When you've got wildcrafting goals and camping goals, and only so many weekends, sometimes you just have to multitask it. We did just that a few weekends ago on a camping trip down to Cape Blanco State Park on the southern Oregon Coast. We had been talking about picking spruce tips for a while, and noticed that on the coast, they were coming out in full force. With another batch of our spruce ...
Camping
Cabin Camping at Cape Lookout State Park
Every February, we meet up with my brother and his family for a camping trip on the Oregon coast. We found a couple of state parks about half way in between for us between Seattle and the Eugene area, and have been enjoying time there together as our families grow and change. This has been a tradition for about 5 years now, and one I look forward to all year. We started out yurt camping ...
Wilderness Campsite
September and October are my favorite months to spend time in the backcountry. Days are warm, nights are cool and crisp, the summer crowds are gone, and it feels good to soak up some time outdoors before winter sets in. It is also the busiest time of year on the homestead with harvesting, preserving and storing the fruits of our labor and tucking things in for the colder months. Sometimes I manage ...
A Plethora of Pumpkins
When we went out to do a little work in the garden this weekend, we found quite a surprise hiding under the pumpkin vines and nasturtiums. Not only were the pumpkins ripe early, there were a lot more of them than we were expecting! The Magic Lantern, Goosebumps, Cinderella and Small Sugar pumpkins we sowed in the spring had become such a jungle that we weren't really sure what was going on in ...
Riverside Camp
At the end of a hot August day, camped out by the river is the best place to be. My newest needle felted wall hanging is a McKenzie River camping scene, with a crackling campfire at sunset and the Three Sisters watching over. With the recent heatwave, we've been exploring good riverside campsites and have found some gems. Last weekend, we traveled over the mountains to the Metolius River and ...
Camping at Crane Prairie Reservoir
When I asked my kids where they wanted to go camping to kick off the first weekend of summer, I was pleased to hear a definite favorite and immediate vote of Crane Prairie Reservoir. Located along the Cascade Lakes Highway south of Bend, it's a destination we've camped at many times over the years, and the primitive Forest Service campsites with sweeping views of the Three Sisters and Mt. ...
Stories of Sibling Shenanigans
Continuing on with a tradition that began when we were in diapers, my brother and I met up for our annual family camping last weekend. Having hiked, biked, camped, rafted, backpacked and explored together for over three decades, we certainly have some stories to tell, and it's a lot of fun now that we're parents getting our own kids in on some of these family shenanigans. We ...
A New Year, a New Adventure
Ringing in the New Year with an outdoor adventure is a good way to start things off, so we ventured out to the coast to spend the first days of 2015 yurt camping, dune sledding and playing on the beach with friends. We began our New Year's adventure sharing a 30-foot deluxe yurt at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park with some old friends. We have been camping together with our kids for many years ...
A Fall Fire Lookout Adventure
Of all the great places around Oregon to have a weekend getaway in the outdoors, I have found fire lookout towers to be one of the finest. Over the last decade I have stayed in a number of them all over Oregon, in every configuration of company. Sometimes I have gone with my family, sometimes with friends, sometimes as a getaway with my adventure partner, and even once by myself, and every single ...
Camping on the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway
The longest day of the year is an excellent time to soak up the sunshine while camping out beside a lake, and the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway between Bend and Willamette Pass offers some of the finest lake camping I have yet to discover. With 14 Alpine lakes offering a range of camping options from boat-in sites, unimproved Forest Service camping, campgrounds and a couple of lodges, there is ...