Our trip to Douglas Fir Campground, Washington - May 2007...
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Jackie and I took the RV and all six cats and headed to the Douglas Fir Campground for the long, Memorial Day weekend in May. You can make reservations here. This campground was built by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) in the 1930s and is, as you can see here, a National Forest Campground. There are no electrical, water or sewer hookups in this campground. |
| This small campground has 30 sites (including the camphost site). We enjoyed this sign. Looks like they couldn't decide whether to list them from high to low or low to high. |
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This road leads down to mostly tent sites (or small class B sites). Some very nice sites on the river, though. |
| A few of the sites listed as "Back In" are actually laid out backwards and the only way to back in would be to drive down the road in the wrong direction. So we pulled in forwards. This was fine as it put our large windshield looking out to the river. |
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Here's the view we presented to the world. |
| The pull in driveway had a dip in the middle but we were able to straddle it and were pretty level with the jacks down. |
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Our site, number 12, sported a nice, new picnic tble unsullied by the usual vandals. Must of weighed half a ton, though. |
| And our site overlooked the North Fork of the Nooksack River. It doesn't get much nicer than this... |
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The campground has a great day use area featuring this moss covered picnic area with fireplace. It got a lot of use this weekend. |
| Our campsite overlooking the river gave us a great view of the frequent kayakers braving the cold and wild waters. This eddy across the river from us seemed to be a favored resting point on their trip downriver. The North Fork of the Nooksack River is rated class III waters which probably means something to those in the know but it looked cold and wet to us. |
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Here's a pair of them heading off again. I guess you gotta really trust your partner to put yourself in a kayak on whitewater with them... |
| Brightly colored kayaks and helmets are the order of the day. |
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Heading into whitewater just downstream and around the next bend... |
| A Robin decided to join us in our campsite. |
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As did this squirrel with the cone in his mouth... |
| Dozer would rather be out playing kitty games with the Robin and the Squirrel than sitting inside looking out. |
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This brightly colored centipede crossed the road while we were out on a walk. |
| Lots of wild strawberries growing around here, too... |
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There's a nice hike out of the campground called the Horseshoe Bend Trail. We decided to go walk the trail one day. The trail goes about 1 1/2 miles to a large bend in the river. You can go beyond but the trail becomes less distinct and more poorly maintained as it joins a power line right of way... |
| The first mile and a half are very nicely maintained, though.... |
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Lots of pretty views of the river as you walk along. |
| Moss abounds in the forest around here and these vine maples are sporting a heavy coating... |
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This fallen log had a mess of fungi growing along it as the forest reclaimed its fallen... |
| A closer look at the fungi decomposing the log.... |
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Someone put a lot of work into this stairway... |
| One of the pretty flowering plants we noticed beside the trail. Not sure what this one is called... |
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This flowering plant is called a "Bleeding Heart" and grows wild around here. |
| Lots of moss covered tress and plenty of ferns... |
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A nice boardwalk bridge over one of the small feeder creeks... |
| Another look at the river... |
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Lots of Trillium flowering at this time of year... |
| The river looking upstream towards the bend... |
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Sunday was race day. If you haven't heard of the SKi To Sea Race you can read more about it here. The race is an 80 mile relay race in which teams from all over the US compete in seven legs starting on Mt Baker and ending up on the South Side of Bellingham Bay. We walked out to see a few racing bike riders go by... |
| This lady seemed to be enjoying her ride. This leg of the race is 36 miles long and she had completed about 4 miles of it so that might explain her smile. Or, maybe she's just gritting her teeth! Other relay legs consist of mountain bike riding, kayaking, cross country running, downhill skiing and canoeing.. |
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This fellow's Tutu shows that many racers are here to have fun while competing in the Ski To Sea Race. He was a member of Team 491 enrolled in the "Family" Division and his team was called "Art For The Aged". He did his leg of 36 bike miles in 13 hours, 23 minutes and 52 seconds. Pretty damn impressive. There were lots of people along the way cheering on every rider that passed... |
| A last look at the Nooksack River before returning home on Monday. We've had a great time and have placed this campground on our list of places we'll visit again.. |
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