Day 04 – 24-Sep-2007
I slept in until 7am. I had the fresh waffles for breakfast at the buffet. I managed to scam some extra packages of syrup and cream cheese for future meals. I decided I was not going to take the major interstates as I would not see much. I got out the trusty map program on my laptop and plotted a back road trip. I left Spokane around 9ish. I am quite amazed that eastern part of Washington State is similar to the rolling hills of the prairies in Southern Alberta. For the most part the crops appeared to be different types of grains, onions, etc.
I took lots of pictures as I went. Some of them are of some really bizarre stuff. Just east of Othello, I found what appears to be an abandoned old wooden granary beside a railway line. About five minutes on the other side of Othello, I came across apple orchards and grape vineyards for as far as I could see and then they disappeared. It was pretty bizarre to see these orchards in the prairie landscape. I always thought they would be in plush areas. The irrigation systems used in the area was amazing. The landscape was dotted with green circle crops rings that had the automated wheel watering systems. The place looked like the aftermath of an alien invasion (yes I am a believer).
I was quite surprised that in the middle of BFN I came across the former site of the B Reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. This reactor was part of the Manhattan Project from the early 1940’s and the plutonium for the first atomic bomb was made there including the famous Nagasaki bomb.
I noticed that there seemed to be miles and mile of scorched earth. I am not sure if it was a deliberate fire in order to cultivate the land. There are orchards in between all these burnt areas.
I found a house I like just outside of Moxee City. I still have to phone the real estate office to see how much it is. It comes complete with a guest house, shed, two cars (complete with bullet holes), and some farming equipment. The house is a bit of a fixer upper but I think it would be well worth it. It sits on approximately 500 acres of land which backs onto this humungous hill witch is the perfect spot to build the shooting and archery range. It is also close the vineyards which are about five minutes away.
It was getting late and I had to quit stopping for pictures after my last stop at Oak Creek. I wanted to get to Mount Rainier before sunset in order to take pictures there. I managed to get to the park in time after taking a detour down a forestry road as the main road through the park was closed due to road repair from last winters storm.
I headed right up to the top at Paradise and started taking pictures once I was closer. The view was amazing. The light was almost gone and it was time to head down the mountain to find a campsite. There were only a couple of cars still in the parking lot when I was about to leave.
I came across these two hikers that were looking for the Paradise campground only to be disappointed that it wasn’t either open or somewhere else. They were just dropped off at Paradise by someone else who had offered them a ride up. I asked them if they wanted a ride down to Cougar. I introduced myself to Beth and Lauretta. They were both from the Chicago area and looked really tired. We headed down to the campground. It turns out the girls were on day eight of a nine day hiking trip. I rearrange the crap in the car to make room for them and their gear.
We ended up sharing a campsite in Cougar. It was twelve bucks for the night and the girls offered to pay. We started setting up our tents as we were losing daylight. We had dinner. I made noodles and the girls made up their dehydrated spaghetti concoction which was actually quite edible. Shortly after dinner I started the fire and offloaded my pictures onto the laptop. I showed the girls the pictures I had been taking on my trip. They were quite impressed. We all ended up crashing around 10ish.
Link to some pictures
