Cougar Rock campground

Top 15: Camping Part 3 (No. 5-1)

Aug 03 2011 2 Comments

Here is the final of three installments of our Camping Top 15. If you missed the first two installments, you should check them out, part 1 and part 2.

5. Allison’s campground program – Soon after we arrived at Iron Creek campground Allison Yocum spotted a list of things to do in the area posted on a campground bulletin board. An item of particular interest was a Saturday night ranger program at the amphitheater. There was no time listed. It was decided that we needed to go experience this camping tradition, so while Jim, Dennis and I made dinner Allison went to find out what time. She saw the host, but didn’t ask him, so we went with the assumption it was at 8. In order to make the 8 p.m. show we had to hurry through dinner, wolfing down our burgers, corn and salad in about 10 minutes. The boys set off on their bikes and the adults followed with road cokes in hand.

About half way there we encountered the campground host who gave us a curious look when we asked about the show and said that there hadn’t been a show for many years. We walked over to the amphitheater to find it overgrown and dilapidated. We felt like that last seen in Planet of the Apes when Charlton Heston finds the beach with the half-buried Statue of Liberty. In spite of this, we did find a good place nearby to take our first DeNocum group photo.

Adding insult to injury, quite literally, on the way back to the campsite we thought for sure there would be a short cut between the campground loops. So Allison, Jim, Will and I tried to find it. (Dennis bowed out due to his shoe choice and hankering for Doritos.) We quickly discovered that if there had been a path it was over grown and now required that we scale trees and scrubs. We did make it back before Dennis, but just barely.

4. Prius’ car lock – As we were sitting around the campfire on our first night with the Faleys listening to Cooper ease ever so slowly into his slumber, the guy across repeatedly opened and closed his Prius. Each time it would lock and set-off the horn and head lights. This would have been fine if it had been once or twice, but it was at least 15-20 times, some only seconds apart. When they left the next morning we thought we were free of it, only to have another Prius move into the adjacent site and pull the same stunt the next night. When we were finally fed up with it Tom thought he would retaliate by locking his Suburban and setting off his horn and lights. Only he forgot that it turns on his reverse lights for about 30 seconds. We all turned to see Jen standing in the tent door holding a crying child perfectly illuminated in the reverse lights. It was a pretty funny scene. Oops, so much for payback.

3. The mountain is out – This is a phrase used around Seattle to talk about Mt. Rainier on a beautiful day. After our experience last summer trying to get a photo of Rainier, we were really hoping for a nice day to go to Paradise. We didn’t even get out of the campground before we realized that the mountain was out. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and Rainier’s snow-white glaciers were brilliant against the bright blue sky. We arrived in Paradise (elevation 5400 feet) to find that our cold spring had left snow still around most of the trails near the visitor’s center. Although the boys thought walking in the slush was fun, hiking with wet feet didn’t sound appealing to the adults.

2. Squirmin – On our first night sitting around the campfire, Allison noticed the tree above her head was moving, even though there wasn’t a breath of wind. She thought there was a critter in the tree and almost jumped out of her chair to move away. Of course Jim and Dennis couldn’t leave this alone; first pointing out that it was just the heat from the fire moving the branches. Then they decided to name the critter, a squirmin – a cross between a squirrel and a vermin. That night Allison had a dream that the squirmin was in Nugget (their motorhome) closet. The funniest part of the dream was that she wasn’t surprised to see it in there. Now anytime we see a tree moving for no reason it is obviously due to squirmin activity.

1. DeNocum and Falike camping – Camping with good friends is great fun. Our kids get along well and it is fun to spend the time together. Jen was such a good sport with everything that was thrown at her, Cooper not sleeping well, no showers and having to trek to the potty. I don’t think Tom stopped smiling the whole weekend, even after he stepped on his glasses and had a dead battery. Allison was a great sport with all of the teasing about the squirmin and campground program; it was fun to relax by the river and just chat. I have never known anyone but Dennis to go on a hike with a bag of Doritos and not offer any to his fellow hikers; he is also the only one I know that can eat an entire bag and not gain a pound. We hope this is only the first of many camping summers with friends and trust future trips will yield even more Top 15 memories.

Filed Under: family, travel Tagged With: camping, Cougar Rock campground, Doritos, Gifford-Pinchot National Forest, Iron Creek campground, Mt. Rainier National Forest, Paradise

Top 15: Camping Part 2 (No. 10-6)

Aug 02 2011 Leave a Comment

Read on for the second installment in a three part series as we count down our recent camping memories to #1. If you missed the first installment, you can read it here.

10. “Mom! I stepped in poo.” – Within minutes of our arrival at Cougar Rock Campground one of the four boys said those words. Seriously how is that possible? The campsite was surrounded by lots of woods that now needed to be searched, because if it wasn’t found on the ground, it would be found on another child’s shoe. This scenario repeated three more times, including Jack stepping in dog poo moments after getting out of the trailer one morning that we got a 5 a.m. wake up call from Will. That is just not fair before the coffee is ready.

9. Another dead battery at Rainier – As we loaded the kids in the car in the car Tom walked up and said, “Hey, want to try out that battery jump box?” Their battery had run down over night after using a cooler/frig that plugs into the car’s cigarette lighter. After a quick jump we were on our way and Jim and I both remarked that at least it wasn’t us this time.

8. Making the fire from scratch – Right after we arrived at Cougar Rock, Jim and I realized that we had forgotten the lighter fluid to start the charcoal (I bought the wrong kind.) After ten minutes of trying to get the fire started, even with some borrowed lighter fluid from a neighbor, all we had was smoke. Jim and Tom decided to give up and drive a few miles hoping there would be a store. But I remembered the old saying, where there is smoke there is fire. So, with some pinecones, cracker boxes, hard work and lots of smoke I got the fire going. The guys came back with five bags of Matchlite to find a nice fire. To Jim’s credit he told Tom in the car that I would probably have the fire going when they got back.

7. “Sarah!!!” – After the fire was resolved and dinner was actually in process the Faleys got a glimpse into our relationship. I was helping the kids pick up the toys that were spread over the main path and Jim asked me where the foil was. I told him and then went back to picking up toys. All of a sudden I hear “Sarah. Sarah! Sarah!!!” My response was “what!” (as in “Can’t you see I am doing something?”) Of course the rest of the night that was the joke anytime anyone needed anything.

6. Laughing at the campfire – One of our favorite parts of the night when camping is the campfire after the kids are in bed. Most nights we end up laughing so hard that we are almost crying. Whether it is telling old stories from childhood or early married life or having Jim and Dennis riffing about the bait and tackle shop they want to open (that is for a password protected blog of another nature.) There is also just something about red wine at a campfire, it just tastes so good and helps with the laughter.

Check in tomorrow for numbers five through one. Do you have any idea what will be number one?

Filed Under: family, travel Tagged With: campfire, camping, Cougar Rock campground, Mt. Rainier National Forest

Top 15: Camping Part 1 (No. 15-11)

Aug 01 2011 5 Comments

As this summer is rapidly unfolding – dubbed “The Year of the DeNikes” by one of our friends – we have already logged three camping trips throughout our visually stunning state of Washington. We have traveled to some amazing sites with wonderful friends and returned home with indelible memories. The last two camping trips (in two weeks) have inspired a “Camping Top 15” blog series because frankly a “Top 10” just wasn’t enough to capture it all. So read on for the first of three installments as we count it down to #1.

Two weeks ago we traveled with the Yocums (Dennis & Allison) to Iron Creek campground in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest on the east side of Mt. St. Helens. Last weekend we joined the Faleys (Tom & Jen) in the Mt. Rainier National Forest at Cougar Rock campground in the shadow of the mighty Mt. Rainier. Both trips yielded a profusion of experiences – read on for numbers 15 through 11:

15. Perfect weather – Although this summer has been anything but beautiful, we actually had amazing weather on both weekends. Not a drop of rain and each morning we woke to blue skies. There is nothing like looking out the window when camping to see blue sky above the trees.

14. Have you seen my glasses? – On our first night with the Faleys, Tom misplaced his glasses at the campfire. Unfortunately he found them under the bottom of his shoe. Somehow I was able to get both lenses back into the frames, although they are hopelessly scratched. But they worked well enough for him to see his wine glass around the campfire.

13. Wally’s Drive-In and Basecamp Grill – We have started our own tradition (inspired by the Yokums) of finding a fun, local place to eat lunch on the drive home. On the first weekend, we finally hit the road about 12:30 and were hoping to eat soon after our departure. Unfortunately we didn’t find anything until almost 3 p.m. Luckily, we had snacks for the kids and Wally’s Drive-In in Buckley was worth the wait. Having learned our lesson from the week before, we picked a place early on the drive home from Rainier, the Basecamp Grill in Ashford. Both places were exactly what we were craving — soft serve ice cream and burgers.

12. Playing at the Cispus river “dung pool” – If that description doesn’t scream “family fun” then what does, right? From our campsite at Iron Creek, the Cispus river was about a five minute walk. The river was very cold and moving extremely fast thanks to our late and cold spring, but we found a rock beach area that had a small pool fed by the river and kept full by a fallen tree and a rock dam. We nicknamed it the “dung pool”, because the water was pretty cloudy. The kids had so much fun playing in and around the pool. The parents loved sitting on the rock beach watching and sipping cocktails. Saturday it was quite hot so Jim and Dennis decided to move their chairs into the river.

11. Tripping in the hole – At Iron Creek an enormous tree had fallen through the Yocum’s campsite. It was great for the kids but a challenge to navigate. A portion of the fallen tree that ran through the actual site was removed leaving a large ditch, named “the hole”, that happened to run right under the picnic table. I think we all tripped in the hole every time we walked up to that side of the table. We all even joked about stepping in it the next time and usually did.