Many of you who have RVs will know that getting thing fixed or even getting a new trailer comes with a lot of problems. That which was not broken before can surely break with the little earthquakes that happen inside your trailer everytime you move it – especially when things are not done well. Be prepared to become a jack-of-all-trades and a frequent guest on AIR Forums or Airstream Addicts FB page. Both have been instrumental in helping us through small and big crisis.
That little advice starts off the adventure for Trip Six. At the end of Trip Five, we dropped Aristotle off at Ultimate Airstreams because, well, Matt wanted to remodel. Being the perfectionist he is, he required design drawings for the job… new counter with bar, trash area, new sink, better drawers, changed seating, better side tables, new bathroom cabinet… the works. Sadly, though we paid a ton for the drawings (extra!) and gave them about a month longer than expected, the team at Ultimate did not follow the drawings and were scrambling at the last minute. The counter was several inches off, and in a small space that’s a lot. They had punctured through the wall into the shower. Didn’t fix the bathroom shower leak. The drawers were installed poorly (some without proper glides), etc. All this meant was more problems on the road, starting with delays at the shop.
The delays caused some challenges getting off on the right time, but after a few days and hotel dollars, we packed Aristotle and Plato and hit the road to explore more of Oregon. First stop, camping on National Forest land just outside Sisters, near Bend. It was a fine spot, secluded, but clearly used previously. Like many that boondock, you find areas where others are just not respectful to the land. I’ve read countless comments on boondocking areas where campers end up cleaning up the garbage that others leave. This was our turn to do a little earthday cleaning. The spot looked as though a previous camper had a plate smashing party. There were ceramic pieces of plates everywhere. Maybe it was intended to deter us from camping there, but instead it brought out my green goddess.
Most of our time in the area was spent in Bend or driving back and forth from great trails in Bend. Lesson learned from the trip to this area – it’s better to try camping in Bend. There were lots of boondocking sites near great biking trails that we found after the fact. And, frankly, Bend is really cool.
Not only is Bend really cool. There are some really cool people from Bend. We encountered a few of them at our next stop in Mt Hood, camping at Toll Bridge Park. Toll Bridge Park is a lovely county campground where you can find great spots right on a rushing stream. In our stroll around the campground we met Linda and Kevin and then two more couples from Bend. Linda and Kevin manage a great website for gravel riding, Dirty Free Hub. Needless to say, my husband had some great mountain biking with the friends and we also did a bit of hiking and drinking in general with the group.
One of the best, and easy hikes, was to Tamanawas Falls, 110-foot lava cliff near Mt. Hood. In the picture above, I’m the small white spec to the right of the falls. The picture to the far left is Matt showing off at the end of a great bike ride. What you don’t see is his wipe out right after pulling the wheelie. The middle picture is with our new Bend friends on a hike.
The adventure continued as we traveled north of Mt Hood into Washington making camp off the grid near Mt Helens. While I enjoyed our campsite perched above a stream, the road into Gifford Pinchot National Forest was a traumatizing experience in dips and concealed potholes. Lesson learned… stay close enough to cars in front of you so you can see their car bottom out in dips, but far enough away that you have time to both slow down and avoid the potholes and sparks flying. By far the worse paved road I have ever experienced. Nonetheless we found great mountain biking, hiking, and a bit of meditative fishing (in other words no catch).
The other challenge in this area was the dead zone… no cellular data for AT&T, T-mobile, or Verizon. Yes, we have hotspots for all since we work on the road. So, after a few days, it was back on the road to both accommodate needed work and to continue the trip. Next stop – Leavenworth.
Leavenworth has an interesting story. Leavenworth sits at the confluence of Wenatchee River and Icicle Creek, over which loom peaks of the North Cascade Mountains – a gorgeous setting. Historically, this area was home to the Wenatchi Tribe, for whom the river and creek provided a limitless supply of salmon. Settlers came to prospect on mining, logging, fruit growing, and railroad work. The boom time soon ended in the Depression of the 1930s, and the town began a slow death. In the 1960s two men from Seattle inspired the local residents to revive Leavenworth as a tourist theme town: a Bavarian village. After several years of stringent design approaches and community volunteerism and financial support by longtime residents, Leavenworth developed into Washington’s second most popular tourist destination, after Seattle.
Outside town, in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest you can find great campsites. We were incredibly lucky… or just brave enough to squeeze into a spot, really onto a cliff above the river.
Building on the success of Leavenworth, another small town in Washington followed the theme idea with a western motif. Winthrop, Washington, creates a Hollywood-esque feel of a Western film stage. Winthrop is not as large as Leavenworth and can really be experience with a lunch stop, which is what we did before heading to our stop at the Klipchuck Campground in the national forest.
Our second to last stop on this trip gave us the opportunity to utilize both our Harvest Host membership and our golf clubs (that we carry in the car for any opportunity to hit a few). We made an overnight stop at Eaglemont Golf Course in Mt. Vernon. One of the most scenic public golf courses I have seen. It rivals the beauty of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Instead of hiking and biking up a mountainside, we were strolling the links, relaxing before heading to Seattle.
So… remember all those problems we mentioned with the remodel? Many of them were found along the trip, and we had numerous calls to Ultimate Airstream finally getting agreement to help fix some of the problems at their shop in Seattle. So, we left Aristotle at their shop and headed home to North Carolina. If you want more info on our experience with Ultimate Airstream, just ping us.
Quick Tips
Finding Amazing Campsites. We use a lot of online resources to help us narrow down to a particular area for camping. Sometimes it takes a little foreplanning, but well worth the effort if you are looking for great boondocking sites. Freecampsites.net is one terrific crowd sourced way to find a few spots. People will literally drop a pin with GPS coordinates on where they camped. You can also try to navigate the sometimes confusing and poorly structured government sites like BLM or the US National Forest. Regardless, once you have narrowed to a particular area, then you can use google maps (satellite view) to get a sense of the road and sometimes even see where other campers have camped. Be mindful of road conditions that may have changed due to recent storms. Some suggest unhooking your trailer and driving into areas before deciding where to set up camp. While annoying, it can save a bit of heartache that getting stuck or scratching up your camper will give you.