Camping With Dave McF

The Adventurer, Vernon Wade

Vernon was born in the Pacific Northwest and still lives in the shadow of Mt. Hood, near the small town where he grew up. Vernon has spent decades wandering the hills, hunting mushrooms, camping and riding motorcycles into the remotest nooks and crannies to be found in the region.

Dave, Andy and I headed up to Pistol Creek on a hot Friday afternoon. There was fresh bear scat all along the trail in.

Dave McFarlane arriving at the beach.

Walt and I were right behind him.

Andy put some beer in the creek to cool and set up a tarp on the beach for shade.

I heated up some taco-things for lunch on my camp stove.

After lunch, Dave and I got busy setting up our tents. I put mine in a clearing just above the beach,

Dave cleared some underbrush to set up under some nearby trees.

Andy was going home after dinner, so while Dave and I set up camp, he took Oreo on a little nature walk downstream.

Once we had our tents squared away, Dave and I returned to the beach to sit in the sun.

When my brother and his dog returned from their meander, we fired up the stoves to make dinner.

We had beans and franks for dinner. Afterwards, we had a few more beers before Andy packed up and set out for home.

On his way out, Andy came upon Cap’n Ron. who was piloting his drone. We heard the mosquito buzz of his aircraft but he didn’t have time to join us in camp, so we never saw him.

Dave and I sat on the beach until it got dark. The drought had imposed fire restrictions, so when it got chilly, we had a night-cap by the glow of a lantern and called it a night, retiring early.

The next morning we returned to our kitchen on the beach. The first order of business was to heat water on the stove so we could get properly caffeinated.