My Life and Travels
Left home after the baseball game for Ranger Creek. We wanted to give the weekend people time to leave the campsites.
Only a few people still in campsites, the one we had last week was open so we returned to it. There are four sani-can (sometimes I hate auto correct ) set up on one of the old building slaps. Their must have been some sort of event here on Saturday and/or Sundaymorning.
It is going to be hot today 95+.
Need a picture; this is a view of the runway.
Summer is over 😦 , it was 60 this morning and it is not warming up. After lunch I got the heater out and turned it on. It was 64 inside and I was COLD, it is now 72 the and life is better. I really like clouds.
An army helicopter made three runs the length of the landing strip this morning which I see no real point in. Why on a weekend day when there are going to lots of people and their horse is it necessary to fly 25 off the the deck the length of this valley. Oh well it does looks cool.
Haven’t done much today and I think that will be the goal for the day.
Having a little rain this evening.
Still at Ranger Creek however the weather has cooled off a little. The sun did not come out until 11:30. Only supposed to be in the 70’s today.
While we were at home I added a fan to the area behind the refrigerator to help vent the heat on extra hot days. I used a 12 volt computer cooling fan. They are quiet and do not draw much power.
I spent the afternoon working on “The Room Two” and got to the end just after dinner.
iPad note writer
When I get home I going to see if I can find any pictures of Ranger Creek ( where we are camped ) when it was a U.S. Coast Guard Training Camp during World War II. This is where my Dad was stationed when he met my mom who lived in Enumclaw. He was later stationed on the Oregon coast walking beach patrol and then on a cutter out of Astoria, Oregon.
Some of the concrete building foundations are still here at the north end of the runway.
Stayed in camp all day. Hank seems to feel better today, he was outside digging a hole to lay in this afternoon, so that’s a good sign.
Yesterday evening I started to replaying the iPad game, “The Room”. I finished the first game and this morning I completed the, “Epilogue”. I’ll have to replay, “The Room Two” in the near future.
iPad note writer
Ranger Creek Air Strip
Some of the things I like about camping and hiking in the hills ( in my motorhome ).
My comfortable bed and it is not on the ground. Getting out of bed by placing your feet down onto carpet is no comparison to having to get up off the ground. Crawling around on your knees to get dressed and out of the tent. Always a joy to put your shoes on while sticking your feet out the tent door so dirt does not get into the tent.
Not having to hike a half mile just to dig a hole in bunch of rocks to deposit what is left of the previous day’s breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Things I don’t miss:
Cooking on a fire
Cooking on the ground, when using a stove
Walking a quarter to half a mile for a drink of cold water
Washing dishes standing on your head
Washing up in a bowl that is 6 inch across and 2 inches depth
I do miss multiple night hikes. We used to do 8 night hikes once a year. In my young years we would go 50+ miles. Later we would cover 30 to 35 miles. This would mean shorter distance each day carrying a pack and more afternoon and evening exploration hikes. Dinner at five, with dishes done by6:00 and we would have until 9:00 or 9:30 to explore.
I do miss hiking one direction ( not having to walk back however far I hike from the motorhome. )
Today was not much of a hiking day. Hank and I got an early start however it did not last very long. Hank was tired, he was walking along side me or mostly trailing behind. After about half a mile we turned around and called it a day. We are both getting older.
Today’s helicopter:
iPad note writer
Got the satellite TV dish set up this morning. Last week I had changed our physical location to Crystal Mountain which is only a few miles away and in the same zip code as we are now. Matter of fact when Google maps originally setting up zip codes 98022 (Enumclaw) was attached to the physical location of Crystal Mountain Ski Resort. A lot of databases are still this way. Most medical search databases when you search for doctors within 5 miles of 98022 the results are NONE. When you change the search to 30 miles all the doctors in Enumclaw show up including the hospital. Once a mistake is made it is very difficult to get it changed. Anyway we have local Seattle-Tacoma TV stations coming down from the satellite.
Hank and I got out for a hike this afternoon. Walked the trail along the river ( White River ) for 4 miles and then came back. We were in heavy forest the whole time so it was really nice and shady with a dirt trail the whole way. We saw two other groups out hiking in the nice weather. I took my InReach GPS however being down inside a large stand of trees it only was able to transmit our location once during the three hours we were on the trail. When we got back to camp I set the GPS out in the open so it could transmit it’s data, it will be interesting to see where it thinks we were. I also set a waypoint ( #10 ) for a point of reference. This waypoint is after we had turned left away from the river for 0.6 miles and also our turn around point.
Another beautiful with a high of 85.
Hank was tired when we got home.
We are the only people here tonight, nice and quiet.
Army helicopter came into the landing strip this evening. He came from the north, landed south to north, set for several minutes, took off north, came around and left going to the south.
iPad note writer
There are only two other groups here in the whole area. One of them is for sure a carry over from the holiday weekend and my guess is so is the other one. We are camped right on the edge of the runaway facing east. Nice warm day.
iPad note writer.
Today is one year of retirement for me and a year and a week for Jean.
It is truly amazing that a year has gone by. Here are some of our accomplishments:
Participated in Tanya and Mike’s wedding
Don’t wear a watch anymore, took it off on the afternoon of July 3, 2014
Hiked into a number of places in Crystal Mountain Valley several times.
Fitbit says
Last year 3,075,341 steps
1,435.53 miles
This week 37.9 miles 81.802 steps
Turned 65, got medicare
Two long trips: August to November – May and June
149 nights in the motor home
9720 miles driven in the motor home
Oregon
Nevada
California
Arizona
New Mexico ( over a month )
Utah
Idaho
Purchased 2010 Ford Ranger 4X4 (retirement goal was to replace my pickup)
Boat, Dad and I purchased in 1977 is back up and fishing, set in the garage from about 1979 to retirement.
Wrote 122 blog posts
weight:
231 to 214
Then 226 to 219
I don’t yawn all the time. For at least the last 20 years I would yawn a lot during the day. I don’t yawn at all during the day and very seldom in the evenings. I say 20 year because it was a problem while at Walt’s Radiator and Muffler, folks thought I was bored during the afternoon staff meetings. I think it might be because I actually get to sleep all night and not worrying about the next day etc. Don’t know for sure why, I just know I don’t yawn much anymore.
Jean has read over 70 books
It is time to move on.
The construction activity is getting closer and closer to our motor home. They are moving dirt into the parking lot within 40 feet of where we are camped and the dust they are creating is becoming a problem. I thought I’d walk up to the construction shack and find out if they are working a 4 or 5 day work week. Since no one from this project has actually walked down to this end of the parking lot I thought I’d also point out they were about to start dumping dirt into the stream which comes under and along the road.
The dump truck driver fly’s into the parking lot backs up and dumps, never looking to see where the stuff he is dumping is actually going. To the right of this picture the dirt goes all the way back to where the stream is along the road way.
It is not a big stream however it does run all year around so blocking it off would create a problem for them.
The guy ( I think Carl ) in the construction shack was not the most personable person I’ve ever talked too. He said they are going to be working Monday – Friday all summer. He was not happy when I told him about the small stream and all he really wanted to do was argue about how there wasn’t a stream at that end of the parking lot. He was even more unpleasant when I showed him were the stream is located. Oh well, I guess being nice and friendly with other people is not a priority in our current way of communicating, I should of sent him a Facebook IM.
Our quiet Crystal Mountain campsite:
Has become a construction site:
A construction company from Bellingham just stated a project to reconstruct the 6 mile road into Crystal Mt. The bid from Pierce County says the majority of the work will be done during the summers of 2015 and 2016.
I think our days of quiet and elk walking through camp are numbered if not over.
Saturday and Sunday night I could hear elk just before sundown however I didn’t hear a thing last night. We’ll see how it goes, they may not be working on the weekends and we could go to Silver Springs or someplace up road 70 during the week. The skiers will be happy.