Camping!

We've been wanting to go camping since we arrived in Oregon and we finally found an opportunity! It was a short trip--just one night--but our friends Mat and Leah, who are both teachers, go back to school next week, so we were happy to find a night we were all able to go! Perhaps best of all is that the camp ground, Gales Creek, is only about half and hour away from our house!

Setting up the ginormous tent:

Roasting not dogs over the fire for dinner:

In the morning, we realized that we had forgotten to bring a kettle to boil water, so we used some empty stubbies from the Sessions the boys had had the night before. Amazingly enough, it worked! We went great lengths for our coffee--and it was worth it!

The brewmaster:

One learning: let bottles cool completely before refilling them with water and putting them back over the flame--they will crack apart and spew water into the fire!

We had some leftover marshmallows so we decided to make s'mores in the morning, too. Why not? It was sort-of like our breakfast dessert!

Later we drove down the road to the Tillamook Forest Center, where we ate our lunch at the top of a model fire outlook station. It's a bit hard to tell, but we are pretty high up!

We learned a lot about the Tillamook Burn, a series of horrendous forest fires in the 1930s and 40s that were caused by logging and destroyed a huge portion of what is now a State Forest. Most of the current trees were planted after those fires. This is a map that shows the areas burned during those fires--most of the dark green on the left. In the flat area on the right is Forest Grove, the larger town next to Cornelius, where we live. On the other side of the forest, on the far left, is the ocean!!

Checking things out.

We hiked on a gorgeous trail along the Wilson River.

I was a tad nervous crossing this log bridge, but it was a beautiful spot.

We encountered a huge banana slug! Gross...and cool. Leah says that if you lick them, your tongue goes numb for a bit. And she knows from experience.

We followed the trail for a couple of miles to Wilson Falls, which was really pretty.

It was a wonderful little excursion and a good way to start the week. Even though temperatures were up to the low 100s through Saturday, it was cool yesterday and today--just a perfect temperature. And it didn't start raining until we were almost finished with our hike today! As always, we had a great time visiting with Mat and Leah and we will definitely be back to the Tillamook State Forest as soon as we can carve out another day or two! We feel so thankful to be living in such a beautiful place!