Adventure Books of Seattle | Publishing Unique Titles Since 2003

Below are pictures of camping trips taken by Robert and/or the staff of AB. Occasionally, we place images on this page from other sources that we find interesting or educational.

Up To The Olympic Mountains

Submitted by Robert - September 9, 2007

This past week, I worked on a series of articles for our 'Straight Talk' column over at Newsvine. The articles concerned the recent disappearance of pilot/adventurer Steve Fossett. By the end of the week, being rather discouraged by the lack of the searchers to find any trace of Fossett, I decided to get away for a few days. This trip, I chose the Skokomish River access road into the Olympic Mountains. Forest Road 23 begins here and leads into a maze of dirt roads winding their way over and around the southern Olympics. After driving off-road and exploring several areas, I settled on a spot about thirty miles off the highway.

A typical campsite picture. A bit underexposed perhaps. The tarp is more for shade than the rain. It was a beautiful weekend. For reading, I brought a copy of 'Again, Dangerous Visions', the sci-fi collection edited by Harlan Ellison. This was a signed hardback - and until I started reading the book, I had no respect for the poor thing. I had been using it for a doorstop in my office. Nice way to treat a perfectly good book. I decided not to use it for a doorstop anymore.

Look closely at the center of the picture. See those little things that look like buildings? Believe it or not, that is downtown Seattle. I used a telephoto at long range to get this shot. It compressed the foreground so much, and the distance is so great, you cannot see Elliot Bay or the Hood Canal. One of the buildings is probably the Columbia Tower. It was approximately 35-40 miles from my overlook in the Olympics to the city itself. When I first saw this, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but after checking the map, and taking a GPS reading, I realized it was Seattle.

Campfire with a sunset in the background. The 'rounds' I brought burned for 6-8 hours and saved me a lot of wood gathering. The firepit is dug directly into the side of the dirt bank. This helps reflect back heat, and keeps smoke from swirling around into your face. HINT: Always block the wind from three sides on a firepit, and leave the bottom open across the front. Don't just pile rocks in a circle - unless you enjoy doing the Avoid-The-Smoke Dance.

Not the best picture, I'll admit. It gives you an idea of size on the deadfall, though. You should try setting a self-timer and then running all that way just to get a picture! On reflection, I can see in the picture that the log I am leaning on is NOT deadfall. The others are, but that particular one has been obviously saw-cut at the bottom.

An old homestead on the banks of the Skokomish River. I spotted this one on the way back down to the main road. The only thing worth salvaging would be the old brick making up the chimney. Those are always in demand.