- Aug 30, 2001
- 13,483
- 88
- 48
What a close call! A travesty nearly occurred this past weekend as I damn near didn't get out of the city and into the woods! But alas, this story has a happy ending, regardless of the mediocrity of most of it.
We'd planned to leave Friday after work to a place one of the other guys knew about and had been to before on the east side of the Cascade Mountains. It was supposed to rain all weekend in Seattle and west of the mountains, so we wanted to run away from that. However, Friday night the plans fell apart and in a last attempt to save them at least a little bit, we decided to head out as early as possible Saturday morning and make a one nighter out of it. "Early as possible" turned into noon. Ah well, I didn't have to drive and we'd be back in time for me to make it to work today, so I didn't worry about it. I packed light and easy and we were on our way.
Now, I'm always, ALWAYS down to let someone else drive on these trips if they offer. But there are certain aspects of it that I dislike. When I drive somewhere, I don't fuck around and stop constantly in each city we drive through. I want to get straight there, as soon as possible. This was not the case this weekend. What should have been a two hour drive turned into 4 due to stops and dilly-dallying. But I can't complain when someone else offers up a ride, so I wasn't bothered by this, either. It's just something peculiar I notice now and again.
On our way to the supposed campsite, we encountered this fucker.
Obviously this spoiled our plans. This gate was about 20 miles deep into the Forest Service road where we were heading. There wasn't another human soul anywhere nearby. So, we pulled out our camping chairs, set them up behind the car, packed and burned a fatty green one, and figured out what to do next. Fortunately, the others had camped in this area before and recalled a potential place we could go. Nick called his friend and figured it out and then we were off!
We were heading to a place called Dirtyface Mountain. There's a forest service road that goes up about miles and ends at this viewpoint. Also, I didn't bring my good camera with me this time, simply because it's a pain in the ass to lug around on backpacking adventures. These were all taken with my lil point and shoot.
From here, the road was permanently blocked to cars, so we grabbed our gear and continued on foot. We traveled about a mile up a slight incline that wasn't too difficult. By now it was getting late and we weren't finding any suitable spots to call camp. However, right when we were about to throw in the towel and set our tents up right on the trail, we found this wide open area.
Obviously, it's pretty ugly and gross, but it was rather reassuring to come across it when we did. Now we at least had plenty of room to set up and hang out. And this was the view to one direction. This is Dirtyface Mountain.
I can see where it gets it's name. Off in the other direction, looking northwest, you could see all the way down a nice valley of the Cascade Mountains when the clouds decided to let you. This was right before the sun went down for the night.
There was one amenity that we got free at this particular campsite... it comes with it's own refrigerator!
After this it got dark and I got drunk and forgot I had a camera with me. I had the honor of constructing the fire pit this time, so I made it epic (and saw it completely modified the next day when I woke up, wtf?!) and we sat around it and threw snowballs at each other.
The next morning, Nick was ready for some DDB. Im not even going to try to explain what that is, but here's what one form of a true DDB can look like.
That is a marshmallow with a miniature strawberry Fig Newton stuffed inside of it and roasted to perfection. It might not look delicious, but you'll have to trust me that it definitely was!
Around 11am Sunday, we packed up and headed back down. Snapped this one off before we headed to Fish Lake for... you guessed it... some fishing!
However, those plans were also botched when we realized it was getting too late to put in a few good hours of fishing, and that we couldn't find a decent spot around the lake that wasn't already occupied. So we drove to Leavenworth instead and screwed around there for a bit. We went up Icicle Creek road and found a boatload of new places we want to camp now, so that was our silver lining for not being able to fish.
This is just a random shot of the power lines outside of a gas station we stopped at for ice cream bars. I like all the lines
All in all, a fun trip considering the lack of organization and planning. Sometimes that's what makes them so fun, though. I definitely think the west side of the mountains is prettier than the right. More lush, more dense, more natural, just more awesome. Sometimes it takes camping somewhere else to really realize that.
Next trip... OCEAN CAMPING! Hellz yes!!! I like not working on Saturday nights anymore
We'd planned to leave Friday after work to a place one of the other guys knew about and had been to before on the east side of the Cascade Mountains. It was supposed to rain all weekend in Seattle and west of the mountains, so we wanted to run away from that. However, Friday night the plans fell apart and in a last attempt to save them at least a little bit, we decided to head out as early as possible Saturday morning and make a one nighter out of it. "Early as possible" turned into noon. Ah well, I didn't have to drive and we'd be back in time for me to make it to work today, so I didn't worry about it. I packed light and easy and we were on our way.
Now, I'm always, ALWAYS down to let someone else drive on these trips if they offer. But there are certain aspects of it that I dislike. When I drive somewhere, I don't fuck around and stop constantly in each city we drive through. I want to get straight there, as soon as possible. This was not the case this weekend. What should have been a two hour drive turned into 4 due to stops and dilly-dallying. But I can't complain when someone else offers up a ride, so I wasn't bothered by this, either. It's just something peculiar I notice now and again.
On our way to the supposed campsite, we encountered this fucker.
Obviously this spoiled our plans. This gate was about 20 miles deep into the Forest Service road where we were heading. There wasn't another human soul anywhere nearby. So, we pulled out our camping chairs, set them up behind the car, packed and burned a fatty green one, and figured out what to do next. Fortunately, the others had camped in this area before and recalled a potential place we could go. Nick called his friend and figured it out and then we were off!
We were heading to a place called Dirtyface Mountain. There's a forest service road that goes up about miles and ends at this viewpoint. Also, I didn't bring my good camera with me this time, simply because it's a pain in the ass to lug around on backpacking adventures. These were all taken with my lil point and shoot.
From here, the road was permanently blocked to cars, so we grabbed our gear and continued on foot. We traveled about a mile up a slight incline that wasn't too difficult. By now it was getting late and we weren't finding any suitable spots to call camp. However, right when we were about to throw in the towel and set our tents up right on the trail, we found this wide open area.
Obviously, it's pretty ugly and gross, but it was rather reassuring to come across it when we did. Now we at least had plenty of room to set up and hang out. And this was the view to one direction. This is Dirtyface Mountain.
I can see where it gets it's name. Off in the other direction, looking northwest, you could see all the way down a nice valley of the Cascade Mountains when the clouds decided to let you. This was right before the sun went down for the night.
There was one amenity that we got free at this particular campsite... it comes with it's own refrigerator!
After this it got dark and I got drunk and forgot I had a camera with me. I had the honor of constructing the fire pit this time, so I made it epic (and saw it completely modified the next day when I woke up, wtf?!) and we sat around it and threw snowballs at each other.
The next morning, Nick was ready for some DDB. Im not even going to try to explain what that is, but here's what one form of a true DDB can look like.
That is a marshmallow with a miniature strawberry Fig Newton stuffed inside of it and roasted to perfection. It might not look delicious, but you'll have to trust me that it definitely was!
Around 11am Sunday, we packed up and headed back down. Snapped this one off before we headed to Fish Lake for... you guessed it... some fishing!
However, those plans were also botched when we realized it was getting too late to put in a few good hours of fishing, and that we couldn't find a decent spot around the lake that wasn't already occupied. So we drove to Leavenworth instead and screwed around there for a bit. We went up Icicle Creek road and found a boatload of new places we want to camp now, so that was our silver lining for not being able to fish.
This is just a random shot of the power lines outside of a gas station we stopped at for ice cream bars. I like all the lines
All in all, a fun trip considering the lack of organization and planning. Sometimes that's what makes them so fun, though. I definitely think the west side of the mountains is prettier than the right. More lush, more dense, more natural, just more awesome. Sometimes it takes camping somewhere else to really realize that.
Next trip... OCEAN CAMPING! Hellz yes!!! I like not working on Saturday nights anymore
