Packwood Camping

Big surprise... we went camping again. This time we picked La Wis Wis, a few miles outside of Packwood. Initially, I was interested in heading down to Mt. Adams so we could say that we camped at 4 mountains this summer. But we wanted to keep the drive within a couple of hours for this trip, so we'll have to try for 4 mountains next year.

We arrived at the campground on Wednesday and found that it was mostly empty. We picked a nice spot near the Ohanapecosh River and set everything up. We spent the rest of the day exploring around the river and relaxing at the campsite. Logan was ready for bed shortly after dinner, and when he was settled in I baked a batch of brownies in the Dutch oven. Chris and Owen loved them.

Thursday was our day to run around. We wanted to drive up to White Pass but they were doing some roadwork so we turned around and headed toward Rainier. We wandered through the Ohanapecosh Campground to scout out potential sites for the future. We knew the Stevens Canyon road to Paradise was closed for the season so we drove up Cayuse Pass to 410 and back. We didn't really have a reason for doing that because it was overcast and the mountain wasn't out, but we really like the area and there were still plenty of wildflowers to admire.

We drove back into Packwood to pick up some fishing supplies. My sister bought Owen a pole last year and we haven't had a chance to use it yet, and we figured it was time to pull it out of the package. We drove to Packwood Lake but didn't realize it required a 5-mile hike each way from the parking lot, so we headed back to our campground to try our luck at the river.

We walked for quite a ways before finding a halfway decent spot to fish. I used to fish a lot at our cabin (catch and release only) but haven't done it in years. It took me a couple of practice casts before I had the timing down again, and I handed the pole to Owen. He's played the fishing game on our Wii a lot and gets the concept, however he wasn't cool with the "sit and wait" part. He thought it was much more fun to play the "make Mom cast and I'll reel it in" game. The fish were jumping but we didn't catch anything.

We went back to our campsite and grabbed our REI kid carrier. Our neighbor gave it to us recently and it's practically brand new, so we figured we'd give it a try. Logan loved being up high and Owen thought it was so funny that his brother was "in a backpack". We hiked down river until we reached a bridge, then turned around and headed back to our trailer. We probably put in 2-3 miles (didn't have my Garmin on me).

We had dinner and I started a fire. Logan was ready for bed so he didn't join us. A little while later Owen was asking to go to bed (which he does often when we camp) so we got him settled in. Chris and I sat by the fire until it went out, then headed to bed.

Friday morning we had breakfast, then Chris took the boys to play while I started to clean up. It's the best system before and after meals. He takes them to run around so I can prepare food and clean up in peace. I had most of the inside cleaned and packed up by the time they came back, and soon we were ready to break the trailer down and head for home.

The campground host had told us about an alternate route home via forest roads. Much of the drive was along Skate Creek so we stopped at a few places to fish. Again, no luck but we still had fun. There are tons of free campsites along the creek that we might head back to one of these days.

We arrived home and both boys fell asleep, meaning we did a good job of tiring them out! The trip was awesome and I'd like to say it was the best trip of the summer, but I say that about all of our trips. And we're not done yet... still thinking of heading out again in October. Having this trailer is totally awesome!