We have 10 days off over the 4th of July every year during which we usually take a large trip. This year was no different. So we set out yesterday morning fairly early with a final destination of somewhere in the Oregon desert, probably where we went over Memorial Day weekend.  An hour away from home we stop for gas and Jason notices the stick aluminum roof rack on the truck has 2 cracks in it and we’re about to lose the middle support bracket. Well shit… So we head back home.  After another few hours of sourcing materials and getting all our ducks in a row we have 40′ of 1″ square steel tubing and a vague outline of a plan to replace the aluminum rack with a sturdy steel one. Seeing as we only have a MIG and my novice welding skills, we pretty much had to use steel, or get creative with zip ties. Jason thought the steel was a better idea.  Anyhoo… 12 hours later and our fancy new heavy duty steel roof rack is in primer on the garage floor waiting for paint the next morning. I haven’t slept that good in a long time! It should also be noted that Washington is experiencing record high temperatures right now and the area we had planned on exploring and hiking around for 10 days is currently 107*.  That doesn’t sound safe or enjoyable so we had to modify our route. Long story short we called today a wash and went for a short hike up at Manchester State Park and let the paint dry on the roof rack so we won’t have to worry about this situation again.

Ended up with a few nice shots even though the sun was directly overhead. Manchester State Park has a few nice hiking trails, beach access, and a large indoor pavilion.  It’s also where we launch our boat.

Our plan for tomorrow is to head down to Portland, OR to do the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route.  Which is a series of gravel roads that takes you from Oregon to Canada.  We’ll see where we end up since we usually just wing it.  Hopefully we can get some hiking in!