May 29 – June 2, 2023
Finally! The first camping trip of 2023. It was extraordinarily wonderful. I will assuredly return to “Eightmile Campground” (a National Forest campground) in the future. So let me tell you about this visit, my first visit here.
Why is it called “Eightmile Campground”? And where is “Eightmile Campground”? Well, it is exactly eight miles from Leavenworth, WA. I know it is that distance because I drove that road a number of times and it is precisely eight miles from Leavenworth. But where is Leavenworth, WA?
Ok, here’s a map that shows the route from my home to Leavenworth.
In the image above, you’ll see a narrow red line that represents the route I drove with the big white truck, with Towhee the Trailer in tow, from my home near Olympia to Leavenworth. From the Olympia area, I drove north on I-5, then turned onto highway 18, then a right turn onto I-90 eastbound, crossing Snoqualmie Pass. Just past the town of Cle Elum (clee ellum), I turned off of I-90, and turned onto highway 10, then onto highway 970, then another left onto highway 97 and then up into and over gorgeous Blewett Pass and down to highway 2. Left onto highway 2, then north into Leavenworth, WA. Piece of cake. 🙂 And yes, I had researched this route ahead of time! And had the instructions printed out right beside me in the cab of my big white truck … the driving instructions, and copies of maps. Total driving time in a car would be around 3 hours, or a little more. With my trailer in tow and one stop to check tires and such, it took me about 5 hours.
And then, as you approach Leavenworth with your trailer in tow, do NOT go into town. Instead, here’s the best way to get to “Eightmile Campground” when you are approaching from the south as I was and you’re towing a trailer or driving a larger motorhome and you are heading to Eightmile Campground.
Turn left on “East Leavenworth Road” just before crossing the bridge. The bridge will be obvious and there’s only one street/road that you can turn left on before the bridge, so do that. After a few miles, when “East Leavenworth Road” comes to a “T” and a stop sign, turn left onto “Icicle Road”. Follow that road and be sure to notice Icicle Creek to your left right along side the road.
Then drive until you see the sign below. And you’re there!
You’ll turn left into the campground. Then turn right, then right again, then right again … and then I saw my friends (in campsite #4) and we all waved and I stopped and we talked … and then I drove on around to my campsite … #8.
Well, who greeted me there? My friends’ dog, Finn! He likes me and he was right there to guide me in to my campsite.
“Ann, Ann, Ann, here, here, here, Ann, Ann, back in here, here!” He’s not subtle. 🙂
He looked to his left (watch his tail pointing to his left too).
And then he looked to his right (the tail moved to the right).
And then he said again, “Ann, Ann, Ann, all is clear, Ann, Ann, now, now, now, back in!”
So of course, I did as instructed. 🙂
My friends kindly left me to settle in, unhitch, figure things out, etc. I hooked up the remote solar panel (photos below) since there was a lot of shade here and my roof solar would be in shade most of the time (no elec hookups here). I also unloaded a whole bunch of firewood (also in the photos below) that I’d brought to contribute to our evening campfires.
And you can see how private this campsite is! I couldn’t see another camper in any direction!
In fact, even as close as my campsite #8 was to my friends’ campsite #4 … here’s the view from me to them (below). We had assumed there would be a path through the woods between the campsites but there wasn’t one. And we sure didn’t make one as we believe in letting the forest take over as much as possible. So anytime we wanted to visit each other we walked around on the blacktop road which took us a whole 30 seconds! In fact, one day Finn showed up at my trailer without his owners. We are buddies. 🙂
And so … after a long day’s drive, over new roads (to me), and always listening to the truck and the trailer for possible noises that might evidence problems, but hearing none. And then finding the campground, and my campsite, and my friends, and getting the trailer backed in and level and settled. And getting my dinner cooked and eaten and dishes done.
Finally, it was time for a campfire. One of my friends loves to mess with a campfire, I think she’s addicted to it. But she’s super at it and builds the best campfires I’ve ever seen. 🙂
After a busy day, with everything going perfectly as planned, and after an absolutely perfect, relaxing evening with my friends around a perfect campfire, I finally trundled back to my trailer for a perfectly peaceful night’s sleep. Perfect. 🙂
Tomorrow … adventures! 🙂