Birthday Celebrations and Close to Home Trips

My birthday was in August. I’d planned to celebrate it camping with friends. We made our reservations back in February. I got up early to be online the minute reservations opened up at Big Lake out near Sisters, Oregon. We were only able to get one site, but needed three for our big group. That’s how reservations go in Oregon on August weekends. Especially on a popular and beautiful lake.

I made myself a one-night reservation for earlier in the week, so I could go up and potentially snag a first come, first serve site for the rest of our group for the weekend. But none of that happened. Instead, our reservations got cancelled because of wildfire in the area. I guess that’s also how reservations go in Oregon in August these days. A new sad reality.

So, we made the most of it. We were planning to go spend time on my friend’s property, a place I love. But when the weather forecast was over 100—with no shade and the closest water a mile away, we decided to scrap those plans as well.  Instead, we had found a friend who was out of town who let us use her backyard pool. A good old fashioned pool party! I’d forgotten how much fun it is to just splash around in a pool, throw balls around and float on pool noodles.

Sunset Falls

To end the weekend, I made myself a one-night reservation at Sunset Falls on the Lewis River in Washington, just an hour from my home. I’ve been to a few different swimming holes on the Lewis River. This was my first to Sunset Falls. The day use area, which is about a quarter mile from the campground,  was crowded with families playing in the water, jumping off rocks and hanging out in blow up floaties.

The shore of the river is rocky and slippery and Olive had a difficult time making her way down the bank. Once she got in the water, she didn’t want to move. She stood there and I waded around for about an hour watching the daredevils and kids jump off the rocks into the water below.

The campground has 10 pull though sites and 8 walk in tent sites. There was only one other occupied pull through site when I arrived. A few others were reserved and campers came in later. I decided to move to one of the open, unreserved sites because I liked it better.

Although we were above the river, you could not access from the campsite. There was a path near the entrance of the campground to get down to the river. When I first arrived, there was a large group, looked like several families down there. I went back in the evening after dinner and Olive and I had the place to ourselves. She was pretty tired out by this time and couldn’t navigate the rocky terrain too well. On our way out, she tripped and hurt herself and cried like the dramatic malamute that she is.

She limped back to our campground, her ego a little bruised, my heart a tiny bit broken. It’s hard to see her struggle.

Birthday on the River

I’m lucky there’s a river near our home with a sandy shore, gentle slope and shallow wadable water. She seems to come to life there. She loves to just stand up to her chest in the water and let it flow over her. I spent a few hours of my actual birthday there. Olive even did a little digging in the sand. She has a hard time getting in and out of the car, I have a ramp now, but I will make sure to give her as many of these river visits as I can.