June 19, 2022
This is the third camping trip of 2022 and a brand new destination for me. I can’t wait! 🙂 Let’s go!!
In the photo below, the state park of Birch Bay is in the woods off to the right … and Birch Bay itself is off to the left. It is beautiful.
So, here’s where I went (below). I still haven’t hardly gotten out of the State of Washington for a camping trip … once to BC, Canada, and once to Oregon, USA.
Birch Bay and the state park right next to it is the RED DOT in the image below. It’s about 10-15 minutes south of Canada.
Here’s a closer image below. I left the YELLOW zig-zag boundary line between Canada and the USA in the image. The islands to the left (Galiano, Salt Spring, Mayne, Pender, etc) are in Canada. The islands to the right of the YELLOW zig-zag line are in the USA (Orcas, San Juan, Lopez, etc). Not surprisingly, there is a LOT of recreational boating going on in this area and, not surprisingly, all manner of folks from the USA and from Canada spend their vacation time in these waters and on all of those islands.
[By the way, Orcas Island is pronounced or-cuss (emphasis on “or”) … it is not pronounced like the plural of Orca is pronounced, one orca two orcas. The way Orcas Island is pronounced is or-cuss, like the verb to cuss … or-cuss island.]
So, onward, up I-5 from home, a long slog, but well worth the drive. Birch Bay State Park is a gorgeous campground.
Notice my solar panel in the photo above. The Pacific Northwest is known for its luscious green trees which are truly luscious and wonderful, but they aren’t very good if you want solar power. Sometimes, when I’m not in a campsite that has electricity provided, my trailer (with its roof-top solar panel) is parked in the shade under the trees. So I wired in a remote solar panel that I could move around depending on the position of the sun, the time of day, and the location of nearby trees. This has worked exceptionally well.
The trailer is leveled side-to-side and forward-and-back. The two wires/cables in the photo above are the + and – cables that run to/from that remote solar panel.
I took the photo above, and then I stood there awhile. And then I saw the monster in the tree to the right of the trailer. Yikes. Two huge eyes, and fangs that wouldn’t stop!
Maybe you can see it in the photo below. It’s hanging off the right side of that tree trunk. Look at those huge eyeballs!
That felt a bit weird, so I walked around to the other side of that tree/trunk, maybe to get a nicer view point. No! Not another monster!
Indeed, look at all of the creatures on that tree trunk in the photo below.
Here (below) is yet another angle, another view of that tree/trunk, and yet more folks seem to be hanging out there.
I finally made peace with all of those monsters (in fact, they were very friendly monsters once I got to know them). I then walked around to the back side of that tree/trunk to find that the majority of the tree had been uprooted at some point in the past. Look at those old root systems.
But also, look on the ground … under where that tree would have sat, when it sat. I brushed off a good deal of the leaves, and a bit of dirt under there. I found a nurse log!
The nurse log was at least four feet in diameter, probably more if I had dug down around it. You can see in the photo above (the black wood at the bottom on the right) where that nurse log is rotting. It was fascinating to me to think that the original nurse log (the tree that had fallen how many, many decades ago) was still there, at least in part, and that one of the trees that had grown out from it … that “new” tree was also decades old and was rotting. It seems that this “new” tree had started to fall, and so was cut by state park employees so it wouldn’t endanger this specific campsite. But the trunk of that “new” tree is still there (with all of its friendly monsters), and it will decompose and help grow yet more new trees.
In the end, I felt exceptionally comfortable with all of these monsters all around me. In fact, I felt safe and very well protected.
Tomorrow I’ll go exploring. Tonight, I’ll sleep safe and happy.
Monsters! LOL! You love monsters and faces and beings in wood and rock. That’s fun. 🙂
I guess I do! 🙂
Luscious, it is. Absolutely green and rich and luscious.
I love the Pacific Northwest green richness.
What a great camp site! Look at all that privacy! And the monster tree is WONDERFUL. I’m camping right now. Tent, northern Michigan, within a mile of Lake Michigan. It’s cold. I purposely chose a site with electricity when I booked this 6 mos ago, so that I could have an electric blanket in case it got cold at night. In CASE??? It went down to 31, possibly 29, differing people have different opinions, the first night. The second night it stayed in the 50s, but last night it was 38 when I pulled into my site about 4:30 this morning after being out shooting the Milky Way. TOO cold. Then this morning there’s a power failure, so if that’s not fixed by tonight, no electric blanket…and no heat source and it’s going to be cold again, so I may just pack it in and go home. We’ll see.
Whoa, that’s cold!! How can it be 94 degrees here on May 17th, when you posted your comment, and 30 degrees in Michigan where you are? What a weird world. I sure hope the electricity got fixed in your campsite. I know you’ve thought about a small trailer, maybe one that has some propane heat tho you have to be careful with that and make sure the safety sensor works, especially at night. The first few years I was camping in this trailer, when it was cold at night, I got cold in bed even tho I had blankets piled on top of me and the electric heat on. I realized the mattress was cold and it sat on a single layer of plywood that sat over an empty storage space in the trailer that wasn’t heated, so I added a blanket (or two) UNDER me, under the bottom sheet and that did the trick. I’m never cold now. Hope you were able to stay out camping, Dawn.
The monsters are great, our great grandkids are here and love the monsters!! I like the maps you share with us, I don’t see that much on other people’s blogs. And wiring in your own remote solar panel is just super. Ok, I like the monsters too. 🙂
I’m a retired truck mechanic so I’m very comfortable with 12v wiring and such things like that. I could have bought devices/connectors for the remote solar panel but I made my own for a fraction of the price, and since I installed it I also know exactly how it’s wired so if there’s a problem, I can easily fix it. I also removed the control panel on that solar panel and wired it directly into the controller inside the trailer that controls the roof solar panel, piece of cake. Thanks Tim.
Monsters are wonderful people. 🙂
The nurse log was great. I love all the little people in the tree. You have a great imagination that’s really fun. Yay more camping! 🙂
Thanks Fran. I like that “the little people” in the tree. 🙂
Installing your own wiring system for that remote solar panel! Wish I had your skills. I like the maps too. And I liked the little bit of cussing going on when you were talking about how to pronounce Orcas (OR-cuss) Island. 🙂 I’ve been boating all over the Pacific Northwest too, but I too have never been in Birch Bay or Semiahmoo, cool that I’ll get to see the area.
Well, my skills were learned, through school and through experience. Same as woodworking skills or cooking or sewing or financial adviser stuff. But I sure like having the skills I have. More photos and info about Birch Bay coming up, Rob! 🙂
Hooray more camping! I love your camping trips most of all. Thanks for sharing and doing the work of this blog. that’s a sweet campsite.
You are welcome, Lori. I sure like that you are here reading and riding along. 🙂
The faces and animals and monsters you find are such fun. I’ve been looking back through my photos of my camping trips with my trailer and now I’m finding faces in trees and rocks and clouds too. They were there all along but I didn’t see them. Indeed, friends! 🙂 That nurse log is just super.
Ah yes, clouds too have all kinds of monsters and animals and trees and snakes and other such. I need to remember to look at clouds more often. Thanks, Susan. 🙂
We love the monsters! And we too never noticed them in our RV travels. Gotta pull out the photo albums and the digital photos for sure. Hubby doesn’t go online much but he asked me to add kudos to Ann for wiring in her own remote solar panels. He says “a woman after my own heart”!! I reminded him that he loves to cook. 🙂 I don’t know that we ever noticed a nurse log in all of our decades of camping. But I looked them up online and they are exceptionally common in the Pacific Northwest. Thanks Ann, we’ve shared your blog with friends, hope they sign up!
Hi Wanda. Please thank your hubby for his nice words, they are appreciated. 🙂
Hope you found some “little people” and/or monsters in your photos. I know they’re out there. I hope your friends sign up for this blog too, more friends are always better.
Love your camping trips!
🙂 Thanks, Emily.
Beautiful place!!!
It sure was. It will be one of my favorite campsites/campgrounds/areas. What a treat. 🙂