Author: harrylange

Ranger Creek – Friday July 24, 2015

Yesterday two young Forest Service guys stopped by to see how long we had been camped here.  There is a big event going on here this weekend and they wanted to ensure we had not overstayed our welcome.  The event is a fifty (50) mile run, up to Suntop and back then to Coral Pass and back.

Link to the trail they are running.

They anticipate a large number of people and wanted to free up as many camping site as possible.  At this point us and one other group at the far end of the runway are the only people here.  Not sure why they stopped, us being here would not make much difference in the areas camping capacity, not like there are a lot of people here during the week.  The funny thing is they didn’t even  check to see if we had paid for the time we have been here.  I did ask them what the camping restriction are for this area, it is 14 consecutive days and then you have to be gone for 2 days and the 14 days starts over.   We have decide to go home for the weekend and come back on Tuesday, I will go fishing Monday morning.

At 7:30 this morning the Honey Bucket guy drove by with eight Honey Buckets on his truck, you know that has just got to be a shitty job.

When Hank and I got up this morning it was 57 degrees inside and 48 degrees outside.  We have noticed the catalytic heater is putting out more heat here than it did during our Memorial Day trip. This one is over 10 years old and I was beginning to think about buying a new one.  At this point I think it is just an oxygen levels thing.  We are at 2500 feet here at Ranger Creek and during our trip we were at 6000 to 9000 feet, that is a big difference in the percentage of oxygen in the air.  I don’t know how long these are supposed to last, I do know that dust on the mat is what kills most of them.  When I got this one I found a big plastic container at WalMart which the heater just fits in and slides under the couch this keeps it pretty clean. It might be worth making a cover for it so it is also covered during the day when we are in the desert this fall and winter.  I could use a pillow case for a cover, that might work.
Here are a couple of trail pictures from this week.

Ranger Creek – Thursday July 23, 2015

Stayed around camp all day. Worked on photos for a while and than worked on Photo Elements 10 lessens in the evening.  I purchases a Lynda.com DVD a couple of years ago and I have started to work back through this course.

We did have 4 Chinook helicopter visit.
Here you can see the pilot.

One of the crew member’s waved to Jean.
I still don’t understand why they have to kick up so much dust.  If he would stay 25 feet higher there wouldn’t be any dust.

Ranger Creek – Wednesday July 22, 2015

We were the only people here  at Ranger Creek for Monday and Tuesday night with only two other groups here Sunday night.

Hank and I hiked the trail towards Suntop today.  Just a short hike so Hank did not get to tired.  He has slept most of the afternoon.  We covered 4.0 miles.
You can see we didn’t go as far up the Suntop trail as we did the other day.

51 degrees outside this morning, 56 inside. Sunny all day with cool breeze.

Ranger Creek – Monday July 20, 2015

Hank and I went for a walk today up the hill on the west side of the airstrip.  We followed a road up the side of hill leading to where I think the Coast Guard Station’s head works for their water system.  Last week I found an old pipe in the ground made of flat steel rolled and riveted into a pipe.

See the rivets in the flat steel which was rolled into a pipe.

We found a spot where at sometime in the past had been a water collection dam.  We spent some time looking around and found a newer pipe going further up the creek to another water collection spot.  It looks like the newer pipe is cast iron.
A trail continues past the end of the road up to the trail which runs from the airstrip to Suntop.  We continued along this trail for a while.  Looking at this trail it it is evident there was a mountain bike rally here on Saturday.  The trail was soothed out from all the bikes running down the trail and at trail junctions orange surveyor’s tape attached to limbs with clothes pins.  I am guessing someone we’ll come back later an take these down.

Here is a InReach map of where we hiked.  When we get home I think I will pair my InReach with my traveling Facebook site.  This way I can post locations from InReach to Facebook via satellite.

Friday 7/24/2015  I figured out how to post to Facebook from my InReach, posted the location of our house.

Ranger Creek – Monday July 19, 2015

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.

Ranger Creek – Saturday July 11, 2015

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.

Ranger Creek – Friday July 10, 2015

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

Ranger Creek – Thursday July 9, 2015

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