Truckventure: Panther Creek

We took the truck out this weekend for the first time with a minimum-functionality platform in the back (has a mattress but no drawers and certainly no electric). We built the platform from 20 mm aluminum T slot extrusion. The mattress is 4" high density foam on 19/32" plywood. When we first put the mattress in the headroom seemed low but doable. I think it must have expanded some more because now it's pretty claustrophobic in there. We're going to need either a taller topper or a way to lift the topper a bit when we're parked. Or possibly a shorter platform, but we have big dreams for the kitchen drawer.

For the venue, we headed over the river to Panther Creek in Washington. The truck did great on the gravel forest roads. We went over several sections that would have stopped the Yaris. We were planning to do dispersed camping but ended up finding a spot in Panther Creek Campground, which was lucky because everyone was out for Labor Day weekend. We found a cool spot on the creek with some downed logs that formed a nice bench. The water was beautifully clear but crazy cold.

On Sunday we drove the rest of the way up to Panther Creek Falls and visited the overlook. It's a pretty nice cascade falls. There was a trail down to the bottom but we didn't hike all the way down. 

On our way back to town we stopped at the Bonneville Dam to admire the fish in the fish ladder. There were 10k Chinook salmon counted going through the fish ladder per day this weekend.