Good evening, Campers! It’s Silver Cliche’ with you again tonight. This time we are camped in... holy Moses!... it’s Moses Lake, Washington!
So much to recap since I missed a day of reporting our travels. We were offline for nearly two days at Cape Disappointment. This may be long or it may skim the details... it won’t be long and detailed or I’ll be asleep before I finish (they say Hemingway wrote half his stuff on the verge of consciousness...).
So, let’s start with a celebration of our last night in a Pacific Ocean state. Here’s a recap of our trip through Oregon and Washington. Eight nights in Oregon including three at Crater Lake and five along the coast in three different spots. That was followed by two nights at Cape D, one at Mossyrock and our last night here at Moses Lake.
You may recall that by the time we had been in four deserts over two weeks we were ready to be out of the desert. I think it’s fair to say we’ve seen all we came to see in the northwest corner of the country, too. Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful here. Spectacularly beautiful in spots. My memory of the trip thus far would rate the drive along the Oregon Coast from Florence to Yachats (it’s pronounced “ya-HOTS”, by the way... no, I can’t explain it... if you see someone on a “yacht” ask them) may be the most scenic 30 miles of the trip so far. For us, the issue has been the relentless chill which has generally been accompanied by grey skies and occasionally rain. Sort of a slightly warmer version of Buffalo... except it’s summer here and I’m recalling my 5 winters spent in Buffalo. The people we’ve met have been warmer by far than the place where they live. They are also a hearty group. Let me turn the clock back to yesterday to illustrate... I’m setting the “way back machine” to Saturday June 5 at 8:09 AM...
So, the day started as we’ve come to expect all summer days to start on the northern Pacific Coast... cold (mid 40’s), heavy overcast, a bit of ground fog and intermittent sprinkles. I believe the other 7 campsites in our loop were occupied by Washingtonians. They were outside, under popup tents that covered their fire ring (a metal device provided at each campsite by the campground operator to contain wood fires that are lit as a quaint tradition by campers in most parts of the country but a life-sustaining necessity here) and the folding chairs they brought. A fire was roaring in each ring and the adults were gathered around it in a pretense of normalcy. Their children were wearing slickers and galoshes and riding their bikes through the campground in the rain. The smiles on their faces suggested a cannabis-fueled effort to enjoy themselves despite the fact that weather just like this killed 1,200 people when the Titanic went down. In fairness, those people were plunged into the water while our fellow campers were being doused... but I submit that is a distinction without a difference. These people were risking their lives for camping!
We left around noon when the faint sun had raised the temperature to 50. We headed east. To get from Cape Disappointment, Washington to Mossyrock, Washington in less than a day you must go through Oregon. So we recrossed the Columbia River and drove along the south bank of the Columbia for about 40 miles. It’s a working area with towns where forest and sea come together. It’s very American with scenes of huge ocean going freighters in the river and factories that handle and process the ever present forest products on both banks. Small towns support the people who manage the interaction of the two.
As we crossed the Columbia to renter Washington the combination of sea and forest was in our faces. A huge Weyerhaeuser mill sits on the Washington side of the river. It’s fed by ships designed solely to transport and discharge trees... not logs... entire trees separated from their stumps and stripped of their limbs. Several ships were docked and working. At another dock just upstream, an ocean going freighter was unloading wind turbine blades. This is a busy place where people are getting things done.
We drove on through an odd mix of sprinkles and sunshine that oscillated on a 20 minute cycle. We passed several signs for Mt. St. Helens. Those of you who were alive in 1980 recall that she blew her top claiming 57 lives, the largest loss of life from a volcanic eruption in U.S. history. I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew we were far enough inland to be out of danger from tsunamis... but unfortunately we had entered the volcano zone. We arrived at our destination which was a campground on a reservoir owned by Tacoma Power and Light. Both the campground and nearby town were named Mossyrock. This is not surprising. We arrived in a rain shower. Everyone who arrived at that campground... ever... arrived in a rain shower. The only thing moss likes better than the north side of a tree is a wet rock. The name fit.
The upside of things being wet all the time is that plants (including moss) thrive. Here are two pics Mrs. C’ took of at random points in Washington State:
Both Saturday night and Sunday morning at Mossyrock the scene we saw at Cape D on Saturday morning was repeated. There were tents, showers, fires, fog, kids, overcast, slickers, cold, galoshes, brief sun, but because we were on a lake there were also people fishing in rowboats. This was two steps closer to Titanic. All the while the people acted naturally, seemingly unaware that in other parts of the country people partake in these same activities all summer long while being warm, dry and occasionally sunburned. This area needs to be studied by a PhD candidate in anthropology... or psychology. The next Margaret Mead would be anointed through the process of documenting and explaining these rituals conducted in such harsh conditions.
Today continued the press east. We drove through the triangle formed by three volcanoes. Mt. Rainer (12,000+ feet) (Mt. Adams (10,000+ feet) and Mt. St. Helens (formerly 9,000+ feet, now 1,300 feet shorter). The view of these three monsters was... absolutely obliterated by the weather. We saw nothing... zip...not a shred of any of them. Here’s what we did see:
We crossed the shoulder of Rainer through White Pass at nearly 5,000 feet above sea level on Rte 12. The road was spectacular despite the weather. Pine trees everywhere, rock faces, cliffs, occasional snow patches, mountain streams that became rivers interspersed with lakes. In two days we will be in Montana which is known as Big Sky Country. This area of Washington should be known as Big Land Country.
The last two hours of the drive to Moses Lake were in some of the driest looking land we’ve seen this entire trip. The mountains we had crossed have clearly figured out how to wring all of the water out of the air coming ashore from the Pacific leaving none for eastern Washington.
We are camped on a small farm we found through Harvest Host. They hosts are warm and wonderful typical of the folks we’ve met the last 11 days. A start contrast to the weather we’ve encountered. Zach asked if he could stay. We’re thinking about it. Just kidding... Mrs. C’ might leave me here, but Zach goes where she goes. Tomorrow we roll on to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and then to our campground nearby. I hope you’ll join us!
Later...
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