Koffee

 Normally in the van with a name, I would bring ground Kaladi Trieste Cafe and brew it up in the vans stainless steel (something you want secured) koffee press. A few trips ago I incorporated  Trieste whole koffee beans and a electric grinder. This is now  the norm.

Brew up a pot, drink most of it down and go on to the next adventure.

The problem with the metal press is you have to do something with the grounds. My solution was to just toss them into the woods, except in RV parks with cameras and then I would have to look for a spot along the way to toss the grounds into the woods.

But then I found this thing in my garage,  that uses little paper filters, and using the paper filter,  the koffee doesn’t have a layer of sludge on the bottom of my cup like when I used the press,  and clean-up is a breeze you just toss the filter and grounds into the woods, and unlike the press no grounds are left behind. 

My New Brewer

No I would never toss the paper filter into the woods, but I almost tossed the entire set up into the dumpster the other day when I was brewing up a cup, and the lid from the kettle fell off , hit the thing, nocked it off the cup, and spilled koffee in places that koffee shouldn’t be, like mainly in my stove. It was a joy to clean up.

Having been almost as far west as you can go in Washington, I discovered that it was almost time to head back to Spokane.  Once back out on 101 I headed south and stayed one last night at Bogachiel state park whose name refers to the Bogachiel river and could mean Big River. The very next day I had a bonus visit to Humptulips. I saw no one poling their boat.

Always A Treat To Find Trillums Growing Wild

At Aberdeen I say farewell to 101 and connect with a expressway like road to Montesano where I connected to highway 12, that would take me over 4501 foot White Pass. I would prefer North Cascade highway  20 but there are several landslides along the route and it remains closed even though the snow has been cleared. 

The Mossyrock dam is a impressive structure and is the tallest dam in Washington, at 606 feet. 

Mossyrock Dam & Riffe Lake

The dam was done in 1968, only 5 workers perished before we thought to  create  OSHA and give dam workers things like hard hats and safety belts, so you don't fall off the scaffold. The lake was  named Riffe Lake after the town that is now under water. The other town under water is Kosmos. I think that would be a better name for the lake.  But apparently when the water is low you can see the remains of Kosmos.

A little further east is Randal,  and no stop there is complete without checking out Roxys.

Big Bottom Country

Rosys was closed, but I managed to fill my tank with some big price petrol.

White pass wasn’t very white. The ski area has closed for the season. At least there was  a little bit of snow there.

My plan was to spend a evening or two dry camping at one of the forest service campgrounds on the east side of White Pass, but ever camp was still shuttered for “Winter” even though it hardly looks like winter here.

No forest service camps forced me into a urban camping in Yakima where I discovered what could be the worst state park in  Washington. The surroundings are not bad, but there are about a bazillion yellow jackets. I even found a few in my power box when I went to plug in. Hornets do not like Cutter’s bug spray when you spray it on them. I convinced them to leave without being stung. 

The worse thing about Yakama Sportsman State Park is transients come into the park to steal from the campers. I only saw them use the showers. But that was enough to keep me away from a shower. 

A Complex State Park Dumpster