Tag Archives: Mt. Baker

On the road to Shannon Creek

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Road to Shannon Creek

I mentioned previously that I had to venture to the Shannon Creek campgrounds twice a day to manage it.  It was more than 4 miles from Panorama Point, but three miles was a gravel road.  At the beginning of the camper season it was a very bumpy road with many deep ruts.  The Forest Service came out and leveled it out for us.  It got rid of the ruts, but once the rain let up the road became VERY dusty.  There was dispersed camping all along the road which ran alongside of the lake.

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Shannon Creek closed just after Labor Day to give me time to clean it up and get it ready for next year.  Then I closed the gate.

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I was visiting with another camp host when a camper told us a tree had fallen across the road to Shannon Creek.  We went up there to locate the tree.  This is what we found.

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As you can see the tree was huge.  It had fallen across the road and the top portion had landed in the water.  The Forest Service called out a contractor and they removed the tree from the roadway within a few hours.  It was a good thing no one was traveling along that road (including myself) when it came down.

Mt Baker

We learned that you could take FS road 1130 to FS 1131 and it would get you to the base of Mt Baker.  So on an off day Stan (one of the other camp hosts) and I headed up there.  It was at least 5 miles up the forest service road to a trailhead.  The road kept going up and up.  Along the way I got several pics.  Here you can see Baker Lake off in the distance.

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We are getting closer to the base of Mt Baker.

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We stopped at this point to get a better pic of Mt Baker.  This is my friend Stan.

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Mt Baker is so majestic.

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It was really a fun day.

BUSY, BUSY and a visit from friends

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Very busy

Since my last post it has been a very busy couple of weeks.  I am learning each day how to handle visitors, cleaning pit toilets,fire pits, extra vehicles, Day Use areas, etc. etc. etc.  It has been very busy to say the least.  Even on my days off I find myself working doing this or that.

Covering 3 campgrounds

I am parked at the Panorama Point Campground, but I am also responsible for 2 other campgrounds as well.  The first is Boulder Creek Campground with 1 group site and 9 normal sites.  They also have 2 pit toilets.  Boulder Creek is only a mile down the road so I can usually check on everything there in a short time.

Shannon Creek Campground is 4 miles north with 3 miles of it on a dirt road.  This campground has 18 sites with 2 multisites.   A multisite is a bigger then normal campsite with room for several cars.  Shannon Creek also has a boat ramp with a day use area.  This seems to be one of the campgrounds most popular with tent campers although there are a few larger sites for RV’s.  Here are a couple of pics heading north to Shannon Creek.

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Covering 3 campgrounds makes it a very busy day on the weekend as I usually visit each campground twice a day.

Extra Vehicles

I find I spend a majority of my time checking on those campsites with extra vehicles.  One camper reserves the site and then invites a lot of family and friends to join them.  This makes for cars all over the place and I have to see that they either pay a day use fee if just spending the day or an extra vehicle fee if they are staying overnight.  Some campers can fit 4-5 cars in a campsite.  HELP!  But most people have no problem paying the extra fee.

Memorial Day Weekend

Most of the campsites are reserved online through recreation.gov.  I have to put up signs showing that the person indeed reserved that site.  I don’t have to collect any fees for these sites since the customer already payed online.  I just have to collect the extra vehicle fees.

Both Panorama Point and Boulder Creek were totally full with only a couple of sites left in Shannon Creek.  Friday it poured rain all day and I think it kept a few campers away.  Saturday was beautiful and then it rained on Sunday and Monday.  LOTS of MUD.

Concrete, WA

Concrete is a very small town and located 19 miles south of the campground.  Prior to the Memorial Day, I spent my day off in Concrete doing my laundry.  It is a great laundromat and also met one of my fellow host’s who was also doing her laundry and another workamper who works down the road at an organic farm.  She was very interested in working at Amazon so I had to fill her in on workamping there.

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More pics of Concrete.

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It is a rather old town but has most of what I need such as small grocery store, post office and a great little diner.

Mount Baker

On my way to the Boulder Creek Campground you cross a bridge over Boulder Creek.

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When driving south on the bridge on a clear day, you have a fantastic view of Mt. Baker.

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My friends drop in

This past Monday Marti and Charlie as well as Kay and Paul all dropped in to see me after attending a Lazy Daze Northwest rally.  It was really good seeing them but the weather was not cooperating.  They set up a tarp in the Day Use area and we had a great Happy Hour.  I got lots of tips from everyone for places to see up in this area.  After Happy Hour they picked up the tarp and walked it down the road to my campsite where Marti and Charlie are letting me us it this summer.

DSC_0455I wish I had my camera with me as they were walking it down the road.  It was a riot. to see.  Thank you Marti and Charlie for allowing me to use it.  Also thanks for the wine and brewskies.

I am posting this from the Burlington, WA library.  There is also a Fred Meyer here as well where I will be doing any major shopping.  I will try to post more regular, but I have to go into Concrete where I can get a 4G connection.  The connection is 3G at my campsite and that is with a booster, but it is very intermittent.