I talked to one of the camp hosts while we were at Kalaloch (which is National Park Service) and they were going to be there for 4 months--from mid May until Labor Day. They work 4 days on and then have 3 days off to do whatever they please. Working equals checking to make sure the sites are clean and driving around in a cute little electric cart selling firewood. She was happy that it wasn’t ‘hard work’ like at some locations and was thrilled to be at Kalaloch for that long.
In any case, we hung out in the trailer mostly and watched the parade of kids and people as they trooped by all afternoon. It was sunny and warm so there were lots of people out playing. After dinner we took a walk though the campground over to the day use area there was a high school graduation party going on.
The Verizon cell phone signal was so weak here that the hot spot barely worked at all with the signal wafting on and off. So on Sunday morning we took a drive back towards the highway and found a quiet place to check our email. The hot spot sure works like a dream even when it doesn’t get a strong signal. We’re now thinking that a signal booster might be a nice solution for all of these places we camp with marginal signals. Still no Sprint signal for our cell phone though.
When we got back from our drive we decided to take the 1-mile hike that starts across the river from the main portion of the park. You take the bridge that goes over the East fork of the Satsop River.
In the grassy open area where the trail starts I found these sweetbrier roses (Rosa eglanteria) blooming in big thickets.
The trail led through a nice wooded area with maples, hemlocks and Doug firs. Here and there we found Coast Manroot (Marah oreganus) twining through the understory. It has leaves like a grape vine and these strange little white flowers to assure you that they are NOT grapes.
There were also huge expanses of twinflower (Linnaea borealis) another flower that I saw for the first time when we were in Alaska.
I spotted Columbia lilies (Lillium columbianum) in bud early on in the hike but didn’t find one in bloom until we were almost done.
The trail eventually meets the river and you get several nice views of it before you’re through. And Walter found a bench to sit on too.
Just before the loop trail ended I found this wood rose (Rosa gymnocarpa) in bloom. They’re not very big flowers but still fun find in the woods.
After a damp morning and a cloudy early afternoon, the sun came back out which mad things kind of humid. Walter fell asleep sitting in the sun and then retreated to the bed for a REAL nap.
We’ve been living in the trailer now for 3 weeks and find it very comfortable and easy to live in. We’ve unwound from the move and are both actually pretty rested now.