Cougar, Washington

July 3rd - 6th

 

Very bad directions from Good Sam Club!

Where do I begin to convey how terrifying this trip was.  First of all, I have to clarify, (Thank you, Jesus!) that NOT all of the 7-hour drive was a nightmare, just the last 55 hell miles that took a mere 2 hours and 26 years off of our life's expectancy!!

All was good in the Crandall world until we left the safety of the interstate.  That's when it turned dark and bordered on the insanity!  All of this was to avoid backtracking.  Never again!  And yes, I just uttered the forbidden two words that you don't say until you are prepared to eat them later.  Well, I feel I can say without a doubt we will NEVER, EVER go down that road again.  Now that's not to say we won't make another mapping mistake, but, please God, don't let it be a doozie like this one was.  

 

Please read this post carefully fellow campers and don't take your RV of any size on NF 90 in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington State!

We learned later the letters NF stand for National Forest but in my book, it means No Forking Way!   At the end of the day, we had no one to blame but ourselves because I have to admit we did see a sign similar to this one stating the road was not regularly maintained.

 

The Gifford Pinchot NF consist of 1,368,300 acres of mountains, river valleys, waterfalls, wildernesses, and volcanoes.  The forest extends along the western slopes of the Cascade Mountain Range from Mount Rainier National Park to the Columbia River.

 

The views are breathtaking and home to the largest volcano, Mount Adams, the most dangerous volcano, Mount Rainier, and the deadliest, Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington.

Views before things got scary!

Us getting out and kissing the ground after we made it!

Lone Fir RV Resort

Once we arrived at the campground and got checked in, we had no more gotten set up when D's sister, Yvonne and her husband, Dave rolled in.  By then it was late afternoon and the park was pretty much full!  Looks like it was going to be a loud and crazy weekend.  Come to find out, this park is one of many that is located on Lewis River in Cougar and they were all booked solid. 

The small town of Cougar is in Cowlitz County, Washington.  Cougar is located around 30 miles northeast of the town of Woodland along Washington State Route 503 and situated along the northwest bank of Yale Lake, a reservoir on the Lewis River.

The park is located only 13 miles from Mount St. Helens but since we have been there, done that we opted for not visiting it this trip and just chill with the fam.

After hanging with Dave & D decided to buy a Washington State fishing license.  Since we are from out-of-state this meant a hefty price tag. But we felt it was worth it since Dave is an experienced fisherman and could give D, a novice, some pointers.  So we considered it a lesson fee.

A tall fishing tell:

Notes from D!:
Learning to Fish
I definitely watched many beginner's videos on how to prep the new rods, how to tie on the hooks/lures, and the theory behind casting.  I felt like I was ready to put those into practice.

Dave and I traveled east from the RV park and found a quiet area along the river.  We quickly got into place along the river banks, well away from the parking area.  I decided that since we were attempting to catch trout, I would use the new trout rig that we purchased for Penny!

I was doing great!  I was casting without any issues and reeling in smoothly, etc.  Then I noticed that directly across the river, a father and his two daughters were fishing a shadow in the river and quickly hauled in several good-sized trout.  After they had left, I even tried to add enough weights to cast over into that shadow, but never could reach it.

Eventually, I had to use the restroom.  There was a facility where we had parked the truck.  So, I left my rod & tackle box where Dave could see them, made sure he knew where I was going, and headed back to the truck.  After finishing up my business, I started walking back to our fishing spot.

Almost immediately, I was met by two game wardens.  They had big grins on their face and asked if I was "Dennis".  I said that I was.  They asked for my fishing license and I explained that it was in my tackle box.  The smaller warden said, "Is that back with your pink fishing rod & reel?"  ah jeeeesh... 

I could only laugh and explain that it was my wife's rod & reel, etc, etc.  We arrived at my equipment and I showed them my license and everything was good.  They were still laughing under their breath as they moved on.

A little emasculating, for sure, but still humorous.

Independence Day

Crazy, Crazy, Crazy!  These fireworks were over-the-top and not in a good way.  They have ruined fireworks for me forever!  In the beginning, it was all well and good, but then it just went on and on and on.

People were lighting off fireworks in the road with folks just driving by it.  Then neighbors located just on the back-side of the park use gasoline to light up a huge stack of pallets that resulted in the fire department showing up.  Who does that in the middle of a million-acre forest!?  Next, a neighbor down the road in another park starts a car on fire with his fireworks!  So, yet again, here comes the fire dept.  

By then it was well after midnight and the fireworks had been going off non-stop since 8:30!  Enough already!  You can't imagine how loud they were echoing off of the mountains.  I never want to hear another one again!  These folks were insane!

Continuing a Family Visit on down the Road

Our short visit to Cougar has come and gone and today we hop 2 1/2 hours SW to White Salmon, WA where we once again will be hanging out with Dave and Yvonne. :-)