Dino Car's first outing, to Staircase trails, Olympic NPSomeone wants to be a dino-park tour car, can you tell?
Only car in the lot at Lower Big Quilcene! Woot
Dosewallips River Trail
Tucked into the make-shift parking area nicely. Trying out the new comfy and super light pack. And super light tent.
Trial runs!!
And Tarptent has not disappointed either. Yay for successful upgrades!
Now to put them to lots and lots of use.
TO CANADA!!!:
Botanical Beach. It was fairly botanical indeed.
Camping at China Beach along SW coast of Vancouver Isld past Sooke.
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| For a special treat- world famous Butchart GARDENS |
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| Camping again at kinda-outa-the-way Cowichan Lake |
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| Honeymoon Bay, on Lake Cowichan. Disappointing. |
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| Tiny park with a nice view of the Honeymoon bay. |
Driving through central Vancouver Isl to get to Pacific Rim Provincial Park on dusty unsigned logging roads. Bit of an adventure and time to get dirty :)
East entrance to Pacific Rim Provincial Park
Other entrance to Pacific Rim Provincial Park. And no parking, so have fun with that... 
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| One of the famed ladders on West Coast Trail. Just sampling it a bit, not doing the whole 47 miles (75km). And yes, there were bears. Really prevalent. O_o |
Birthday excursion to a heavenly lake. Mid week and almost no other cars around.
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| My babies! |
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| Opening b-day cards at an alpine lake with not a sole around.... priceless! |
Snowpacalypes PNW style
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| Snowperson became a snow owl when it was lopsided :) |
New work mascot:
Loppers, the dog that roams around Glacial and apparently hops right into any dinocar she finds.
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| Helping (wo)man the burn pile at the end of the day. Good Loppers! |
Uuhhmmmmm, glad we got here before all these people. Dang that's a long parking line for a small trail! That's what happens when you go closer to Seattle. The droves find you.
Pratt Lake, early September
"Lemme tell you about the time I ALMOST died....." (Fallen, Denzel Washington)
So I had to cross this raging ice cold river. Rangers were all- "Just find a log or somewhere easy to cross, no big deal." 1st of all- there is NOTHING to use. YES- go as early in the AM as possible to get lowest water flow and use two (not just one, but 2) walking sticks for balance. 2nd of all- an unfortunate lady was swept away in this very spot and died literally the day before I crossed and was probably still in the river down stream when I took this (saw the rescue chopper overhead later that day & read the news article later). So yeah, it is kinda a big deal! When in doubt, turn back. Not worth it.
That being said, I poked around in the river a bit above stream before seeing another dude cross. He didn't look that much taller than me, so I went for it. Water was up to almost midthigh at the very highest and I would guess an hour later I would not have made it. Almost got swept off my feet. But....
My heart goes out to the lady who didn't make it, and the people who saw and tried to run after her. Very sad. Be safe. And enjoy the gorgeous world we live in.
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| Leaving Pratt Lake near Seattle. Yeah... |
"Lemme tell you about the time I ALMOST died....." (Fallen, Denzel Washington)
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| First time to Sunrise area of Rainier NP (there are loads of cars at the lot, this is ranger station to grab camping permit) |
That being said, I poked around in the river a bit above stream before seeing another dude cross. He didn't look that much taller than me, so I went for it. Water was up to almost midthigh at the very highest and I would guess an hour later I would not have made it. Almost got swept off my feet. But....
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| MADE IT!! Now to dry off my pant legs and socks. And maybe change my underwear. :-/ |
