We Had Visitors!

This week we welcomed my sister, Mandi, and her boyfriend, Nathaniel, into our humble little home 😊

Preparing the Van

Thursday morning we left Mount Rainier National Park to head towards the Seattle airport to pick up Mandi and Nathaniel around 8 PM. We had a lot of chores we hoped to accomplish before they arrived. We needed to stock up on some groceries, do our laundry, fill and dump, and give the van a good cleaning. Between these things and the two hour drive to Seattle, we were busy the entire day. Soon after 8 PM we arrived at the airport to pick them up and then stopped for some Chipotle to feed the weary travelers. We spent the night about 20 minutes from the airport in the driveway of a Harvest Host. We were able to set up a tent for Nathaniel in the yard next to the driveway, and we sat outside and ate our dinner. One of the complications of this night was that we didn’t have access to a public restroom. With our “bathroom” having no privacy we had to come up with a way to provide some privacy for whoever was using the toilet. We figured out that we could just barely fit our toilet in between the seats in the front of the van. This way whoever needed to use the toilet could go to the cab of the van, close the sliding door between the cab and the back, and have a little bit of privacy. It worked fine but was definitely cramped quarters when you used the toilet!

Heading to Olympic

Friday morning we woke up fairly early, made some breakfast, and were on our way towards Olympic National Park. This drive was supposed to take about 2.5 hours, but because of traffic and various gas/bathroom breaks it took us about 4 hours. We enjoyed seeing the beautiful blue Crescent Lake upon our arrival. Our campground was located in the woods just off the lake. Once we were settled into our campsite, we decided to hike Mount Storm King - a popular, strenuous hike in the park. This hike was 4 miles round trip and climbed 2,100 feet of elevation. This meant that we were climbing over 2,000 feet of elevation in just 2 miles - which is extremely steep! I definitely struggled the most on this hike and thankfully the others were patient enough to let me lead the hike at my very slow pace. About 1.5 miles into the hike there is a sign that says “End of maintained trail.” Beyond that point, the trail was a little more precarious, right along the edge of a cliff. And eventually we reached a spot where the “trail” was so sandy and steep that ropes were set up to pull yourself up the trail. We went through about 4-5 rounds of these rope sections before reaching the summit. The end of the trail did provide a beautiful lookout over Lake Crescent below and the beautiful mountains around the area. After taking in the view and taking some pictures, we began our descent. When a trail is that steep, the downhill can be quite difficult too as your legs are working hard to keep steady and not slide down the mountain. We were all quite sweaty by the end of the trail. I commented one time when we were taking a break on our way down that when we all stood close together we smelled terrible! When we reached the bottom, Mandi had convinced us all that we should jump in the lake. We had no idea how cold the water would be but assumed it would be quite chilly. After changing into our swimsuits, we headed to a lake access close by, and took the plunge off the dock. The cold water was a shock at first but was actually quite refreshing once we got used to it. After our hike and quick dip in the lake, we ate some dinner and embarked on our first attempt at everyone showering in the van. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any campgrounds that had showers for Mandi and Nathaniel’s stay so we all took our turns cycling through the small shower in the van. It took a bit of time for us all to get showered and while one person was showering the rest of us would have to sit outside of the van - which normally wouldn’t be too bad but the mosquitoes were relentless!

Hole in the Wall

Saturday morning we woke up and were all excited to eat pancakes for breakfast. Trevor graciously offered to make us the pancakes but quickly realized that he had swapped the amounts for the pancake mix and water resulting in some VERY runny pancake mix. He added the remaining pancake mix but it didn’t make much of a difference and we had run out of flour just the week before. We tried to make a very thin pancake with the runny mix but it was just not going to work. So for the next 30 minutes, we worked on grinding up oats with Trevor’s small hand cranked coffee grinder to make enough oat flour to bring the batter to the right consistency. After much work, we ended up with some pretty delicious pancakes 😋 The reality of living in a van is that you have to get creative with your problem solving!

We learned very quickly the unfortunate part about Olympic National Park is that it is a very large park and a lot of driving is required to see the different areas. We decided that we would do a quick hike to Sol Duc Falls close to our campground and then drive to the coastal portion of the park - about 1.5 hrs away - and do a hike along the beach. We arrived at the beach mid-afternoon, ate a quick picnic lunch, and started a walk along Rialto beach to the Hole in the Wall - a hole in the cliff that juts out along the beach. After our walk along the beach we debated about driving to the Hoh Rainforest section of the park but we still had a long drive back to our campsite and eventually decided against it. We were a bit sad that we didn’t get to see this portion of the park but still definitely enjoyed our time in Olympic.

Fire Lookout

Our next adventure took us to Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest. A few months prior I had seen something about how there are some old fire lookouts in Washington that you can spend the night in for free. I did some research to find one that was close by our route and not too terribly difficult to get to. I settled on Park Butte lookout and Mandi and Nathaniel agreed to join us on this adventure. Sunday we spent nearly the entire day driving from Olympic to the Mount Baker area. Once we arrived at the trailhead the sun was starting to set but we wanted to get everything packed up so that we could hike out first thing in the morning. It took us a couple of hours to gather everything we needed and pack it all in our backpacks, but we got it all done. Since the fire lookout was first come, first serve, we wanted to get there as early as possible to secure a spot for the night. We agreed to wake up at 5 AM. After a short night of sleep, we quickly did our best to eat some breakfast and get ready to go. While we were getting ready, we saw a group of girls with some big backpacks start their hike about 30 minutes before us. We were hopeful they were planning to camp somewhere else along the trail. The hike up was a 4 mile hike with a little over 2000 feet of elevation gain. It took us a couple hours but we really enjoyed the beautiful wildflower meadows along the way. There was a lot of low fog so we weren’t able to see much into the distance. We finally reached the fire lookout just before lunch time and unfortunately found that the 3 girls ahead us had already set up in the fire lookout. Technically, the rules stated that the lookout is first come, first serve but no one can take exclusive use of the lookout. We had read online that up to 12 people had slept in the lookout previously so we were hopeful that we could still stay the night. We asked the girls if they would be willing to share with us and they seemed very hesitant. They eventually said they would be up for sharing with 2 of us but probably not all 4. We decided that Mandi and Nathaniel would sleep in the lookout and Trevor and I would sleep on the balcony of the lookout. After chatting for a bit about our plans, Mandi and Nathaniel decided that they would hike all the way back down to the van to get our tent for us to sleep in. We thought they were a little crazy, but I think they liked the extra challenge 😉 So while they hiked for the next few hours, Trevor and I sat on the balcony of the fire lookout and stared out at the clouds. Every once in a while, the clouds would clear just a bit and we would get a glimpse of the beautiful mountains around us. Around mid-afternoon, we hiked about a mile down the trail to a little campground area where Mandi and Nathaniel met us with the tent on their hike back up. We sat in this little meadow and ate lunch, napped, and relaxed until evening. The mosquitoes were pretty annoying in this area so Mandi and Nathaniel headed back up to the lookout a little before us and then we joined them with dinner. We sat out on the balcony and made our backpacking meals and enjoyed dinner. It started to get a little chilly, and Mandi expressed that she wasn’t real excited about sleeping in the lookout with some rowdy, drunk girls who weren’t very excited about sharing the space with them. Trevor and I knew the situation wasn’t ideal, the clouds hadn’t even cleared to give us any great views, and we debated for a bit about hiking back down to the van. We all decided that probably would have been the best option, but knew it was going to get dark soon and weren’t feeling great about hiking down in the dark so in the end we decided to stick it out. Trevor and I hiked back down to our campsite and slept fairly well in our tent although we definitely were a bit cold during the night. First thing the next morning, Mandi and Nathaniel woke us up on their way down and were very anxious to get back to the van. They had slept terribly because they were freezing cold the entire night. I felt terrible and we all quickly packed things up and hiked back down to the van. Overall, our fire lookout experience was very disappointing. It had a lot of potential but between the cold night, girls who weren’t super happy to share, and lack of views due to the clouds, the experience was definitely one we could have gone without. But we made memories nevertheless!

Next Up: North Cascades

After the hike down, we settled back into the van, made some breakfast and then got back on the road. We headed to North Cascades National Park about 3 hours away. Mandi and Nathaniel slept hard the entire drive - I’m sure they were quite grateful for a warm, comfortable place to sleep for a bit. When we arrived at the park, we had another hour before we could check into our campsite. We decided to do a quick and easy 2 mile hike that took us down to the river and then went to our campsite to nap. We all enjoyed a nice nap after several nights of minimal sleep. After our much needed naps, we decided to hike the Thunder Knob Trail. This trail took us up to a lookout that overlooks Diablo Lake. We enjoyed the bird’s eye view of the turqoise blue lake. By the end of the day we were all pooped and VERY much in need of showers so we took showers and headed to bed.

The next day we had planned to hike the Diablo Lake Vista Trail - a 7 mile trail. At this point in the week, my legs were so sore and tired from the many days of hiking so Trevor and I only hiked half the trail. Mandi and Nathaniel continued on a little farther than us but eventually decided the views were not that great and decided to turn back as well. We decided to do a little more relaxing the rest of the day and took naps, went down to the lake to dip our toes in the water, and went to bed early.

Thursday was our last day with Mandi and Nathaniel before they flew out at 10 PM that night. We decided to make the drive back to Seattle earlier in the day and spend a little time seeing things in Seattle. In Seattle, we went to a coffee shop and went to the Pike Place Market to walk around for a while. Before dropping them off at the airport, we stopped for dinner at a wood-fire pizza place. For some reason pizza just always tastes the best after some long days of hiking 😁 After our pizza, we said our goodbyes at the airport and Mandi and Nathaniel flew home through the night and Trevor and I drove about 2 hours back to North Cascades to spend the night.

Back on Our Own

Trevor and I spent the rest of the weekend in the North Cascades and enjoyed seeing some of the areas of the park we didn’t get to see with Mandi and Nathaniel, but we also enjoyed sleeping in and resting. We should have expected this, knowing how Mandi and Nathaniel operate in their day-to-day lives, but they kept us busy! They love to go go go and were happy to hike as much as possible this trip. It was definitely more hiking and activity than we are used to throughout the week so Trevor and I were quite pooped by the time they headed home.

We were so happy to have Mandi and Nathaniel with us for the week and are so grateful they chose to spend their time exploring with us! We had a lot of fun and made a lot of great (and a few not so great) memories! But I would be lying if I said it wasn’t also nice to have our van back to ourselves. We all learned quite quickly that the van feels extremely small with 4 people in it! Trevor and I intentionally packed the van in a way that we had a designated space for everything we brought with us. When there is clutter in the van, it can start to feel very claustrophobic and stressful. But with 4 people and all their stuff in the van for a week, there’s no way to avoid the clutter and overcrowding. You can ask Mandi and Nathaniel yourself, but I think it’s safe to say that long term van life is not their cup of tea, but we’re grateful they braved this experience with us.