Board Ferry

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After completing my Swiftwater Rescue Technician course on Sunday, I called up my friend Mark who had flown out to Seattle for his spring break the day before and was staying with our high school and college classmate Anchi. When I asked for directions, I was told... drive towards the Space Needle, we'll meet you there - and thus, I began my my first entry of Seattle headed straight for the iconic Seattle Space Needle.

Soon we had rendezvoused and were headed back to Anchi's very nice flat with a spectacular view of both the Space Needle and the Puget Sound. After a hearty meal at a local Mexican joint, where I had the "King Elvis" burrito, we all headed back to Anchi's place to crash.

As Mark only had three more days to spend in the Pacific Northwest I gave complete direction of our itinerary to him to see what he wanted to see. His first choice was the Olympic Peninsula to visit the Hoh Rain Forest and see the Pacific while he was so close, and thus, acting on eastern time, Mark awoke at 7ish and roused me for our first day of activities. We went down to my car and plugged in Mark's GPS, Samantha, and began to follow the directions of our steady british female dictator. I had been skeptical of the route it chose for us, going north, as I thought the fastest route to the Olympic Peninsula after viewing a map of roads definitely looked to be south. However, the discrepancy between Samantha's route and my own quickly became apparent as we were kindly instructed to "Board Ferry"?! Thanks for the heads up there Samantha! Turns out it was a pretty neat little side experience though, and landed us in a good spot to start our explorations of the Peninsula.

Before we got going in earnest though on our explorations, I saw a gas sign that read 1.97, and my danger going on a peninsula radar rang and compelled me to fill up. This wouldn't normally be a notable event, except, the extra five minutes it took ended up taking an extra twenty five minutes as it caused us to get stuck on the bridge as a tug boat appeared in the distance, chugging along at a full 1 mile per year seemingly. The other notable detail that redeemed me was when we saw gas priced at 2.68 at the most remote point on the loop we would end up driving that day.

In any case, once we got across the bridge, our first sight to see was a vista we could drive up to called Hurricane Ridge. However, when we arrived at the ranger station we were informed that the road was only kept open during the weekend this time of the year, and that the snowfall from the day before had definitely shut the road down for the day. We asked the ranger what he would recommend as far as hikes go - and he suggested a nearby valley that he seemed to be a big fan of, and cautioned us against driving all the way out to the Hoh Rain Forest to simply check boxes. The ranger also provided us with a nice incentive if we stayed within his conservative four hour loop hike- he had seen a whole herd of elk at the end of the loop the previous day. While I was somewhat convinced and wary of driving to the Hoh Rain Forest only to find the roads closed as the Ranger suggested - Mark really wanted to see the Rain Forest on his trip. And thus, we decided to hedge our bets by doing two short hikes nearby to check out two waterfalls before zooming around the Peninsula to see if we could get to the Rain Forest.

So off we went to our first waterfall...at the end of what had to be the shortest trail ever - a simple 2 minute loop with a little waterfall at the end of it. After we glimpsed this water fall, we drove into this section of the Olympic National Forest and Mark was amazed by the mossiness of the trees which he felt looked like huge spiders. As time was ticking by though, we soon turned around and headed back for the main highway, which once again for me was the Highway 101.

Soon we arrived at Lake Cresent, a beautiful scenic lake - however, quite fog covered for us as we drove in. This section of the Olympic National Forest apparently housed the best waterfall of the peninsula though, or perhaps at the very least, the most popular combination of grandeur and accessibility. As we entered the parking lot, the rain sprinkled down on us and we donned our rain gear. We entered the forest and saw one of our first old growth trees, which Mark went and gave a nice hug to. Soon though as we continued our way up the slope towards the Marymere Falls, the rain turned to snow. Then we were crossing the small creek below, and Mark queried whether I would be prepared to rescue him if he fell after my recent course. I told him, not likely, he couldrescue himself - I'm only a Swiftwater Rescue Technician -- what was below was mostly just cold water - it wasn't swift enough for me to really break out my new tricks.

The trail once more was pretty short, although relative to our first short jaunt of the day, it was a marathon - in any case, we quickly arrived at the Marymere Falls, and with huge snow flakes flying at our face, ate a few of the incoming snowflakes that used the waterfalls presence to descend all the way down towards the forest floor. Trudging through the winter wonder land, we carried on our way and were amazed to see the snow turn once more to rain in approximately the same spot as before. I laid out a towel in my car for our water proof garments and we started cruising in the car again with our new destination of Mark's much desired Hoh Rain Forest.

It turned out to be an easy drive in with the roads in slightly wet but overall very decent condition. Soon we were on our way through our first hike in the Rain Forest, the Hall of MoSses, which I called the Hall of Moses. Mark laughed at me for this, which only made me more resolute to call it the Hall of Moses. I soon laughed at him though when he asked if mosses were a plant, and told him our old 7th grade teacher, Dr. Wolf, who had taught us the kingdoms of life, would beat him over the head if she heard that question! Informative signposts along the trail insured that we were informed as well as enchanted, and we learned about the fallen trees becoming nursery logs, providing a fertile base not covered in ferns and mosses for which other seedlings could start there lives. These nursery logs caused several trees to line up directly in a row in several places throughout the forest. Soon we completed the Hall of Mosses loop, with few detours such as to try and give myself an Ogre head from a knot in the tree, and putting Mark up on a Tree Throne. Soon a sign asked us to try and estimate a nearby fallen tree and guess its length. I challenged Mark to a game of closest without going over, and he picked 187, making 188 a thoughtless choice for me. Turns out, it was 190 feet, which makes Mark a great estimator, and me...the winner! Mark told me my "Price is Right" tactics had no place in our game, but I simply grinned and said a wins a win, to which he commented on me calling some llamas we had seen earlier gazelles for a moment, and I reminded him of his Fungal Mosses. Good times.

We then did a second loop through more Sitka Spruces and Western Hemlocks over to the Hoh River, then back towards the parking lot. Along the way, we had seen a sign that stated that if you see an elk, don't approach within a 100 feet of it as they are apt to charge. Thus, when we saw hoof prints and droppings along the trail we assumed they were an elks, but didn't imagine we'd see one today. Turns out we were wrong, and as we came around a turn we saw a huge elk 25 feet ahead of us just a few feet down one trail from the junction where the path from the parking lot forks into a loop. The Elk gave us a brief look then went back to chomping down on some green forest munchies. Mark decided to sneak up on near a large tree for a picture with the Elk. Then, down the third path, a group of 7 or so people came tromping along - and the lead guy, fiddling with his cell phone, began walking straight into the elk ahead of him. Mark called out " Hey there's an elk in front of you buddy" and the guy looked up from his cellphone at the Elk staring straight at him about 10 feet away. The guy quickly retreated! After a lil bit everyone got over their elk viewing and the group crossed over towards us and went for the loop in reverse as the Elk blocked the normal progression. Mark and I snapped a few more pictures of our elk then carried on to our car.

Once in the car, we decided it was time to head for the coast. The pacific coast were we landed at Ruby Beach had some great rock formations to play with, as well as plenty of tide smoothed logs and twigs. Also, great skipping stones abounded along the shore.

Mark and I spotted a pair of rocks that were in the tides path and Mark suggested we go out to them as the tide recessed. Basically as soon as he said this, a huge wave overtook the rocks completely, but the seed was planted in our minds and Mark went for the rock! I started taking the video included above of him, while he sweated with the possibility of another great wave smashing him while he stayed out there and a medium size wave washed up on the rocks around him. Hehehehehe. Soon I stopped laughing though, it was my turn to brave the rocks and submit to mercy of the Ocean. Zoom out I went up onto the rocks. I was spending so much time looking out at the waves rolling in I almost toppled off the rock - but my balancing maneuver turned out well as I looked like Karate Kid! I then safely made it back to the dry zone of shore, and that ended most of the chicanery for the day.

I say most, because, although the rest of our day was mostly just cruising back to Seattle, when I saw "Rusty Tractor Family Restaurant" on the food sign, I decided that had to be our destination for the food Mark now coveted. As we opened the menu at the Rusty Tractor, we were surprised to see Rattlesnake Eggs and Yak Burgers on the menu. The Yak burgers had a long explanation on why this Tibetan beast was so much leaner and better than cow meat, however, there was no explanation for the rattlesnake eggs - so we consulted our waitress on those. She told us they were hard boiled- and at only 2.95..we simply had to see.

What they brought out was a plate with a boat of salad and a manila envelope on top stating rattlesnake eggs - keep cold to prevent hatching. Eh? As I opened the envelope the device in side spun and created a rattle sound making me jump out of my seat. Ay ya ya. That was the end of the chicanery though, as the yak burgers were real and delicious. After chowing down on those, we headed back to Anchi's to get some sleep and get ready for our exploration of Seattle the next day - St. Paddy's day-... time for me to go exploring today though in the North Cascades National Park though, so I'll leave the writing of my tale of St. Paddy's day for another day.

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Photos

OK GO
Mark preparing to jump with the ferry in motion- always a fun move.

GPS SAYS:
Nothing...apparently samantha realizes its futile to yell at ferry captains when they go off the calculated route.

The lil tug boat that could!
As long as you gave it a half hour.

Shortest Trail Ever Falls
Because I don't remember their real name.

Marks Spider Trees
Covered in moss, spidery looking, yep.

Mark the Tree Hugger
Our first of many old growth trees for the day.

Snow flakes
keep falling on my tongue....yum yum

Ogre Head?
Or bat creature about to eat me?

Forest Throne
Mark is the Tree King

Tree shelter
Sure it could maybe fit two at once

Tree shelter
But we stuck with the one man per tree rule

Karate Kid Right?
Or just trying to not fall in!

Spartan Pose
with a bit too much clothes

Rusty Tractor
Had PLENTY of rusty tractors in the parking lot

Rattle Snake Eggs
Zomg!