Camping on the Columbia: Part I

Camping on the Columbia: Part I

This is a rather long blog entry, so on the behest of my editor I am putting it out in installments. Links at the end of each one to lead to the next part.

Enjoy

I am getting ready to go on my first kayak camping trip and I am thinking that my Journey is just too damn small to be carrying gear. I mean, I like the boat. It goes fast. It is light and easy to top on the car and such. But I feel so low in the water when I am paddling. Really low. So low I feel like if I add another 50 pounds of gear (and water) that I might be more like a submarine.

Some of the guys out out on the Bachelor Island paddle this weekend agreed with me. But they also pointed out that submersibles don't have to worry about the weather. (remind me to write up the Bachelor Island Paddle)

The other thing that was this weekend was the Alder Creek Spring Paddle Fest. My partner and I headed over there to check out some kayaks. Cause. You know..... I might want a bigger boat to go camping. My partner was actually more interested in a play boat. Something for the surf. (you know, for doing this). I also would like a shorter boat for playing in the surf. We are rapidly running out of room in our garage, however, even with the boats being slung from the ceiling.

Knock the sand off your feet.

There were 3 interesting boat vendors there. We looked at Current Designs a few weeks ago and were underwhelmed. My partner suggested that I look at TideRace and Valley. We hit the Valley guy first. I asked him for a boat for going camping and fitting my 220 pound manly frame. He had me try out the fit of an Etain he had sitting in the sand.

“But knock the sand off your feet first. It is really hard to get the sand out of the boat”.

Geeze fella. It is 11:00 in the morning during an event that is running for 2 days and you have your boat sitting in the sand on the beach for people to try out and you are worried about it getting “sandy”. You have a problem. That and I didn't fit. I guess Valley boat designers don't understand the entire nature of a manly sized man. With girth sufficient to lift manly burdens and do laundry and such.

“It is too small”.

“Oh, the hip pads come out. Now try it”.

I got back in, “It is still to small. You got anything bigger? I also would like a larger entry. How long is this cockpit?”

“I don't know. It is the standard size.”

“The standard size? You telling me I won't fit in any kayak what so ever?”

My partner chimes in, “The sizes are listed on your website. I was just reading them on the way over here”.

“Oh, I don't read those things. I don't like to know the measurements. Just another thing to get wrong.”

We left. My partner thinks that the Aquanaut is a bigger boat for me but the no-sand-no-meaurement sales guy said they were discontinued.

Turns out the Eddyline guy was much nicer. They had boats down on the water and quickly pointed me to the 2 boats “larger than a Journey that would fit my butt”. They were very frank and friendly about it. So let me tell you what they got:

Fathom

Fathom:

I liked the Fathom. The feel of the seat and entry was pretty much like Journey (4 inches shorter on the keyhole entry. A little hard on my poor old knees but I could get in and out). The boat is a foot longer with a day hatch (a waterproof compartment that you can reach into behind you without having to get out of the boat). Fathom is also more narrow than Journey with more wobble. Wobble can be good, by the way, it makes the boat more reponsive and fun. The main thing that the salesguy was saying about the Fathom was that it was FAST. I agree with that. It felt really light and fast on the water. Very fun to paddle. I was a little concerned about the smaller cockpit and getting out of the boat and all so I put on my dry suit, got a safety spot from my partner (in the Low Volume Fathom) and did a roll and wet exit. No sweat. Didn't even piss off the salesguy. Quick note on the Fathom LV. Too small for me. My partner didn't really fit into it either.

Denali:

The salesman wanted me to try Denali. He said they built it just for me. It is a BIG boat with a BIG cockpit. It was easy to get into. I had trouble finding the foot pegs at first. The guy that had been in the boat before me had evidently been 7 foot tall. “He was the other guy we built that boat for”. I like the Eddyline guy. This boat was just too big for me. It is the sort of boat that I would recommend for any of my 250-300 pound friends, however. And it was a very nicely built boat. My problem with it was that I just couldn't get my knees to connect with the knee pads unless I bent my legs a lot more than I wanted. So, just a big nice boat. Large tall persons... have a look.

Next we went walking back down the beach because my partner really wanted to try out one of the surf and play boats that the Valley guy had. We figured we could sneak out in it before he saw us. We lucked out, they had a different guy there. He hooked us up with a cool one piece wooden paddle (Can you say Expensive?) and sent us out in a grey Gemini SP (sports play)(not small person). This is a shorter maneuverable boat. Sort of heavy, though, as it is made to bounce off the rocks in the surf and such. My partner really liked it. Have to figure out where to hang another boat in the garage.

Some people make any boat look good. 

Oh. And then, of course, you have the kicker to all of the this. The cost. These are all $2700 to $4k boats. So best pray for a big tax refund.

I had this great brainstorm idea for my up comping kayak camping trip (which was how we started this little story, as you may recall). I will rent a Fathom from a local shop for the trip. If I really like it, I will trade in Journey and get one. What a great idea. Too bad I can't find anyone that has a nice boat like that in their rental fleet. Bummer. Wait..... Scappoose Bay has the entire Eddyline line in their rental fleet. Now we are talking. I will give them a call tomorrow. (Which is going to seem like right now to you, my loyal reader, because I am writing this over a multi-day period. Isn't that special?!

The good news is that they have one. The bad news is that they don't rent for over night adventures. Losers.

I have been packing all of my stuff into waterproof dry bags and laying them down along side my Journey and wondering if things are going to Fit and Float. That is what I need. For everything to fit and float. According to the Eddyline website I should be fine. The boat has a carrying capacity of 375 pounds. I weigh 220. Camping gear must be under 50. perhaps 10 pounds of water and food. That adds up to under 300. So I should be above water by 75 pounds. Hmmm.

So I packed up my Journey and all of my gear and headed out to the Kayak Portland annual swap meet. I had signed up to be a safety boat to keep people from drowning while they are testing new boats. When I got to Willamette Park (the one in West Linn, not the one in Portland) at 9:30 the parking lot was already filled! I thought, “Wow, I guess all 125 people that RSVP'd for this event are already here”. But it turned out that there was some kind of girl's softball thing going on and that was taking up all of the parking. Did find a place in overflow and walked over to the event. I took this little muddy trail that winds along the river from the main boat ramp to the park. When I emerged from the underbrush I was looking at the row of kayaks that people had placed in the grass for sale. And one kayak just jumped out at me, it was a beautiful blue Tempest 170. Just like my partner's only a different shade!! I love these boats. And here is one for sale. And it looks just like my Other Kayak Friend's Tempest. Hey, there is my Other Kayak Friend. What a coincidence.

Hmmm, Nice Boat for Sale.

A handmade Wood SUP vendor

Other Kayaks for Sale

Nice little trailer..... 

It turned out that the OKF and her hubby were at the event selling her Tempest so that they could afford to get a Cetus (insert link here) that they had their eyes on over at Alder Creek Kayak. They have had matching Tempests for awhile but she can't quite keep up with him and wanted a faster boat. I think in this context faster implies a better speed to effort ratio. So she was selling and the price was right and I just couldn't resist. Made her happy to sell her baby to a friend and made me happy to get a well maintained and loved boat that I could use for camping. And since my partner is on a beach in San Diego today, I just bought it. Then I used it for safety boating. Didn't even take Journey off the roof of the Subaru.

Which would you rather paddle, The boat or the log?

Me in my New Tempest 170. It is very slimming, No?

Really Ugly Goose looks on

Jump to Part II

100 Stair Beach

100 Stair Beach

My partner grew up in the Portland area and her family had a tradition of going to the coast and of going rock hunting.. Because of this, she has been bugging me for months to go to one of her favorite little beaches to do some Agate hunting.

Well, this weekend was finally the day. The weather was going to turn sunny for a day and we both had a little bit of time to kill, and besides, it was her birthday!! (Well, at least the same month as her birthday). So we threw some snacks and some extra jackets (always bring extra jackets when you go to the Oregon coast) into the back of the Action Adventure Mobile, and off we went.

Our target beach is call 100 Stair Beach. You will never guess why it is called this. I actually counted 132 stairs (though the height and step size are varied and in some cases arguable), but I guess it would not be such a romatic notion to call it “One Hundred and Thirty Two Stair Beach”. The beach is out on Cape Meares just a little south of the Cape Meares Light. In previvous seasons we would have gotten there by going north around Cape Meares on the loop road. But the road was washed out by landslides a year or so ago just North of the Light and they haven't got it fixed yet (perhaps they can't fix it). Anway, you have to go South around through Oceanside to get to the 100 steps.

The Spring flowers are starting

 

Not sure what this little tunnel was for.... Perhaps to get out of the rain.

The steps down look like they were put in by private groups over the last 60 years. The are just wood and dirt steps, with a few drift wood based benches and such along the way.

In truth, 100 steps isn't all that many. Just 5 or 6 floors in a normal building. But those steps will get you from a small fading sign on the side of the road (with parking for like 10 cars) down to a really wonderful and picturesque little beach. Since this is an Agate hunting beach (and evidently a pretty well known one) I knew there had to be a stream or two emptying onto the sand. In fact, there was a stream or two, but very little sand. This is good, because we were not sand hunting, we were rock hunting. And if you want to find big agates, you have to look in stacks of big rocks.

 

Is that an Agate?

Right where the cliff ends the strip of rounded volcanic rock starts. Hundreds of thousands of flat egg shaped black rocks that stretch up and down the beach to the headlands at either end that define this little cove. Just off shore is a rocky cliff island. During low tide you can walk to the island. I don't see any way to get up on top of it, however. Too steep. I think the local authorities would frown on such an exercise anyway. Don't want you tromping around and upsetting the nesting avian life.

My partner and I had worn our 5 fingers wet shoes so that we could walk through the water and stones without hurting our feet. We may have been better off in our kayak dry suit booties, as the water was cold and the stones were hard. Our feet got both numb and bruised at the same time. We first walked along a little spit of sand. My partner told me that her biggest fear was that the recent storms would have stirred up the sand and pushed it up over the rocks. When that happens the entire beach is sand. Which is nice and all except for the absense or Agates. As it was, things were looking pretty good for our hunting experience except that the tides were ill timed for that day and had already started back in. Ideally you hunt for agates in the retreating surf. Not the charging-in surf.

We were not alone on our beach. There were a number of kids and adults out there. Most of the kids were carrying big plastic buckets. Buckets that they carried in such a way as to suggest that they were not light. i.e. buckets full of rocks.

My partner asked one boy what he was collecting. He gave her an incredulous look and said “We are finding Agates”.

“Have you found any?”

“Oh, yeah. Lots”

“Can you show me one?”

At this point he put down his bucket and started to dig through the gloves and socks on top. Then he stopped and said, “They are going to be on the bottom and too hard to get too.”.

“That's OK,” I chimed in. Then I asked the important questions, “How big are they?”

“Oh, the big ones are about the size of marbles. Lots o small ones, though”

OK, So, we started our own hunt. My partner said that she had never found an agate on the South side of the island before. So we slugged over to the North side and began our search. We started finding some small ones pretty much immediately.

 

I like looking for agates. It is very soothing. You need to position yourself such that the sun is at an angle where your shadow doesn't fall on your search area, bend over and get close to the sand, and then empty your mind off all thought and let the shiny clearness of a wet agate find YOU. And then when you find one...... scrape around in that area a bit looking for more, because agates travel in packs.

Oh, one more thing. Since you are hunting for agates on the west coast, in the afternoon (so the sun isn't blocked by the cliffs), you are going to be hunting with your back to the sea. You are going to be hunting with your back to the sea, right at the edge of the land water boundary on an in coming tide. Since you are tightly focused on the agate finding function, sooner or later a bigger than average wave is going to come up behind you and, if it doesn't just knock your face in the sand, it will get you very wet. Deal with it. Perhaps bring a spotter. And bring a spotter than will warn you in a manner other than pulling out her camera and waiting until you get drenched. (Editor's note, notice who's in the photos getting drenched, and who must be wave spotting for whom)

 

So we are hunting and hunting. Getting a lot of tiny little things. Then I find a place where I find like 5 pea sized rocks in a row. Oh, what a find. I run over to my partner to show her how amazing I am. She looks and agrees that I am truly amazing. Then she shows me her hand. She has twice as many marble sized ones. DAMMIT.

“This isn't a contest, you know, Jon. Why do you feel you have to measure the size of everything?”

Easy for a person with the largest Agate to say.

We searched our way down the beach almost to where it ended in the cliffs. Then we walked away from the shore a bit to where the rocks got big enough to sit on and eat lunch. The wind was cold, our feet were cold, but the sun was out and the rock we sat on was warm. I also earned extra points because I had remembered to bring one of those chemical hand-warmers and I gave it to my partner to warm her poor, cold, agate hunting hands.

Wow, since you bring it up, I think I will take this opportunity to talk about this great hand-warming technology. I like these things because they are such cool science. They consist of a sealed bag of supercooled liquid. When a crystallization site is provided (by the clicking of a metal disk) the liquid quickly solidifies and the phase change brings about a release of heat. The heat lasts for about 15 minutes, but after it is done, you can reset the reaction by putting the (now solid) plastic bag into a tub of boiling water until the crystals melt. Then you let them cool and you can do it all over again.

The chemical mix used in these things is a supersaturate mixture of Sodium Acetate. I got this particular one for Christmas (I think it came from Urban Outfitters). I have other ones, but this is by far the nicest.

Ok. Sorry. Engineer Jon got out there for a minute. Where were we? Oh yes, romantic lunch on the beach with our slowly warming hands and feet.

The tide was starting to come up high enough to endanger our lunch spot, so we packed up and headed back down the beach again. We were trying to head back to the car but we just couldn't resist stopping and looking for agates as many times as our backs could stand it. Got hit by a couple of more waves. Got our pants pretty wet. But my partner came up with the find of the day with a huge golf ball sized agate. (I have pictures !!).

Look at that Rock!!

By the time we got back to the stairwell, our feet were once again very cold and they were also very sore from walking on the larger rocks. Ouch. But up the stairs we went.

I could feel the heat leaching back into my toes as we drove back around the peninsula toward Tillamook. We stopped at our favorite little hole in the wall restaurant, the Pacific Restaurant. A quaint little place built into an old strip motel. But the food is tremendous.

Great Blue Weekend

Great Blue Weekend

Rain, rain, rain. Must be the Pacific Northwest.

So when you get a merely “partly cloudy” day, and the temperature spikes to 65, it is time to go kayaking. With all of the rain the rivers are way up. So I called an emergency Action Adventure
Team outing to paddle through the trees in the extra spring sized Scappoose bay.

I stole this from Chip. He was using GPS......

One of the things I like to do is to go back to a place over and over again so I can see it at different times of the year. Scappoose has different seasons. This time of year, for instance, it is a little chilly and rainy, but the Columbia is at high water so the bay extends into the trees of the nearby islands and you can paddle right through the forests. It is pretty cool. Just be careful of submerged branches and irrate beavers (at night) and head off through the woods in your boat.

 

Chip and my Partner both have compasses on their boats. A pretty good thing when you are in a big flat area covered with trees and all of the obvious paths or river courses hidden from view. Chip had also brought a hammock. We spent some time scouting out likely clumps of trees and discussing the in's and out's (literally) of doing some hammock camping in these conditions. We didn't actually set up the hammock, we just talked about it. Much less complicated. How DO you get out of your kayak and into your hammock without taking a swim? Inquiring minds want to know. And I want to film the attempt.

Lots of people out in the woods in their kayaks. Sort of funny, we were running into little groups every 10 minutes or so. Just people out paddling through the forest. Perhaps they didn't have compasses. We were not seeing much of any other kind of animal life, however. I think the Eagles were hiding and the Ospreys haven't shown up yet for the season. A few Great Blue Herons nesting in a tree. That was a little exciting but they flew off when we got close. There is supposed to be a Rookery around here someplace. We decided to go in search of it.

Canada Geese

We crossed out of the trees and headed south up into the bay. Just sort of paddling. In the summer you can't paddle in this section because it is a 6 foot high mud bank. Today it was a 2 foot deep lake. And there across the new lake and scrub bushes, was couple of large oak trees just chock FULL of huge nests. And even Huger birds.

Timberline Lodge Snowshoe Adventure

Timberline Lodge Snowshoe Adventure

So this is what you do. On Tuesdays and Thursdays every week skip that Starbucks(R) Grande Soy Latte and once a month put the resultant saved $40 in a jar. Then, once a year, take the $480 and buy yourself and your lover a romantic adventure weekend (or week night) at Timberline lodge. You will love the experience and you will look great in the ultra luxurious shower in your Fireplace King Bedroom missing that extra 10 pounds I just saved you by forgoing the lattes.

Here is why I think this is a good idea:

We got started a little later than we originally planned, but it was my birthday and we were determined not to rush. We rolled out of Portland on Sunday early afternoon just around 11:00. There had not been much snow up on Mt. Hood this year, but we had a storm go through in the last couple of weeks with additional fresh snow last night. So I was hoping that there would be good ground cover for some snowshoeing. The weather report was a little mixed. Some saying sun. Some saying rain. Dang weather guys. 50% chance of them giving you a weather report that has meaning. Like, what is the difference between partly cloudy and partly sunny? Is it just your attitude?

Anyway, I think we had missed all of the traffic going up the mountain, but there sure were a lot of people up there when we arrived. Timberline snowpark was full (big electric signs assured us) and the parking lots for Snow Bunny and Trillium lake appeared to be full. But we were going to a little less traveled trail. We were headed for where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the Barlow trail. You probably know all about the Pacific Crest Trail, it has received a lot of publicity lately. I believe there is a movie in the making, but perhaps you don't know about Barlow. The Barlow Trail is part of the old Oregon Trail that was used by settlers coming over in Conestoga wagons. I am betting they didn't come over this time of year. Or if they did, their bones are still there someplace, under the snow. This particular part of the Oregon Trail was designed specifically to get around the blockage caused by Mt. Hood on the one hand, and the Gorge falls and rapids on the other. Seems like once you got your wagon and oxen team to The Dalles you had the choice of either building a raft and floating down the Columbia through the gorge (with a 2 mil portage around Ciello falls) or paying your 50 cents a wagon and pulling everything due south and west around the mountain through the pass where now sits Government Camp. The Barlow pass was slightly safer. You and your live stock would end up in Oregon City all ready for a successful run at the free farm lands of the Willamette. Kind of makes you nostalgic to go play the computer game again, huh?

So, we arrive at the Trailhead. The parking is pretty limited when the snow is deep. They plow out a section, but the road ends pretty abruptly. Today the entire parking area was essentially full, but my Partner saw a little space at the very end of the run just big enough to back in our little adventure Subaru. Good Find, Action Adventure Girl !!

We were putting on our layers and shoes and gear when I heard the first boom. A deep rolling sound somewhat reminiscent of distance thunder. What was that? A storm coming? Boooooooooom. Hmmm, no.... something else. Then it happened close by where I could see it. Booooooom. It was huge clumps of wet snow falling out of the trees. Wow. Don't want to get hit by one of those. It wouldn't kill you but it might knock you down, and you would be very wet.

We got our snowshoes on and hiked back up the road a bit to the trail head. A bunch of people were now showing up at the end of their hikes. They were all very wet and red faced. One woman said, “It is a rain forest in there”. Another “Watch out for the falling snow, I got hit in the head”. (See, I told you so).

Snow Orbs

We climbed up the 6 foot ridge out of the plowed area and shoed over to the trail head signs. Looked like hiking on the Pacific Crest trail would be fun today. We would be hiking on the trail toward Twin Lakes, but we didn't really think we would get there today. It was already 1:30 and we had reservations for a very nice room at the lodge starting at 4:00. So.... A few hours of hiking then.

The forest was a regular set of snow sculptures. The snow must have just blown in, thick and wet, in the last day or so and large orb like clusters of the stuff were setting on the west side of everything sticking up above ground level. It was lovely. We had a hard time getting started because we kept having to stop and take pictures of some new thing. And all of the time the sun was hitting the trees over our heads and melting snow was falling like a heavy rain all over and around us. And all around us was the occasional but steady booming of the snow when it finally gave up its sticky hold from the top of the trees and succumbed to its gravitic fate.

One thing that the still mostly fluffy snow and the sunshine reminded me of is the cool ice blue color effect you get when sun shines through snow. Anyplace there is a good footprint or other foot deep hole and the sun hits just right you get this marvelous penetrating blue color. I tried for a picture. It doesn't give the same sunny blue effect but you can see it some. Blue snow. Better than yellow snow.

The Blue in the Snow

 

The pre-lunch part of our hike was pretty much all up hill. We have not been doing our hiking this winter. We were feeling the steps. And you use a slightly different sort of muscles when you snowshoe and those muscles were quickly warning us about how much we were going to need a hot tub later.

At this part of the Pacific Crest Trail we really were near a local crest. We were mainly in the tress (pine and such) but we got occasional glimpses of snow capped ridges off to the east. We met maybe 20 other people on the trail. Many just out on the shorty snow shoes (good for groomed trails, but probably not so good for going off track) and also a few cross country skiers (going really fast, the bastards. Though they were going down hill. I wonder how they did going the other way?).

At around the 90 minute mark we reached a local maximum in altitude and decided to go off trail a bit and set up for lunch. We tramped an area down flat and spread out a tarp. When I am in the snow, I like to carry a good emergency tarp and one of those self-inflating sleeping pads. My partner and I could sit on the sleeping pad and it would insulate us from the snow. Otherwise, even on the tarp, it would be very chilly sitting down. Since we were no longer moving, I put on another layer. You cool down quickly when you quit walking. I started some water to boil, adding some snow to fill up my little coffee pot. We were planning on having turkey sandwiches and some hot soup (and tea). We had been sitting for about 10 minutes, and the water was just starting to steam, when my partner looked up hill and said “Oh”. I looked up expecting a polar bear or an avalanche or something else I would have to kill, but what I saw was wind sweeping through the trees. The sun was gone. The wind had started blowing. The temperature dropped 5 degrees. And just like that it was a different deal. Things were not looking so pretty. Things were getting cold.

 

We both decided to pack up and head back to the car.

It was snowing a little by the time we hit the trail again and the clouds had dropped down into the trees. Luckily the way back was downhill. You can go a lot faster downhill than uphill. We pretty much just coasted back to the car. We even had enough energy to do a little bit of off trail stuff, just for fun. When we got back to our car, the parking lot was pretty much empty. We saw a few more very wet people. I think most people were dressed in warm cotton and such. We were wearing rain gear and we were fine and dry underneath. So we climbed back into our trusty Subaru and got back on the main road.

Just in time to hit a very strange traffic jam that lasted all of the way back up the hill to the turn off to Timberline lodge. Very strange. We were guessing that there was either a car wreck someplace or this was just the congestion of everyone leaving the various snow parks and ski resorts and heading back to the city. Everyone else had to go to work tomorrow.

We were spending the night on the mountain in a glorious room in Timberline Lodge.

Why?

Because it was my birthday.

I really like the idea of staying in historic lodges and Timberline is a real treat. My partner and I have stayed there in the summer before (insert link) but this is our first trip up in the winter. This was set up as a special celebration so we were taking one of the nicer rooms in the establishment. Our room was big and rustic. It had a king size bed, two chairs around a table, a couch in front of a little table, an absolutely gorgeous old wood burning fireplace and a large bathroom with a walk-in all tile shower. It was such a great room. Everything is done either in actual historic items (like the bed frame and the fire poker) or in modern but historically reminiscent manner (like the push button telephone and the couches).

Timberline lodge was built in 1936 using WPA workers and funds. President Roosevelt dedicated it in 1938 with a speech that said (in part):

“This Timberline Lodge marks a venture that was made possible by W.P.A., emergency relief work, in order that we may test the workability of recreational facilities installed by the Government itself and operated under its complete control.”

Now doesn't that seem like a strange thing for an American President to say?

Of course, with all of this history comes a few problems. For instance, even an old Eagle Scout may never have run into the a situation where the east blowing wind makes the chimneys not draft correctly and so when you put a match to the pre-laid kindling, instead of getting a nicely drawing fire, you get a rapidly growing out-pouring of smoke which quickly fills your room, sets off the smoke detectors, and has you calling the front desk begging for rescue.

Evidently this sort of things happens all of the time, because the young bellman was there in an instant, told us to close the windows, open the doors, and he appeared with a big fan which he used to empty the smoke while he got the fire going and the flu sucking. Later he came back and lit another fire for us and this time he demonstrated the method of getting the flu to draft. You hold a burning piece of newspaper up high in the chimney until enough of a suction is created to pull the paper up into the chimney. Then you quickly light your tinder and away goes your fire. At that point, the chimney is drawing so efficiently that when you close the glass doors to the fireplace you get a forced air stoked fire.

Note the Snow out the window

Fire Bunny

Just a Little Smoke Damage

Such excitement.

And we had dinner reservations for 7:00.

Time to change. One of the things I like to do is to get all gussied up and go have a nice dining experience. As luck would have it, my partner also likes good food and charming atmosphere, so we put on our suit and dress and headed over to the Cascade Dining Room to see what the chef had going for the evening.

 

 

Now I have eaten at the Cascade on a few other occasions and it has always impressed. Tonight was no exception. When you go there, go all out. Don't chintz on the appetizers or anything like that. We had a half salad half scallop and salmon roe creation that was very yummy. And then while you are waiting for your main course, they bring you other little things. Some great fresh bread, of course, but also some little sample of something they are trying out. Tonight is was a little taste of salmon and prosciutto mixed with some fun sauce. Small but tasty. To “clear our palette” they brought us a little egg cup full of raspberry sorbet. Very palette cleansing. For our entre I had lamb cheeks and my partner had tenderloin. Both came with black mushrooms and butternut squash and a number of other fun little things. For desert we had coffee and a chocolate almond cake. Did we get wine? No. My partner didn't care for any and I didn't want a bottle by myself. I did have a couple of very find pints of a local IPA.

After dinner we went and sat by our newly rejuvenated fire for a bit to let our dinner digest, and then we put on our lodge supplied spa robes and headed down the hall to the outdoor pool and hot tub. That is right. Out doors. Even in the middle of the winter and even though surrounded by snow, there is a wonderful large and HOT (maybe 103?) hot tub. No chairs though, cause they were all covered in snow. We wallowed in the tub for a while. A good chance to stretch our legs out after the snowshoe. We did not go into the pool for a swim. True it was heated, but the cold wet wind blowing around was NOT. 

Luckily the moon was out. From my seat in the hot tub I could just see the rays of the full moon as it shown over the roof of the historic old lodge sending crystal moon beams down the...

"That isn't the moon"

"What?"

"The light, that isn't the moon. Look, the light is too close. That is a flood on the front of the building"

Dammit.

I stole this from Wikipedia. But I give them money.

Anyway, there was light and you could see stuff.

The next morning we had planned on doing another snowshoe, but it was raining. So we decided to laze around, have a huge brunch and then do some blogging in the main lounge.  The main lounge of the lodge is this big circular room that runs 4 floors up with a circular stone fireplace in the middle. On the ground floor is a sort of area for wet and cold skiers to hang out. They have their own part of the fireplace, but I have never seen a fire lit there. On the second floor is the main sitting area. Lots of couches and mini seating areas surrounding the fireplace. Big wrought iron everything everywhere. And Fires going. Lots of guests reading, using computers (yes, Virginia, there is wifi) and playing board games. The next floor up is a balcony around the edge of the room with more sitting a bar and light eats place in the evening.

We had a seat up in the bar area (not open yet) because that was where the nice seats were. You also had to be up that high to be above the snow level and able to see out onto the mountain. Strange to have the snow piled up over the windows on everything except the top floor. 

But, oh, the pretty blue color.