By Duane Miles

Even the best laid plans can go awry.

This is especially true when that plan is to go into the out-of-doors west of the Olympic Mountains at almost any time of year.

One single factor is responsible for this.

As an example, take for instance a late September old-timers gathering at the campground near the Queets River trailhead. (The fellows who camped together there were Rick Larson, Joe Ferguson, Stan Fouts and myself — names familiar to readers of this column.)

Let’s now examine issues which occurred there to find that one factor which made the campout go sour.

Frequently used camping areas always have some kind of pest lurking in the shadows.

This pest might be a rivet cat, a raccoon, a dreaded bear or even a tiny mouse. One of these creatures did visit our site.

But was that visit the dreaded factor which drastically altered camping comfort? Read more next week.

Now on to the main feature.

The Lighthouse Christian Center’s (Port Angeles Royal Ranger Outpost 113) annual outing to Lake Ozette occurred July 5-7 this year.

This was my second consecutive year at being a part of the outing to Ericson Bay.

The 2013 participants were nearly the same faces as the year before — their names listed in the accompanying caption.

Twelve persons at each campsite is the allowable Olympic National Park quota on this lake. This year, one of our members dropped out at the last minute.

Lake Ozette is a popular summer time camping destination for locals as well as those from afar. I met a few of those from afar at Ericson Bay. (More on that later.)

I first heard about this campsite from Tony Romberg.

He is a good friend and my last employer at Premium Shingle before I retired.

By design, at the time he shut down his Sappho operation (milepost 205) at Sunshine Shake and Shingle (once-owned by Ace and Linda Johnson) where Ted Rasmussen and I were teamed up with he the sawyer and I the packer.

Setting back to the story at hand, find out next week why I suddenly became an honored member of the campfire circle!

Approaching the remainder of this week’s episode, here is a guillotined slice of the teaching tool incident about the forbidden axe as it appears in my forthcoming book, “Thus Far.”

As you have probably guessed, I blatantly disobeyed my mother by testing my skill level with that axe.

But how can an 8-year-old boy have any skill without practice?

To be continued …

May light for your feet guide you on the path of life until we meet again.