Natural Hot Springs Sans Bathing Suits

Baker Hot Springs, located approximately 20 miles outside of Sedro Wooley, Wa on Forest Service RD #1144. A short 1/4 mile hike to a beautiful natural hot springs. The day that John and I decided to hike there it was raining and about 55 degrees. What a better way to spend the day, I mean if you are going to get wet anyways, it might as well be in 100 degree water.

I have to admit that this was our first experience with natural hot springs that offer clothing as "optional". When we first pulled into the parking area off the side of the road there was already (2) cars parked there. One vacant and one that had a gentleman sitting in it. I decided to make sure that the trail we were thinking led to the hot springs was indeed correct. He gladly responded that it was, it was a short hike and that he was "thinking of going back up again". This we found odd. If he was already sitting in his car and ready to leave, why go back. John assumed that it was for a free viewing of me. I jokingly laughed and said that maybe it was him that the guy was interested in. We decided no big deal, lets just head up to the hot springs and check it out.

It is literally a 5-10 minute walk to the hot springs where I saw a pair of shorts hanging off of a log and saw the white outline of the male butt in the hot springs. No problem. We decide that we can still soak for awhile for god sakes. The guy in the pool starts talking to us, really nice guy, making sure that we understand the clothing is optional. We said yes we know and no problem as long as he doesn't mind that we wear bathing suits. Shortly after we arrived the guy from the parking lot shows back up, removes his clothes and gets into the hot springs. He stayed for about an hour and then left, which was fine as he was alitle odd. The other gentleman was with us for about 2 hours. It turns out that he is a 70 year old nudist minister. That provided several interesting conversations of which John and I really had to hold our tongues. He also takes it upon himself to maintain the hot springs by removing sediment and garbage. He would go there at least 3 times a week and wants to make sure that the springs are always nice to use.

After he left I talked John into bathing au natural. I mean if you are in Rome do as the Romans do. I have to admit that for awhile I was a little paranoid. I mean what if someone saw us. Then I thought, what if they do. It is not like we are likely to ever see these people again.

I will probably never be a full fledged nudist, but for that little time, I did understand the freedom that they feel. Where you stop worrying about what other people might think and just appreciate your body for the fact that it allowed you to hike to places like this in the first place.

For the first time I actually just experienced the moment, maybe because it was something that I never pictured myself doing. To step outside of that "comfort zone" that we spend far too much time in. Narrowing our adventures to preconceived notions of right and wrong, good or bad.

Am I ready to explore this new activity with people who I know, probably not. Have I ruled it out as a possibility in the future. Who knows. Once we let ourselves experience new ideas, we move the boundaries that we forced ourselves into. My boundary on this maybe will only go so far, but maybe it relaxed other boundaries that I was always to afraid to explore.

Here's to the future of new adventures and experiences!

Fungi Magic

Fungi Magic. No, not those kinds of mushrooms. Not the ones that you smoke or consume, but just ones that you see and go "WOW, that is freaky.

That what i felt when I saw this.

It is probably the most beautiful mushroom to date that I have seen.

The orange color is something that I have never seen before. It is in a campsite at Deception Pass State Park. After taking several pictures I wondered if it would make it through the weekend. We are expecting the campground to be full, Oyster Run Motorcycle Rally is this weekend, and the weather is actually suppose to be nice. I have no idea how long this mushroom as been there, but hope that the people that camp in this spot will find the same fascination as I did and leave it alone. For all of those previous campers, thanks for letting nature be.

I have found a new interest in mushrooms. I do however realize that the little cheater charts that you can buy do not nearly cover the vast varieties of mushrooms out there. So instead of trying to figure out which one is which, I have decided to just photo them and appreciate the differences. A lot less stressful.

Through a camera lens

Today I left my camera back in the motorhome. Why I don't know. Didn't want to mess with dragging it in and out of my dry bag I guess. John and I decided to go kayaking in Cornett Bay near deception pass and I am always a little paranoid about my camera getting wet. On our previous kayaking trip I had to unzip our spray skirt, reach between my legs and attempt to find the dry bag, drag it out without allowing water in and try to get the camera out. Of course bobbing around the middle of the Rosario Strait, I didn't have the right lens on, so I needed to change. With the wind it just became a huge hassle to mess with the camera. So today I opted to go without it. It is a long standing joke between John and I that as soon as I put my camera away we usually end up seeing wildlife or something that I wished I had my camera for. Today was no exception to the rule. We had a very curious harbor seal within 30 feet of us. That didn't bother me too bad, since on our previous kayak trip I had gotten pictures of these amazing animals.

John and I decided to stop for a nice picnic lunch on a sandy beach and watch the harbor seal playing in the current. You first need to understand that John and I love herons. They are the "old men" birds and have amazing personalities. So sitting there enjoying our lunch, use guessed it, (2) heron fly over and land in the tree directly above us. No camera!!!

The appearance of the herons were less accepted by a young bald eagle that took off right over our heads, hovered there and moved down about 100 feet to a new tree. No camera!!!

As we are paddling back in we look up into the tree where the one eagle had landed and nope there are (2) beautiful bald eagles sitting there. Sunshine in the background, and NO CAMERA.

Even though I didn't have my trusted camera I still have the images.

Wondering what those images would have looked like through the camera lens. Can the camera every really capture what you see. As hard as I try I always feel like I leave something behind with a photo. I think it is the feeling that you experience with the moment, not just the image.

Maybe I will try to event a lens that can capture that.

Campground Games

I remember as a kid going camping with my parents to an area called Tacoma Creek. We spent the better part of our childhood playing in the Colville National forest, either by riding our motorcycles or hiking around. Like most kids you eventually get A.D.D. and start inventing campground games. Who hasn't been part of the ever popular "Snipe Hunt".

We have all probably played hide and seek, some version of baseball, cards or whatever game was unique to your family. It was a different time back then I guess when the games actually made sense to me. Recently I have discovered a brand new collection of campground games that I just don't completely comprehend. Hopefully my friends and fellow bloggers can provide me with alittle clarification to the below listed newly discovered "campground games".

*** Doggy Poop Bag Pitching

Trying to decide if this is an environmental version of lawn darts. Here is the basic game play that I have deduced so far.

1) Patiently wait until your dog takes a poop

2) Using a non bio-degradable bag, bag up the newly deposited poop

3) Look for the nearest dumpster

4) Walk in the other direction and find the most stickery bush

5) With at least (3) complete rotations of your arm in a circle, hurl the poop into the sticker bush

6) Make sure that it is securely hooked onto the sticker bush at least 5 feet into the stickers so that some poor campground host gets to tear up their arms retrieving it

7) Give yourself 5 points and walk away

***Piling Rocks on Picnic Tables

This I have decided is the Canadian version of Stonehenge, just on a personal level. For this you will need the following items: Minimum of 5 rocks of varying sizes, 1 public picnic table, and no feelings of responsibility for leaving the table unusable until it is cleared by someone else.

Object of game: Annoy campground hosts that have to clear every single table of the above mentioned rocks.

No degree in art is required, just the willingness to stack rocks in any random order on the table tops primarily. Fortunately we get the over achiever rock stackers who even cover the benches.

**Bread Bag Tab War

Kind of like 52 pick up with cards, only with the bread tabs off of every bag that might have one. (side note: Does anyone know if you can tell what might have been in the fore mentioned bag by the color of the tab, green- is hamburger buns, red-hot dog buns, etc)

Flicking these little jewels (that are almost impossible to pick up with the little grabbers provided by the lovely state of Washington) all over the campsite. Still wondering if there is suppose to be a pattern made or if it is a distance sport. Please advise if you know.

Anyway, I just figured that now that we are retired we just have not been in the loop regarding the new popular campground games. All of our kids are too old for us to have to invent such games for and they have yet to produce spawn that might someday invent games all on their own. If any of you have become aware of a new book or Internet site that might clarify these new games, please provide me with a link.

I would hate to think that this is just people littering. Not in our Washington State Park.

Sometimes nature just gives you a little something

Just when you think you really are at your end, nature gives you a little something to keep you going. John and I have been over here at Deception Pass State Park being campground hosts. See previous blog. Needless to say I was pretty much at my end. We also had family visiting, which was nice but added another layer to the hectic disorder. In an effort to give ourselves a break, we decided to take a day off and do something unique to the area. The park system has provided John and I with (2) free tickets for the Deception Pass jet boat tour. We went and got (3) more tickets so that we could take our parents since it was getting close to the end of their time over here and the weather was suppose to be in the 70's. We left the docks out of Cornett Bay at 4:00 on the tour. It started out as any other tour, with commentary from the captain regarding geology and history facts from the area.

We headed out to the Rosario Strait and saw several harbor seals. We then headed over towards Anacortes at about 35 mph, which John thought was really strange, as previous tours he had watched did not head in that direction. I was looking off the north side of the boat when I saw an Orca fin. In my typical style, I tried to get John's attention by making guttural noises and saying something stupid not "not a seal" and pointing. (Family history joke). The captain immediately came to a stop and we got to see a pod of 8 orcas. For twenty or so minutes we got to watch them surface, blow spray and move across the strait.

It was not only amazing to get to see these amazing mammals, but to also great to experience it with our parents. None of us had ever seen orcas in the wild, and there is nothing like it. The sounds they make and watching them move as a pod is something I could have spent hours doing.

Two days later John and I go kayaking in Bowman Bay and get greeted by a harbor seal that just chilled around us.

Sometimes you just need to stop and enjoy what nature has to offer.

Humanity at their best

Okay, so bitching while blogging is okay right? This can always be a forum for expressing one's utter dismay at follow mankind.

Here's the problem. John and I are campground hosts at Deception Pass State Park for the month of September. What that means is that for a month we clean campsites, fire pits, litter patrol, etc. That's all fine and good. We have no problem with litter pick up. But there has to be a point when you just shake your head and go "What the". We are in charge of 158 site and what is called the West Beach area. You could expect the normal careless garbage, candy wrappers, pop cans, beer bottles etc. I attribute that to the fact that most people actually believe that an empty contained weighs more then when it was full and just can't manage to carried that extra weight back with them. The whole theory, "Pack it in, Pack it out" is lost on them. It is these next items that I have felt myself needed to blog about, so that I don't keep venting on John.

1) Baby Diapers- Used; Yes that's right folks. There are actually people out there who manage to give birth to a child, but do not possess the maternal skills to throw "their" baby's diaper away. Being a family type person though, they obviously wouldn't leave it out in the open, since that would be rude. No, No, they hide these little treasures in old tree trunk, thrown in blackberry bushes, or hid in some other joyous spot that is a treat for litter patrol to reach. Bless those souls who chose to give birth and thus were further absolved of any common consideration for those of us who didn't breed. I'm sure that they fill they are doing us non-child bearing individuals a service by allowing us to pick up dirty diapers for them.

2) Bagged and Tagged Beer Bottles- This one gets special mention since the individuals actually bagged up every can or bottle and then hid the bag. Apparently I am missing the whole hide and seek mentality that goes with this game.

3) Toilet Bombs- Those lovely white piles of miscellaneous matter located in "hidden" spots, so that people wouldn't see them doing their business in a national park. What I found most mind numbing was that the worse sites were actually the closest to the bathrooms.

4) Bagged Dog Shit- Yes, those proud owners that would bag their dogs poop, and then leave it for someone else to take it to the garbage can. Please be aware that the farthest anyone would have to walk in this park to get to a dumpster is 300 yards. At least they bagged it. Side note: we actually had someone let their dog crap right by our campground host sign, with John staring out the window, and pretending not to see the dog doing it. They realized that they were being watched and only then decided to clean up after their dog.

5) Feminine Hygiene Products- I have yet to understand this one. Tampons and pads (used by the way), left out like some Easter treats. John especially loved these ones. Not even going to try and rationalize this one, just shaking my head still.

6) Last but not least- Dead Rat- Yep John found a dead rat in a campfire pit. Not even going there.

Needless to say, I have very little faith in my fellow mankind sometimes. But just when I thought I was going to have to get a frontal lobotomy, a young couple in their 20's, came up and thanked us for cleaning up the campsite. Apparently there is hope for our future generations and most of the disaster left in the campsite is unfortunately from my generation.

Thanks for allowing the vent. Feeling better now.

That is until tomorrow, when the whole pick-up after humanity starts again.

p.s. John did find a condom in the parking lot right by the main gate. He was actually quite happy to pick that chunk of treasure up, as it prevented some other campground host, years from now, from having to pick up a hidden baby diaper in the bushes.

Eagle Cap Wilderness-Never What you expect

July 2, 2008

The plan was to complete our second hike in "wilderness" by hiking the Bowman Lake/Chimney Lake trail. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into.

As we looked into the mountain ranges that surrounded us on three sides we saw little evidence of large accumulations of snow.

Apparently we picked the trail where the snow had decided to settle for the summer. But more on that alittle later. The start of the trail was switchbacks that led straight up the side of a ridge. We could hear for a long time the distant sound of a waterfall. The sound kept me going up the hill with the prospect of some cold water to soak my hat.

The temperature that day was in the low 90's and the trail was on an exposed hillside. The waterfall was both beautiful and icy cold. Stopped there to take several pictures, wet hats and cool down in the mist.

We continued up several more switchbacks before we rounded a corner that showed us the beginning of the end of this days trail. We trudged thru several small snow patches that covered the trail, but were still passable. We met a young couple coming out on the trail that said that you could only walk about another 1/2 mile because of the "snow". We decided to continue walking and check out what they were talking about. About 1/2 mile later we ran across the snow that they were talking about and laughed.

We easily walked thru the snow and continued on our merry little way to Chimney Lake. From the surroundings, we figured that we were approximately 1 mile from the lake and really wanted to see this high alpine lake.

The snow crossings started to become more frequent but we still decided that it wasn't a problem. Then we entered a thicker section of forest and the fun stopped. Snow was knee deep and there were several creeks flowing high from the spring/summer runoff that were cutting under the snow.

We couldn't see the trail and following the directions in the hiking book were pointless. It stated that we would need to cross a "small creek", unfortunately there were 3 creeks running and they were far from small. We hiked around the area looking for a way across for about a half an hour. It was then that I looked at John, who was trying to figure out how to "jump" over this river, and said enough. We had only been retired for about 2 weeks and it seemed stupid to do something that might get one of us seriously hurt.

We heading back down the trail to the waterfall for lunch and the acceptance of the hike being incomplete. Then we both started laughing realizing that we could always come back. There was nothing stopping us from doing this hike at a later time when the snowfall maybe hadn't been so heavy. We realized that it is not about the destination, it is really about the journey.

"The Quest for Wilderness- Hiking the West One Wilderness At A Time"

June 30, 2008

For those of you that aren't aware, our daughter Sarah, provided John and I with a challenge to hike in every wilderness in the United States. Since neither of us wants, at this time, to cross the Mississippi we have modified that challenge to consist of wilderness West of the Mississippi. The remaining articles under the label of Wilderness will consist of pictures, trail descriptions and just our general experiences while trying to accomplish this challenge.

The first of our wilderness challenges placed us in Eagle Cap Wilderness. We chose this for several reasons. The first being that we were required to be back into Spokane for our other daughter's wedding in six weeks and didn't want to travel to far from home. The second being that we had already been in the area and were somewhat familiar with what we might be getting into. The third and last is simply the beauty of the area. A must for anyone to see whether by hiking or driving a car.


We spent 6 days in the state park campground at the end of the Wallowa Lake. The water entering the lake is glacial flow and cold as hell. The first 3 inches are warmed by the summer sun, but below that is freezing cold. We opted one day while kayaking, the temperature that day was in the 90's, to partake of the water and "lightly" floated on the surface.

The actual first hike that we did into the "Wilderness" was up the "East Fork Wallowa River. A 6 mile hike, one way, to Aneroid Lake with an elevation gain of approximately 3,000 feet. At 2.2 miles out you enter the "Eagle Cap Wilderness". This was the first official start to our challenge and we wanted to make sure that we got a picture of the boundary marker.

The remainder of our hike that day followed a "low maintenance" trail further into the wilderness. we stopped at about 3 1/2 miles out and had lunch but didn't stop for long. The horseflies were obnoxious and made for any attempted enjoyment of the area difficult. We decided to head home as we had a second hike scheduled for 2 days later and I had started to get blisters. The first of many on this adventure.

The area was beautiful, steep and quiet. Waterfalls were numerous and there were several opportunities for view of open meadows and the surrounding moutains.

I would love to say that some great spiritual connection occurred, but in all honestly I was a little out of shape and all I thought about was my huffing and puffing up the hills. Kept telling myself that this is what you get for having a desk job and that "No Pain, No Gain". I was glad that we did the hike and kept hoping that it would get easier for hikes we had planning in the future. Ha!, but that is for future blogs on later hikes.

For now lets just say it was a great way to start our challenge and led to another hike in the area.