We did a nice ride around Trillium Lake today. There’s a boardwalk that leaves the trail to visit the meadow adjacent to the lake:
The weather was great, and we were treated to fantastic views of Mt. Hood:
Here we are thundering through the woods:
Upon our return, the RV in the distance:
We went back in late afternoon for some fishing. The kids caught three, and we kept one, a 9” Rainbow Trout. The views were keepers too:
Gut Shabbos!
Today I rode my bike from the RV up to Timberline Lodge. It was 2200 feet of climbing over 7 miles:
Trish and the kids drove up to meet me, and we played in the snow. We had driven from late Autumn at 3400 feet to early Winter at 5600 feet:
Timberline Lodge was a CCC construction project in the 30s:
The fog began to clear and we could see the summit of Mt. Hood, 6000 feet above us:
We decided to go snow shoeing. Once we were a bit away from the parking lot, all we could see was the mountain:
Returning to the RV, we were surprised to see that it’s still Autumn down here!
When we first arrived, the kids found a see-saw someone had built out in the woods:
Here we are on our private (and abandoned) airstrip. The inconvenience of having no-one to bother for a cup of sugar is more than compensated for by the peace and quiet:
Today was our first day of home schooling. Our son and I did a math exersize to figure out how many mishnas we would have to learn daily to complete the entire Mishna by his bar mitzvah. We then learned the first 12 mishnas.
Here’s our daughter working on her math:
After lunch, we headed out to do some letterboxing. We found four of them in short order:
At the last letterboxing site there was a sign explaining the view. This can only be described as typical Oregon weather:
Tomorrow we’re supposed to get the first sunny day in the last two weeks, so hopefully we will actually be able to see the mountain itself.
We recently discovered a very interesting activity called letterboxing. Letterboxing involves searching for hidden boxes using clues provided by the individuals who created and hid the boxes. Inside each letterbox you will find a rubber stamp, an ink pad, and a small journal or pad of paper. Usually the rubber stamps are hand carved and represent a theme, or a personal symbol unique to the carver.
When you find a letterbox, you use the rubber stamp in your own scrapbook, journal or piece of paper. Then, using your own stamp, leave an image on a page in the letterbox’s journal! You can also sign your name or leave a personal message for the letterbox creator. There are several websites that serve as databases for letterbox locations and clues all over North America, just type in your location and choose from the list provided.
Today, we were visiting Edgefield Lodge in Troutdale, Oregon. After lunch, we searched the atlasquest website and discovered a letterbox had been placed right at the lodge grounds! The letterbox was titled “Kelly and Steve’s Wedding”. We quickly gathered our materials and read the clue:
Clue: To find the loving tribute to their marriage look for Blackberry Meadow where they were married. Stand in the middle of the meadow and look for the water tower. Walk towards it and you will see an old white barn. Find the path on the right side of the barn. There should be birdhouses in the trees on the right side of that path.
On the left side of the path you will see a huge rusted boiler with plants growing out of it. Look under it for the lock’ n’ lock box!
Since we had been walking the grounds before lunch, it wasn’t long before we found the blackberry meadow and white barn. The kids very quickly found the location and M got down on all fours and pushed aside the plants to find the letterbox. From under the boiler he pulled a very tiny plastic container that held a picture of the bride and groom, and a hand carved stamp with their initials, and the date of their wedding. We were so excited to stamp our book, and to leave a stamp in theirs! We will have to get a special book just for our letterbox adventures, but until then the kids are using their journals.
B and I spent some time designing and carving our own stamps a couple of weeks ago, and I designed a new one tonight that has our travel blog information. Speedball makes a very user friendly carving medium that I highly recommend. It is soft, easy to carve, and can be trimmed with a scissors. We purchased all of our materials at Michael’s craft store. Many people use rubber erasers for carving as well! Here is our collection of hand carved stamps so far:
On the way out of Wood Village towards Mount Hood, we stopped to visit McMenamins – Edgefield, a 1930s era poorhouse converted in the 1990s into a hotel. Edgefield sits on 70 acres and has its own garden for its restaurant:
We had the overflow lot more or less to ourselves:
We visited the glass blowing shop, where the artist was fashioning a drinking glass:
The watertower is the tallest structure at the hotel:
The interior of the hotel itself has been maintained in its 1930s interior, so much so that the hotel rooms share a common bathroom just as the original residents did 80 years ago:
There’s also a pottery shop (closed today), a brewery, and a winery. It’s a very interesting place!
We also did our first letterboxing attempt at Edgefield, but I’ll let Trish talk more about that:
Leaving Edgefield, we drove up to Mount Hood. We are dispersed camped near Trillain Lake, on the southern slope of Mount Hood. The National Forests usually allow camping in campgrounds for free if they are “closed” for the season, so we first tried going to Trillain Lake campground, since the source I had seen said that it closed on 9/30. When we got there, the campground host told us that the campground would be open until 10/6, and that once it’s closed the gate is locked. Since the campground is open, we would have to pay $20 a night, so we settled for a nice clearing a few miles from the campground which is actually an abandoned airstrip. There are no services, but that’s fine as we are completely self contained in our RV, and you can’t beat the quiet solitude! See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.
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