Advertisement
Published: September 16th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Bull Elk
He didn't care about us at all -- only about dinner 9-10 September: This has been a rude shock for Tom, since he arrived at Whidbey Island thirty years ago this summer. He’s told me many times about the Olympic Peninsula: the huge trees crowding the narrow highway and the cool and misty weather. Well … all the trees except those actually in the National Park have been clear cut. There are now many huge and beautiful stumps, some over 500 years old and more than 10 feet wide. We’ve talked to others who were here at the same time (the 1970s) and later and all agree that the rape of this land is scandalous. Yes, it provides a living for the people here, but calling these forests a “renewable resource” is a lie - they cut replacement trees at 50 years, not at the 500 years needed to bring them to full growth. The other big surprise is the weather. It’s been sunny and in the 80s the past two days. Tom’s told me many times about the cool and misty weather - not anymore! We’re staying at the Hoh Rainforest portion of the Olympic National Park where the tree just behind Tom is 4-5 feet in diameter and about 200
North Cascades NP
Fourth of July Pass feet tall - it’s one of the small ones. Last night, two bucks from the Roosevelt elk herd browsed their way through the brush about 10 feet from the camper. Today, we walked 14 miles through the rainforest, and I’m tired! But it’s beautiful - if you come to Seattle, you need to come over to the peninsula and drive around the park to this area. Tonight, the same two elk spent hours within a few feet of us browsing in the undergrowth. The larger one walked up behind a woman directing her husband into a camping spot and scared her - he didn’t care at all.
12 September: Yesterday, we drove to Port Townsend at the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula in preparation for taking our last ferry - this one to Whidbey Island. We’re staying at Fort Worden State Park Conference Center, which I really liked. The Fort was built in 1897 as one of several that were designed to protect this area of the US and Canada. The forts had big gun emplacements built into cliffs and this one is now set up with two campgrounds, one on the beach on the Strait of Juan de
Eastern Washington State
Looks like the old west ... Fuca and one in the woods. It also has officer and enlisted housing and barracks that can be rented and conference facilities that are often used for family reunions too. The phone number is (360) 344-4400. Today, we took the 0630 ferry for Whidbey Island and drove north to the Naval Air Station where Tom arrived during the summer of 1977. More sticker shock for Tom since the island towns have exploded from the tiny communities he remembers. There’s still some farmland, but it’s mostly a suburban environment. We went across Deception Pass and past Lake Campbell, which Tom pointed out is the only place in North America (or maybe the US) that has an island in a lake on an island in Puget Sound. Tonight, we’ve driven to the North Cascades National Park which is, thank goodness, the same as it was when Tom lived here all those years ago.
13 September: We stayed in Colonial Creek campground in the North Cascades National Park in northern Washington. It’s beautiful, and we were able to take a hike to “Fourth of July Pass” - about 8.5 miles round trip with a 2300 foot elevation gain. Today, we’re driving route 20 across the top of Washington, starting for home on a route that we HOPE will take us through no big cities until Nashville. (Is Madison WI considered to be a big city?) East of the I-5 interstate, there’s been much less of the explosive growth we saw on the coast.
14-15 September: We stayed in a National Forest campground in Mazama and had planned to hike again on 15 Sep, but late in the morning of 14 Sep, it was already hot and dry. We’ve decided that it’s time to head for home seriously. Our current plan is to head east into Idaho and pick up Interstate 90, going home through Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Kentucky to Lynchburg. We got the bikes clean at the campground and mounted low again to help with engine cooling, and were up and out of the campground by 0800. Eastern Washington state looks like an old west movie, with brown hills, rocks and sagebrush. We drove through the small town of Winthrop, which looks like a western movie set, but it seems that they were having some sort of festival today, so we left town quickly. I’d like to go back sometime. Lots of apple orchards, of course. Farther east, we drove through the Colville National Forest, part of which has burned. The roads are “good”, though VERY twisty and always going up or down thousands of feet. It’s a great ride, but hard on the driver.
I hope to add one more blog entry on our trip home, plus a “lessons learned” entry, so hang in there - more’s coming!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.112s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 5; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0652s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb