posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
September 6, 2009
Today is our last day of vacation and we are going back home. It really has been wonderful out here. We are in love with the pacific northwest. I want to come back and one day I would love to live out here. This area has a good mix of outdoorsy people as well as tech-savvy people. Everyone we've met is very active and interested in sustainability. Recycling is available next to every trash can. Bike lanes are plentiful and the cars really do allow them on the streets. We experienced probably the best weather this area gets. It did actually rain today, but we never got caught up in it. It's beautiful up here with the mix of mountains and cities. I think it is safe to say that we'll be back for another vacation. We still need to hit Rainier, St. Helens, the Cascades, and much more.
We got another full 4 hours of sleep last night. (I will be sleeping on the plane for sure.) We got a little mixed up taking the light rail to the airport, but luckily it runs every 10 minutes, so missing one train didn't give much delay. It was raining while we took off, and then we were off. Until next time....
Thanks for reading my travel blog. I hope to post my photos soon.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
PAX day 2
posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
September 5, 2009
This morning we slept in and got a full 4 hours of sleep (big yawn). We decided we didn't need to be in line at 8am again, and instead to walk down to Pike's Market for breakfast instead of just hitting a coffee bar on the way to PAX.
When we woke up, we noticed that it had rained over night. We've been having amazing weather here in the Pacific Northwest and really haven't had any rain. We've just had beautiful sunny days in the 70s. We've been loving it. So, I took a picture of the wet streets to prove that it does actually rain in Seattle. It never did rain on us though. =) Pike's Market on a Saturday morning was quieter than we expected, but I think it was still early. We had another breakfast mix of pastries followed by the yummy mac and cheese from the cheese store and then headed to PAX.
We arrived just before 10am and still got a wristband for the concert tonight. Yes, this was definitely better than showing up at 8am. We headed for the booths we missed yesterday and then to a talk by the Fox Trot artist. we had a little more time today, so we went a few blocks away to the Baguette Box for lunch and then split off for the afternoon. Mark went back to PAX and I walked back to Pike's Market for pictures and to do my souvenir shopping. Now the place was packed with people! Most of the people here seemed to be LSU fans and I switched from the world of gamers to the world of football fans in just a few blocks. I walked down to Pioneer Square again, and then decided that I was really too tired to walk the waterfront and the Olympic Sculpture Garden as I had planned. So, I went back to PAX. I caught up with Mark and we finished off the exhibition room together. Then we went to a really interesting discussion put on by Harmonix, the makers of Rock Band. They are coming out with a Rock Band Network in which bands can obtain software and the means to upload their own songs to sell on Rock Band. It was interesting to see how a song turns into a video game. They went into some of the software and it was quite interesting. We had a long dinner break and found a good placed called Palominos (?). Their brick fired pizza was mighty tasty. Back at the convention center, I left Mark to go watch the Omegathon (people competing in a variety of games to win a tournament) and found some bean bags in a quiet area for a nap. The concert tonight started on time, as we rocked the night away again until after 2am.
September 5, 2009
This morning we slept in and got a full 4 hours of sleep (big yawn). We decided we didn't need to be in line at 8am again, and instead to walk down to Pike's Market for breakfast instead of just hitting a coffee bar on the way to PAX.
When we woke up, we noticed that it had rained over night. We've been having amazing weather here in the Pacific Northwest and really haven't had any rain. We've just had beautiful sunny days in the 70s. We've been loving it. So, I took a picture of the wet streets to prove that it does actually rain in Seattle. It never did rain on us though. =) Pike's Market on a Saturday morning was quieter than we expected, but I think it was still early. We had another breakfast mix of pastries followed by the yummy mac and cheese from the cheese store and then headed to PAX.
We arrived just before 10am and still got a wristband for the concert tonight. Yes, this was definitely better than showing up at 8am. We headed for the booths we missed yesterday and then to a talk by the Fox Trot artist. we had a little more time today, so we went a few blocks away to the Baguette Box for lunch and then split off for the afternoon. Mark went back to PAX and I walked back to Pike's Market for pictures and to do my souvenir shopping. Now the place was packed with people! Most of the people here seemed to be LSU fans and I switched from the world of gamers to the world of football fans in just a few blocks. I walked down to Pioneer Square again, and then decided that I was really too tired to walk the waterfront and the Olympic Sculpture Garden as I had planned. So, I went back to PAX. I caught up with Mark and we finished off the exhibition room together. Then we went to a really interesting discussion put on by Harmonix, the makers of Rock Band. They are coming out with a Rock Band Network in which bands can obtain software and the means to upload their own songs to sell on Rock Band. It was interesting to see how a song turns into a video game. They went into some of the software and it was quite interesting. We had a long dinner break and found a good placed called Palominos (?). Their brick fired pizza was mighty tasty. Back at the convention center, I left Mark to go watch the Omegathon (people competing in a variety of games to win a tournament) and found some bean bags in a quiet area for a nap. The concert tonight started on time, as we rocked the night away again until after 2am.
The world of PAX
posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
September 4, 2009
Today we change worlds and enter the world of geeks, nerds, and gamers. Yes, it's the start of PAX, the Penny Arcade Expo. Basically, it's a video game convention that covers 3 days. It started in 2003 and this is the first year they sold out tickets for the event reaching maximum capacity of the Washington Convention Center - 75,000 people. The whole convention center was set up for the event and it was quite an experience.
Mark is certainly more in this world of gamers than I am. Though, I do understand most of what's going on. I really had no idea what I was getting into when we decided to schedule our Seattle trip around PAX. The Expo started today, Friday, at 10am, however, the line opened up at 8am. The first 4,000 people received wristbands that guaranteed admission to tonight's concert. We arrived about 8am and entered the Queue room, a room that we would get to know well. They had a whole exhibit hall set up just to hold people in a line. We were certainly one of the first 4,000, though certainly not the first. We sat down on the concrete floor that would be our home for the next 2 days and watched the line entertainment. Entertainment consisted of a message board for people to text message in to. Also, there was inside humor and a few trivia games during the wait.
By the time 10am rolled around, we were as jammed in this line as possible with every bit of space taken up by a person so as to fit us all in. Then, the gates were opened and everyone raced into a series of dark rooms full of computers and games!!!! All the top gaming companies had a booth as well as some individual games. Basically, we could walk around and use their computers set up to play their games, check out their new games, buy stuff, and preview the games that weren't out yet. I was amazed at all the booths and people, and Mark was running off to play the first games. We spent the morning touring the exhibition hall. Many fans dressed up as their favorite gaming characters and I had fun taking pictures of everyone. There were some pretty elaborate costumes. Soon, we left the exhibition hall to go line up for a panel discussion on video game journalism. Everything we attended started with a long line. The event coordinators and crowd control were called Enforcers and did a very good job at keeping the lines organized. We spent a lot of time in lines.
We attended the key note speech given by the Monkey Island game designer. Most of these talks we are going to involve a very successful person discussing how they started out small and usually with a small business. Hey, this pertains to me! We both had fun at PAX. After the key note speech was an open panel discussion with the two makers of Penny Arcade and the hosts of the convention. We spent the whole day here. We got to try out the new Lego Rock Band and Beatles Rock Band. We played with the Wii Resort and this new Wii puzzle game called lights. We kept quite busy. In fact, we didn't get a free chance to check out the freeplay rooms. Basically they had huge rooms set up where anyone could go play on a computer, or play a board game. There was a huge assortment of things to keep you busy. In the halls, there were large bean bags placed everywhere so people could just hang out and use their computer, talk, play their DS or PSP, and even sleep. The place was packed.
After a panel with the star bands at the concert tonight, we had a quick break for dinner and found a sports bar not far away. Then it was back to get in line for the concert. The concert starts at 9:30, but we didn't know how the line would be. So, we got there early. Tonight, the concert finally started at 10:30. We heard 4 bands in the nerd core genre of music. Many of the bands used a game boy and other synthesizers as instruments. The place was jamming as the bands put on a great rock concert. We finally got out of there around 2am. On our way out, I heard someone mention that they were going to the Rock Band freeplay room to play until they closed at 3am. Good for them...we headed to bed. =)
September 4, 2009
Today we change worlds and enter the world of geeks, nerds, and gamers. Yes, it's the start of PAX, the Penny Arcade Expo. Basically, it's a video game convention that covers 3 days. It started in 2003 and this is the first year they sold out tickets for the event reaching maximum capacity of the Washington Convention Center - 75,000 people. The whole convention center was set up for the event and it was quite an experience.
Mark is certainly more in this world of gamers than I am. Though, I do understand most of what's going on. I really had no idea what I was getting into when we decided to schedule our Seattle trip around PAX. The Expo started today, Friday, at 10am, however, the line opened up at 8am. The first 4,000 people received wristbands that guaranteed admission to tonight's concert. We arrived about 8am and entered the Queue room, a room that we would get to know well. They had a whole exhibit hall set up just to hold people in a line. We were certainly one of the first 4,000, though certainly not the first. We sat down on the concrete floor that would be our home for the next 2 days and watched the line entertainment. Entertainment consisted of a message board for people to text message in to. Also, there was inside humor and a few trivia games during the wait.
By the time 10am rolled around, we were as jammed in this line as possible with every bit of space taken up by a person so as to fit us all in. Then, the gates were opened and everyone raced into a series of dark rooms full of computers and games!!!! All the top gaming companies had a booth as well as some individual games. Basically, we could walk around and use their computers set up to play their games, check out their new games, buy stuff, and preview the games that weren't out yet. I was amazed at all the booths and people, and Mark was running off to play the first games. We spent the morning touring the exhibition hall. Many fans dressed up as their favorite gaming characters and I had fun taking pictures of everyone. There were some pretty elaborate costumes. Soon, we left the exhibition hall to go line up for a panel discussion on video game journalism. Everything we attended started with a long line. The event coordinators and crowd control were called Enforcers and did a very good job at keeping the lines organized. We spent a lot of time in lines.
We attended the key note speech given by the Monkey Island game designer. Most of these talks we are going to involve a very successful person discussing how they started out small and usually with a small business. Hey, this pertains to me! We both had fun at PAX. After the key note speech was an open panel discussion with the two makers of Penny Arcade and the hosts of the convention. We spent the whole day here. We got to try out the new Lego Rock Band and Beatles Rock Band. We played with the Wii Resort and this new Wii puzzle game called lights. We kept quite busy. In fact, we didn't get a free chance to check out the freeplay rooms. Basically they had huge rooms set up where anyone could go play on a computer, or play a board game. There was a huge assortment of things to keep you busy. In the halls, there were large bean bags placed everywhere so people could just hang out and use their computer, talk, play their DS or PSP, and even sleep. The place was packed.
After a panel with the star bands at the concert tonight, we had a quick break for dinner and found a sports bar not far away. Then it was back to get in line for the concert. The concert starts at 9:30, but we didn't know how the line would be. So, we got there early. Tonight, the concert finally started at 10:30. We heard 4 bands in the nerd core genre of music. Many of the bands used a game boy and other synthesizers as instruments. The place was jamming as the bands put on a great rock concert. We finally got out of there around 2am. On our way out, I heard someone mention that they were going to the Rock Band freeplay room to play until they closed at 3am. Good for them...we headed to bed. =)
Friday, September 4, 2009
Tourist Day
posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
September 3, 2009
Waking up today was very different than waking up in the tent. We woke up facing a great view of Seattle from up high with the sun rising on the right lighting up the buildings in warm colors. Also, we now get to shower every day. =) This makes me happy.
Today is our tourist day. We left the hotel and headed south to the tallest building in Seattle - The Columbia Center. It rises over 1,000 feet above sea level and has an observation deck on floor 73 near the top. It was empty of tourists and much cheaper than the Space Needle. We got some good pictures of the surrounding Seattle from the air. The traffic center was there as well and they would check the windows when needed to see the traffic. Most of them were on facebook, watching tv, or twittering.
Next we headed towards the coast and Pikes Place / Pikes Market. It was not as crowded as it would be on a Saturday. Actually, we found ourselves amid many LSU fans clad in their purple and yellow. It turns out that LSU is playing University of Washington. We wondered where they were parking all their RVs and displaying their tall flags. =) The market was still pretty crowded. We watched the flying fish phenomenon and then just walked around viewing the shops and food. We stopped at a pastry shop and had breakfast. I had a tasty apple cinnamon roll. Mark had a potato, onion and cheese pyroshki. Then, just down the street was a cheese shop which we had to stop in. They were making cheese in the back. We tried the cheese curds and then just had to eat some of their best mac and cheese. It was indeed tasty. Then we headed to a seafood stall and had them crack and clean a Dungeness Crab for us. We took our crab over to a park with benches to eat. Mmmmm, Dungeness is defintely my favorite crab now. We experienced our first Seattle rain at this point. It rained while we ate our crab which wasn't too bad as our hands got cleaned as well. The rain passed and a gorgeous sunny day emerged. We walked to the Westlake Center to pick up the monorail to the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is. We visited the EMP/SFM, the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. The SFM was smaller than we would have liked, but the EMP offered lots of exhibits for viewing.
Next we walked up to Lake Union and found the Center for Wooden Boats. There were boats; they were wooden; it was small. We made it too I Love Sushi restaurant for happy hour and had some tasty sushi. We were told we just had to have sushi in WA. We might even have it again. I stayed safe with California Rolls and Spider Rolls. Mark was a little more adventurous with a kitchen special and several other types of sushi. He had some crunchy rolls that I really liked. We were still early for sunset, but we had pretty much exhausted our tourist activities for the area, so we walked to Kerry Park. This little park is the number one photographer location for taking photos of the downtown skyline. It's a little north of downtown and near the Queen Anne hill area. The houses here were very nice and I know the people here had money to live with such a view. The weather was just perfect to see downtown with Mount Rainier poking it's head out behind it. We could see the glassy calm Pugent Sound as the sun set to our right and cast pretty warm yellow light over downtown. This is the perfect photographer's light. In fact, I counted up to 15 other photographers with tripods here with us along with several others without tripods. It was absolutely packed. I even got to share information with one of the more professional looking photogs. Two photos showed up with their wives in a Hummer limo to take pictures. They each used many lenses. Their wives were somewhat schooled on photography composition as well and had fun taking pictures of the various groups that showed up with their compact cameras for group photos. It was a people watching experience and quite fun. When the twilight hour hit, I got some gorgeous full moon photos as well as the downtown skyline lit up with lights. I was happy. Mark was nice enough to sit here for several hours with me so I could get my photo fix.
Then we walked back to the hotel....about 2 miles away or so. Yes, lots of walking today. I'm enjoying it, though. There are lots of bikes, too and traffic really does work with the bikes and pedestrians. We are falling in love with this area of the country.
We found the pick up hotel to get our badges for the PAX convention over the next 3 days. Tomorrow we will wake up early and line up for the start of the PAX convention. They sold out at 75,000 people. We will join them over the next two days for this popular video game convention. I don't even understand what all we will be seeing, but Mark is very excited.
pics later
September 3, 2009
Waking up today was very different than waking up in the tent. We woke up facing a great view of Seattle from up high with the sun rising on the right lighting up the buildings in warm colors. Also, we now get to shower every day. =) This makes me happy.
Today is our tourist day. We left the hotel and headed south to the tallest building in Seattle - The Columbia Center. It rises over 1,000 feet above sea level and has an observation deck on floor 73 near the top. It was empty of tourists and much cheaper than the Space Needle. We got some good pictures of the surrounding Seattle from the air. The traffic center was there as well and they would check the windows when needed to see the traffic. Most of them were on facebook, watching tv, or twittering.
Next we headed towards the coast and Pikes Place / Pikes Market. It was not as crowded as it would be on a Saturday. Actually, we found ourselves amid many LSU fans clad in their purple and yellow. It turns out that LSU is playing University of Washington. We wondered where they were parking all their RVs and displaying their tall flags. =) The market was still pretty crowded. We watched the flying fish phenomenon and then just walked around viewing the shops and food. We stopped at a pastry shop and had breakfast. I had a tasty apple cinnamon roll. Mark had a potato, onion and cheese pyroshki. Then, just down the street was a cheese shop which we had to stop in. They were making cheese in the back. We tried the cheese curds and then just had to eat some of their best mac and cheese. It was indeed tasty. Then we headed to a seafood stall and had them crack and clean a Dungeness Crab for us. We took our crab over to a park with benches to eat. Mmmmm, Dungeness is defintely my favorite crab now. We experienced our first Seattle rain at this point. It rained while we ate our crab which wasn't too bad as our hands got cleaned as well. The rain passed and a gorgeous sunny day emerged. We walked to the Westlake Center to pick up the monorail to the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is. We visited the EMP/SFM, the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. The SFM was smaller than we would have liked, but the EMP offered lots of exhibits for viewing.
Next we walked up to Lake Union and found the Center for Wooden Boats. There were boats; they were wooden; it was small. We made it too I Love Sushi restaurant for happy hour and had some tasty sushi. We were told we just had to have sushi in WA. We might even have it again. I stayed safe with California Rolls and Spider Rolls. Mark was a little more adventurous with a kitchen special and several other types of sushi. He had some crunchy rolls that I really liked. We were still early for sunset, but we had pretty much exhausted our tourist activities for the area, so we walked to Kerry Park. This little park is the number one photographer location for taking photos of the downtown skyline. It's a little north of downtown and near the Queen Anne hill area. The houses here were very nice and I know the people here had money to live with such a view. The weather was just perfect to see downtown with Mount Rainier poking it's head out behind it. We could see the glassy calm Pugent Sound as the sun set to our right and cast pretty warm yellow light over downtown. This is the perfect photographer's light. In fact, I counted up to 15 other photographers with tripods here with us along with several others without tripods. It was absolutely packed. I even got to share information with one of the more professional looking photogs. Two photos showed up with their wives in a Hummer limo to take pictures. They each used many lenses. Their wives were somewhat schooled on photography composition as well and had fun taking pictures of the various groups that showed up with their compact cameras for group photos. It was a people watching experience and quite fun. When the twilight hour hit, I got some gorgeous full moon photos as well as the downtown skyline lit up with lights. I was happy. Mark was nice enough to sit here for several hours with me so I could get my photo fix.
Then we walked back to the hotel....about 2 miles away or so. Yes, lots of walking today. I'm enjoying it, though. There are lots of bikes, too and traffic really does work with the bikes and pedestrians. We are falling in love with this area of the country.
We found the pick up hotel to get our badges for the PAX convention over the next 3 days. Tomorrow we will wake up early and line up for the start of the PAX convention. They sold out at 75,000 people. We will join them over the next two days for this popular video game convention. I don't even understand what all we will be seeing, but Mark is very excited.
pics later
Back to Seattle
posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
September 2, 2009
The sea gulls outside our Port Angeles woke us up this morning. We packed and consolidated all our gear into our bags in the car and headed out to First Street Haven for breakfast. This was a lovely little breakfast place with calming music and delicious food. Breakfast came with a baked good. Mark's cinnamon roll was huge and my scone was very tasty.
After breakfast we hit the road and headed towards Seattle making several stops along the way. First we went to the infamous Dungeness Spit Wildlife Refuge. This had been recommended to us by so many people that we just had to stop. We hiked out along the coast for a mile, but we couldn't see what all the fuss was about. Perhaps we just went on the wrong day. I definitely liked Rialto Beach on the west coast much better. Next we stopped at one of the famous lavender farms of Sequim. I wanted to see if the lavender if the lavender (which peaks in mid July) was still blooming. Unfortunately it wasn't really, but we had fun poking around the lavender gift shop.
Now, we really just headed in towards Seattle the same way we came out. We drove to Bainbridge Island and got there just in time to board a ferry to Seattle. The day was very clear and sunny, so I was able to get some good pictures of the Seattle coast line as we ferried towards it. The Westin Seattle hotel where we will spend the next several nights is directly across the street from the Avis rental car return, so it was no problem dropping off our car. Driving in downtown Seattle, as one can imagine, is nearly impossible with all the cars and pedestrians and bikes. For the rest of our trip we will be pedestrians. =)
Our hotel room is up near the top on the 35th floor and we have a nice view north of downtown. In fact, we can even see the Space Needle from our room window. This is also the first time that we won't be moving our sleeping area every night!
Once settled in the hotel, we took a walk around downtown. We started at the Columbia Center hoping to go up to the observation tower for a great view, but it closed only 20 minutes before we arrived. Next we headed towards Pioneer Square for the Underground Tour. Boy was that tour interesting! We had a wonderful tour guide, Terri, who's been doing this for 12 years, so she knew her stuff and really knew how to talk to a crowd. I had no idea before this tour that Seattle actually started at an elevation about 8 - 32 feet below the elevation of Seattle today. The low elevation on the coast didn't work for Seattle and the city rebuilt much higher. It was fascinating information and I was appalled at how Seattle city planners decided to build the city.
After our tour we wandered up the water front and had a seafood dinner on the coast watching the sunset behind the Olympic Mountains across the Pugent Sound. The rest of the night we just wandered around getting our bearings and finally collapsing in the hotel in bed.
pics later
September 2, 2009
The sea gulls outside our Port Angeles woke us up this morning. We packed and consolidated all our gear into our bags in the car and headed out to First Street Haven for breakfast. This was a lovely little breakfast place with calming music and delicious food. Breakfast came with a baked good. Mark's cinnamon roll was huge and my scone was very tasty.
After breakfast we hit the road and headed towards Seattle making several stops along the way. First we went to the infamous Dungeness Spit Wildlife Refuge. This had been recommended to us by so many people that we just had to stop. We hiked out along the coast for a mile, but we couldn't see what all the fuss was about. Perhaps we just went on the wrong day. I definitely liked Rialto Beach on the west coast much better. Next we stopped at one of the famous lavender farms of Sequim. I wanted to see if the lavender if the lavender (which peaks in mid July) was still blooming. Unfortunately it wasn't really, but we had fun poking around the lavender gift shop.
Now, we really just headed in towards Seattle the same way we came out. We drove to Bainbridge Island and got there just in time to board a ferry to Seattle. The day was very clear and sunny, so I was able to get some good pictures of the Seattle coast line as we ferried towards it. The Westin Seattle hotel where we will spend the next several nights is directly across the street from the Avis rental car return, so it was no problem dropping off our car. Driving in downtown Seattle, as one can imagine, is nearly impossible with all the cars and pedestrians and bikes. For the rest of our trip we will be pedestrians. =)
Our hotel room is up near the top on the 35th floor and we have a nice view north of downtown. In fact, we can even see the Space Needle from our room window. This is also the first time that we won't be moving our sleeping area every night!
Once settled in the hotel, we took a walk around downtown. We started at the Columbia Center hoping to go up to the observation tower for a great view, but it closed only 20 minutes before we arrived. Next we headed towards Pioneer Square for the Underground Tour. Boy was that tour interesting! We had a wonderful tour guide, Terri, who's been doing this for 12 years, so she knew her stuff and really knew how to talk to a crowd. I had no idea before this tour that Seattle actually started at an elevation about 8 - 32 feet below the elevation of Seattle today. The low elevation on the coast didn't work for Seattle and the city rebuilt much higher. It was fascinating information and I was appalled at how Seattle city planners decided to build the city.
After our tour we wandered up the water front and had a seafood dinner on the coast watching the sunset behind the Olympic Mountains across the Pugent Sound. The rest of the night we just wandered around getting our bearings and finally collapsing in the hotel in bed.
pics later
Cleaning up is fun to do
posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
September 1, 2009
I've just spent the evening typing up all mu journals that I wrote while in the back country and I realized that I still need to write today's.
This morning started so long ago. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning so that we could pack up our tent for the last time. Our camping stuff is getting pretty rank and I can't wait to do laundry.
We were going to drive up to Hurricane Ridge again today to watch the sunrise. And what a marvelous sunrise it was! We had met another photographer last night who was doing the same thing, so we had company up here so early in the morning. When the sun rose, the clouds lit up like a fire in the sky. The clouds were forming and moving towards the sun in wisps and rolling balls, so the fire in the sky was very much accentuated. Then the deer came out and joined us at dawn. It was a chilly 55, but it was beautiful. Once it was light enough, the clouds covered the sun turning the day into a cloudy one. We drove out along Obstruction Point Road which leaves Hurricane Ridge and climbs in the mountains about 7.5 miles away. This gravel road was bumpier than the previous Whiskey Bend Road, but our car made it just fine.
Since the clouds were out, we passed by some scenic pullouts noting where they were to come back later and take pictures. We did find a colony of marmots near the road and watched them play for a while. There were several adults out keeping watch while the little kid marmots played. They rolled around in cartoon fashion and were just so cute.
When we reached Obstruction Peak and the end of the road, we decided to hike along Lillian Ridge for as long as we felt. The ground up here is like an arctic tundra, dry and nearly lifeless. The plants are all low to the ground and tiny while snow still covers patches of the ground. We learned that this area was in the rainshadow of Mt. Olympus meaning that Olympus stole all the moisture for itself keeping this area more dry and arid. The hike was interesting and the sun came out for some magnificent views. We took it easy and mostly just strolled for 2 miles.
once back at the trailhead, we picked a spot for lunch. We had two deer bugging us the whole time wanting some of our lunch and we had to shoo them away like flies.
We decided to make this the end of our trip to Olympic National Park. It was very hard to leave all that mountain beauty behind us and drive away. We had a magnificent time. I'd love to come back one day and hike more areas of the park. We had wonderful weather while we were here. It only rained on us one night and never while hiking. The days were perfect with sun and cool temps in the 70s. The nights were chilly, but quite nice in the tent.
The drive to Port Angeles was pretty short. We stopped at the Wilderness Information Center to donate our unused camp items that we aren't taking home with us. Then we came straight to our Downtown Hotel to get cleaned up. I am excited at the prospect now of showering every single day from here on out on our vacation. We even hit up a laundromat to wash all the clothes.
Everything is now organized again instead of spread out all over the inside of the car and we are ready to go to Seattle to continue our vacation there.
We had dinner tonight again at the Crab House and again had the Dungeness Crab. It was still delicious. Now, though, it is time for sleep, in a bed. =)
pics later
September 1, 2009
I've just spent the evening typing up all mu journals that I wrote while in the back country and I realized that I still need to write today's.
This morning started so long ago. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning so that we could pack up our tent for the last time. Our camping stuff is getting pretty rank and I can't wait to do laundry.
We were going to drive up to Hurricane Ridge again today to watch the sunrise. And what a marvelous sunrise it was! We had met another photographer last night who was doing the same thing, so we had company up here so early in the morning. When the sun rose, the clouds lit up like a fire in the sky. The clouds were forming and moving towards the sun in wisps and rolling balls, so the fire in the sky was very much accentuated. Then the deer came out and joined us at dawn. It was a chilly 55, but it was beautiful. Once it was light enough, the clouds covered the sun turning the day into a cloudy one. We drove out along Obstruction Point Road which leaves Hurricane Ridge and climbs in the mountains about 7.5 miles away. This gravel road was bumpier than the previous Whiskey Bend Road, but our car made it just fine.
Since the clouds were out, we passed by some scenic pullouts noting where they were to come back later and take pictures. We did find a colony of marmots near the road and watched them play for a while. There were several adults out keeping watch while the little kid marmots played. They rolled around in cartoon fashion and were just so cute.
When we reached Obstruction Peak and the end of the road, we decided to hike along Lillian Ridge for as long as we felt. The ground up here is like an arctic tundra, dry and nearly lifeless. The plants are all low to the ground and tiny while snow still covers patches of the ground. We learned that this area was in the rainshadow of Mt. Olympus meaning that Olympus stole all the moisture for itself keeping this area more dry and arid. The hike was interesting and the sun came out for some magnificent views. We took it easy and mostly just strolled for 2 miles.
once back at the trailhead, we picked a spot for lunch. We had two deer bugging us the whole time wanting some of our lunch and we had to shoo them away like flies.
We decided to make this the end of our trip to Olympic National Park. It was very hard to leave all that mountain beauty behind us and drive away. We had a magnificent time. I'd love to come back one day and hike more areas of the park. We had wonderful weather while we were here. It only rained on us one night and never while hiking. The days were perfect with sun and cool temps in the 70s. The nights were chilly, but quite nice in the tent.
The drive to Port Angeles was pretty short. We stopped at the Wilderness Information Center to donate our unused camp items that we aren't taking home with us. Then we came straight to our Downtown Hotel to get cleaned up. I am excited at the prospect now of showering every single day from here on out on our vacation. We even hit up a laundromat to wash all the clothes.
Everything is now organized again instead of spread out all over the inside of the car and we are ready to go to Seattle to continue our vacation there.
We had dinner tonight again at the Crab House and again had the Dungeness Crab. It was still delicious. Now, though, it is time for sleep, in a bed. =)
pics later
So pretty, we don't want to leave
posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
August 31, 2009
Tonight is our last night in a tent and we are going to bed early to wake up for sunrise pictures.
Today we toured the most popular section of Olympic National Park - Hurricane Ridge. Taking down our tent in Elwa this morning was no problem and we were at the Heart 'o Hills campground at the base of Hurricane Ridge in only 30 minutes. We were hear early enough to be able to pick and choose our campsite with nearly no one else here. All sites seemed to have that same cemented tent pads as the Elwa, so we gathered rocks again to use as stakes. We left the tent and headed the 17 miles up 5000 feet to Hurricane Ridge.
I'm now in favor of driving to the top rather than walking. =)
We had lunch in the picnic area down the road from the visitor's center with the chipmunks and little birds looking for food treats. This spot had a great view of the Olympic Mountains. Then we hiked, or rather, strolled the paved trails in the area taking our time to read all the nature signs and learn what plants and views were were looking at.
We sat at Sunrise Point for a bit just staring out at the mountains. The sun was out making the clear day about 80 degrees in the sun, but 65-70 in the shade. It was very comfortable and the views were gorgeous.
We listened to a ranger talk about funny visitor stories that happened in the park. It was quite a humorous half hour. We followed the talk with ice cream from the cafe there at the viewing platform. Did I mention that today was relaxing?
We spied several black tailed deer in the area, usually followed by several folks with cameras, but no marmots.
We drove back to the picnic area for our dinner and watched 3 blue striped grouse roam the meadow while we ate. Then, it was back to the viewing platform for sunset and then driving back down the mountain to bed (or sleeping bag, I should say). The morning will come quickly.
pictures later
August 31, 2009
Tonight is our last night in a tent and we are going to bed early to wake up for sunrise pictures.
Today we toured the most popular section of Olympic National Park - Hurricane Ridge. Taking down our tent in Elwa this morning was no problem and we were at the Heart 'o Hills campground at the base of Hurricane Ridge in only 30 minutes. We were hear early enough to be able to pick and choose our campsite with nearly no one else here. All sites seemed to have that same cemented tent pads as the Elwa, so we gathered rocks again to use as stakes. We left the tent and headed the 17 miles up 5000 feet to Hurricane Ridge.
I'm now in favor of driving to the top rather than walking. =)
We had lunch in the picnic area down the road from the visitor's center with the chipmunks and little birds looking for food treats. This spot had a great view of the Olympic Mountains. Then we hiked, or rather, strolled the paved trails in the area taking our time to read all the nature signs and learn what plants and views were were looking at.
We sat at Sunrise Point for a bit just staring out at the mountains. The sun was out making the clear day about 80 degrees in the sun, but 65-70 in the shade. It was very comfortable and the views were gorgeous.
We listened to a ranger talk about funny visitor stories that happened in the park. It was quite a humorous half hour. We followed the talk with ice cream from the cafe there at the viewing platform. Did I mention that today was relaxing?
We spied several black tailed deer in the area, usually followed by several folks with cameras, but no marmots.
We drove back to the picnic area for our dinner and watched 3 blue striped grouse roam the meadow while we ate. Then, it was back to the viewing platform for sunset and then driving back down the mountain to bed (or sleeping bag, I should say). The morning will come quickly.
pictures later
Tired, but happy
posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
August 30, 2009
Tonight is our second to last night in a tent. We are really tired tonight. We hiked almost 8 miles today broken up over a few hikes.
We were very impressed last night with how quiet our campground was and I'm very impressed again tonight. Maybe it's because the kids are in school now, or maybe WA campers are just quieter.
Today we hiked to several waterfalls inside the main part of Olympic National Park. We drove back in land from the coast and stopped at several places to hike. Near Lake Crescent, a huge lake in the northern end of the park, was Marymere falls. This was a shady, forest hike that ended at a rather tall waterfall. There were plenty of other people on this easy hike. Next we headed into the park on the Elwa Road. Just inside, we stopped at Madison Falls, another tall waterfall.
We took a windy 5 mile road up to the start of a hike for Olympic Hot Pools. The hike was actually along an old asphalt road from years ago when explorers planned on bringing people directly to the Hot Pools. The road was now mostly grown over and collapsed in several points. Hiking the trail was pleasant and we finally found all the little squirrels and birds of the park that were missing in the backcountry. There were chipmunks running around as well. In fact one squirrel that was running around scared a bunny out of it's hiding place and it came running past us.
When we reached the hot springs we found the most odd thing ever found on a hiking trail....a shopping cart was here 2.5 miles in. It had been brought here rather recently since the food in the cart was pretty new looking. The hot pools themselves did not appeal to us as we were now hot from the hike, but many people were enjoying them. We decided to hang out on a bridge over a river for a bit before hiking back.
Our next trip was up a windy, one-way, gravel road that traveled 5 miles up a mountain. The drive was pretty bumpy, but we did get to stop at a neat hike to a waterfall along Lake Mills. We had to hike down a very steep trail to the bottom of the falls. The falls themselves were rather hidden from view which made it almost adventurous finding the base of the falls. The hike back out nearly straight up was not as fun, but the trail was relatively short.
There was no good viewpoint to stop and eat dinner at, so we headed down to our campsite along the Elwha river to eat. The campground here was pretty busy when we arrived and we were able to secure one of the last sites available. The tent pad was created out of almost cement-stabilized-sand material, so inserting stakes was out of the question. We ended up using rocks as stakes by tying cord from the rock to our tent poles. It worked out rather well, actually. We picked a site that was right on the river, so we are going to fall asleep to the sounds of the river.
pictures later
August 30, 2009
Tonight is our second to last night in a tent. We are really tired tonight. We hiked almost 8 miles today broken up over a few hikes.
We were very impressed last night with how quiet our campground was and I'm very impressed again tonight. Maybe it's because the kids are in school now, or maybe WA campers are just quieter.
Today we hiked to several waterfalls inside the main part of Olympic National Park. We drove back in land from the coast and stopped at several places to hike. Near Lake Crescent, a huge lake in the northern end of the park, was Marymere falls. This was a shady, forest hike that ended at a rather tall waterfall. There were plenty of other people on this easy hike. Next we headed into the park on the Elwa Road. Just inside, we stopped at Madison Falls, another tall waterfall.
We took a windy 5 mile road up to the start of a hike for Olympic Hot Pools. The hike was actually along an old asphalt road from years ago when explorers planned on bringing people directly to the Hot Pools. The road was now mostly grown over and collapsed in several points. Hiking the trail was pleasant and we finally found all the little squirrels and birds of the park that were missing in the backcountry. There were chipmunks running around as well. In fact one squirrel that was running around scared a bunny out of it's hiding place and it came running past us.
When we reached the hot springs we found the most odd thing ever found on a hiking trail....a shopping cart was here 2.5 miles in. It had been brought here rather recently since the food in the cart was pretty new looking. The hot pools themselves did not appeal to us as we were now hot from the hike, but many people were enjoying them. We decided to hang out on a bridge over a river for a bit before hiking back.
Our next trip was up a windy, one-way, gravel road that traveled 5 miles up a mountain. The drive was pretty bumpy, but we did get to stop at a neat hike to a waterfall along Lake Mills. We had to hike down a very steep trail to the bottom of the falls. The falls themselves were rather hidden from view which made it almost adventurous finding the base of the falls. The hike back out nearly straight up was not as fun, but the trail was relatively short.
There was no good viewpoint to stop and eat dinner at, so we headed down to our campsite along the Elwha river to eat. The campground here was pretty busy when we arrived and we were able to secure one of the last sites available. The tent pad was created out of almost cement-stabilized-sand material, so inserting stakes was out of the question. We ended up using rocks as stakes by tying cord from the rock to our tent poles. It worked out rather well, actually. We picked a site that was right on the river, so we are going to fall asleep to the sounds of the river.
pictures later
Taking it easy
posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
August 29, 2009
It was glorious to wake up in a bed all warm and toasty this morning. We took it easy today. After our tasty hotel breakfast we spent the morning cleaning up our camping stuff as much as possible, then re-packing everything for our 3 nights of car camping. Car camping consists of driving up to a designated campsite and setting up the tent right next to the car.
It's nice that we can take our hotel with us (tent and sleeping bags). We changed our original plans last night and we don't need to worry about where we sleep.
On our way out of Sol Duc, we stopped at Salmon Cascades but the salmon were not jumping today.
We drove to Forks and saw that we had entered the Twilight Zone. Every store was advertising the Twilight books and movies and welcoming fans. It turns out that the books were set in this area. There were lots of tween fans buying souveniers.
In Forks, we picked up some groceries, dropped our bear cans off at the ranger station, and continued to Mora Campground at Rialto Beach. (on the west coast of WA)
Campsites in the national park are first come first serve, but we had no problem finding a spot. It helped that the weather was foggy, misty, cold, and rainy.
After setting up the tent (we can do this in record time now), we drove to Rialto Beach for lunch and a 3 mile round trip hike.
Our hike started at low tide as we strolled along the beach looking for tidepools and interesting driftwood. The edge of the beach is a forest, and huge logs of driftwood line the edge between beach and forest. The weather started foggy, misty, and cold. This made for some interesting photos different from the typical sunny beach. However, about halfway through our hike, the sun came off burning off the fog. The weather became hot and sunny. So, we were able to see the beach in different ways.
We didn't find many tidepools, but in those that we did find, we saw anemone, mussels, barnacles, sea gulls, and the like. We also spotted a perigrin falcon and an eagle today.
Most of the beach was made up of river rock instead of sand. The pieces ranged in size from pebbles to palm sized. This actually made the beach quite different from the normal beach and beautiful.
After the beach, we drove south to La Push for sunset, but though the view was pretty, the area was run-down and trashy. We decided instead to have dinner back at Rialto and take our sunset pictures there.
Sunset was indeed lovely. We sat on the beach for a couple hours just relaxing and listening to the surf.
Car camping is rather like luxury camping as we keep everything we want at hand in the car. Also, there are bathrooms with running water to brush our teeth and everything!
Pictures will come later when I have time to go through them.
August 29, 2009
It was glorious to wake up in a bed all warm and toasty this morning. We took it easy today. After our tasty hotel breakfast we spent the morning cleaning up our camping stuff as much as possible, then re-packing everything for our 3 nights of car camping. Car camping consists of driving up to a designated campsite and setting up the tent right next to the car.
It's nice that we can take our hotel with us (tent and sleeping bags). We changed our original plans last night and we don't need to worry about where we sleep.
On our way out of Sol Duc, we stopped at Salmon Cascades but the salmon were not jumping today.
We drove to Forks and saw that we had entered the Twilight Zone. Every store was advertising the Twilight books and movies and welcoming fans. It turns out that the books were set in this area. There were lots of tween fans buying souveniers.
In Forks, we picked up some groceries, dropped our bear cans off at the ranger station, and continued to Mora Campground at Rialto Beach. (on the west coast of WA)
Campsites in the national park are first come first serve, but we had no problem finding a spot. It helped that the weather was foggy, misty, cold, and rainy.
After setting up the tent (we can do this in record time now), we drove to Rialto Beach for lunch and a 3 mile round trip hike.
Our hike started at low tide as we strolled along the beach looking for tidepools and interesting driftwood. The edge of the beach is a forest, and huge logs of driftwood line the edge between beach and forest. The weather started foggy, misty, and cold. This made for some interesting photos different from the typical sunny beach. However, about halfway through our hike, the sun came off burning off the fog. The weather became hot and sunny. So, we were able to see the beach in different ways.
We didn't find many tidepools, but in those that we did find, we saw anemone, mussels, barnacles, sea gulls, and the like. We also spotted a perigrin falcon and an eagle today.
Most of the beach was made up of river rock instead of sand. The pieces ranged in size from pebbles to palm sized. This actually made the beach quite different from the normal beach and beautiful.
After the beach, we drove south to La Push for sunset, but though the view was pretty, the area was run-down and trashy. We decided instead to have dinner back at Rialto and take our sunset pictures there.
Sunset was indeed lovely. We sat on the beach for a couple hours just relaxing and listening to the surf.
Car camping is rather like luxury camping as we keep everything we want at hand in the car. Also, there are bathrooms with running water to brush our teeth and everything!
Pictures will come later when I have time to go through them.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Last day in the backcountry
posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
August 28, 2009
Day 5 of backpacking trip
Last day.
The morning was fairly warm at 55 degrees; the warmest morning yet and at the highest elevation. Warm mornings mean we are up earlier. We were out to see the sunrise in the mountains. Our camp was very mosquito-y, so we moved our stuff to our cook site. Soon after breakfast and while packing up, 3 mountain goats paid us a visit. They wanted to know what we were doing in their way. They came really too close, finally circled around us, and then nearly made a home where our tent was. Eventually they left and we packed up super quick in case they were coming back.
Our packs were very light coming down off the mountain. We stopped at the nearby Oyster Lake to pump water and then headed down, down, down. The bugs were out today and we knew we had a long hike ahead of us, so we moved pretty fast.
When we got back to the trail junction with Sol Duc, we found that no one had come by to steal our bear can. So, we had to make the packs heavy again to carry everything out. The packs are still much lighter than when we started as we've eaten the food at least.
Most of the trail was either flat or down hill and we moved quickly. The rocky steps nearly did me in, but we made it out to the parking lot in one piece.
It was so exciting to reach the car and so strange to drive it. It was also strange to see so many people again.
Back to civilization, we checked in to the Sol Duc Resort and took a wonderful shower in our cabin. There is just nothing better than getting rid of 5 days of grime! Once refreshed we had burgers at the restaurant and marveled at the non-freeze dried food. We even went for the chocolate yummy cake dessert.
Back in the cabin we planned out the rest of our trip and now are going to sleep in a cozy bed. No roots digging in my back tonight!
We hiked about 8 miles today.
other stories from today:
While eating breakfast, we were surrounded by many grouse hooting around us. They are almost chicken like and run around on the ground.
We did get a chance to stop at the Sol Duc Falls again on the way out of the back country. We saw some otters swimming around below the falls! No pictures as they were too fast, but we did get some more pictures of the falls that I'll have to post later.
During our forest hike along the Sol Duc river today we found the forest in many stages of decay. Some downed trees were demolished to mulch. Some had all kinds of various fungi growing from them. Also, we saw many trees that had fallen and cracked in interesting ways during past storms.
We managed to make it out of the back country before 5pm....pretty good for an 8 mile hike out.
August 28, 2009
Day 5 of backpacking trip
Last day.
The morning was fairly warm at 55 degrees; the warmest morning yet and at the highest elevation. Warm mornings mean we are up earlier. We were out to see the sunrise in the mountains. Our camp was very mosquito-y, so we moved our stuff to our cook site. Soon after breakfast and while packing up, 3 mountain goats paid us a visit. They wanted to know what we were doing in their way. They came really too close, finally circled around us, and then nearly made a home where our tent was. Eventually they left and we packed up super quick in case they were coming back.
Our packs were very light coming down off the mountain. We stopped at the nearby Oyster Lake to pump water and then headed down, down, down. The bugs were out today and we knew we had a long hike ahead of us, so we moved pretty fast.
When we got back to the trail junction with Sol Duc, we found that no one had come by to steal our bear can. So, we had to make the packs heavy again to carry everything out. The packs are still much lighter than when we started as we've eaten the food at least.
Most of the trail was either flat or down hill and we moved quickly. The rocky steps nearly did me in, but we made it out to the parking lot in one piece.
It was so exciting to reach the car and so strange to drive it. It was also strange to see so many people again.
Back to civilization, we checked in to the Sol Duc Resort and took a wonderful shower in our cabin. There is just nothing better than getting rid of 5 days of grime! Once refreshed we had burgers at the restaurant and marveled at the non-freeze dried food. We even went for the chocolate yummy cake dessert.
Back in the cabin we planned out the rest of our trip and now are going to sleep in a cozy bed. No roots digging in my back tonight!
We hiked about 8 miles today.
other stories from today:
While eating breakfast, we were surrounded by many grouse hooting around us. They are almost chicken like and run around on the ground.
We did get a chance to stop at the Sol Duc Falls again on the way out of the back country. We saw some otters swimming around below the falls! No pictures as they were too fast, but we did get some more pictures of the falls that I'll have to post later.
During our forest hike along the Sol Duc river today we found the forest in many stages of decay. Some downed trees were demolished to mulch. Some had all kinds of various fungi growing from them. Also, we saw many trees that had fallen and cracked in interesting ways during past storms.
We managed to make it out of the back country before 5pm....pretty good for an 8 mile hike out.
Fourth day of backpacking
posted at http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
August 27, 2009
Day 4 of backpacking trip
I'm writing this from the most beautiful campsite ever. We are at the top of a mountain with Mt. Olympus in front of us, a ton of stars above us, and surrounded by other mountains. We are also completely alone up here. I wish we could stay here longer than one night.
We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset over purple Olympic mountains while eating dinner. Everything was too pretty to capture on the camera, though I did try my best! I hope my mental snapshot remains long in my head. Oh, we also have a half mood nearly lighting everything up around us. We have shadows cast by the moonlight.
I couldn't ask for a better night.
Tonight was worth the terrible climb up here. I should go back to the beginning of the day.
We awoke in Sol Duc Park to the bugs. Luckily they did manage to stay off of us for the most part. Wearing long sleeves in the cool mornings helps. It was chilly and we had breakfast and packed up pretty fast. Our hiking legs are getting better every day and it is not so hard to get the pack on. Each day we get a little faster and have to stop to rest less.
Sol Duc Park down to the Appleton Junction was a pretty forest hike and all down hill. We stopped to take several waterfall pictures along the way. Soon we came to the trail junction where we would climb up to Appleton Pass. We stopped here for lunch before heading up what we knew to be a 2500 foot climb.
We also had the great idea to pack up everything we didn't need and leave it at the bottom here in one of the bear cans. We'll get it on the way back down tomorrow. The climb was very uneventful. It was hard, steep, lots of switchbacks, and hot. Well, 75 does feel hot with a big pack on and long sleeves to keep the bugs off.
We were very lucky to find a couple headed back down from the pass. For when we got to the top, we found that there were several campsites. We might have just stopped and camped ine one of the 10ish boring sites that we passed. However, this couple told us of a magnificent hike if we just kept climbing. It took all our effort to keep moving and not just stop, but it was worth it. The view is superb. I've captured most of it in RAW format on my camera. Basically this means I can't upload it for you to see on my blog until I get home to convert it. You'll just have to wait.
We set up camp easily and cooked far away. We are getting quite good at this now. After sunset, I took some photos of the stars and of our tent. I can't wait to see how they turned out.
So now, it is time to sleep and not think about bears out there. Being all alone is wonderful as we really do get the absolute silence up here. However, it is also unnerving. A few deer have already walked by in the dark scaring us. Adrenaline rushes are good, right?
Today we hiked 5.6 miles at an average speed of 2.0mph.
August 27, 2009
Day 4 of backpacking trip
I'm writing this from the most beautiful campsite ever. We are at the top of a mountain with Mt. Olympus in front of us, a ton of stars above us, and surrounded by other mountains. We are also completely alone up here. I wish we could stay here longer than one night.
We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset over purple Olympic mountains while eating dinner. Everything was too pretty to capture on the camera, though I did try my best! I hope my mental snapshot remains long in my head. Oh, we also have a half mood nearly lighting everything up around us. We have shadows cast by the moonlight.
I couldn't ask for a better night.
Tonight was worth the terrible climb up here. I should go back to the beginning of the day.
We awoke in Sol Duc Park to the bugs. Luckily they did manage to stay off of us for the most part. Wearing long sleeves in the cool mornings helps. It was chilly and we had breakfast and packed up pretty fast. Our hiking legs are getting better every day and it is not so hard to get the pack on. Each day we get a little faster and have to stop to rest less.
Sol Duc Park down to the Appleton Junction was a pretty forest hike and all down hill. We stopped to take several waterfall pictures along the way. Soon we came to the trail junction where we would climb up to Appleton Pass. We stopped here for lunch before heading up what we knew to be a 2500 foot climb.
We also had the great idea to pack up everything we didn't need and leave it at the bottom here in one of the bear cans. We'll get it on the way back down tomorrow. The climb was very uneventful. It was hard, steep, lots of switchbacks, and hot. Well, 75 does feel hot with a big pack on and long sleeves to keep the bugs off.
We were very lucky to find a couple headed back down from the pass. For when we got to the top, we found that there were several campsites. We might have just stopped and camped ine one of the 10ish boring sites that we passed. However, this couple told us of a magnificent hike if we just kept climbing. It took all our effort to keep moving and not just stop, but it was worth it. The view is superb. I've captured most of it in RAW format on my camera. Basically this means I can't upload it for you to see on my blog until I get home to convert it. You'll just have to wait.
We set up camp easily and cooked far away. We are getting quite good at this now. After sunset, I took some photos of the stars and of our tent. I can't wait to see how they turned out.
So now, it is time to sleep and not think about bears out there. Being all alone is wonderful as we really do get the absolute silence up here. However, it is also unnerving. A few deer have already walked by in the dark scaring us. Adrenaline rushes are good, right?
Today we hiked 5.6 miles at an average speed of 2.0mph.
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).
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)
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.
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.
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