We're still out West

We arrived in Anacortes, Washington on Wednesday, June 19th. It was a nice day and so we got out the bike and rode in to the farmers market in town, we also checked the ferry time schedules to the various San Juan Islands. Great fun, wonderful produce at the farmers market, and nice city.

We woke up the next morning to a 90% rain all day long. We were stuck and spent a good portion of that day at Starbucks catching up on reading etc. Watched the movie, The Life of Pi, I thought this movie was going to be about math, very good!

Friday was beautiful; we took the ferry to San Juan island and spent most of the day riding bicycle around the island. Randy will post photo's of that soon. The next day, Randy's child hood friend, Brad Davies and his wife Tes came to visit us at our camp and we went sight seeing with them to Deception pass. This was pretty cool as they had not seen each other since they were 20 years old and Brad left for the navy. Again, more pictures to follow when time and Internet permits.

On Sunday the clouds opened and began to let the rain fall. Around 2:00 pm we couldn't stand it any more so we rode the ferry to a smaller island; a 5 minute ferry ride away and rode around it on the bike in the drizzle. It was fun, not too cold, not too wet.

The rain persisted all night and was forecasted to continue all week so we made the decision to jump ship earlier than we'd planned. We left the San Juan islands much to our dismay as there was more biking and kayaking to try yet. I'm writing you from our campsite at the WalMart near Coeur d'Alane Idaho where it is still raining. Oh well, we've been very blessed as you can tell by previous posts and the farmers and animals need moisture.

If the rain stops we will stay in town tomorrow and head to Glacier National Park on Wednesday. Randy's working on photos right now, so maybe we will have something better (than my poor writing skills) to post tomorrow.

Sent from my iPad

Lots of new posts!!!

Hello to all our dear readers. Lots of new posts and pictures below, so be sure to scroll down. It is a rainy day today, so Pat and I are holed up in a Starbucks in Anacortes, WA, using the free wi-fi and getting caffeinated.

An interesting observation: In Oregon and Washington Starbucks are packed with people during the day. Even in the small towns of northwest Washington you are lucky to get a seat in the middle of the morning. Lots of retirees talking or using computers/tablets while sipping coffee. Pretty cool. The coffee culture out here is much bigger than in Michigan.

Hopefully we will be whale watching tomorrow on San Juan island.

TTFN, Randy

The Olympic NP Pacific Coastal area – Rialto Beach

Olympic NP is interesting because it is not contiguous, so separate from the main park is the Pacific Coast National Shoreline. We drove there from Hoh to Rialto Beach, and what a treat. Pat can't stand being out of the sun for long periods of time, so after wandering in the rain forest for hours without even seeing the sky she was ready for the beach, and what an interesting beach.

Along the coast large douglas firs grew, and the salt air and water killed the trees nearest the ocean. The entire beach where we walked for two miles was lined with massive fallen trees that were bleached white/grey from the ocean winds. The beach has very dark sand near the water, changing to small black smooth stones, and then larger stones the further you get from the ocean. We lucked out today as we arrived just before low tide, which would allow us to hike up and around 'Hole in the wall', a famous rock formation. In the rocky tidal waters around 'hole in the wall' countless starfish lived, along with small shellfish and mollusks. Really pretty walk, and the sun came out for us quite a bit, which can be rare in the pacific northwest. So Pat got her vitamin D.

We also learned that you can backcountry hike the pacific coast, and there are numerous backpacking campsites along the shoreline all the way to the northernmost point of Washington's coast. We saw many backpackers leaving or returning to the Rialto Beach parking area. This is now on our wish list too.

Interesting and fun day going from the rainforest to the ocean beaches, and big smiles on the ride home to camp. Tomorrow we put the motor home on a ferry to cross the Puget sound so we can play in the San Juan islands (an hour north of Seattle) for a few days.

~Enjoy 

Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic NP

On Tuesday, we headed west with our first destination being the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic NP. This is a coniferous rainforest rather than a tropical rain forest, so it looks different from what we tend to see on tv. The Hoh Rainforest gets 12 feet of rain per year, and thankfully none of it fell on the day we were there. Our first view was a group of elk's butts, but after that . . . what a gorgeous place, with ferns, moss, and water beneath the large douglas firs and hemlock trees. With the exception of the path we were walking, everything had something growing on it. The competition for soil is so fierce, that trees often grow on top of downed tree trunks. The trail did take us out to the Hoh river, a glacial river fed in part by the Blue glacier.

We learned that there is a hike from the Hoh Rainforest up to Blue glacier that lies just below the summit of Mt. Olympus. The hike is 18 miles with numerous backcountry campsites, and is very popular. It is now on our wish list, as it is not a technical hike unless you want to go onto the glacier (we don't). Would be a fun four of five day backcountry hike.

If there are any Twilight (vampire/werewolf trilogy) fans out there the entrance to Hoh is just south of Forks, WA, where the books took place. I believe much of the movies were filmed here too. Every other business in the area had some reference to Twilight in it name.

~Enjoy

Hurricane Ridge - Olympic NP

After visiting Crescent lake, Pat and I drove up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic NP. It is a scenic 19 mile drive from sea level to 7000 feet and there are very few straightaway's. The first picture is looking down at the 'sound', or water between Port Angeles, WA and Victoria Island, BC.

At the end of the road is a lodge surrounded by a cradle of mountains, totally breathtaking. The entire time I walked around the theme from the Sound of Music was playing in my head. Towards the right of the mountain range is Mount Olympus, the highest peak in Washington ( it is in the clouds), and just below it is Blue Glacier. There is still snow at the lodge, and we hiked the High Ridge trail through some snow fields to get to the summit near the lodge, the highest accessible place without snow gear.

Amazingly beautiful vista that we both found hard to leave. 

~Enjoy

Olympic Peninsula and Marymere Falls

On Sunday, we drove from Portland, Oregon to Sequim, Washington (google map sequim bay to see where we are camped). Our campsite is on the bay, right next to a large marina primarily full of large sailboats. Lovely spot.

Monday we jumped in the car for a three part journey to the north side of Olympic National Park. We began with a short hike to Marymere falls, that has a 90' drop on the way to Lake Crescent. After the falls we continued on the Barnes Creek trail for a few miles. Lots of up and down hiking, and a few crossings on massive tree trunks turned into bridges. The forest was very primitive looking (sort of Jurassic park-ish) with dense vegetation and moss growing everywhere. The entire hike followed the creek/river, with many little falls and rapids. The sound of water as we walked was wonderful.

After our hike we drove to the Crescent Lake Lodge, that had a beautiful interior. The bar was in a large wood paneled room with wine glasses and wine bottles on display behind the bar and was simply gorgeous. We bought some snacks and pop to go with our sandwiches and sat on a bench by the water to eat. The shades of green and blue in this huge lake were stunning, and we watched a kayak and a couple of paddle boarders while we ate.

After lunch we headed to Hurricane Ridge, which I will post tomorrow.

Enjoy.

Oregon Coast biking & Beach Walking

We decided to spend our last day in Oregon on the Pacific Ocean biking and walking, so after oversleeping again, we loaded the tandem on the car and drove west. We began our bike ride at an ocean boat launch in Netarts, OR, just west of Tillamook. We road the Scenic Coastal bike route south down to Pacific City for lunch. Between the two towns was some hilly countryside, including a steep three mile climb up to Cape Lookout State Park. 

[Non-bikers can skip this paragraph] Unfortunately, the bike mechanic (me) let us down and we could not use granny gear to climb (severe chain suck). So we did the entire three miles in the middle ring, at one point reaching a low cadence of 33 RPM. Most of the time our cadence was around 50 (we usually spin at 80-100 RPM) and I was afraid it would kill our knees, but it actually went well thank goodness, as we would have to climb back up the other side on our return.

We arrived at Pacific City, famous for the Dories (boats) used for fishing there. After lunch we retraced our steps north back to the car. The climb back up to Cape Lookout was not quite as steep and we were able to keep our cadence above 50 all the way. The downhill was awesome and we didn't pedal for four miles. Beautiful ride, lots of views of the ocean, and the shallow capes where they dig for clams when the tide is out.

We drove north to Oceanside, OR, a stunningly beautiful little community with really tall houses packed in all the way to the high ridge. The beach was very nice, with some large rock formations in the ocean. While we were walking two guys ran off the top of the ridge way above us and para-sailed all the way down to the beach. We were so intent on watching them glide along on the thermals we forgot to take any pictures. We also saw a wedding party on the beach. At the end of the beach there was a tunnel (in one of the pictures) that went through a rock outcropping to the next beach, where you could walk among the rock formations. Just a lovely stroll walking the beach hand-in-hand with Pat.

After the beach stroll we drove up to see the Cape Meares lighthouse before heading back towards Portland. We returned back to our driveway campsite at Mary and Dave's house, and spent a little time with them talking and sipping a little wine before our departure the next morning. Was so nice to spend time with them and their lovely daughters.