We were last there in late August of 2006. One year was unavailable due to ongoing renovation of the cabin, but we booked another weekend the moment we were able.
As we did the first time we brought our cat Isa back with us. She’s not a big fan of the drive up, but once there i’m convinced she is the happiest cat on the planet. Pity her abilities don’t extend to catching flies as the black flies were thick up at altitude. There were virtually no bugs down at the reservoir… i guess they prefer the view from the top. We managed to kill no fewer than twelve in fairly short order. The good news is they were fairly easy to swat and, unlike the mosquitos of Minnesota or Maine, were finite in number. After swatting about 6 we noticed a definite drop in the buzzing. Once we’d racked up about 12 kills we were able to read for a solid hour with virtually no pauses for giant fly attacks.
Overall the weather was calm and hot. Saturday night was mostly clear and i finally managed to take some star trail photos. Sunday night surprised us with two very dramatic blows from the south. The first brought strong gusts and light, but stinging, rain. It totally caught us off guard and had us scrambling to close the door and the south-facing window. Later at night after we’d been asleep for a while a second front barreled through with strong gusts making the pine trees hiss. The cat took refuge under the bed both times. Both blows were as short-lived as they were dramatic, maybe lasting all of 10 minutes each.
Dinner the first night was caramelized sweet onions, faux mashed potatoes with steamed snap peas and my lame attempt to pan-fry a flatiron steak. The onions were awesome. For the second night we had pan-fried chicken breast along with pan-fried slabs of “jeremy’s southwest polenta,” diced avocado and tomato topped with green salsa. Breakfast both mornings was scrambled eggs with diced ham and Tilamook marble cheddar cheese served with diced tomato and avocado. For the sunday breakfast i added two more pan-fried slabs of polenta.
When we camp it’s all about the food.
Saturday night was reasonably clear… so i finally managed to get some star trail images.
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