We found a little gem in the super small town of Cathlamet (Cath-lam-et), Washington. The Elochoman Marina was a little farther west than we wanted to go but we are happy we found it. It’s a small little marina that also provides many options for campers. We chose a dry camping spot which wasn’t too bad for the price. We were happy to find a place right on the Columbia River and enjoyed some amazing sunsets. I was also able to do multiple loads of laundry and take showers in a nice big shower. They also had a huge book exchange offered in the office and we took advantage of that as well.
Our favorite thing was that River Mile 38 Brewing was within walking distance and although the website said they were closed, we saw the open sign blinking bright. I went to ask about the hours and if we could bring Gus to sit on the patio. The bartender said “bring the dogs, bring all the dogs. Inside, outside, we want to see them all.” How cool is that?
So we brought Gus into the bar and he did very well meeting other dogs and although he had a couple small accidents, we think the social time is really good for him. We were told they were open until 5 pm but when that time came and went and the bar was still packed full of locals, we stayed and enjoyed talking to many of them. They were curious how we ended up in their little town and we enjoyed learning about their community.
Monday we were bummed to learn that the local mechanic was too busy to take a look at the truck. After some phone calls, we drove 40 minutes east back to Longview and dropped the truck off at a diesel repair shop. They were the only ones in town that could look at the truck within the next day or two. We resigned ourselves to sleeping on the air mattress again and lived out of the trailer for the next two days. I don’t know how the Burnhams slept on that for a week but we appreciate that they never uttered a word of complaint. Rest assured, that thing is going away when we get home!
Tuesday was Craig’s 49th birthday! We drove to Astoria, Oregon which is a cool town that we discovered four years ago on our 15th Anniversary trip. We were happy that the sun was shining and enjoyed the short drive there. We went to Fort Stevens State Park and saw the Shipwreck of the Peter Iredale. There wasn’t much there to see but the beach was beautiful and it was interesting to think about how much was buried.
We headed to Buoy Brewing where Craig got a free beer thanks to a by the way mention that they were in the company of a birthday boy. Hey, unless you ask you never know.
We popped into Reach Break Brewery and the mention of a birthday got us nowhere. We did enjoy a nice conversation with a guy who lived in Washington, worked in Alaska and now lives in Reno. We ended up at Fort George Brewery, a favorite of ours, and made our way upstairs for beer and pizza. Again, just a quick mention that Craig was the birthday boy got him a beer on the house. We hadn’t been upstairs before and quickly realized it was busy, noisy and super hot. So after dinner, we ventured downstairs to the more pub like atmosphere and weirdly enough, Craig got himself another free birthday beer. It was a really fun day and I’m glad we could celebrate Craig somewhere that we really liked.
The truck was done Wednesday. Craig was correct and it was the front passenger wheel bearing. We had both sides done since we had never done them in the time we owned the truck. We got back to camp and put everything back together. It rained just briefly right when we got back but thankfully cleared up so we could finish repacking stuff and make ourselves a nice dinner and finish off some wine that the Burnhams left us.
We made our way to the Mt St. Helens Visitor Center and unloaded the Jeep there. We drove up to Johnston Ridge Observatory and were pretty amazed at the sight of Mt St Helens. We went into the Observatory and learned a lot about the May 1980 eruption of the mountain. We watched a short movie explaining the process of the volcanic eruption and saw actual footage of it. It was fascinating to read some of the stories of the people who were in the vicinity of the mountain when it erupted and how they survived. There was a lot of other great information about how they are tracking the seismic activity today.
We decided not to stay in the area. We didn’t find anywhere to camp that worked for us so we went back to the Gee Creek rest area on I5 where we had stayed before. After a few nice quiet days at the marina, we were okay with another night in a rest stop. It was definitely a very busy rest stop and louder than most.
We got up this morning excited to meet up with our friends Kristen and Randy. They made it to Bend, Oregon last night and were on their way this morning. We got to the campground about the same time and after a few hugs and happy tears, we enjoyed a beer together which we hadn’t done all together since 2015. They moved away a few years ago and although Randy gets back to Michigan for work, Kristen hasn’t been able to come back with him. We are looking forward to a great weekend with them!!
Hanging out with the Timmers…