Weekend #1 of Summer Vacation 6/14/14-6/16/14

I do apologize for not getting back before now. It's now been... what, 14 days since my last post? This is starting to sound like a Catholic confession.

Forgive me followers for I have had fun, it's been 14 days since my last post. :-/ My kids are visiting with family again and the fiance is sleeping off the night-shift so I'm left to my own vices. Yay! I think...

It's 5 o'clock somewhere!

So two weeks ago we packed up the SUV with camping gear, dog and kids, with a general idea and direction in mind. We had from Saturday morning until Monday evening to spend the weekend doing whatever. A little while before I had stumbled upon the interesting and intriguing information that a person can get a permit to build a summer/hunting/vacation cabin on National Forest property. Who'd thunk it?

So being the outdoor enthusiast that I am I had decided that we needed to go seek a location in a National Forest near us. Lucky us, we have 3 within 30 miles of our home in 3 different directions.

Our first trip out we went East, because it was near a lake that we've done a little fishing at before and the Cascade mountains tend to have better weather than the Coastal mountains and the weather was questionable at best. But camping in the rain wouldn't be a first for us, I prefer the snow myself but being in the mid-Willamette we get very little snow and it's generally a very wet snow which might as well just be 33 degree water on the ground. Dry, cold, snow is much better for camping the wet, cold snow.

Beautiful, secluded, National Forest

So our first weekend of Summer vacation or as I've come to know it as in between my vacations was spent with this beautiful scenery surrounding us. When we found the spot we knew this was it. The only downside was we'd passed up the lake by about 10 miles but we loved the seclusion of passing up the last campers by 10 miles as well. No worrying about the dog or kids being off the leash. Half joke, the kids don't wear leashes, but you get the idea. I think...

Zoom in a little and see how happy the kids and dog are off their leashes. 

Before the leash comes off. "Mommy are we there yet?"

After the leases come off!

Me? I took a nap under the trees. Ah... outdoors at last.

Check out this cool forest of fungi.

Starting a fire on a wet day, with wet branches and wet grass beneath calls for a wee bit of patience and persistence. The bear who peeled the tree behind our tent helped by leaving peelings to keep the grass from killing the fire.

We didn't geocache because we finally found a place where Verizon does not go. 

"No, I can't hear you now."

And I hadn't thought ahead to save an offline list. Which is a very cool way to geocache without 3G but I'm still new at geocaching and we had yet to be anywhere we haven't had 3G or 4G so honestly it never really crossed my mind. 

However, weekend #2 I made an offline list.

We had so much fun exploring the forest around us that the weekend went fast enough without treasure hunting so it wasn't all lost. We did discover that the road we took was littered with mineral claims. Sort of like gold claims, because we were camping above Quartzille Creek (wink wink), but they cover all the minerals in the ground. Fortunate for us, a posted claim just means, don't take my minerals, so camping is still allowed.

The fiance and I both spent the week researching claims after our first weekend camping. He's more of a treasure hunter than I am, which is why I introduced him to geocaching as it was, so the idea of striking it rich really piqued his interest. He's now fully on board with the idea of a cabin in the woods as long as it's close to some mineral loaded soapstone. :-) Let the hunt begin.

Weekend #1 was great.

Despite no geocaching, rain and bear peelings behind our tent.

But no closer to finding a location for our summer/hunting/vacation cabin.