We’ve been heading to the Quilomene Wildlife Area in Central Washington for about 5 years now I think. I could be wrong. At any rate, it’s a place my friend Dan Cronin introduce us to as he’d been traveling out upon those hills for, well, more than 5 years. This story has many holes.
On to the adventure! Thursday July 3rd, 2008 was the first day of our adventure this year. Some of us in the group were able to leave a day early, so we did. Kim, Sabrina, Kenai and Yukon all piled into the 110 and were able to catch the 6:45pm ferry. The ferries have been a little off as of late so we took what we could get. We knew we’d be getting into camp around dark, but no need to fuss about it now. Packing for this trip was different. Both easier and different. All in all, I was more relaxed and didn’t fuss, which amazingly enough, led to me starting off in a way better mood than normal, despite a lot of the circumstances being the same (leaving latter than planned, last minute items coming up, that nagging “I left something behind” feeling).
There’s not much to report about the first day. A bit of route finding on the backroads of Ellendburg, but Kim had a good memory and got us to the right turn. We headed straight into camp with only one potty break along the road and scouting out some firewood that wouldn’t fit in the truck (Kevan later picked it up and brought it in). When we arrived at camp, the Millers already had a fire going, making for a warm greeting. This was my and our first attempt at setting up the rooftop tent in the dark. It was a bit difficult finding level ground but we settled on a pre-made site close to the fire. With the tent up and the cooking area setup, we were ready to relax by the fire and chat some until the weariness drug us off to bed. The first night in the tent with all three of us since a year ago, went well. Having a level spot helped a lot.
Then the thunder and lightning showed up. Whoa Nelly! Most of it was off to the North and East but some was on the other side of the hill to our West and coming towards us. The rain kicked in intermittently and the wind buffeted the tent, but she held fast and got us through the night. It wasn’t the best rest in the world, but I was very happy to be out camping with my family again.
And there are no pictures as we really didn’t take many the first day. It was mostly all road.
