The Here And Now

So that brings us from Seattle to Bend, OR. Kris and I arrived last Thursday to beautiful weather, 70 and sunny for two days. We spent the next 4 days finding jobs and looking for apartments.

I will be working for an online outfitter doing customer service work. Hopefully that will be good and if not I'll have more time to ski... Kris has signed on with a company for per diem work which pays enough in two days to cover my entire weeks paycheck =o) I love that woman!

We found a quaint (not), little (haha) place in town for ourselves but can't move in until the 3rd. In actuality the place is a palace, four bedrooms and three baths, not to mention two decks. We will be moving into the master bedroom which is equipped with its own bathroom complete with jet tub, boohya! One of the other three bedrooms will be occupied by Tony, a good friend from the island. We may also find another roommate to make rent cheaper but it's not necessary.

Bend is sick. If you're down in the valley it's mild and usually quite nice. Up in the mountains we've already got loads of snow. We are 25 minutes from the ski mountain and other winter activities and we're 40 minutes from one of the most sweetest climbing destinations in the country, Smith Rock.

Check out the pics. The ones from Smith Rock are from Saturday, the rest are from up in the mountains Monday and Wednesday. I can tell we are going to get along quite nicely here in Bend, OR. And they are calling for the biggest winter in a decade to boot!

Scott I intend to send you that trail map of Bachelor as soon as I can get through the gates to get one!

Let's Catch Up

OK, so before I tell you about the new stuff let me get you caught up on the things we did during the second week in October.

Kris' parents flew into Seattle after our Olympic trip so we ran over and picked them up. Once out of SeaTac we headed north towards the ferry to get back to the island for a one night stay. After being delayed at the airport due to a lost bag (Kevin's stuff went to Detroit without him) we were way behind to catch the ferry. We rolled into the landing at the very last minute and after a rally inspired driving effort I put the van on the ferry in the nick of time.

We stayed the night in Friday Harbor and went out to dinner. Heard a good little set of music by some locals and drank some beers. In the morning we caught the ferry to Sidney Canada. Cheryl had the awesome idea of renting an '86 Westfalia for the week to road trip out of. We caught a cab to the spot where we were to pick up the van from the ferry. Unfortunately we had to wait over an hour and half for Arturo "the van guy" to arrive. After going through everything with us HE AGREED TO LET US HAVE EXTRA MILEAGE AT NO EXTRA COST (that was for the owner of the company who is trying to charge Cheryl for the mileage...) and we signed the contract (STATING MILEAGE AT NO EXTRA COST) and got on our way.

We rolled into Victoria for a while to get Kevin a fishing license and enjoy some local pubs and then hit the van to put some miles on. We got as far as Duncan, the city of totems, before stopping at the only place open to watch football and eat dinner. That night we drove a little out of our way to sleep at a little provincial park. The whole family was thrilled with the space of the pop top as soon as we got everything sorted out. It slept four adults impressively and had all the amenities. The next day we continued our drive towards the west coast of Vancouver Island and found Kevin a couple of fishin' holes to cast at. Cheryl, Kris and I went for a walk and had some beers in the van. We walked down to a fish ladder where thousands of salmon were trying to reach their spawning grounds. It was pretty neat to see, but also very depressing. It rained all day so we didn't get much done but it was good to relax and sit around for a change. Kevin came back late that day, near dusk, with a jack salmon that we promptly brought back to our campsite and cooked up. Had a fire, had good food and had good friends. It was a good night.
Back on the road the next morning we dropped Kevin off at another spot and went in search of showers. After our showers we walked down to see some local petroglyphs carved along the side of a nice lake. Kevin called and said he was finished so we went over to pick him up and headed up the road toward Tofino. It was a long drive down some curvy roads but we made it no worse for the wear. Once in Tofino we scouted around and quickly found there was a surf event going on just outside of town. The Cold Water Classic, sponsored by O'Neil. The surfers were sick and we watched for time from shore. After the beach we hit the locals hang out and had burgers and beers right next to the town pier. That night we poached a spot in the parking lot of Grice Bay so Kevin could fish in the morning. We awoke to some fifty odd workers being offloaded onto shore by a skiff while others climbed aboard. Apparently there is a salmon hatchery just offshore and the shifts were changing. Kevin had a few bites that morning but the best part was the sunrise over the mountains. Truly epic. Back on the road we ran to Tofino to hook up with a local kayak rental shop and get some boats. Unfortunately we had to wait around for the shop owner due to a scheduling error and didn't get onto the water until around 1:30. He cut down the price, which smoothed things over and we had a great time. Tofino is a beautiful place to kayak. The mountains come right down to the sea and you can see glaciers in the distance. The pics don't do it justice but hopefully you guys get the idea. That night we camped locally and started heading back towards Victoria the next day.
After 30 years of hoping Kevin finally got to tailgate at a Washington Huskies game. We drove down to campus, which was a mob scene, and found a parking lot we would be able to get out of when the festivities were over. We walked all over campus and finally found the area where the pre-game events happen. That was furtuitous because we saw both the home and away bands march through and play and we got to see the players coming into the stadium. All in all it was a good time. Afterwards we got pizza and watched the game at a local pub! Unfortunately we had to put Kevin and Cheryl on a plane home that same night...bummer.
The trip was great, although I would take longer next time. The van performed admirably but it did leak copious amounts of gas every now and again.

The place we rented from "WestfaliaRentals.com" out of Victoria (seems to be a franchise company) is run by unprofessional, untrustworthy business people. As I said we waited for over an hour and a half for them to come to the location to give us the van. They told us over the phone they would "be there shortly"... The employee of the company waived the mileage fee and put it in writing but the owner of the company tried to make Cheryl pay it after all. I set a time to meet the same employee on the drop off date and he never showed up...

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS FOOL, HE WILL TRY TO TAKE YOUR MONEY AND HE IS UNPROFESSIONAL AT BEST!

Up To Date...

Hey everyone. At this very moment I'm living in a Wal-Mart parking lot and staying (sort of) at a friends house in Seattle, WA. We're sitting around a table and debating douche bags at MIA concerts (you know who you are a-hole).

I have finished updating pics for the old posts. I've been in touch with a great company in Bend that is willing to give me a interview and we are heading there tomorrow morning. Until then we are having good times with good friends.

I'll catch you all up on the rest of the week in Tofino Canada ASAP and post pics.

Hope you guys are still with me!

The Beaches

Woke up with a splitting headache this morning. Immediately went to the cooler on the porch for some day old pizza, which only made things worse. Went back to sleep when it was evident that everyone was still asleep.

We got moving around 11am and Matty cooked up some killer breakfast of home fries, eggs and bacon. After we all ate we stared to come alive and got the fire going again. It’s been windy and cold all day, overcast with some rain showers. We mustered a trip down to 3^rd beach for some hiking and saw some great sea stacks, a waterfall and some gnarly beach break.

Came back home and Kris and I headed to 2^nd beach for an hour or two. If any of you ever get a chance to come out to the Olympic Penn. And want to hit the beaches I would highly recommend 2^nd. The landscape just off the beach is amazing with sea stacks and crashing surf and the tide pooling is great. We saw three varieties of sea star, sea anemone and loads of other creatures.

We walked around for a while before heading back to the cabin and rousing Matty and Taryn out of bed. Once up the three of them went on a search for fresh salmon (this is an Indian community that thrives on fishing for food and commerce) and I chilled to do some reading. When the got back, sans fresh salmon but some home smoked salmon from a local, we all ran over to the RV park for some commando showers. In and out and clean and nobody noticed that we weren’t staying at the park…sweet!

Clean and dry and warm, I have a feeling the drinks will start flowing again. Tomorrow it’s off to the Hoh Rainforest and then staying farther south on the coast again tomorrow night. Picking up the in-laws on Saturday afternoon to head to Tofino! Can’t wait to see you guys, hope you’re in for some adventuring.

La Push

Kris and I woke up early and got out of the dark campsite heading toward the beach. We figured there would be more light on the beach and it would be more pleasant to eat our breakfast. We were wrong on the more pleasant part. It must have been down around forty degrees and the wind was whipping to boot. I could hardly get the water to boil for coffee due to the wind and we spent a very long time standing next to the pot shivering. After I finally got coffee prepared we sat on the beach for a few minutes before my hands finally went numb and we called it.

Back in the van we drove out of Moria and headed back towards The Forks area to get cell phone reception and wait for our friends Taryn and Matty to show up. I blogged a bit, got some messages on the phone and tried to upload pics. Unfortunately this stupid blogger program is slow as death going up hill on crutches and I didn’t get my done in the way of pics. I’ll post ASAP!Matty and Taryn arrived and we headed back towards La Push. The surf was going off, over head high, and Matty suited up and went in to get pounded by some waves while the rest of us chilled on the beach. By noon the temps had risen into the mid seventies and we were in t-shirts drinking beers before we knew what happened. Got some great pics of the beach and the waves. Matty was in for around two hours and almost caught a couple of waves. The surfing was tough and he is new to the sport but he put in a good effort out there.
Once he was done we headed to the little “resort” where we would be renting a cabin for the next two nights and checked into our place. A little 12X10 A frame with a wood stove, running water (no hot water, no showers) that sleeps four. Nice little place, reminds me of huntin’ camp up Maine way.

We quickly got some food into us and began making cocktails. It was nice to have a place to hang out inside with some amenities. It was warm and dry. Good friends, good food, good wine was the course of the night. We got in the worlds smallest dance party and checked out the stars before we decided we needed to sleep.

Bear Scare

In the morning the frost covered everything and it was hard getting out of our warm sleeping bags. I got up and started the stove to make oatmeal, coffee and my wife’s “face water.” After a few minutes I rousted Kris and we got breakfast out of the way. It was bluebird out so we decided it would be best if we hiked back up to the high point above Heart Lake and take in the views that we missed the day before. We needed to pump water out of the stream to fill our bottles before we headed out. We would leave the packs on the platform for the duration of our hike and then come back for them and head down to the parking lot, another 8 miles.

We headed over the to stream and pumped our water. Kris walked off first with the bottles in her hands and I was putting the filter back together. I started walking back towards camp and I thought I heard something rustle the bushes behind me. I glanced back but saw nothing and walked a few more steps. I heard the rustling again and turned back again. Thirty feet away from me, right where we had been pumping water, a black bear came charging out of the bushes heading directly down the trail right for me. Everything went into slow mode. All I could think was to make a lot of noise and make myself look big. Before the bear had taken a full stride toward me I waved my arms and yelled “O Bear!, Hey Bear!” as loud as I could. He immediately turned right back across the stream and ran up the hill away from us and the campsite. My heart was pounding and I was more than a little excitable. Kris was spooked pretty good too considering she didn’t know what was going on until she saw the bear running up the hill away from the campsite. We both packed up quickly after that looking over our shoulders at every sound. I’m sure the bear just happened to be walking down the hill and into the path when were there, but I’m happy that it didn’t get any closer.

We headed back up the ridge and got above Heart Lake in under an hour. The views were amazing so we snapped off a couple of pics of the glacier over on Olympus. We stayed on the ridge for half an hour before finally pulling ourselves away and headed back to our site. Once there we put on our packs and started trudging out to the parking lot. We were down to the lot by 2pm and headed to the Sol Duc Hot Springs.

The hot springs, like most we’ve come across, are just a pool fed by hot springs. This sort of place tends to attract a certain mix of very old people, very out of shape people and the French. We had one look at the place and decided we would just pay for showers instead. Once inside the shower house Kris popped her head into the women’s area and came out smirking. When I inquired about the smirk she informed me that the showers were indeed group showers with no stalls. Great, I didn’t like group showers in high school and I don’t like them now. Fortunately I was one of the only patrons in the shower and I was most definitely the best physical specimen so I had nothing to worry about. Once out of the shower I visited the store adjacent to the springs and picked up a six pack of beer and all was good in the world.

We drove out of the Sol Duc area and headed west to meet our friends Taryn and Matty in La Push, which is on the western coast. Before hitting the next campsite we drove down to the beach and watched the surf and the sunset. It was the first time we’ve seen surf (San Juan Island is protected by other bodies of land so it doesn’t get any surf) since we left home in April. It was a sight for sore eyes!

I'll add pics to all these post ASAP so check back soon. Service here sucks and so does the blogger program!

Seven Lakes Basin Loop

The next morning we got up as early as possible and got our breakfast. We were trying to be on the trail by 8am, but that quickly became 930. Once at the trailhead parking lot we shouldered our loads and headed into the woods for some good old trudging.

The first four miles went quick and we were soon at Deer Lake. This is the ending point for most of the hikers on the trails and most of the backpackers stay here for the night and then head back down. Kris and I stopped here to eat a granola bar and drink some water before heading on to the higher points. Once we got up the trail we stumbled onto a small herd of elk crossing an open space to our right. We watched them for a while until Kris coughed and they all spooked and went crashing off into the woods. We could hear the males up on the ridge rattling against the trees, I don’t think they liked being run off like that.

The trail was quite gradual and well laid out with switchbacks so that we didn’t feel like we were pushing too hard. This allowed us to put on a good amount of miles and before long we were up on the ridges above tree line. It was here we ran into our first bear of the trip. About a hundred yards up slope of us he was foraging on the berries that scattered the ridge. After about five minutes of watching we made some noise and he ran off into the woods. Over the next two hours we had three or four more bear encounters on the ridges that run up to the high divide. At one point we came across a female and her cub standing thirty or so yards from the trail. We waited for a long while for them to move along but they were more intent on eating than on us. We made a bunch of noise but they wouldn’t move. Finally Kris and I just had to walk past and they didn’t even glance in our direction.

Shortly after we made it to the Hoh Lake cutoff and sat down for lunch. PB&J sandwiches with beef jerky and almonds…sweet. We ate rather quickly and got back on the trail so we could get up on the ridge and catch views of Mt. Olympus. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating and we ended up walking the entire High Divide with only views of fog to the south of us. We did see some great views of the ridges and valleys to our north and west. We caught glimpses of many more bear of the next few hours and before long we were nearing the campsite for the night which was at Heart Lake. As we came over a ridge we noticed a small lake down below which was curiously shaped like a heart. Kris pulled up and turned to me, “do you think this is Heart Lake?” she asked…

Since it was only 4pm and we had daylight left we decided to keep moving on. We had put in 11 miles by this time but another campsite a mile down the trail seemed a better spot to shelter the fog and cold that was blanketing the mountains. We trudged on for another half hour or so and came to Sol Duc Park, which would be our site for the night. When we explored a little we found the resident ranger’s site was seasonal and they had taken down the tent that housed the ranger but the platform was still there. This seemed like the best place to make camp for the night and we figured it would be fun to stay on the “Ranger Station”. We put up the tent, cooked our meals and ate and then headed for the warmth of our sleeping bags for the night.

A Rainy Day Three

The rain finally found us on day 3 in the Olympics. We woke up and got breakfast out of the way before we set off to find some showers and another hiking trail. We drove up to a dam that will be deconstructed this year and had a look around, not too exciting but we figured we should see it since we were there.

As soon as we hit the main road we were in fog and mist and soon everything around us was sopping wet. We decided to hike around Crescent lake, which is near the middle of the northern end of the Olympics. Kristen also noticed that a little “resort” on the edge of Crescent had showers which was fortuitous for us.

We pulled down the road that runs to Crescent and drove to the end where the trailhead is located. Pulling on our boots we started up the trail which meandered around the eastern edge of the lake for miles. We got some nice views of the surrounding ridges and the trees were incredible as usual. The entire forest was covered with huge ferns and thick mosses. Everything was soaked, but the rain held off except for a little drizzle.

When we left the trailhead we only had to drive a few miles to get to Log Cabin Resort. The “resort” was a few little cabins, a RV park and a shower house tucked into the corner near the lake. When we pulled in there wasn’t another soul in sight and it appeared that everything was buttoned up for the season. Kris was visibly shaken by the fact that we may not be able to get showers here. We drove up to the bathhouse and the lights weren’t on, not a good sign. Kris slipped one quarter in the shower receptacle and the water started! Praise all that is holy we had showers! Of course to conserve water and money we showered together…in the women’s stall.

After our showers we headed up the road to the next stop, Sol Duc campground. This would be the starting point of the backpacking adventure for the next two days. The campsite was nice, as they all have been in the Olympics. Huge trees all through the grounds soared above us. Many of the sites were open so we had our pick. Once we parked I slept for a few hours before we cooked up some mexi wraps for dinner. We packed our bags for the next two days and hit the hay early to get some rest.

Hitting the Highlands

This morning we awoke at around 8 and were surprised to find that we actually slept most of the night. My cold is gone into the coughing stages and Kris is feeling much better as well. We decided on a few more days taking it easy and then we will do our backpacking. We made coffee, had breakfast and headed up the mountain to another scenic area called Hurricane Ridge. The drive was around 45 minutes in the van but we made decent time up and were in the parking lot of the visitors center with only a handful of other cars. We changed clothing and headed off on the Klahhane Ridge trail to have a nice little walk. The trail meanders along a nice steady ridge that allows views back down into the valley which we drove up, and over the other side towards Mt. Olympus and even out to the ocean. The weather was gorgeous with warm bluebird skies and temps around the 70s. It was the first time in a while that we were comfortable in t-shirts and we even were wishing we had our shorts on. The walk was spectacular and we made 2.5 - 3 miles before our weakened lung capacity caught up to us. Once back to the visitors center we decided to come back down into Port Angeles and head west out to the Elwha River drainage area. We figured we could use this area as a stop over for the rain that is supposed to hit us on Sunday.

We entered the area around 1pm and scouted around a bit for a place to do some walking. We found a nice little camp spot in the Altair campground and once we were settled we both decided it was better if we got some more rest and napped a bit. We’re on vacation after all. So basically I’ve been sleeping and reading for the last four hours or so next to a glacial fed river that is running by in the background. Not bad if you ask me. Tomorrow I’m taking my beautiful wife to find a shower and then we will head towards the next destination where we will do a simple overnight backpacking trip. I’ll fill you in about that later.

I hope everyone is well out there. We’re glad to be back on the road exploring and we hope you’ll follow along with us! Talk to you later!

Olypic Penn. here we come

Let’s be unceremonious about this and pretend that I didn’t stop blogging for five months. That I didn’t fail to fill you in on all the goings on in our lives. That I didn’t drop all that is sacred and have a great summer with very little responsibility. OK, now that we’re done with that…

Kris has an imperative doctors appointment that we needed to get to in Anacortes at 8:30 AM on Friday. Since we decided to stay in Friday Harbor the night before this meant we would have to catch the 5:55 AM ferry. Kris was sick with a bad cold when I returned from my last over night trip of the season and I promptly caught it. Which means we were both severely worn down and tired when 4:30 AM rolled around. My wife, in the way wives do, offered to get up and get the van down to the ferry landing while I stayed in bed in the back. So I barely noticed when she fired up the engine and my bed started moving down the road towards the landing. The ferry was on time, that was good news, and as soon as we were on the boat Kris climbed back into bed and we slept on the way to the mainland.

Upon arriving Kris drove us into town, I was still in bed, and we hit up a little breakfast spot to get our energy up. I drop Kris over to the docs office and dropped her there and headed to the post office to mail out a package for a friend while I waited. I was back at the office in fairly short time and I was surprised to see my beloved wife walking out of the office towards me. I expected the appointment to take much longer. When I inquired on what happened Kris told me that the doctor told her it wasn’t at all necessary for her to be there and that she could go home. She also told me that we needed to get over the real estate office to sign and fax paperwork ASAP. What good news!

After the paperwork was signed and faxed we headed down the road toward Whidby Island and on to the ferry that would take us to the Olympic Penn. We have 9 days ahead of us exploring the temperate rainforests and coastlines there and are excited as can be. My sickness overwhelmed me as soon as we arrived on the second ferry of the day and I hit the sack again. Kris was more than happy to drive to Port Angeles where we found the ranger station to get some information on the area. We spoke with a very pleasant lady who gave us some great ideas about where to go and what to see and then we went over to the backcountry desk to get our permits and bear canister. Aside from the fact that the guy running the desk didn’t listen to a word we said and was a know it all the transaction went fairly smooth. After almost an hour of rolling my eyes and keeping my mouth shut (very hard for me as you all know) we got out of there with a permit and a canister and an earful of either useless information or info that we already know. Someone should tell that guy what it means to be a registered Maine guide!

A short drive brought us up to Heart of the Hills campground and we made up a nice helping of chili to keep the night chill off of us. Kris and I both pounded some cough medicine so we could sleep and hit the hay around 7pm.