Aug. 1- 31: I've settled into the routine of campground life. On Mondays I do campground rounds in the early morning and then spend most of the day picking up trash. There are three miles of road and 200 campsites here. I walk every foot of road and wander through any unoccupied campsites. I'm sure I walk 4 miles on a normal trash pickup day. Campground rounds consist of riding through the campsite(using our GEM electric car) checking camper registrations, removing cards from campsites where people are leaving and putting out cards for incoming campers. We have 6 loops of campsites that can be reserved and two loops of first-come-first-served campsites. It is easy to spend 4-5 hours on morning rounds. Of course, while we make rounds we have many people with questions and radio calls from the Visitor Center to deal with. We use plastic cards to identify reserved sites, every day we write out the reservation cards for three days ahead. This can entail writing out over 100 cards and placing these cards out in the campground.
Here's Martin and Darlene, campground rangers, making rounds in the GEM car.
Here's a photo of reservation cards ready to go out to the campground and be posted at individual campsites. Making sure the reservations are posted correctly and current is a big job.
Here's a reservation card on a campsite post.
Tuesday and Wednesday there is only one campground ranger on duty(usually Darlene) and I spend most of time working with her. On Thursday there are two rangers on duty so I spend more time on trash pickup.
We had some road work done and I got to spend some time helping visitors during the disruptions. Most visitors were very understanding, but as usual there were a few unhappy souls to deal with. By far, the vast majority of visitors here are pleasant and appreciative. There is always a small number of people who can find something to be unhappy with. I have learned over the years that I have a much higher tolerance for inconvenience than the average person.
I get Friday through Sunday off. However, I live in a campsite with a sign identifying me as the Camp Host. That means I can get questions at any time, including nights. I usually like to take one long hike on Friday or Saturday. Other off time is spend doing laundry, going to town(Packwood) for groceries or to the library for Internet. I think I've adjusted to living without phones, Internet, radio or TV. I need to drive out four miles to get a Verizon signal for phone or Internet.
My campsite is near the Visitor Center and across the road from the Ohanapecosh River. The river rapids provide a constant background noise. When I first got here I was frequently wondering what device the "static" was from. As August progressed I became to realize the noise was the river and the sound decreased as the river level fell. When I got here in July I did not see any American dippers in the river. As August progressed it appeared the dipper use of the river here in the campground increased.
The photo below was taken from the campground bridge looking upstream. My campsite is off to the right a short distance.
The weather has been fantastic here. We've had some days in the 90s, but most days have been in the 70s and 80s. At the end of the month(31st) we got the first fall rain and the campground was almost empty. Of course there are days with clouds when visitors cannot see Mt. Rainier. There have been days when we were socked in with clouds here at Ohana(1900 ft. elevation) and the mountain was clear when we got to Sunrise. There have been other days when we had a clear view of the mountain from Sunrise or White River Campground in the morning and had the mountain turn cloudy in the afternoon. Winds at the level of the forest floor rarely are significant. I sometimes see the tops of the trees swaying and there is only a gentle breeze at ground level.
From my campsite I have a very restricted view of the sky. My normal morning routine includes walking over to the bridge about 100 yards away and looking up to see what the weather is doing. Backbone Ridge is west of the campsite and in cloudy/rainy weather will have varying levels of clouds. The ridge to the east will often be clear, while Backbone is socked in. If it is cloudy I need to use lights in my trailer even during the day. The forest canopy effectively filters out much of the sunlight.
This photo is a typical view of the forest at Ohanapecosh. The Douglas-fir are 4 to 6 feet in diameter and around 200 feet tall. The western hemlocks are smaller in diameter but still about the same height. Very little sunlight reaches the forest floor. I often had to turn on lights during the daytime.
During August we again had contractors in the campground. We had difficulty getting the road painting completed because of the start of fall rains. The project was finally completed on October 2nd. After the painting was done I went through the campground and removed the plastic reflectors the were marking the areas that needed painting.
September 1-30: The routine during September was essentially the same as August. Fall arrived slowly as the weather began to cool and become wetter. The vegetation also changed as flowers disappeared, leaves changed color and mushrooms appeared. After Labor Day weekend we closed the campground across the bridge. The maintenance crew winterized the comfort stations over there and we cleaned up all the campsites. With only loops A, B and C open there are still around 90 campsites available. During the week when it was rainy we had as few as nine sites used per night. On the nice weekends there were 20-30 sites occupied.
October 1-11: During October the fall rains began in earnest. The weather alternated between rain/mist and beautiful fall days. The forest is almost completely shaded so the ground and roads do not dry out. The humidity was high and I had a hard time getting towels to dry inside the trailer and even had some mold growing in a storage compartment. I bought a small electric heater that I can run to help dry the interior.
The fall rains brought out the mushrooms. The Pacific Northwest(PNW) is famous for its wide variety of mushrooms and it is a well deserved reputation. I found my old favorite mushroom that we picked in Wisconsin, the honey mushroom. It turns out that few people in the PNW eat these mushrooms. Once I showed them to some other locals they tried them and were impressed with the taste. I also had the opportunity to sample white chantrelles and matsutakes.
Honey mushrooms growing on a tree.
Honey mushrooms in a pan.
Matsutakes on the grill with short ribs.
October 13: On October 13 I left Ohanapecosh for the season. The campground and Visitor Center closed on the 12th and we had completed our work on Monday. I stopped to get the wheel bearing repacked since they had not been done for a couple of years. I then drove down to Vancouver, WA where I will be staying with a friend.
This file was last modified on: