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 ended up heading to Mazama and stayed at Joe's friend's place there. He has two kids who were a lot of fun. Wiley (9 year old) baked brownies one morning and even gave us a baggy of some that were left before we headed out on Friday. Maya (12 year old) was giving a riding lesson to the son of her cross country coach when we were leaving too, which was fun to watch some.
We spent a few days there. One of the days we decided to bike up to Goat's Peak. Our plan was to bike up to the trail head, then hike up that. Well, the bike trip ended up being 20 miles roundtrip with an elevation gain of about 2500 feet. We only made it to an overlook. That was far enough.
We had a lot of fun in Mazama and Rob's family was very welcoming, but it was supposed to be crazy hot there on Friday, so we left to get to the, hopefully, cooler coast. There were a number of neat trails in the forest along the highway, but we were still pretty sore (and slightly sun burnt) from our bike ride the day before, so we just got out to check out one overlook and got out at a different place to check out a stream.
We stopped at Diablo Lake again. We went there during our first trip back in 2007, but it was raining at the time.
We wanted to find someplace to stay, so we picked a road that said it lead to a hiking trail to Thornton Lake. We made it at least a few miles up the road (pretty steep) when we got to a section that was essentially 45 degrees. The RV wouldn't do it, so we backed up to a wide spot, turned around and decided to stay there. We were curious about the rest of the road though, so we took Curly out with us and headed up the road. About an hour later we reached the trail head.... The hike was a "strenuous day or overnight hike". Oh well. We headed back down the road, but Curly decided he didn't want to follow anymore. Joe finally picked him up and carried him for a bit. Curly started freaking out, so Joe eventually put him down. He ran straight for the side of the road, started running back up the road, then all of a sudden, pounced. He came out with a vole in his mouth! He would pick it up, follow us for a bit, then set it down, chase it, pick it up again, follow us, etc. He did that for a few minutes, then sat down and ate it.... After that, he followed us really well. Apparently he just had to get some of his energy back.
The next day we left right away and made our way to Burlington where we had lunch at a very cute cafe. We then headed to Bellingham and are now staying outside the house of a friend of Joe's. At this time, we've basically just been working since we didn't have internet at all on Friday. We don't really have plans for how long we're staying here yet.
-Miranda
PS Apparently I've been slacking on uploading photos, so some of these are a little old.
This is a photo of the two of us during our long hike at Sherman Pass.
The rope swing we found on Fish Lake.
The top of the national forest road. It's around 6000 feet.
The view of the overlook we biked up to.
Maya riding her horse, Breyer.
The road we came up at Washington Pass.
Diablo Lake.
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We did end up leaving our spot across from Kettle Falls. We didn't feel comfortable letting the cats out with people coming and going on ATVs. We continued along Highway 20 up the mountain. Part way up, we stopped at a free, national forest campground where there were a couple trails. The campground was full, so we decided to just go on a hike.
We started the hike and could go either towards Sherman Pass or towards Jungle Hill. We first headed towards Sherman Pass, then realized that was probably just going up to the highway. After walking for around half a mile, we turned around and went back. The other trail was 3.9 miles. Mostly uphill. Along the way, we kept running into bikers heading down the trail. We finally asked one of the guys and it turns out there was some festival going on. They all took a shuttle up to the top of Sherman Pass, then took one of the trails to the one we were on. So, they had a nice bike ride downhill the enture way.
We ended up hiking about 9 miles total. We're still sore. Afterwards we stopped in Republic to find dinner. There was a pizza and sandwich place and a Mexican place. Joe really wanted pizza and I wanted Mexican, so we had a small meal at the Mexican place, then Joe went back to get a pizza. We did some work and headed out to the next chunk of national forest to find a place to stay for the night. We ended up finding a road that dead ends and just stayed there. One neat thing was the stream that was nearby. Around it was filled with strawberry plants. Too bad most weren't ripe yet.
The next day we headed to Tonasket. We parked on the side of the street using someone's wifi, and got caught up with work. There was a small natural foods coop just a block away, so we did get some cold, fruit bars since it was incredibly hot. Our next plan was to head down a 41 mile national forest road (National Forest Development Rd 37) that goes through a pass that is around 6000 feet, so we knew we weren't going to have internet that night or the next day. We found a place to pull off and have dinner, but we didn't feel comfortable letting the cats out, so after eating, we kept going. It was already 8pm which made for a gorgeous view of the sunset behind the Cascades during our drive. We made it to the top and over. It was getting dark, so we found a spot to sleep for the night. The next morning, we left again and ended up finding a small road that went below the main road. It lead to, basically, a campsite right near a creek. The cats have been loving getting to spend the entire day outside.
We went for a walk this afternoon along the creek. There are two streams that meet where we are. One of them has a waterfall that Joe noticed. We decided to hike towards that. After getting across the stream, we heard Curly crying. We were worried he had tried to cross on his own, so Joe went back to get him. He was still on the shore, fortunately, but Joe grabbed him anyway and put him on his shoulders. Curly followed us throughout our walk. It was pretty fun. Even when we were walking in the stream, he followed us along the shore.
We are now sitting in Winthrop using some internet. It's a pretty cute town, though touristy. Once we get some work caught up, we'll probably walk around a bit.
-Miranda
The place we stayed near the top of the pass.
Our view from that spot.
The creek right next to the spot we stayed at last night.
Finally got a decent photo of Zoe!
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