Saturday, July 18th – Sunday, July 19th 2015: Washington – Oregon: positiv wherever I look….

Note: this post should have been online already 2 days ago... but in the land of unlimited possibilities it is hardly possible to find a campground with a decent WiFi (though they advertise it).... after more than 4 hours for uploading 6 pictures (with just few pixels) I gave it up....

Rainbow Falls - Mt. St. Helens - Neskowin (appr. 430km)

After a really quiet night at a state campground I started driving a bit earlier than usual. I wanted to visit Mount St. Helens and see what the massive vulcanic eruption from 1980 looekd like today. I took only small sidestreets – some gravel – and had a not-planned stop in a little village: a parade was going on and the traffic just stopped from fierce looking sheriffs ;-) no idea what the parade was about but it had funny cars, beauy queens, military vehicles AND a representation from the Swiss Association district St. Helens. With about 32°C not really ideal to wait more than an hour in the sun in complete motorcycl gear but it was really funny and anyway I rather get used to hot temperatures….

 

The landscape around the Vulcan Mt. St. Helens was absolutely impressing: complete hills where the trees still lying on the ground like matches;just underneath the vulcan tha valley was covered 15 meters of ash. And still: nature was back, faster than they had expected.

 

On the way back towards the oceanside I drove just small roads but breathtaking: 90km through forest and along the river. Many americans spend the weekend camping and picknicking on a state campground or at the river; havig a good time with friends and family.

As there had been many campgrounds on my map I did not reserve a campsite in advance as I had no idea how far I would manage to drive that day. Now that was a big mistake: village after village, campground after dampground: „no vacancy“, „full“. At the end I was just too tired to drive o and took the first motel that had a free room: what a luxury sleep that night ;-)

 

As it was Sunday I did not get on the road early; enoyed a nice strong coffee and then drove on along the coast; I was wondering about the dunes that should show up in about 100km‘s distance.

WOW! That was really special: look to the left you had a cleraly blue little „mountain lake“ surrounded by forest and looking to right the ocean and these huges dunes. I took the chance and rented a quad for an hour. Had quite some problems at the beginning as I always wanted to put my left foot down when stopping; or the gas was just a little „Hebel“ and not as what I was used. Nevertheless after some time it was getting quite fun. Though: I clearly prefer a bike and I am clearly too anxious to have really fun and race along the dunes. Once I was just lucky because I did not see (getting sort of snowblind even with the sunglasses) and had a vertical drive down a bit too direct and fast. Pure luck that I did not roll over. So I slowed down (I do know that this is completely wrong in the sand) as I absolutely did not want to risk any blessures. But it was worth a try anyway….

 

Again I found a really decent campground (with hot tub) and ended up with cooking a delicious risotto with nuts and fresh vegetables…. As you can see my cooking skills improve the longer the journey lasts ;-)

The most difficult and exhausting part oft hat day?? talking with a canadian-french speaking family in the hot tub. But interesting anyway…. And the kids know now where Switzerland is and why French sounds completely different to theirs.