No Geocaching this past weekend. 

We left Ocean Shores at just a few minutes before 3 p.m. on Friday night.   We stopped to shop at the Safeway in North Bend (if you visit this Safeway and you are towing something, be warned that parking is not good – best to just park on the street and walk.) Anyway, we got to our campground about 6:30 p.m. I think,  I can’t even remember at this point.

Our watch dogs!

I had no idea that this camp site would be up a gravel road at 20 mph for about 10 miles.  (sometimes it was faster than 20 mph and it scared me!)  It seemed like forever getting there, and the road was getting narrower in places.  I just kept thinking about how the scenery was beautiful, and every time the river came into site it took your breath away at how awesome the water color was.  In the places where the river was deep it was emerald green.  The last bridge we crossed about two miles before the camp site was very small, Rick just had to remark “sure hope it holds us”!   OK, I was stressed just a bit about the camp site, I was the one that reserved it online, site unseen.  They said nice things about the campground, but then don’t they all?  Another stress point just before we got there was the sign that said “NO turn around beyond the next bridge”!  Then I started wondering, are we on the right road?  And if not, were and how will we turn around?  And then suddenly there was the sign announcing we had made it to the Middle Fork Campground! 

The road to Middle Fork Campground (this was on the way home)

A little about this campground if you are planning to camp here.  No hookups!  (but I knew this going in!) They only have pit toilets.  They are without a doubt the largest, nicest and cleanest pit toilets ever – but they still stink!  A very nice feature of this campground is that they have raised tent pads at each site.  They are filled with sand and then very tiny gravel.  This way if it rains you don’t get puddles around your tent.  It also makes for very easy and level setting up of tents!  If you come here, bring your own wood!!!  Or a chopping devise other than a chain saw.  There is a lot of wood down that you are allowed to cut up.  However we only had a dull hatchet and that just didn’t cut it!  (Oh, I crack myself up sometimes!)  We scrounged up enough wood to go with the bundles we purchased and did alright.  It was funny because our first morning everyone was out scurrying around for wood around the sites that hadn’t been taken yet.   Yes, they do have water too.  We saw lots of kids pumping water and playing in the water.

This is our campsite before everyone arrived.

My mom and 2 nephews (the ones that spent a week with us early this summer) came up on Saturday about 11:30am.  The boys had never been camping before and this was a fun time for them.  They made friends immediately with some other kids in the campground and we saw very little of them. 

My brother and sister-in-law came up about 5pm that night and their boys were very excited to see them.  They have spent almost the whole summer at grandma’s house.  My brother Greg, set up their new tent on the super cool tent pad. And we started dinner.  We kept a fire going all day Saturday to help keep the bugs down.  I’m sure we all ate our share of bugs or sniffed them up our noses.  Gross as it sounds, it feels far worse!!! 

This is Mom, Sarah and me around the campfire – no, Mom is not eating the stick.

We met a nice couple from Issaquah and a nice family from Seattle.  And then we met (or Rick did) a crazy lady that said she thought her dog was psychic!  Her dogs name was Chester and he ran away twice to our campsite.  The lady was staying in one camp spot and moving her things to another site, one item at a time.  Every time her and her dog Chester walked by our dogs went nuts.  She told Rick that she needed a rest and was staying for a couple of weeks.  We never did see a car so maybe someone dropped her off?  It’s all too strange for me.

The boys and dogs check out the front bed.

Saturday night fun… Mom, Joe (the dog), Luke, and Jacob!

Getting back to Saturday, the weather was great and we decided not to go out Geocaching because it seemed like a million miles back down that gravel road, and we were enjoying the whole camping experience. 

In case you wondering what the front bed looked like inside.  This is our little kitchen too.

Our little dinning room, kitchen and front bed area.

Sofa bench, and Yes, that is a watermelon on our potty!

Sunday morning I got up early and started coffee after walking the dogs.  Then a little rain came!  It only lasted about 45 minutes, but that was long enough to get everything wet.  So all the pine needles that had been falling on Saturday were now glued to everything!  But we kept that fire going the whole time until we left! 

Where’d everyone go?  It’s just a little rain!

Funny thing about going home on that gravel road.  It got shorter.   It seemed much, much shorter than when we were driving up there.  Upon arriving home we promptly empty the camper and opened it up and I sprayed Fabreeze everywhere.  It smelled very campy.  I hate the smell of campfire smoke when I’m not camping.  The sun was shinning at our house and there was a gentle ocean breeze.  So all is smelling good again and ready for this coming weekend.

Next camp trip… Alder Lake (near Eatonville, WA)  (and it has power and water hookups!)  Hopefully we will be able to do some Geocaching.