Karla's Blog

September 7, 2021

Our next stop was at a property in Cascadia, OR, where we had a reservation for 3 nights. The drive on Highway 20 to get there was gorgeous, albeit twisty, turny and bumpy. 

We stopped at one point to stretch our legs and let the boys have a potty break and it was just so pretty!

Lots of moss on the trees in this area and we later learned that this moss is a parasite (like mistletoe), where it takes over and eventually kills off the tree :-(. Pretty and deadly, what a combination.

We finally reached our destination and found that the property was RIGHT ON the highway!!! OMGosh . . . so dangerous. There wasn’t a good place to walk the dogs other than in these folks’ yard where Rex just wanted to water all their vegetables and flowers. The number of big rigs driving this highway was mind boggling and they, and lots of passenger cars, flew by at 55 or faster.

Anyway, we got settled in and realized that we had no cell signal and no internet. This was not good. That evening Larry drove a mile down the road to get a signal so he could answer some calls and texts. While he was gone I started noticing that the “energy” in this place didn’t feel good. I felt unsettled and queasy and just generally uncomfortable. When he returned we talked about my uneasy feeling and the lack of communications and decided that we would cut our stay short and leave the next day.

The next morning I needed to take the boys for a walk so we went to the edge of the highway and I just watched for breaks in the traffic. It was quite unnerving but we made it work. Then we packed things up, said goodbye to our hosts and continued on.

We didn’t know where we would stay that night but just trusted that we would find something. That had worked pretty well so far. We drove along the 20 for a bit and saw a sign for Sunnyside Campground, which is a State Park in Foster, OR only 5 or 6 miles from Cascadia. There was a sign that said CAMPGROUND FULL but we decided to try anyway. 

Hallelujah!!! There was space available! EHAW!!!! So we secured a spot for 3 nights.

After we got settled we took the dogs and wandered around. It’s a huge campground on beautiful Foster Lake. After a bit we came across this amazing and beautiful path that I fell in love with! It was enchanting!

What made it even more amazing was seeing the lake and it’s gorgeous turquoise color through the trees!

BREATHTAKING!!!!!

At the end of the path we found a dirt trail that continued on. Larry asked “Can you do it?” I replied “Let’s do it!” He was happy about that. Can you tell? Although my legs were healing they were still painful and I was still limping. However I wanted to push them a little so we continued on and we were glad we did. Soooo gorgeous!!!

We eventually came to the end of the trail where a bridge crosses the lake. This is the road that takes you to the park.

But the lake continues on way past the bridge.

By the second day we decided that this would be a good place to stay for a while for some much needed R & R. On the 4th day we moved to another space that had more shade and settled in for a two week stay. What a good move this was! Every day we explored and found different areas to poke around. The boat launch and moors were cool.

But, since we’re not boaters, they didn’t hold much interest for us. What did catch our attention was the massive amount of blackberry bushes throughout the park! OMGosh! They were EVERYWHERE!

So, being blackberry lovers, we had to pick some. One for the bag, two for me LOLOLOL!

The next morning Larry used muffin mix and the fresh picked berries to make a beautiful breakfast “cake”. It was so delicious! The following week we did it again :-D.

There were some nice sunsets too.

We found out there was a dog park so one day we took the boys over there so they could be off the leash, run around, sniff and pee to their hearts’ content. So, here they are . . .

I guess this is what makes their hearts content. Love those boys!  😉

Our last night was the Friday before Labor Day. We were glad to be leaving because:

1. Cell service here sucked and we would have to drive to the nearby town of Sweet Home to get decent internet.

2. The air was getting smokey from the fires raging around Oregon.

3. Although the campground is nice and peaceful (and not full) during the week, come Thursday it starts filling up so there’s constant traffic of all kinds. By Friday the place was super packed and apparently, on Labor Day weekend, all rules go out the window. There were dogs off the leash and poop bombs were showing up all over the place. There was no respect for the quiet hours (10pm – 7am). Friday night was a free-for-all with at least four different kinds of loud music playing simultaneously (rap, heavy metal, etc.), colorful flashing lights (I guess that’s a thing) and loud partying throughout the park until at least 1:00 am. Despite all that, we slept reasonably well but, knowing that it would likely only get worse, we were quite ready to pull up stakes and head out the next day. So on Saturday we dumped the tanks and boogied on down the road. Boogie oogie oogie . . .

Next stop . . . Glide, Oregon.