Campsite Featured: Tinkham (WA)

– – TINKHAM (WA), Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, WA; GPS (Latitude, Longitude): 47.40833, -121.56639. CAMPSITE #13. RATING: 3.5 Stars.

Site Type: STANDARD NONELECTRIC
Travel time: 40 minutes.
Checkin Time: 2:00 pm
Checkout Time: 1:00 pm
Type of Use: Overnight
Min Num of People: 1
Max Num of People: 8
Max Num of Vehicles: 1
Driveway Surface: Gravel
Driveway Entry: Back-In
Max Vehicle Length: 40
Shade: Full
Capacity/Size Rating: Single
Double Driveway: Y
Picnic tables: one.
Fire pits: one.

– – What you can do there: hiking, wonderful walk around campsite, fishing. Nice location. One of the smaller campsites, some road noise from Hwy 90.

– – Tinkham campsite opens May 27, 2010; #13 minimum one night at $16.00 /night. Only had one visit because we enjoyed Denny Creek much more. Happy camping!

Campsite Featured: Denny Creek (WA)

– – DENNY CREEK (WA), Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, WA; GPS (Latitude, Longitude): 47.4, -121.43333. CAMPSITE #34. RATING: 4.0 Stars.

Site Type: GROUP STANDARD ELECTRIC
ADA Accessible: Y
Travel time: 50 minutes.
Checkin Time: 2:00 pm
Checkout Time: 1:00 pm
Type of Use: Overnight
Electricity Hookup: 15
Min Num of People: 1
Max Num of People: 35
Max Num of Vehicles: 7
Driveway Surface: Paved Driveway
Entry: Back-In
Max Vehicle Length: 50
Shade: Full
Picnic tables: two.
Fire pits: one.
Water: faucet.
Toilet: unique gazebo in group site with flush/lighted close by.
Tent pads: three 12x12’
Electric hookup: 110vac

– – What you can do there: hiking, wonderful walk around campsite, fishing. Yeah baby, flush toilets and real electric light by this group site; electric hookup; allows RV’s in one particular zone. Group site allows access to the road in which, after several miles, provides access to gas and a grocery store (to help depleted food/drink). This site is a cul-de sac and can accommodate quite a number of cars. Wheelchair accessible as well.

– – Denny Creek campsite opens May 27, 2010; #34 minimum one night at $85.00/night. ALTERNATIVE; #10 however, #8 is a walkup and shares the same area, I mean really shares the same area—hint, you need to get both sites through the onsite campsite manager, otherwise walk away. #10 and #8 are a wonderful suite under a forest canopy and right on the river. Happy camping!

Campsite Featured: Bedal (WA)

– – BEDAL (WA), Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, WA; GPS (Latitude, Longitude): 48.08167, -121.38. CAMPSITE #6. RATING: 1.0 Star.

Site Type: STANDARD NONELECTRIC
ADA Accessible: Y
Travel time: 110 minutes.
Checkin Time: 2:00 pm
Checkout Time: 1:00 pm
Type of Use: Overnight
Min Num of People: 1
Max Num of People: 8
Max Num of Vehicles: 2
Driveway Surface: Gravel
Driveway Entry: Back-In
Max Vehicle Length: 45
Shade: Full
Picnic tables: one.
Fire pits: one.

– – What you can do there: hiking, fishing, berry picking, bike trail, nature center, off road vehicle trail, canoeing, boat launch ramp, nature trails; very clean vault toilets, handicap accessible. Look at the map…too many campers in one small area—too claustrophobic and not any privacy. Parking spaces are very tight and each camp site is just too small. NOT RECOMMENDED given the distance and roads to get there, the amenities, and lack of camping lifestyle. Much better places for happy camping!

– – Bedal campsite opens…well…who cares? Better bang for your camping buck (if you can get the pun?).

Campsite Featured: Money Creek (WA)

– – MONEY CREEK (WA), Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, WA; GPS (Latitude, Longitude): 47.72917, -121.40694. CAMPSITE #4 and #3. RATING: 3.5 Stars.

Site Type: STANDARD NONELECTRIC
Travel time: 45 minutes.
Checkin Time: 2:00 pm
Checkout Time: 1:00 pm
Type of Use: Overnight
Min Num of People: 1
Max Num of People: 8
Max Num of Vehicles: 1
Driveway Surface: Gravel Driveway
Entry: Back-In
Max Vehicle Length: 20
Shade: Full
Picnic tables: #4 two; #3 one; alternatively #24 one.
Fire pits: one in each.

– – What you can do there: hiking and fishing; very clean vault toilets for male and female, handicap accessible. You should get both campsite #4 and #3, otherwise you will be too close to your neighbor. From campsite #4 there is a trail that leads to a semi-private beach, semiprivate because there is a bridge and sometimes folks come down from the road. Early in the season the snow runoff creates a very very high, and dangerous, Skykomish River, i.e. very rapid and the currents could drag away a guest or pet—so be careful and wear a life vest if testing the waters—later in the season the water recedes to a much safer level, but again, wear a life vest. We give this 3.5 stars because of road noise and every so often a freight train passes by.

– – Money Creek campsite opens May 27, 2010; #4 minimum one night at $32.00/night, but remember you are also reserving #3, so this is $64.00/night—a little more expensive, but this is a make-your-own a group site. ALTERNATIVE; #24 minimum one night at $18.00, located in a cul-de sac, however, the small site next to #24 is a walk up only, so if you can, snag it too, otherwise you will have some close neighbors. #24 also has access to a very small beach perfect for a tiki torch and is secluded from other campsites. Happy camping!

Campsite Featured: Beaver Creek (WA)

– – BEAVER CREEK (WA), Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie, WA; GPS (Latitude, Longitude): 48.07778, -121.51667. RATING: 5 stars.

Site Type: GROUP NONELECTRIC
Travel time: 60 minutes.
Checkin Time: 2:00 pm
Checkout Time: 1:00 pm
Type of Use: Overnight
Min Num of People: 1
Max Num of People: 25
Max Num of Vehicles: 5
Driveway Surface: Gravel
Max Vehicle Length: 50
Picnic tables: three (two close).
Fire pits: two.

– – What you can do there: fishing; hiking trails; kayaking; and a first class vault toilet you can hide from the bears in (no, we haven’t seen any). Why we like it: nearest campsite (Coal Creek) is miles away to the West and there is nothing to the East—yes, you are isolated with your very own campsite with three 12x12’ tent pads, two fire pits, three picnic tables, and two elevated wood grills. From the campsite, the beach on the Stillaguamish river looks onto Hall Peak and Big Four Mountain; to the rear are the Stillaguamish Peak and Dickerman Mountain; both Perry Creek and Beaver Creek empty into south fork of the Stillaguamish river and are fun day hikes.

– – Beaver Creak campsite opens May 27, 2010; minimum two nights at $75.00/night—a little more expensive, but this is a group site. Happy camping!

Reserving Federal Camp Sites - It's Easy!

– – I’ve visited a number of State parks and frankly they have too many rules regarding music and fire pits—enough already! My tent is pitched on Federal parks: Recreation.gov, is part of the Recreation One-Stop E-Gov initiative, and provides a single point of access to information about Federal recreational activities and reservations. Sure, you can rough it in the wild without the State or Federal sites, but the one caveat to the Federal sites: usually, as a minimum, a vault toilet, sometimes running water, and an on-site manager that ensures the sites are clean and that there is a reservation sign indicating that you reserved a particular camp ground. The manager’s are friendly and rarely interfere with your festivities and sometimes have firewood available for purchase. As a rule of thumb, if you are picking up one of those little packs of firewood that are about 1x1.5” in size, and about $6 each, this can last one hour (unless you are attempting Burning Man or are a pyromaniac ;-)

Reserving a Federal campsite is easy, you will need to create a membership/account—this data is not shared with other reservation websites. It saves all your past reservations, so…if you want to reserve that favorite site it’s only a click away!

– – One nice feature on this website is the “Looking for:” here you can look for RV sites, Cabins or lookouts (in the Wenatchee forest there are some very cool ones), Tent, Trailer, Group sites, Boat sites, etc. You can also search near a town or zip code—easy.

– – I’ll be writing up some of our favorite campsites in the Mt. Baker, Wenatchee forest and Mt. Rainer locations of Washington State; I’ll include the campsite number(s) and why we chose these particular sites (yes…we turn the iPod up to 11). See you May through September in the forest beneath the trees!

Sports Beer – Compare and Contrast

– – For those of you that enjoy beer the calories and carbohydrates can really add up. Here are a few beers from one of my favorite websites: Beer 100 "All things BEER"

– – The following are five of the lowest calories/carbs and have been called “Sports Beers” and are great alternatives to the fuller beers (see table at bottom of blog).

– – Personally, with the availability of Michelob Ultra in stores and restaurants, I find it the most refreshing, especially with a 5.5 ounce can of Campbell’s tomato juice from concentrate…red beer…and sure it adds 30 calories and 7 grams of carbs, but you get a great beverage. Either way, my vote is with Michelob Ultra.