Saddle Mountain Summit Trail

In September we decided to try the Saddle Mountain Summit Trail. The weather was starting to change and with the smoke from the fires gone it seemed like a good time to do this trail. I read up about it on my trail app. It said it was 4.5 miles out and back, rated as difficult, is the highest point in NW Oregon, on a clear day has views from the ocean to Mt St. Helens and in May and June has a great floral display. The hardest part of the trail was to be towards the end as the trail gets steeper as it gains height. So we felt up for a challenge and headed for Saddle Mountain.

Sign detailing trail challenges

The beginning of the trail was a nice zig-zag through nicely forested areas

And as promised the trail was more arduous above the tree line and had great views. 

If you enlarge this you might be able to see that the tiny colorful dots at the top of the hill are really people 

And here we are at the top

The day we went the view was obscured by haze, so we didn't see any mountains in the cascade range. And the ocean was hidden by a nice fog bank. We could see the Columbia River and Washington. The views were still great. Because we went in September there were really no flowers. We would like to come back in May or June before school lets out and try it again. The steeper parts of the climb were well maintained. They had an obvious path leading to the top and many places along the way had wire or chain link fencing down on the ground to help grip the trail. There wasn't much railing along the way but railing was everywhere on the very top. Next time we do this trail we will take our trekking poles-this hike would be a good one to use them. All in all it was a nice hike and I'm looking forward to doing it again. 

Kitchen project

We wanted a new kitchen counter, sink and backsplash but we didn't want to spend too much money. We priced out what it would cost for various types of counter tops and found that to outsource the project would cost too much. We were hoping to keep it under $1000 by doing it ourselves. That lead us to thinking-what did we feel comfortable installing? We came up with butcher block-the real thing not a laminate butcher block. Then we had to figure out where to purchase this. We checked out 4 stores and ended up with one in Portland. It was a great hardwood store, it sold many different kinds of hardwood but also had unfinished birch butcher block countertops sold in various lengths. That was what we wanted. We could have fitted together wood to come up with a wood countertop, building it and installing it but decided that if the price was right, we would prefer to buy it already done and just deal with installing it. So before I get too far into this story...we need a before picture.

   

The old counter top was a do it yourself laminate job that wasn't so good. Parts of it were lifting off the counter. Some of the counter sounded solid when setting down a glass but some parts sounded hollow.

So we bought all our supplies: counter top, wood glue, joint fasteners, oil for the top and a sink and faucet. We weren't sure about the backsplash so we decided to install the countertops and sink and maybe that would help us decide. We went on a trip to CA and when we came back, started our project.



I found I like destroying things. It was so nice to get rid of those old counters and sink.



We had to cut the countertops to fit our kitchen. Then we drilled all the holes for the joint fasteners to join the different sections together. We glued and tightened up the fasteners and waited 24 hours for everything to set. Some of the counters were very heavy so we had our son-in-law help us lift that part of the project.



Even the grandson (with the faithful supervisor in the background) got involved. He sanded some of the smaller pieces for us and was handy tightening joint fasteners in those hard to reach places.



While some people only put pictures up about the project install and the steps involved, I thought some reality would be a good thing. Here's what the rest of the house looked like as we worked on the kitchen.



So here are the countertops oiled and the sink installed. It was scary to cut the hole for the sink, but it all turned out good. Mr WAU did the plumbing under the sink. The previous sink was a single one, this one is a double. So things needed to be moved around down there. This is the third time we have installed countertops in a house. In our previous house we did it twice. One time we installed laminated butcher block, then in time we changed it up to granite tile. Anyway back to this house, now that this part was done we could stand back and think about the backsplash. We decided on subway tile. Our local hardware store had it predone in 1 foot sheets. Perfect. I just cut the sheets in half to go around the counters and did a larger section in back of the stove.



Mr WAU did much of the work up to this point. It was my turn to do the tile work, which I did not mind. In fact I like doing it. We left it like this to set up, went on another trip, then came back to do the grout work.

 

And there it is finished. A big difference from the start. Now how much did all this cost? It came close to $850. Could it be done cheaper? Yes, if we made our own wooden countertops, and did our own individual tiles. We could have kept the old sink but that wouldn't have looked very good. We are happy with how it turned out and were glad we spent the extra money on the unfinished countertops, pre done tile squares and the new sink and faucet. We chose not to varnish the tops but to oil them instead. We liked the idea of being able to sand out spots that were problems as time went on. We know that we will have dings and slight marks on these tops and were okay with that, but for the big problems we liked the idea of just being able to sand out problem areas and redo the oil. It seemed easier than refinishing a whole varnished countertop to get it looking good again. So far I find that oiling them has been perfect for keeping them clean. Spills are no problem. So far we've spilled coffee, grape juice, various foods and it all wipes up-even if left overnight. We also own many of the tools to get this project done so that helped to keep the cost down. The major addition to the tools was a new hardwood saw blade for the skill saw and table saw. This new blade made all the difference in the world in the quality of the cuts. How many trips to the local hardware store for this project? We made 7...but there's still one more. We need paint for the cabinets. It will be the same color so no big difference there. There's always more to do...

More camping trips

We got back from backpacking and visiting people in CA, dove into a kitchen project for a few weeks (more on that later), then went car camping in 2 places. These camping trips were back to back. There was only a 19 hour stop at home between trips. Normally I would not have done that but two big reasons lead to this decision. One-all the camping stuff was already out, I just had to do some wash, restock the ice chest (I planned the same meals for both trips simplifying the shopping, meal prep and packing) and load up the kayaks for the second trip. Two-we wanted to do something with the family before school started up again and this was the time that worked for everyone. So off we went.

The first trip was to Cape Lookout. I booked this trip about 2 months before we went. I was surprised to get a spot under the trees in this campground. We took grandkids, their mom (dad was on a hunting trip), and Jack, their dog. We had rain/drizzle the first night but thereafter was great weather. The kids had fun on the beach, running in the waves, playing in the sand. We explored caves and creatures that lived on the rocks at the southern end of the beach. We followed the park's nature trail, discovering different trees and plants that grow in the area. The kids enjoyed roasting marshmallows. Jack is an older dog and enjoyed laying around. All in all a good trip.

     

      



The second trip was to Trillium Lake in the Mt Hood Wilderness. Just Mr WAU and I went on this trip. The views of Mt Hood were fabulous, the mountain looked different depending on the time of day or the weather. I took way too many pictures of that mountain. They had just restocked the lake before we got there so we took our fishing poles in addition to the kayaks. We forgot our fishing net so we lost some of the fish that we caught. Have to remember that next time. All in all we hooked 11 fish but only came back with 5. So now we have plenty of "the one that got away" stories. There is a nice trail around the lake, it is 2 miles and pretty easy to do. Each morning we could watch an eagle scope out the lake on a tall dead tree next to the shore, take to flight, swoop down to catch a meal and fly off to eat it. It was a relaxing trip. It did drizzle one night but not so bad that things were damp. The next night the wind came up, it was nice to go to sleep with the sound of the wind blowing thru the pine trees. And the stars at night were dazzling. It is a trip that we will do again.

      

   

   

Backpacking

Late July we started on a series of trips-as opposed to vacations, we decided when retired that these excursions are now to be referred to as trips. This backpacking trip was about a year in the planning. I think it was my son-in-law's idea and it was a great one. About 16 years ago Mr WAU and I took the kids from our church's high school group backpacking. We did this 2 years in a row. Each year it was about 15 kids and for many this would be their first backpacking trip. My son-in-law (then not my son-in-law) came on the second trip. It would be one of the events that helped my daughter and him to become a couple and to eventually get married. From this second trip many friendships were forged and we wanted to experience that again with some of the same people-only now they are all grown up and have families of their own. So the idea was to invite some of the same people plus add more family and friends to the mix and go to the same location. My brother and his partner even came-it was special to be able to camp with my brother-we hadn't done that since we were kids. That meant a long road trip for some of us as this place was in California, at Lower Rock Lake in the Grouse Ridge area of the Sierra Nevadas. People came from Oregon, southern California, and the Sacramento area. We ended up with 17 people on this trip. It was nice to go again and not have to be in charge of a bunch of high schoolers. This lake has a large open meadow near the lake that we knew would be good for this trip. Just in case, one of our group went up the weekend before and checked it out to make sure the camping was still good. We had 4 different waves of people come up, each grouping had organized themselves for departure times that worked for them.  Mr WAU and I joined up with 4 others to be the first to get there on Thursday. We wanted to make sure that we would get the same spot we had 16 years ago and it worked. As the day went on others would show up. The trail to get there was not complicated to follow and it was not a technical trail, in fact most of it was a wide road into the wilderness. So it was pretty easy for everyone to find where camp was set up. Even my grandkids made the trek, 7 years old and 3 years old, carrying what they could in their own packs-their daddy taking the rest of their supplies. To encourage the grandkids I set up a "sign" for them on the trail. I took large sticks and made initials of their first names in the path. I did it in about 3 different places. Their parents said it really helped. Some of the group came in the dark and we put lights out on the end of the trail for them. And this time again, it was the first backpacking trip for some of the people. It was a great time. We hiked, swam, ate, fished, and just relaxed in hammocks-we had a lot of hammocks.

Our hike in on Thursday

Me and my brother

    

Grandkids initials                 Grandkids

   
Hammocks                                      City of tents