggested Kangaroo Lake as a place to camp - also good because it was the opposite direction of the forest fires. I guess I didn’t mention that the smoke had gotten a little concerning and PCT hikers were flagging us down to ask what we knew about the fire - and was it a named fire?

Anyhow, Kangaroo Lake is a pretty spot. We have clear skies and no smoke. A 20 minute climb on a curvy one lane road to get here - but it was paved! Got set up before sunset.

Eureka

Have you ever Googled yourself and been surprised to find others with your same name?  I figure most people have done this but just won't admit it.  Well, I Googled myself a few years back and found that there was another Susan Seaman who was the mayor of Eureka, California.  It turns out our trip was taking us right through this coastal town.  I thought, "Well, I don't want this lady to be creeped out, but it would be kind of fun to meet someone else with my same name."  But I forgot to try to get in touch before our trip.  

Anyhow, when we found ourselves in Eureka (where we had our first In-N-Out meal!), we decided to drive through downtown.  I saw the city offices, so we pulled in for a photo.  

I even saw the mayor's parking place.  

Then a lady came out and asked if she could help me.  I told her I was Susan Seaman looking for the other Susan Seaman.  She gave a laugh and sad that the other Susan Seaman was working elsewhere that day.  I told her to tell Susan "Hey!" 

P.S.  I've actually spoken on the phone to yet another Susan Seaman, who lived for a time in the Tri-Cities.  We were patrons of the same library, and she was a homeschooler.  I would occasionally get calls for her.  She was a ballerina and spoke Russian fluently, so we obviously didn’t have everything in common. LOL.