August-September, 2022
Later this morning, I walked around the campground close to where I was camped, and discovered a single-track road that led off into the woods.
Where does that go? I checked my maps and even checked Google Earth … the road doesn’t show up anywhere. Well, that meant I needed to find out.
So I jumped into the big white truck and proceeded to drive out that road.
First, the road passed by the RVs that were stored here (photo below), just to the north of my campsite. I don’t know why the word “APPLES” is on the gate to that storage lot. If I find out, I’ll let you know.
After that, the single-track road continued through the woods …
It was beautiful! There were occasional wide spots in the road where two vehicles could pass in opposite directions. Eventually the road split, the left fork was still the same type of dirt road but it eventually connected to a paved road. The right fork is the one in the photo below … it took you down, right down to the edge of the river. Literally, you could drive right up to or into the river. So I drove down there!
I parked (nope didn’t drive into the river), then walked back up and took the photo below of where the big white truck was parked.
Besides that huge tree trunk next to my truck, there was another huge tree trunk just upriver a bit.
Turn your sound on for the video.
The water was so clear, so clean!
The photo below looks to the left, downstream, heading north to the Nisqually delta and then to the salt water of Puget Sound.
While I was exploring along the edge of the river, I heard noise from the land. It sounded like a train … but, out here? in the woods, along the river? Well trains have to travel on railroad tracks where the tracks take them yes? Watch up in the trees in the video below. Amtrak came rumbling past on it’s way south to Oregon, and then to California.
I poked around there along the river a bit, sat on that tree trunk for awhile and listened to the birds and enjoyed the sunshine. But then I got hungry for lunch and so headed back to the Riverbend Campground and my campsite and my trailer.
Here’s a video of a little part of the drive back through the woods, with the river to the left.
This was another one of those outings you don’t plan, because you don’t know it’s there. But you go exploring and come across some great finds. I really liked this one.