The long road of mushroom and mice
Back on the Interstate, our first objective after a long day on dirt was to get out from under the rats and mice, which meant fuel and a comfy place to sleep. Enter Volition Brewing Company in North Bend, Washington. Thanks to Kerri’s careful planning to renew our Harvest Host membership, we stayed there for free (free, but for the cost of a few beers, a pizza, and some pinball) for a night. The night went smoothly enough, except for the confirmation that our mouse problem was not resolved after the sound of scurrying in the night.
In the morning, Kerri dictated that we must eat at the local diner across the street, Twede’s Cafe. Twede’s appeared in Kerri’s favorite show, Twin Peaks, so we ate breakfast there while we mulled over our path for the next week.
We chose to head back to Gifford Pinchot National Forest. One dirt road cuts through the forest north to south, known as a backcountry byway. These backcountry roads have been good to us in the past, with good camping and spectacular views along the way. But first came a whole lot of asphalt, around the east side of Mt. Rainier, before we finally connected with the dirt and gravel of the forest road. We planned to take our time. With a couple of weeks before the next family commitment, we would slow-crawl our way south around Mt. Adams toward the Columbia River. We were lucky to have a plan of “slow,” because the road insisted on it. It wasn’t a difficult 4×4 road when it came to obstacles, but the potholes and washboard kept us well under 25 miles per hour. We found plenty of places to camp further along the route, but we moved more often than we stayed multiple days at any one spot. Part of that was the lack of sunlight through the tree cover, which hurt the solar panels and meant we had to drive to keep the batteries topped off.
We pulled up to a small lake where we hoped to stay a few nights. We were the only ones camping out there, though others passed through a few times a day. It was nice to sit still again. Unfortunately, each night was spent at war. I set all of our mouse traps before bed, and it wouldn’t be long before the snap of one, then another, then another. Over two nights, five (!!!) more mice were slaughtered and kicked out the back door. By the end of our stay, we had a pile of corpses outside and the van was rid of mice once again. I assume the cold is pushing them to look for a warm cave to call home for the next few months, and we must have parked Marcel right on top of a whole gaggle of them. For the record, that’s 7 mice and 1 pack rat in just the last week.
We eventually found a mediocre place with a large opening in the trees for the sun to hit our panels, and parked there for a couple of days. The location was nothing special, just what appeared to be an old rock quarry, but it was clear of evergreens, so the big panels could soak it in. Kerri and I both set about getting work done for a couple of days. On the second night, though, the forecast called for possible snow overnight, since we were above 4,000 feet and all. Not a big deal to us. Marcel can handle snow, both as a home (we have a furnace) and as a vehicle (he’s a big four-wheel-drive van). The snow arrived overnight and was still falling when we woke. The one to two inches added some nice flavor to the morning and made for a few interesting photos to boot, though it was as cold as it looked.
That same morning we continued south, the snow abating after just a few hundred feet of lower elevation. We tried our best to find another spot that would let us stay a couple of days and work, but once again the tree cover prevented longer stays. It was fairly late in the afternoon when we pulled into a nice lakeside spot. It was perfect, but for the tree cover again, and decided to manage it as long as we could. We leveled Marcel out as best we could, with a view of the lake out the windows for Kerri. Then we explored the immediate area: Kerri for mushrooms, me for whatever weird objects previous campers had left behind (toilet paper and poo, mostly). Kerri came back to the van with a handful of ‘shrooms and a smile. It’s the whole reason we came back to this forest.
As is customary, once Kerri shows me a mushroom, I start seeing them everywhere. So I returned from one exploration with a large one in hand, and Kerri beamed. We both got out to explore where I’d found it, and we found even more. By the end of that afternoon, Kerri had more mushrooms in the van than she could eat in a week. This was getting out of hand.
