Mount Baker In The Fall

We are on a short outing in the motor home.  Wanted to get away for a few days before Arly's radiation treatments start.  Also wanted to investigate some of local Thousand Trails parks.  That investigation was a disappointment.  These parks facilities are not a good fit for our motor home.  They are older and tend to not have a big enough electrical service. Although they technically  take reservations they do not reserve any particular site, they are fist come first served.  For someone like us with a larger rig that means we can get there and not be able to find a site we can fit in to.  In the summer that would be a common occurrence.  Thousand Trails is clearly intended for folks with smaller rigs and those who are camping.   We knew the limitations our larger motor home would create when we bought it so no complaints.  After leaving the Birch Bay Thousand Trails we came to the Cedars RV park near Ferndale.  This park has much larger sites and all the hook ups we need.  We can also get a satellite signal here where most of the TT sites had too many trees.

We had hoped to go to Canada for a day but a shooting at the Blaine border crossing had the border closed there so we scrapped that idea to stay away from the mess that created.  Instead we made a side trip up to Mount Baker.  Baker itself was shrouded in clouds but its neighbor Mount Shuksan was pretty clear so got a few good shots.  Pleasant enough day with no rain. 

CLICK TO ENLARGE ANY PICTURE

Hopefully The Last Medical Report

The pathology report came back showing the surgeon got all the cancer. I will begin radiation therapy (five days a week for seven weeks) beginning around Oct. 22nd. I opted to not go the chemo route as it only lessened the chances for reoccurance by 2%. My doctor concurred with my decision. I will begin hormone therapy in December, for ten years.

The PET scan showed benign tumors (hemangiomas) in my vertebrae which may never present a problem. My medical oncologist said since I will be seeing him for ten more years, if I develop problems, he would take care of it for me. 

Surgery was a week ago but I am still a bit sluggish. This is not like me--I usually bounce back quickly after surgery. But my sweet Walter reminded me, gently, that I am not as young as I used to be. I may get touchy once I begin the hormone treatments--he may need to watch himself...

We are hoping to get the motorhome out for about ten days beginning Oct. 10th, before I start the new job of radiation every day.  We will probably go north up to Birch Bay and La Connor.  I have been feeling ripped off because we had to scrap our trip to the Redwoods and Napa this month.  Birch Bay isn't quite the same but it will do.

Medical Update

I received wonderful news before going into surgery yesterday.  The surgeon told me he looked at the PET scan from the day before an there was no evidence of cancer anywhere in my body except the left breast.  He said the spots in my vertebrae are benign tumors and as long as they don’t get heavy enough to compress my discs they will leave them alone.

The surgery went well except there was one more tiny, cancerous looking lesion hiding behind the larger one.  The doc had to remove more tissue than expected, down to the muscle in one area. 

This morning I am only slightly uncomfortable—a nice surprise!  Today I will allow Walt to wait on me though.  Tomorrow he may need to tie me down…

Love you all!  The prayers and good vibes you all sent my way made a huge impact on my peace level—it was incredible how I could just “let go” of all anxiety and rest in the knowledge God was in control.   
THANK YOU!

Biopsy report

Well, the good news is they didn't find any cancer cells related to the breast cancer having spread to the bones. The bad news is they didn't find anything outstanding which may mean they didn't hit the right spot. I will be scheduled for a PET scan. The scan will hopefully be done before next Tuesday, when I have surgery, so I am thinking maybe Monday. The results won't be in until the 26th--so when I have it done is irrelevant. Next stop--surgery on the 18th. I appreciate your notes of encouragement and the prayers. I have been feeling so calm and at peace through this ordeal that people have commented how I am "unreal." I attribute that to all the prayers and good vibes being sent my way. Love you all!! Arlyene

Breast Cancer Diagnosis (Fall trip plans scrapped)

The radiation oncologist's office had a wall rack display of brochures for a variety of types of cancer; rectal, mouth, brain, etc. I thought as I surveyed the brochures, "If I were to have to choose a brochure it would be the one on breast cancer (it could be way worse)." The two lumps I have in one breast are very small, classified as slow growing (level 1) and will be receptive to hormone therapy. The only bad news is the cancer was invasive, which means it had spent some time outside the duct, infiltrating the nearby tissue. I am scheduled for a segmental resection on September 18th, followed by weeks of radiation. Today I was thrown a curve ball--they have found spots on my spine. At the moment the plan is to biopsy the biggest spot (there are one to two spots on practically every vertebre)to determine if they are cancer or something else (?). I will use the blog to post updates. Please pray for me! I am hanging in there fine because I am supported with the peace from prayers, and from the clear message from God, "Settle in, don't be anxious, trust me!"

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Last Post For This Trip

It's over.  We are parked back at Lake Pleasant. 

They were thoughtful enough to arrange a welcoming committee for us.

Always nice to be greeted by fellow Quackers.

Almost Over

This trip is almost over.  On our last two nights out here, "camped" near the Toutle River.  We are about 125 miles from home at Lake Pleasant.  Heading that way this weekend.  We have had a great time and saw a lot of cool stuff and been able to visit with family.  Just over six weeks.  We are ready to turn around and head out again if only we could.  I guess it is time to start planing a fall trip.

Back Near Eugene

Click Here for Slide Show

Not to compete with Arlyene's video but here are a few still pictures in slide show format that represent the highlights of what we saw on this trip.  This is a YouTube slide show and lasts about 5 minutes.

We are now back in the Eugene area and have an appointment with Cummins in the morning.   All the fun stuff is over and what remains now is just the slog home up I-5.  Feels strange to be driving on regular freeway  after so many miles on two lane highways.

Today my friend Tammy and I ran the Happy Girls Half Marathon and 5K in Bend, Oregon. Tammy ran the half (13 miles)--yeah Tammy! I ran the 5K (3 miles)--came in second in the 65 to 69 age division. It was a fun race! Now for an icy cold beer.

Second place ribbon (33:47)

Tammy at the finish line

Video of our trip

Arlyene composed a three-minute video collage of our trip. You can click on this link to YouTube to watch the video. There is music (soothing--quite nice) so be sure to have your volume turned on.

LAVA BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT

Lava Beds National Monument was more interesting than we had expected.  Turns out we were in the middle of the largest volcano in the Cascades.  One can just barely see the one side of the rim from the other.  It was the Medicine Lake Volcano and the floor of the valley is miles across and populated with lots of volcanic formations.  It is also a significant place in the history of the "Indian Wars" that followed the Civil War.  It was in these lava fields that the Modoc Tribe made its last stand against the U S Army whose job it was to move them to a reservation in southern Oregon.   The Modoc chief was known a "Captain Jack" and his fortification in the lava fields was one of the places we visited today.  We also did a 2 mile hike to a place where the Modocs had a major battle victory over the Army - their last.

The other attraction to this area are a number of caves formed by the lava flows.  Some have ceiling as high as 80 feet.  We only went in to one.  I guess when you have seen one lava tube cave you have seen them all.  That's probably not true but we did not visit any of the other caves.  The one we visited was cold and damp and it takes a long time for ones eyes to adjust to the darkness.  If you like caves and bats however, this is a good place to visit.

This is not a National Park but a National Monument but it is still run by the park service.  It is pretty far off the beaten path so that combined with the fact that it is early in the tourist season made for no crowds as all.  I don't think we shared a parking lot anywhere with more than one other car except at the visitor's center. Wind, wind, and more wind made some of the hiking in the open or in higher places a little unpleasant.  That kept us from seeing more and kept me from taking more and better pictures.

Hiking back from viewing the battlefield.

Inside the lava beds in Captain Jack's stronghold.

Inside Cave - Pretty Dark Huh!

TIONESTA

Arlyene did the entire drive today of 112 miles to a place in north central California named Tionesta.  If you want to see exactly where we are click on the location link above for a Google map.   It is close to Lava Beds National Monument where there are supposed to be some pretty big caves.  We will go take a look tomorrow and maybe post some pictures if we see anything interesting.

THE SOLAR ECLIPSE

We picked our spot on the side of a logging road about 2 miles from our RV park the day before and then yesterday we took our camping chairs and a picnic dinner and the camera and set ourselves up for the big event.  We did not have the proper eye protection so we improvised.  When the big moment came we thought maybe we had gotten the time wrong or something.  Nothing was happening.  We resorted to the old trick of taking our binoculars and focusing them on a piece of what paper and sure enough there it was.  If we had not read about the eclipse we would have probably never noticed any difference.  However when I got to checking the camera it turns out I actually did sort of get a picture of it.

The next one in North America is in 2017.  I'll try to be better prepared if I happen to almost be on the exact center line like we were this time.

Mount Lassen

View of Mt Lassen from the apex of our off road trek today.

Well I can confirm Mt Lassen is still there.  When we got to the park entrance a sign said the road was closed at the 10 mile point.  Since Arly has the senior pass we went on in and drove to the end of the road.  It was closed at a point that had an interpretative trail and some reasonable views of the mountain.  Since there was nothing else to do in the park we head home and on the way I spotted a gravel road so we jumped on it.  A sign said there was a lookout at 11 miles.  We did not make it that far, stopped by snow over the road but we got high enough to have views of both Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta from the same spot.  We ended up parking the truck on the side of the logging road and hiking up about another 1/2 mile or so.  It was pleasant up there.  The truck is now a mess all over again.

Hat Creek

We are in the Hat Creek area near Mount Lassen, California.  Easy trip here today on good roads.  No broadband internet so stuck with erratic campground WIFI.  That means no pictures.  Not that I had any to post anyway.  Tomorrow we will scout for places to try and see the eclipse on Sunday.  We will also visit Mt. Lassen just to make sure it is still there.

All for now.

Crossing Nevada

Well we did it, crossed Nevada on Highway 50.  Started yesterday and finished up with a seven hour drive today.  Better scenery than we expected.  A good road but a lot more up and down than I had envisioned.  We topped at least three passes with summits in the 7500 foot range.  We are spending the night about 15 miles north of Reno right on the CA/NV state line.  Literally California is on the other side the the wall around the parameter of this RV park.  Maybe that's why they call it Bordertown.

Some of this.......

.... and some of this.

Clearly not all flat desert.

The Loneliest Road In America

It has been called "The Loneliest Road in America".  Hwy 50 runs right across the middle of Nevada as you can see on the map below.  Before the Interstate Highway System roads like Hwy 50 and Route 66 were the main roads around America.  As you can see we will be saving a fair number of miles compared to going north on I 15 to Salt Lake City and then west on I 80.  We also hope to enjoy less traffic and some interesting places like Ely, NV (#3 on the map) where we will spend one night to break up the trip.  We'll spend another night just north of Reno and then make our way north through central California and central Oregon.

Last Day in Capitol Reef / Richfield, UT

This morning we pulled up the stakes er the hydraulic jacks and drove a grueling 72 miles to Richfield, Utah.  Actually due the pilot missing a well disguised turn and a freeway on ramp that did not exist, we added an unnecessary 32 additional miles.  Hey, these things are hard to turn around and sometimes it is just as easy (and safer) to "go around" so that is what we did.  So, no pictures of anything interesting today but I have included a few from our roaming yesterday which included a side trip to another National Forest called Fish Lake.  We loved Capitol Reef and it is definitely on our list of places to revisit.  For now the "Red Rock Tour" is more or less over but we have some desert left to cross - all of Nevada to be more specific.  More on that later.

Fording a raging river in back roads

Tree trying to escape from the edge of the cliff.  (Use your imagination.)

Looking down from back country.  Our RV park is far off in the distance below.

Fish Lake

Beaver Lodge on Fish Lake

Display on the Old Spanish Trail which runs near Fish Lake.  These are life size sculptures.

Sunday's Hikes

Two short hikes today.  One to what is called "Natural Bridge" which is about a mile back off the road and a 400' climb.  The other was the beginning of a pretty flat hike down the "Great Wash" into a canyon.  (A place you would not want to be in a rain storm.)  We had run out of water and decided to finish that hike tomorrow.  We also saw some petroglyphs.

I am also inserting a link to an explanation of the Water Pocket Fold:
http://www.nps.gov/care/naturescience/geology.htm

Natural Bridge

View under the "bridge"

Canyon walk in Great Wash (Note People Arrow for scale)

Petroglyph

Saturday's Back Road Trip

Saturday's Route

Close Up of the Switch backs on Burr Trail

Looking back a switchbacks after coming down.

The degree of upheaval in the area is impressive.

Got lucky and managed to get a couple of pictures to upload.  Be sure to click on them for the enlarged versions.

Yesterday we took a drive of about 150 miles, about 75 miles of which was on a back road that is little traveled.  About 40 miles of this road is just gravel although the sign at the beginning of the road, called Burr Trail, says it is 77 miles of unpaved twisty road not recommend for large vehicles or vehicles with trailers.  I think that scares a lot of people off.  The scenery was beautiful and the trip down the steep switchback shown above with exciting.  It is very steep and each switchback is a minimum of 180 degrees and some were actually more then that.  We were lucky in that we did not meet anyone coming up although we could have s l o w l e y passed each other if we had.  This route took us up through valleys and canyons that are at the heart of the "Water Pocket Fold" which is the main geological feature of this area.  It is described as a "wrinkle in the earth" and there were several places on this trip where we could actually see it.  The frustration in trying to share pictures of it here is that it is so big it is hard to capture in a picture.  There is rarely anything to give the photo some scale.  As you can see in the second picture above there are areas here that have been pushed up to an almost vertical position from where they were formed.

Today (Sunday - Mother's Day) Arlyene gets to do her favorite thing and go hiking.  We have identified several hikes we want to check out.  The issue here with regards to hiking is that we start out at something above 7500 feet, sometimes 8000 feet and the lack of oxygen makes the hiking several more times the work it would be closer to sea level.  We just don't have enough red blood cells up here to do the job.  We (I) just have to go a little slower.

Friday's Drive

The three "zones" of the Capitol Reef area.

Not too much new to report.  Yesterday we explored highway 24 from Torry almost to Hanksville on the map above.  The most interesting part was the dramatic change in geology from west to east.  On the eastern end of our drive yesterday we were on BLM land that is just plain desert but a desert with mountains and plateaus made up of sand.  It is all gray and looks like you are on the moon or maybe Mars.  The canyons within the park are more red rock vistas and trails.  We shared the park roads with a caravan of about 10 smaller "rent me" motor homes driven by a group of German tourists which got interesting at time.  (What side of the road do they drive on in Germany?)  We have spotted some hikes we would like to do and some back roads we want to try so that is what we will be doing today and tomorrow.  Pictures will probably have to wait until we get to Richfield on Tuesday were we should have a better internet connection.  I was surprised that the map above actually uploaded without losing our connection.  That's it for now.  Still having fun.

On Edit - here are some pictures of the East Desert as noted above.

Capitol Reef

View to the north from our campground.

We are now about 1 mile west of the town of Torrey, UT which is near the entrance to Capitol Reef National Park.  The campground WIFI is a satellite based system which means the upload speeds are very very slow.  Our Verizon cards do not work here at all although they tell us the phones will.  Haven't tried that.  We will be here for five nights so probably few if any pictures for the next few days.  I have attached one low resolution picture to this posting so maybe we will be able to post one here and there.

Last Day in Bryce - Hiking

Our last full day in Bryce we did a couple of hikes.  One that descended into the canyon about a mile and 500 feet or so down and another relatively flat trail along the rim.  Coming back up that 500 feet was a fair amount of work for me considering it was at 7700 feet.  Did not go to the end of either trail but got in a total of about 5 miles of hiking and sharing the trail with only a few other people.

Tomorrow we head for Capitol Reef.

The trail less traveled.

Along the ridge and into the canyon.

Oooo it looks so dangerous.

 

 

Up closer is more interesting.

Views from the Rim Trail