Hanging in Indian Heaven SW Washington

[TeachAO]

I'll say. My last trip to Home Valley Park during the Hood River Hop Fest resulted in an immediate flea infestation before a tent stake could even be struck. Then and some new, but rather permanent, residents of the park were gettin' super weird out there. I'm no prude and ok with legal intoxicants, but they went full COPS including hard drugs and borderline DV. I emailed Skamania about it, but I'm not sure if they've cleaned it up yet. These things affect commerce and tourism in small communities--with that said, Backwoods Brewing is a great spot!

Backwoods has wonderful pizza and beer!! Also try Walking Man in Stevenson, they have a lot of fun events. Everybody's in White Salmon also a very good spot.

[Brian Miller]

I recently returned from a 4-day fall Indian Heaven subalpine lakes fishing trip with my Clark NX-250 accompanied by two-ground dwellers in small two-man tents. There were over 14 lakes on a 4800' plateau. We camped at the uppermost lake in a stand of trees surrounded by meadows. Days 1 and 2 were great, and the meadows were gorgeous in their fall colors.
2016 09 29_0599.jpg Indian Heaven - Rock Lake.JPG 20140815_0026_27_28 PAN.jpg Indian Heaven - Lake Sahalee Tyee - Catch of the Day.JPG
Day 3 was miserable. We were in the clouds, temps in the high 30s to mid 40s, gusty-variable winds, with horizontal rain and sleet. My friend described it to his wife as "starting at about 2:30 AM it was raining all but about three 45 minute periods, and when it wasn't raining, the wind was blowing the rain out of the trees so it looked like it was raining."
2016 10 01_0587.jpg
There were puddles under my buddies' tents but my tarp pitch kept had kept things dry and I had slept comfortably and toasty warm between my 20° UGQ FLUQ and 40° TQ, with the Clark's weathershield open about 6". After breakfast I fished awhile but it was difficult.

We all huddled awhile under the lee side of my Clark 10'x10.5' Vertex rectangular catenary tarp in A-frame mode with the windward side fairly low, drank Tea, cocoa, played harmonica and whistle. I was trying to stay warm sitting in my camp chair wearing a 250 weight Merino wool base layer, Columbia Titanium convertible trousers, a PrimaLoft* Gold puffy jacket, Merino Buff, fleece cap, and a full Gore Tex hardshell, but got pretty chilled. I crawled into the hammock after they finally retreated to their tents but quickly got restless and bored holed up in the hammock. I've since invested in a Mountain Hardware Ghost Whisperer 800 fill waterproof down hooded jacket and a better pair of Gore Tex Pro full zip rain pants with suspenders ; both at an additional 25% off from the current sale prices plus free shipping .

This is probably overkill but I am contemplating shelling out for a tarp with doors; SuperFly, Winter Dream, or cuben Winter Palace ($$$) to help block gusty variable winds in shoulder seasons and not have to hole up under the Clark's weathershield. They all appear to be hex tarps with a long enough ridgeline, but I don't want to the palatial room I have under my Clark Vertex tarp.

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[Benson Burner]

I recently returned from a 4-day fall Indian Heaven subalpine lakes fishing trip with my Clark NX-250 accompanied by two-ground dwellers in small two-man tents. There were over 14 lakes on a 4800' plateau. We camped at the uppermost lake in a stand of trees surrounded by meadows. Days 1 and 2 were great, and the meadows were gorgeous in their fall colors.
2016 09 29_0599.jpg Indian Heaven - Rock Lake.JPG 20140815_0026_27_28 PAN.jpg Indian Heaven - Lake Sahalee Tyee - Catch of the Day.JPG
Day 3 was miserable. We were in the clouds, temps in the high 30s to mid 40s, gusty-variable winds, with horizontal rain and sleet. My friend described it to his wife as "starting at about 2:30 AM it was raining all but about three 45 minute periods, and when it wasn't raining, the wind was blowing the rain out of the trees so it looked like it was raining."
2016 10 01_0587.jpg
There were puddles under my buddies' tents but my tarp pitch kept had kept things dry and I had slept comfortably and toasty warm between my 20° UGQ FLUQ and 40° TQ, with the Clark's weathershield open about 6". After breakfast I fished awhile but it was difficult.

We all huddled awhile under the lee side of my Clark 10'x10.5' Vertex rectangular catenary tarp in A-frame mode with the windward side fairly low, drank Tea, cocoa, played harmonica and whistle. I was trying to stay warm sitting in my camp chair wearing a 250 weight Merino wool base layer, Columbia Titanium convertible trousers, a PrimaLoft* Gold puffy jacket, Merino Buff, fleece cap, and a full Gore Tex hardshell, but got pretty chilled. I crawled into the hammock after they finally retreated to their tents but quickly got restless and bored holed up in the hammock. I've since invested in a Mountain Hardware Ghost Whisperer 800 fill waterproof down hooded jacket and a better pair of Gore Tex Pro full zip rain pants with suspenders ; both at an additional 25% off from the current sale prices plus free shipping .

This is probably overkill but I am contemplating shelling out for a tarp with doors; SuperFly, Winter Dream, or cuben Winter Palace ($$$) to help block gusty variable winds in shoulder seasons and not have to hole up under the Clark's weathershield. They all appear to be hex tarps with a long enough ridgeline, but I don't want to the palatial room I have under my Clark Vertex tarp.

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Nice pictures, Going to get rain on me this weekend up Threre, I am going to a place there that I have read about and=d where I have had strange this occur a few years back. The tradition is soooooo great there, there have been so many aboriginal feet and minds there over the past 10,000 years, until recently. I always cherish my time there.

[Benson Burner]

I haven't really explored much of that area. Got close this last week camping in Home Valley Park for biking Syncline and Hood River area, but didn't venture into the Gifford.

Seems like an under-appreciated area. Did you enter through Trout Lake or Carson?

Close as the crow flys, but a vastly different terrain.

It is actually over appreciated (if you know what I mean), it is classified as Xtra heavy use, so many visitors. I only go once a year. And I go to off beat spots. Because of the popularity. And it's popular for good reason. If native Americans came from as far as Wyoming to visit there in the summer months, you know that it had to be special.

[Brian Miller]

...
It is actually over appreciated (if you know what I mean), it is classified as Xtra heavy use, so many visitors. I only go once a year. And I go to off beat spots. Because of the popularity. And it's popular for good reason. If native Americans came from as far as Wyoming to visit there in the summer months, you know that it had to be special.

We were camped at Rock. It's fairly close to the Trailhead but not that popular as there are no designated sites. We only saw 3 "established" campsites and a couple of "improvised" sites. Perhaps if we'd have been down a bit off the plateau we wouldn't have had the wind though.

My last trip to Home Valley Park during the Hood River Hop Fest resulted in an immediate flea infestation before a tent stake could even be struck. Then and some new, but rather permanent, residents of the park were gettin' super weird out there.

Last year I experienced some real non-human weirdness over 5 days about 10 miles to the northeast of where we camped this year. And this year on the moonless pitch black first night at about 3:00 AM, an elk ran right by our camp barking. In elk-speak that means it had been alerted to danger. That seems a little early for hunters to be out and about.



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