Sunday, August 3 - From hoh...ly cow to Lake Quinault

This is Markus'  blog. Eventually he will stop being lazy and write it ;-)

Saturday, August 2 - Beaches, Fog and Forks

In the morning after a rather not so quiet night we find out that there is very thick fog and the tent is actually soaking wet. However, in the course of the morning, it clears up and suddenly there is a hole in the fog and we manage to extend the tent on a tree trun and almost dry it. We pack it up and start hiking along the beach to Sand Point. Unfortunately, the fog returns and does not go away during the whole hike… We even miss the petroglyphs at wedding rock. Fortunately, we do not miss the turnoff to go back to the Ozette Ranger station, a total of 6 miles.

Klaus had promised Selma a coffee shop after the strenuous and foggy morning, so we go directly to fork, just to find out that there really is no coffee shop. However, we find a restaurant and stop to have some burgers. Markus still remembers the WIFI password, and we found out that they do have forks in Forks. At least something!

After that, we go on to La Push beach and the entire coast on the Olympic Peninsula, but it is all in fog. Apart from that, in La Push there is a wedding, a big retreat and a surfing competition, so everything is booked. We end up sleeping in a rather “normal” RV park, but at least we have a shower and are all hooked up, so life is good after all. And we are looking forward to the next day in Hoh Rain Forest.

Friday August 1 - Capes Flannery and Alava

We got up and enjoyed our beautiful campsite by having breakfast outside. Then we headed out of Sol Doc, giving up the reservation for the second day, and obtained a permit to camp out on Cape Alava in the wild (!). The road there took about an hour and a half, like everything in Washington... We passed through Neah Bay and looked at the Makah tribe museum, where they explained quite beautifully about an original home they had excavated at Ozette and found many stories of their ancestors confirmed. Some of the new data gathered even allowed them to regain some rights, like fishing with nets.

Then we went on to Cape Flattery, where we hiked 20 minutes to the shoreline, which was absolutely stunning! Reminded us very much of Point Lobos and Monterey.

And then we went down to Lake Ozette where we packed up the tent, put the food in the bear proof boxes, packed up everything else, and hiked about an hour and a half to the shore. We arrived at the ocean about an hour before sunset and had plenty of time to pick the site right on the shore and put up the tent. Then we all enjoyed the beautiful sunset at the beach. The kids were running up and down the beach climbing on the numerous trees that were lying around as driftwood, and they saw lots of crabs on the beach. Selma was getting cold, but the boys kept waiting for the stars to come out. We eventually gave up, because it took the stars too long.

Then we went to sleep. We found out that seals stop making noise at night, but frogs unfortunately do not.

Thursday July 31 – Sol Duc

In the morning we actually manage to get up early (8 o´clock! J) and by 9 we are already at the next campground in Sol Duc.  We find a beautiful spot to set our RV and then decide to hike to the Sol Duc falls. We walked straight from our campsite and are actually all in a very good mood. Being in the forest brings our spirits up: we love the smell of the pine trees and the sound of the river but unfortunately there are some mosquitoes that begin to make Markus and me a bit nervous. As usual, everything has two sides and the positive thing about this is that we get to see some amazing spider webs lit up by a sun-ray!

The walk to the waterfalls takes us about 1 ½ hours but they are worth the hike. I sit on a rock and just enjoy staring at the water and letting its sound soothe my mind. 

We continue our hike which now begins to bit a bit strenuous because of the elevation, furthermore, the weather is humid and hot. Approximately half an hour before reaching the top where the Lake Deer is we have to stop to take a rest and eat our Cliff bars.

The lake is beautiful, surrounded by Douglas firs, Sitka spruces and some red cedars. The water is obviously freezing and nobody wants to jump in. Klaus and I take our shoes off and wet our feet for a while.

At a wood opening, we sit down and eat our sandwiches. The way back is a lot better since it is all down-hill and we are now in the shade. 

After six hours of walking….! We finally make it back to our camp-site. Everybody take a folding chair and start doing some reading. 

We then decide to ride our bikes to the Hot-Springs Resort. The kids have never been to something similar and neither has Klaus so they are pretty amazed about the temperature and the smell… sulfur obviously!

At one of the pools we meet with a lady from Hoquiam, Washington. She has a tattoo on her forearm depicting a young man of about twenty-three. She notices that I am trying to read the bible quote underneath it and she tells me her story: the young man was his son and he used to be a line man (someone setting up electricity lines), he died electrocuted while doing his job. We give her our condolences and begin to chat and she sort of invites us to pass by her lavender farm. 

After taking a shower we go back to our campsite. The boys make a fire and we have some real American hot-dogs. All in all it was a beautiful day!

Tuesday July 29 – San Juan Island Whale Watching and Ferry to Anacortes

On Sunday, we got up fairly early, given that we had spent a rather uncomfortable night in the tent with frogs nearby. Today was whale day, first from land, then from the sea.

However, we first had to solve the mystery of Selma´s lost Kindle. So we went to the hotel, the lost and found and to the stops we had made the day before, but to no avail. Then, by pure chance, we looked into the cupboard where it should always be just to find out – that it was there!

After the day was saved, we went to Lime Kiln State park and wanted to whale watch. They were around, we could see them spout water, but they did not come close. Then we had to leave to get to our whale watching cruise on time. And just when we pulled out of the state park, Klaus saw them right there. We stopped again, jumped out of the car, and saw several Orcas really, really close. One even jumped!

After that, we went back to Friday Harbor. Selma and Markus got in line for the boat, Klaus and Erik stored the RV and packed the bags. We were just in time and had a really nice, small boat with about 10 people. We cruised for about 40 minutes until we hit probably the same group of orcas that we had just seen from land. The guide told us that the first one was probably Granny, the 101 years old boss of the pod. She always went ahead to find the best fishing grounds. After her were a small group of 4 and then another group of 3. First, the captain placed the boat in their course and turned off the engine, so they passed us by really nicely. Then we followed them a very long time, until we reached the turning point. There, again, the captain put the boat in front of them and turned off the engine. And again, they passed us by beautifully, even with one jump!

Then we cruised back the other way, and got in line for the ferry. We ate Fish and Chips for the last time at Friday Harbor in the evening sun and then got on the ferry to Anacortes. Klaus had already reserved a campground for that night, so we just went there and that was it!

Wednesday July 30 – Travelling towards Olympic National Park; Hike on the Hurricane Ridge

We got up fairly early because we had to catch a ferry. The trip took us through Deception Pass over to Whidbey Island and then the ferry across the Straight to Port Townsend. This is a historic town because it was given up in the late 1800s and left as it is, so it still looks like 1888 there. Afterwards, we stocked up at Safeway and kept going towards Port Angeles. We then took the 17 mile road all the way up to Hurricane Ridge and made us some sandwiches.

The panorama from Hurricane Ridge was breathtaking. You could see the entire Olympic National Park peaks, with Mount Olympus right in the middle. The day was also gorgeous (we had been really lucky lately with weather). We hiked along the ridge for about an hour, taking numerous photos of the landscape and the deer which was lying around all over the place. At the end of the trail, you could see almost 360 degrees, from Mount Olympus all the way to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Olympia, even the Cascades and Mount Rainier in the background. If you ever get to Olympic Peninsula, do go to Hurricane Ridge!

After that, we headed down and went through Port Angeles to Lake Crescent. Klaus had reserved a campsite, which we chose, after unsuccessfully looking for a nicer one. The campsite had several washing machines, so we took that opportunity to get all our laundry done, too.

28. July – Kayaking on San Juan Island

We ate breakfast in a nice coffee in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island – definitive too much.

After our huge breakfast, we drove around on the beautiful island and checked out one or two viewpoints. Since the island is not very big we drove around it two times or so.

At three o’clock, we went again to Friday Harbor to catch our Kayak trip. It was a beautiful one and we enjoyed it very much. The weather was perfect – not a single cloud and a lot of sun. On the trip we got stuck in some celp and also saw some seals in the water.

After three hours of kayaking, we were all hungry and we ate at a beautiful restaurant on the beach.

To end the day we went to a beautiful campground, built up the tent and slept there, right next to our RV.