22 May 2022 ( posted 1 June 2022)
We SP at zero 930 and drive 1/4 mile to a turn off so we could hike up to Rainbow falls. A local walking his dog on the trail passed us and we chatted, and he said, are you the happy campers that were parked outside of town… Yep, we are! Beautiful short hike with a really nice waterfall.
This is Elkhorn’s day to lead, so Bigfoot follows along on a Forest Service road 6265, a 25 mile route that Jimmy told us about yesterday at the IGA. The road is paved for about 12 miles, then it turns into a Forest Service hard gravel road. Where the road type changes, there is a driveway that has about 15 pink flamingos by his mailbox. Ann Marie and I said to each other, who or why would someone do that? From that point we have a one lane road for 15 miles.
Along the way, we stop at a few pull offs talking pictures, and we had to wait a few minutes to let about five four-wheelers go past. Elkhorn gets back on the road, and within a few minutes, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, “Darryl”! I stop real quick and take a picture of Bigfoots brother!
We travel another 5 miles until we get to Observation Look out, what a beautiful view! The five four wheelers that passed us were all parked here resting, and so was a white F-150.
It was Jimmy the USFS Ranger! We talked for a while, and Virgil told him, if he didn’t see us for a few days, to come looking for us!
We spoke to the four wheeler drivers and they were going for a picnic down at Longs Lake. One of them said, I saw you parked just outside
of town last night… Yep we said, that was us. Then he said, I live at the house where the road turns to gravel, with all the flamingos in the driveway. Okay than we closed that circle!
We knew the end of this awesome drive was near, as we descended from about 200 feet to sea level and we see water, a picnic table, beautiful mountains, and the whole place to ourselves!
Well almost…are you kidding me, we are 25 miles from the nearest cell tower and there is one tent campsite up the hill overlooking us that had four young adults (I’m being polite).
A little while after we arrived one of the kids came down and asked if it would be alright if they had a bonfire by the water. Well, Bigfoot is tied up close to the fire pit, and I reluctantly said if they moved the wood over to another spot (which we walked over to) it would be okay. Not sure why
I was being nice, as we all know campground etiquette is your site is your site. Virgil told the kid, why don’t you do it their site?
According to Jimmy when we met him at the Observation Point earlier, today was a rare day, as the sun was out and warm (55*), he said don’t get used to it. We played five games of Rummi qube tile game, none of which I won, Ann Marie won 3, and Virgil and Delores each won one.
We are in salt water here, too early for salmon but we are out fishing and enjoying the day. Virgil saw a patch of clover in the grass next to the waters edge. Only having the patience of Virgil, he found a FOUR Leaf Clover! Kool. Than later, he finds another one. I looked for about 30 seconds and saw nothing but grass.
Around 8pm it started to rain, so the bon fire did not happen, gee, too bad, Jimmy was right, don’t get used to the weather.
We called it a night, and at 0115 in the morning I was awaken by a truck engine revving up and a kids voices yelling (WEE.. ALLLrite….) and the truck did a donut and was gone. I could not see who it was and was all quiet the rest of the night.
So fast forward to the next day, the kids pick up their tents and leave camp. Yes, it is all OURS! About four hours later Jimmy, who we now have seen more than our family, drove up asking questions about the “young adults”. Apparently those kids reported their kayaks stolen from next to the water.
Virgil heard that and said, BS, those kids carried two kayaks up the hill to their truck. He said, I saw them, in fact we said good morning to each other… Well Jimmy was happy to get that valuable piece of the missing puzzle of facts. We talked for a while, asked him about eating the mussels that are exposed during low tide, he said not a good idea, they contain (pst) that causes brain seizures. Good to know, I threw it back into the ocean.