Then coasted over to a Gas station in Queets with $3 showers. Having almost been a week, Miranda was ecstatic.
We went 4 miles up a forest road (2180) and camped in an existing site right on the side of road. The original plan was to go to the end of the road to a campground and do a hike or two there, but once we got to the section of road that was unpaved, we decided it would be too rough and long, so we found the spot right off the road instead.
-Joe
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We headed back into Forks early, Having lunch at pacific Pizza Along with a good block of work. (game update).
Then headed south on 101 to see the Hoh Rain Forest. We did the three nice hikes at the visitor center then decided to head back out since the campground was busy. We saw 3 different Elk near the road while driving through the park. We found a nice overnight spot down a State forest road along the Hoh river. Although it was very thick-brushed and dark it looked safe to let the cats out in morning.
-Joe
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That spot turned out to be a bit busier than anticipated. At some point in the middle of the night, a truck came up and people were walking around talking and laughing. Unfortunately, neither Joe nor I actually heard the truck come (who knows why not, it was really loud) so I woke up to hearing people laughing and talking which really freaked me out since I had no idea how they would have gotten up there. Eventually they left. The next morning, a truck came up filled with a work crew that was there to work on the trail. When they were leaving, one of the guys mentioned that the truck last night was his buddies and he apologized for it. That made us feel a little better that it was at least some forestry people.
During the rest of the day, a few more vehicles came up, which, with the cats outside, made us a bit nervous. Around dinner time, we brought the cats in, then walked the trail. It was a nice trail, but nothing too exciting. We got some more work done, then when it got dark we decided maybe we should head out. Since it was dark we would have less of a chance of running into anyone coming up, which would be best. There was one fork that headed towards Highway 112 that Joe wanted to check out. So, once we got to that, we headed that direction and ended up finding a spot just off the road that was quite nice. The view was gorgeous. We stayed there the night and let the cats out the next day.
That evening, we decided to do the same thing. We already knew of a spot we could stay at the bottom of the road, so we headed down after dark. We stayed at the spot we intended to that night and headed out right away in the morning.
We weren't originally going to go to Neah Bay, but decided to anyway. We went to the end of Highway 112 and went on a very nice hike at the end of Cape Flattery. On our way back, we decided to buy some smoked salmon since it was all locally caught and we found we like some smoked salmon. It was very good. From there we headed back the way we came and went out to Mora. The campground there was very nice. Rialto Beach was an easy 2 mile bike ride. Unfortunately, my back bike tire had gone flat the day before for some weird reason. Joe spent some time fixing that. Fortunately, he had some tools, though they were cheap plastic things, so they didn't work well. He finally was able to get it done though and decided that only if it was an emergency would he ever do it again.
Rialto Beach was gorgeous. I didn't take my camera because our original plan was to head back the next morning. We didn't end up going back, so no photos. Sorry. Anyway, the driftwood along the beach is huge! I mean gigantic! We spent a chunk of the walk along the beach just walking along the driftwood. It was fun. We got to a point where there's a hole in the rock. It's very neat. Around the same area were a lot of tide pools. The tide was mostly out, so it was fun to see all the starfish and other things.
The next day we headed into LaPush. We had lunch, went to First Beach, then headed over to Second Beach. Second Beach was quite sandy and very pretty. We walked along that for quite a ways. We ended up walking back on the trail (.8 mile walk) barefoot since our feet were filled with sand. Not too bad, but not something I would want to do too often. That evening we headed into Forks and had dinner at a pizza place in town. We also finally got a copy of the truck key made. Just in case.
There was a rode that went to a primitive campground and national forest, so we went back to that for the night. The primitive campground was gorgeous, but wanted $10 per night and we couldn't even find a bathroom. The fact that we didn't have any internet either didn't make it too appealing. We just went back out to the road and found a nice spot far enough off the road to stay.
Today we've just been hanging out in a parking lot in Forks working. This is the first time in a while that we've actually had good internet, so we had a lot of catching up to do.
-Miranda
Sunset at our spot at the lookout.
Me working and the view we had at the spot just off the road that was headed towards Highway 112.
Second beach.
A large piece of driftwood. This isn't even as big as some that were at Rialto Beach.
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We did end up staying a couple nights at that spot. It was pretty foggy and drizzly, but we did go for a nice bike ride one day when the clouds had burned off. We left on Friday and headed into Sequim. We went to the Dungeness Spit, which is basically a long, skinny stretch of beach that eventually ends at a lighthouse. Part way down the spit, we saw a sail boat stuck up on the beach. Apparently he had had some issues with the motor the previous night, then an issue with the sail and ended up being blown into shore. The boat that was there had a line hooked up to the top of the mast for hours before high tide, which was really odd. Once high tide was close to coming, they switched it to the back of the boat and were tugging on it for at least half an hour. They were fighting the keel the entire time, since it was dug deep into the gravel and sand. Eventually, they changed the line to be hooked up to the front of the boat. That swung it around. After yet another hour or so of tugging, they eventually got it back out into the water. A guy in an airplane had even kept us entertained by practicing some tricks above us while we waited.
That evening, we headed into the Olympic National Park and stayed at the Heart O' Hills campground. We actually had good internet there! Plus the campground was gorgeous.
The next morning, we hitched a ride up to the top of the road. A nice older gentleman picked us up. He was going to the end of the road to do a short, 2 mile hike up Hurricane Hill. We decided to head that way too. The hike was relatively steep at parts, but not bad. It ended at an amazing look out of the straight and Port Angeles. You could even see Vancouver Island.
That hike was a couple miles from the visitor center and more hikes, so the same man was kind enough to give us a ride back to there. We hiked around that area some, then decided to hitch a ride back down. A father and his high school age son picked us up and dropped us off at the campground entrance. We stayed at the campground another night so we could get some work done. The next morning we headed out and ended up having lunch at an Indian buffet in Port Angeles. From there, we continued on to Lake Crescent. There was a road that lead to a trail that we planned on taking. We hiked along there for around a mile when we came to a bridge and some people cliff jumping. We kept walking and eventually turned back. When we got to the bridge, the girl that was with the group was being put on a boat because when she had jumped, she had buckled her knees, or something, and not jumped out? On her way down, her foot apparently hit the rock, so she probably sprained her ankle.
Joe and I eventually both jumped off, which was quite refreshing. After our walk back, we headed out and were trying to decide what to do. Either head into the national forest, or check out the hot springs in the park. We went for the hot springs. While checking out the pricing of the pool, we heard a couple in front of us mention that they didn't have suits and were hoping the place rented them. They didn't. Joe stopped them and mentioned that I had an extra suit and he had extra shorts if they wanted to go still. So, they borrowed suits from us. We only stayed in for an hour, but it was nice to just relax in some warm water. The shower afterwards was also great.
Joe and Hailey were the couple we lent the suits to. They were staying at the campground that was just further down the road. We were planning on staying there also. They invited us to stop by their site. We found a spot and headed over there. We had a great time visiting with them.
This morning went for a short hike to the Sol Duc Falls, which were gorgeous. It was only a 2 mile hike, round trip, so not very difficult. Our goal after leaving there, was to find a national forest spot so we could lets the cats out. We headed up a pretty steep road. There were a couple possibilities, but not very good, so we kept going. We ended at a lookout that is apparently a trail head?!? It even had a bathroom! Really weird. It doesn't look like the area is really maintained or that people really check on it. We decided to stay here for the night. No one has been up yet, and the cats had a great time running around. Who knows, if no one shows up tomorrow, maybe we'll stay here another night.
-Miranda
The stuck sailboat.
The boat during one of it's strong pulls.
The 'air show'.
;)
A number of photos when they turned the boat around, then as they were getting it in the water, finally.
The view of Port Angeles, the Strait (covered in clouds) and Vancouver Island (on the other side of the clouds).
A crazy, huge marmot that was in the middle of the trail and didn't leave until we were only a few feet from it.
The Sol Duc Falls.
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We left Seattle on Sunday and headed towards Tacoma. Michelle, a writer for the game, lives there and we were going to visit her and her roommates. We ended up staying there until Tuesday. We were able to get some work done, have some yummy food (Michelle made a vegetable lasagna) and relax while we watched Pickles' eye to be sure it got better instead of worse.
We left on Tuesday morning to head for the Olympic Peninsula and the national forest there. We took 16 north instead of taking I-5 all the way to 101. It cut off a chunk of the drive, but when we got to 104, not far past the Hood Canal bridge, we ran into a huge traffic backup. We eventually learned that a bad wreck had happened ahead and they were turning people around. We eventually turned around and took a different route around the accident. Before that though, Joe picked a bowl of blackberries that were along the side of the road.
We finally got to the turn into the national forest. We worked our way around and finally found a decent spot where we had some internet. We decided to go for a walk further down the road. It ended at a large camping-type area with a gorgeous view. We decided to just head out there that night even though it was getting dark. The road was a bit overgrown and there were a couple spots where Joe had to cut some things out of the way. We got settled and then Joe used those blackberries to basically make a jam. It was super yummy.
This morning, I kept waking up, but one of the times I looked out the back window (pointed towards the view) and there was a cloud settled down in the valley and the sun was rising. As much as I wanted to just stay in bed, I hopped out to get some photos. Not long after I went back to bed, I looked out again, and a bright red sun was coming up over the horizon, so I got up again.
The cloud has basically been misting up towards us and enveloping us once in a while, all morning. We did let all the cats out. I really didn't want to let Pickles out, but we didn't have much choice... She was freaking out inside with everyone else outside. We followed her around some and she's been doing really well outside. She even caught something! That was unexpected. Lucy even caught something. She's pretty vicious. Throwing it all over the place while playing with it. Well, cats will be cats I guess.
This spot is pretty nice, so hopefully we'll stay here for a couple days.
-Miranda
Our camping spot.
Start of sunrise.
Sunrise.
Pickles with her 'catch'.
Lucy upset that Curly is getting too close while she has her 'catch'.
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