Third day of backpacking

posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com

August 26, 2009
Day 3 of backpacking trip

Today was a beautiful day with breathtaking views. We hiked mostly along the ridgeline of several mountains on the High Divide Trail. We saw 2 marmots, two dancing bears, and more bees than I could count.

The morning started off chilly. We both woke up sometime before dawn to wrap our heads up in our mummy hoods to our sleeping bags. When we got up it was up to 40 degrees out, so I can only imagine it was in the 30s at night.

We were pretty quick packing up, eating, and heading out of camp today. The same bear was still across the lake. Yay for not getting eaten overnight! I can say now that I was a little concerned and had to push some scary images from my head before falling asleep last night. =) In the morning, though, all is safe. You can't let the quiet nights of the backcountry get to your head.

The hike up from Hoh Lake was just as hard as we thought it would be. Once out of the Hoh Lake area, we were back on the High Divide hike and were hiking up and down over various peaks. We found a great view of Mount Olympus and throughout the day managed to get many more pictures from all sorts of points of view.

Mount Olympus is still covered in either snow or a glacier. We learned later that it blocks precipitation from other parts of the park and all the snow dumps on it instead of other mountains. Most of the rest of the Olympic mountains that we see are of the "purple mountains majesty" variety. It is really quite beautiful and we just can't get enough of looking at the mountains.

The day was (I can't believe I'm saying this) warm at 75 and only partly cloudy. It was a gorgeous day for views of the whole park. We spent the entire morning only seeing 2 people, but then after lunch, bumped into a traffic jam of 8 hikers in a row. Everyone out here is now a backpacker rather than a day hiker. I find myself comparing our gear with theirs and seeing how we all attach it.

Soon after lunch we came to a spot where we could see two bears way down below either fighting or playing with each other. We were glad to be far away, though it made it hard to get good pictures of them. Mostly we watched them for a bit.

We hiked through many high meadows full of bees and mosquitoes. I thought I was hiking a bee across the divide as all I could hear all day was buzz buzz as the bees circled my head thinking I was a flower. The mosquitoes here are nothing like Texas mosquitoes and the sting from the bites goes away in just 2 days or so. Also, though there are bugs, they are nothing like the bugs in Texas. The bugs here seem to leave us alone for the most part. The ground is not full of ants, and we can pretty much sit down wherever we want without worrying.

When we neared an area called Heart Lake (lake was actually shaped like a heart), we put down our big packs and took a small day hike along a trail towards Cat's Basin. I read that it was a good hike, but really the views were not that different from the High Divide and we turned around after a mile. We didn't need extra miles.

The Heart Lake campsite area was full when I tried to reserve, and we could see that they were trying to keep the amount of visitors down. The area was more barren than any other part of our hike with many many paths crisscrossing the area. The rangers blocked off several former paths to allow the plants to regrow.

We were very tired and took a long break at Heart Lake while pumping water for our bags as we weren't sure how much water would be at our campsite. Finally, though, we had to move on. Our campsite was only about half a mile down the trail, but that half mile was all rock stairs down, down, down into the Sol Duc River valley. This was hard going on my feet with a heavy pack and short legs. We made it though. The campsite wasn't all that great as we ended up took close to others I think. It was rather buggy, but we did get to camp near a small waterfall.

Sol Duc Park (our campsite) had a ranger staying in the area for the night. This was the first night with a ranger close by. He came around to check our wilderness permits. We are only permitted to camp at the campsites we reserved. Any time we pass a ranger on the trail, they ask to see our permit and make sure that we have the required bear cans.

Dinner was quick and sleep came easily. We are getting into the groove of hiking and sleeping in the tent. We can pretty much sleep through the night on the ground now.

Today we hiked 7.1 miles total including 1.8 miles without the heavy packs along Cat's Basin. We averaged 1.7 mph (not including stopping time).

Second day backpacking

posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com

August 25, 2009
Day 2 of backpacking trip

Owww. As I lay here tonight I can feel my sore muscles from hauling the heavy pack.

We are camped near a stream and can hear the trickle of water that sounds like rain. Tonight we are at the Hoh Lake Campsite which is more secluded that last night's spot. Here there are only 4 total sites and only one other group is here with us. We saw bears across the lake from us and were very careful to put everything in the bear cans.

Back to today though... This morning was rainy. I woke up at 1am to the rain and we had to dash out of the tent to put the rain-fly on. This is never fun to do in the rainy darkness. The reason we don't like to put the rain-fly on the tent unless it rains (and is necessary to keep the rain out) is that it makes the tent air hot and unmoving with no ventilation.

In any case, we were happy with our sleeping bags as it was cold out there! Once back in the tent we fell asleep rather quickly. The bag kept me toasty warm even though I'm sure it dropped below 50 at night.

It was still raining at 7 am, so we stayed inside the tent a little longer until it stopped. I forgot to check the morning temp, but when we felt warm again, it was 52 out.

We went down to Deer Lake again to make breakfast and by the time we were all packed up, it was close to 10am. So, we had a late start to today. The packs nestled back on our bruised hip bones and we were off to climb, climb, climb. We climbed for about 4 miles.

We saw tons of blueberry bushes and hiked out of the tree line to some gorgeous views of the valleys below. I believe we got up too about 5000 feet at the top. We were overlooking the Seven Lakes Basin and we stopped for a break. There are several lakes scattered below all completely still and reflecting the trees back at us. The lakes are incredibly blue much like the glacial fed ones we say in Glacier National Park.

We were at the top of a peak, so behind us was a view of a different valley with Olympic mountains in the distance. Soon, our view was obscured as the clouds rolled in, up and over the mountain. The temps dropped to 45 and windy as we watched the clouds roll down into the Seven Lakes Basin.

It was time to go. From here it was mostly flat going and we went quite a bit faster. On our way to Hoh Lake we started hearing what sounded like someone's warning whistle. There was way too much open area (as we were on the ridge line of the mountains over several valleys) to tell where it was coming from, so we proceeded with caution. Soon we found a black bear down the hill from us. The wind was blowing in our faces and the bear was meandering away, so we continued and found ourselves soon overlooking Hoh Lake. It was beautiful! The lake was a deep blue with people fishing on it. The only problem was the lake was way below us. This means we had to hike down to the lake for the night and then up the same way we came in for tomorrow's hike. More climbing....but that's tomorrow.

On the way down we watched a bear forage on the opposite side of the lake from the campsites. The people fishing told us that the bear had just been on the campsite side. In fact, they had been screaming at the bear to make it go away. There was a ~12 year old girl who had been screaming at the bear, so we figured that was the warning sounds we heard from up top.

Tonight we were much smarter at setting up camp. After setting up the tent, we took everything we might need to the lake for a relaxing dinner. We had all our toiletries with us as well to clean up, and then everything went in the bear can. We left the cans there and came back to the tent for the night.

While sitting at the lake we had several deer nearly walk right up to us to see what we were doing there.

We tried to make a pudding dessert tonight as it had to sit in a cold lake, but it didn't gel and we weren't hungry for it. Luckily this site had a bear wire, so we hung our pudding on the bear wire. The bear wire was an interesting and hard to describe set up, but we were able to make it work. Basically the point is to get the food 12' in the air or higher and between trees where a bear can't climb and reach it.

Now it is time for sleep so we can haul our packs further tomorrow. The packs are feeling quite heavy and we are wondering what all we didn't need to bring with us. We have to haul it all now, of course. =)

Weather during the day was in the 50s. We hiked 5.9 miles at an average speed of 1.8mph (not including stopping time)

First night in the backcountry

posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com

August 24, 2009
Day 1 of backpacking trip

We started our day with a hearty breakfast in Port Angeles. The breakfast was so good that we decided to skip lunch.

A trip to the Wilderness Informatioin Center for Olympic National Park was next on the agenda to pick up the backpacking permits. We also borrowed some bear canisters (bear cans) from them. Bear cans are special plastic bins made with locks that only a human can open rather than a bear. All food and all scented items must be inside. The cans were cylinders about 12" tall by 8" in diameter and when full were pretty heavy. We filled 2 and they nearly took up all the space in our packs.

The start of the trail was still a 30 minute drive away, so we were off. At the trailhead we soon learned that our packs were nearly too heavy, so we left a few items behind in the car.

It took a little courage to leave the car behind, but once on the trail we forgot all about our ideas of sleeping in the car. hehe =)

We only hiked 5ish miles today, but it was slow and hard going. It was certaily harder than either of us thought, but we did makde it to our first campsite before dark.

On the way we stopped at the Sol Duc Falls for pictures. This is the main point of the Sol Duc trailhead and a day hike for most. From here we will continue in a large loop around the Seven Lakes Basin. After the falls, the rest of the hike was mostly a forested hike with an incline. We plugged along taking breaks every few minutes to breath and rest.

Finally we made it to Deer Lake, our first campsite, and what a marvelous lake it is. We arrived around 6pm and set up the tent. Then we had to hike away to cook and eat dinner as not to attract bears to our camp.

Camping while trying to keep the bears out is hard work. Our bear cans must live at least 100 feet from camp with all food and toiletries. This made getting ready for bed almost frustrating as we were going back and forth a few times before we had everything in the right spot and finished. It seems like everytime we thought we were done, we'd find another piece of trash in our pockets that had to be hiked and placed in the bear cans. It is very important to keep all bits of scented items away from us otherwise, there's just no point in hiking the bear cans in. By night 4, we will have this down.

We spent our evening strolling around Deer Lake and taking pictures.

Weather during the day was around 65-60. At night it was 50-55 with clear skies both day and night.

Olympic National Park is Awesome.

We've finished our five day backpacking trip, only the mosquitos nibbled on us. No bear attacks. We're heading out to explore the other areas of the park. Animal count so far - 4 bears, 4 goats, 2 marmots, 10+ deer. More details later!

Mark and Joanna

Orca Whales

posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com

Day 2
August 23, 2009

We are ready for the start of our backpacking trip tomorrow. I'm very excited. But, I should go back and tell you about today.

Our bed and breakfast was very charming last night. It was the Solstice Farm right outside Port Townsend. We had a huge bedroom, perfect for repacking and organizing for a backpacking trip. =) Breakfast on the farm was a 2.5 hour affiar. The couple who runs the place has led quite the full and exciting life. They told us all kinds of stories about their travels, different jobs they've had, and even all about their farm and lambing. They have about 45 lambs each spring. The food itself wasn't too long, but the stories that followed were interesting. This couple is very interested in sustainable living and told us all about how they built their house using wood deconstructed and recycled from other buildings. We learned about bringing the salmon back to their creek in the back, and even about a new way of logging sustainably.

After the stories and the repacking, we drove to the small town of Port Townsend. So far the Olympic Peninsula and it's small ocean towns remind me very much of Nova Scotia. We had lunch at an eclectic cafe called Fountain Cafe and then headed to the harbor for our afternoon whale watching cruise.

We couldn't have asked for better weather for our whale watching. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the sea was calm. The weather was a chilly 65 on the dock and 55 on the water. We did get to follow a pod of female orca whales with a baby in tow. No males, but the females were fun to watch. We stayed with them for an hour - the maximum time a boat is allowed to follow whales. The whales were in travel mode and just coming up for air every so often. There was no jumping out of the water like at Sea World. =)

Once back on land, we hit up the Elevated Ice Cream Shop for some homemeade dessert and then drove an hour to Port Angeles.

Port Angeles is bigger than Port Townsend, but not by much. We had a yummy Dungeness Crab dinner at the Crab House and are now relaxing in our hotel, The Downtown Hotel.

Tomorrow we will start our 5-day backpacking trip, so no posts from me for a few days. It will be cold at night. Tonight we were chilly walking around in the 50 degree weather outside. The weather is still looking amazingly sunny with just a small chance of showers on Tuesday. We know this is a rainy area, though, so we are prepared for the rain. It looks like the highest high we will see is all the way up to 69 on one of the days.

Have a good start to your week ahead. We will post more in 5-6 days.

I attached a photo of the whale pod we saw.

First day is the travel day

Posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com

Day 1
August 22, 2009

All vacations start out with a travel day. Our travel today was smooth and uneventful.

Our flight from Houston to Seattle was on time and even arrived 25 minutes early. Our luggage all arrived with no problems. We were a little curious how the backpacks would fair in the checked luggage. We used large duffel bags made to cover up backpacks for airline travel.

Lucky for us, Seattle just opened a brand new light rail transit from the airport (via a connector bus) to downtown. The light rail was easy and arrived in downtown only 2 blocks from the Avis rental car place.

After we rented the car, we ran a few errands like going to REI for stove fuel and home depot for Mark's hiking stick, and then boarded the Bainbridge Ferry to leave Seattle.

The ferry was rather interesting. I can't even estimate how many cars were fit on there in multiple levels. Then, we left the car and walked around the rest of the ferry for the 30 minute trip. The ferry featured itself as a free gym included as it measured laps for walking and encouraged passengers to use the stairs more than once for exercise.

We arrived in Bainbridge, and on the way to Port Townsend and our bed and breakfast for the night stopped at a local grill for a yummy steak and potatoes meal. The funny thing was we had to pass by multiple mexican food restaurants and a couple fast food joints before we finally found a place to eat.

Now we are at our bed and breakfast and headed to bed. The weather here is cool during the day and chilly at night. It is a nice change from the humid 100 degree Houston heat.

Tomorrow we will get ready for our backpacking trip and go whale watching in the Pugent Sound.

Good night.

Travel to Washington State

Posted at: http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com

Our next adventure starts this Saturday when we take off for Washington State. We will be spending 2 weeks there soaking up the cooler weather. The bulk of our trip will be spent on the Olympic Peninsula in Olympic National Park including a 5-day backpacking trip in the Seven Lakes Basin. The last few days of our trip will be in Seattle where we will attend the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). PAX is a three-day game festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers.

I'll be posting to our travel blog during the trip, so stay tuned and prepare to live vicariously through our travels. =) For those that are interested, here is our itinerary:

Saturday, August 22, 2009
fly to Seattle, drive to Port Townsend

Sunday, August 23, 2009
Whale watching leaves from Port Townsend

Monday, August 24, 2009 - backpacking day 1
Enter backcountry: Sol Duc Trailhead
Sol Duc Trailhead to Sol Duc Falls to Deer Lake (4.6 miles)
Set up camp, day hike along Low Divide
Night: Deer Lake Campsite

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 - backpacking day 2
Deer Lake to Bogachiel Peak to Hoh Lake (6.2 miles)
Set up camp, day hike to Olympus Ranger Station
Night: Hoh Lake Campsite

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - backpacking day 3
Hoh Lake to Bogachiel Peak to Heart Lake to Sol Duc Park (6 miles)
day hike along high divide
Night: Sol Duc Park Campsite

Thursday, August 27, 2009 - backpacking day 4
Sol Duc Park to Appleton Jct. to Appleton Pass (5.6 miles)
Night: Appleton Pass Campsite

Friday, August 28, 2009 - backpacking day 5
Appleton Pass to Appleton Jct. to Sol Duc Trailhead (8.3 miles)
Exit backcountry: Sol Duc Trailhead

Saturday, August 29, 2009 - Tuesday, September 1, 2009
day hike in Olympic National Park
nights in various campgrounds in the park

Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - Saturday, September 5, 2009
Seattle

Sunday, September 6, 2009
fly to Houston