Biking along Keechelus Lake

21 August 2014

The weather wasn't hot, the trail was railroad-grade flat and hadn't done it before - all good reasons for a short bike ride along the John Wayne Trail. It was also a chance to test the hitch-mounted bicycle rack I had bought at least two months ago.

2113 miles to Chicago - not today!

No one was around to sell us a new Discover Pass at the parking lot near Hyak so we drove less than a mile down the road to the USFS trailhead which was even better for our purposes since we were not going west through the tunnel, but were riding east along Keechelus Lake. Our Golden Access Pass (aka, Golden Geezer Pass) on the dashboard kept us legal for parking. There were signs warning about the lake being closed at certain times due to rock blasting along I-90 on the other side of the lake. There also were some places where the old RR grade, now a wide trail, passed beneath some cliffs and there were warning about avalanches - more for winter than summer. We passed two trailside campgrounds each with five or six sites and an outhouse. Water would have to come from a stream or from the lake. There were interpretive signs as well as mile markers showing the distance from Chicago. One old sign for a no-longer-existing station (?) was eroded so much that it now said KEECHFLUS. We reached the dam, our goal for the day  (although the road to Lost Lake tempted us) and turned

C.J. near the Keechelus Dam

back.
A short bushwhack through the lakebed put us on a rocky island with a good view for a lunchstop. Then we pedaled back to our starting point. We had met only one other couple in the approximately eleven miles we had traveled. The trail is probably much busier on weekends.

Since pilots had been asking about how the landing zone ("carrier deck") looked for flying at Rampart, we drove out there and took some pictures. The lake was way down and there was plenty of room to land a hang glider in the usual place. There was even a wind streamer.

The "Carrier Deck" LZ at Rampart

Olympic Peninsula

 4-6 August 2014

C.J. and I had not been to the Olympics for several years, so a stretch of good weather convinced us to hook up the trailer and try out my state "disabled veteran" ID card at a state park campground. After looking at various parks online, I picked Fort Flagler as having the best camping (Sequim Bay's RV sites looked like a parking lot), kayaking and historic hikes. I made the (free) reservation and got a receipt for my campsite ($0.00) - what a great deal! For the rest of the trip we would stay in non-reservable National Park and/or USFS campgrounds, or maybe another state park.

4 Aug, Mon - We left early enough to get to Flagler by 1230 but not so early that we ran into rush hour traffic. Although our GPS suggested we take the ferry from Seattle, we drove south and across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (no toll westbound). We stopped for gas at the Costco in Silverdale (361.9). As we

Indian Island bluffs from Ft. Flagler

approached Oak Bay/Indian Island/Marrowstone Island, we looked at the possibility of doing the circumnavigation of Indian Island. The tide appeared to be wrong for easily crossing the causeway at the south end of Kilisut Harbor so we decided to go with a shorter paddle from Flagler to Mystery Bay. After setting up the trailer in a shaded pull-thru site (82) in the lower loop we walked over to the boat launch to check it out. We decided to drive over there rather than try pulling the kayak on its wheeled cart. Launching on the concrete ramp was easy enough and we were soon paddling along the high-bluffed shore of Marrowstone Island with a following breeze. We saw lots of birds, mostly ducks with bright red feet and sporting small fish in their beaks. In the clear shallow water we could see black, round fuzzy things that we finally figured out were what living sand dollars look like. It took us more than an hour to reach the entrance to Mystery Bay but we were ready for a shore break. Fortunately there is a state park with a dock and a launch ramp. We had already had lunch, but we had a snack and used the facilities before re-launching. By now the wind had picked up and it was making some white caps out in the middle of the bay. We hugged the shore and took the small swells on our port bow (we had snapped on our spray skirts for the paddle back to Flagler). Despite the wind, and maybe because we didn't dawdle for sightseeing, we made it back almost as fast as we had going downwind. We were pretty tired even though we hadn't paddled more than five miles or so (Later - 6.5 mi, according to Google Earth), but we got the kayak back up on the roof okay, and returned to camp long enough to shed our wet gear - sandals, spray skirts, gloves and stuff. Then we drove out to the  park entrance and walked the short 0.6 mi trail to the site of a coast artillery searchlight where the view of Admiralty Inlet was supposed to be particularly good. That must have been written before all the trees had grown up to block the view. Still we could see across the Inlet to Whidbey Island, and farther to Mt. Baker. Back at camp C.J. prepared a delicious chef's salad and we ate outside on the picnic table. After dinner we went out for a walk down to the beach. Near the end of the

River otter on Flagler north beach

parking lot and a boat ramp into open water we stopped to look at a "camel", an anchor used to hold part of an anti-submarine net or cables with spikes to stop, or slow, small boats that an enemy might dispatch to attack the naval munitions supply or coastal cities. The sun was nearly setting as we walked east along the beach. Ahead we could see a beached sailboat and then suddenly there was a blur of brown, furry bodies as a large and small sea otter rushed across the beach and into the water. Even when they returned to the sandy beach it was hard to get a good picture in the low light. We turned around at the beached sailboat and made our way back to camp through the Marine Trails campsite.

5 Aug, Tue - We got up at 0800 - no furnace needed in the summer, although the atmosphere was foggy - and were on our way by 1000. We drove across the Quimper Peninsula along Discovery Bay, past Sequim Bay and Sequim (where there is now a Costco, according to our GPS) to Port Angeles and the road to Hurricane Ridge. It was five miles in to the entrance station and the Heart O' the Hills campground. We drove through several loops before finding a good, if somewhat slope-y, pull-thru (#100). We paid the $6 "golden geezer" rate and left the trailer locked up while we headed up the fourteen miles to Hurricane Ridge. We had already driven out of the fog by the time we reached Port Angeles so the sky was clear and bright blue. After a brief stop at the visitor center, we drove out to the Hurricane Hill trailhead. The parking lot was full and we had to return 1/4 mi to the overflow parking lot at a picnic area. That added just a little to the 1.6 mi trail, but at least we didn't have to walk on the road. We were there on a Tuesday; imagine what the crowd must be like on a weekend. We must have descended on the road from the 5242 ft visitor center because the trailhead was at about 4800 ft and the elevation gain is about 1000 ft. to the top of Hurricane Hill. Along the way we saw a big deer, maybe an elk, descend a steep hillside above the trail. When we reached the top, after a scenic lunch stop, there was a great view toward Victoria and Vancouver Island, and back toward Mt. Olympus and the high Olympics. Someone (a hiker using a wheeled walker!) had told us she saw a big mountain goat near the summit and C.J. spotted him lying a short distance to the east in a grove of trees. We got as close as we dared to get some photos (not as close as some hikers who obviously had not heard about the hiker fatally gored by a goat several years ago). The trip down the mostly-paved trail was not bad (especially the close-up of the doe and fawn) and we took a moment in the visitor center before heading down the mountain to our campsite. [Unfortunately the ice cream selection - a freezer case of novelties - had nothing to tempt us.] After dinner we took a walk around the campground and found a very few empty spots (out of 109 sites).

Hole-in-the-Wall, Rialto Beach

6 Aug, Wed - Last night we had decided to head to the west side of the peninsula so we got a reasonably early start knowing that the park roads, especially around Crescent Lake, are notoriously slow. We could have gone back to Ozette Lake and done some paddling, or we could have gone to the popular Ruby Beach for a very short hike. Instead we chose to go for the slightly longer hike from Rialto Beach near LaPush to Hole-in-the-Wall, an erosion arch in a rocky ridge. At the road junction for LaPush or Rialto Beach/Mora Campground, we passed a sign "No Vampires --- Treaty Line", a reference to the Twilight novel series (Vampires were not allowed on the Indian Reservation). There was also a sign that looked like a fire danger warning that was instead a Vampire Warning. [The arrow was on "high" maybe because we were back in the fog.] There was plenty of room in the RV/overnight-backpacker lot and we dressed for cool weather before starting off north along the mostly sandy beach. It was not crowded although later, on the return trip, there were many more people. There were lots of small (3 in.) blue jellyfish with rigid dorsal sails at the high tide line. We spotted a bald eagle in a

C.J. approaching Hole-in-the-Wall

dead tree and lots of gulls but that was about it for wildlife. We did not have to wade Ellen Creek which usually flows across the beach. When we passed the big sea stack and reached the Hole-in-the-Wall, the tide was still too high to attempt to walk through the arch. We climbed to the top of the ridge on the steep hikers trail for some photos back along the beach and ahead, now that the sun had finally burned off the fog. It was a 3-mi round trip, much warmer on the way back. Back  on the road we took a detour to check out Mora campground - nicely wooded, not like a beach campground at all. In Forks we got enough gas ($30 at 391.9) to get us to Olympia. We passed the entrance to Hoh Valley and continued on, planning to camp at one of the three USFS sites on Lake Quinault. But when we reached Amanda Park and turned into the first campground we found that it was a reservation-only CG with Quinault Lodge running the

C.J. on trail over the headland at Hole-in-the-Wall

reservations. We checked out the other two CGs bu they were either filled (at least the sites that would accommodate our little trailer) or were walk-ins (at $20 each!). There wasn't much choice - too far to go back to Hoh and the rest of 101 looked pretty sparse for campgrounds. Our old map showed a Rayonier Forestry CG down the road a way so we headed there only to find it had been closed. We could have gone over to the coast, a long detour, to a couple of state parks (Pacific Beach and Ocean

Black Bear Diner

City) but that seemed chancy and I'm not crazy about beach camping. So we settled for driving home with a stop for dinner in Olympia to let the rush hour traffic dissipate. We got our chance to finally eat at a Black Bear Diner located just west of Olympia near the big mall. The food was okay; portions were large and we were glad to have ordered a BBQ platter to share rather than two separate meals. Traffic was light on the way up I-5 and we stopped for gas at Covington just as the gas light came on. It was still light when we pulled into the driveway.

Oregon Coast 2014

14-17 Aug 2014

Found art on the beach

C.J.'s girlhood friend, Paula, again invited us to spend a few days with her family at their rented house near Waldport on the Oregon Coast. It has always been fun to interact with such a close-knit family. Three generations include the grandson, Sylvan, now almost eight, two daughters, Courtney and Heather, Sylvan's mom, and the grandparents (our generation!) Paula and Stephen, and Paula's older sister, Bobbi. Heather's husband Ryan joined us on the weekend.

14 Aug, Thu - We said goodbye to Ginny and Wally and hit the road about 0930. Gassed up at Costco Tumwater (   ) and made close to 30 mpg the rest of the way down I-5 and along the Tigard-Dayton-Lincoln City route to the coast. We stopped in Newport to pick up an order of rockfish at Local Ocean (They were out of fresh tuna). And we got to the house on Surf Pine Lane close to 1600. After a walk along Wakonda Beach Stephen and I used the new Weber charcoal grill to cook the fish for a great dinner. Earlier we got to watch a beach wedding from the second floor windows. And later Heather got the campfire going and everybody made s'mores, some with her high-quality chocolate.

Huge and difficult jigsaw puzzle provided hand-eye coordination practice

Hot air balloon

15 Aug, Fri - Stephen cooked up a batch of scrambled eggs and bacon. C.J.'s cream cheese blueberry muffins were a big hit. In the afternoon I walked up the beach, crossing the shallow Little Creek, as far as the Gov. Patterson State Park. I climbed up the bluff to the highway and walked in the shade of the wind-sculpted conifers to the next trail leading back to the beach. It was about a two-mile round trip not counting detours to view the Big Stump (ca.1500 yrs old) and three homemade garbage-bag hot air balloons. The expert cook staff whipped up an excellent dinner of spaghetti.

View from Cape Perpetua lookout

16 Aug, Sat - After a blueberry pancake breakfast made using Snoqualmie Falls Lodge batter, we headed down to Cape Perpetua, nine of us in two cars. We drove up to the trailhead for the high viewpoint and walked out to the Stone Shelter, a CCC project. An artist-in-residence program gave youngsters a chance

Sylvan captures the scene in oil

to create their own oil painting. Sylvan seemed to enjoy drawing the ocean-sky-cliffs complete with a red paraglider (although we did not see anyone flying from the old takeoff). We all returned to the cars and drove the two miles back down to Hwy 101 where we parked in a pullout and carried our sandwiches down to the sandy/rocky beach. There was lots of dry driftwood to sit on, but we needed to put on jackets as the wind had picked up. Afterwards we explored the tide pools and a retaining wall placed to keep an old Indian midden from eroding. On the way back to the beach house we stopped to pick up albacore tuna from the fish store/restaurant in Yachats. Back at the house Ryan got out a kite just like my parafoil so we went out to fly them on the beach. The wind was almost straight down the shoreline from the north and just the right speed. Sylvan tried his hand at controlling the kite, but he did better when his dad helped him. Later most of the group went for a walk on the beach while Paula and I pitched a light ball to Sylvan who got some good hits with his plastic bat. Sylvan had had a busy day and was pretty tired by dinnertime. Stephen and I grilled the tuna (thick triangular-prism-shaped pieces) on a hot fire for 10 min per side; they were a bit drier than when we've had ahi previously. But dinner was excellent as always.

17 Aug, Sun - The last of the blueberries (and we had started the trip off with a bunch of them, some from us and more from Heather) went into and on the oatmeal for breakfast. There were enough muffins left over (hidden in a box in our cooler) for each of us to have a half of one. Then it was time to take the group photos and say goodbye for another year (two years, actually, since the Goldmans are doing the trip to Oregon only every second year.) We had hoped to be on the road by 1000 but it was closer to 1100 when we left. This time we turned east on SR 34 and followed the Alsea River through the Coast Range to Corvallis and back to I-5. We stopped for gas and a Costco lunch at Wilsonville and took I-205 around Portland after checking traffic on Google Map. We ran into slow going through Chehalis-Centralia and from Olympia to past JBLM. So we didn't get home until after 1900. Fortunately C.J. had left an already-prepared zucchini boat in the refrigerator. Lots more zucchinis are ripening in the garden and the blueberries are not all picked yet. We're going to have a bumper crop of plums soon and the pears are dragging down the limbs. Even the tomatoes are looking good, along with the beans.

Ginny and Wally's August Visit

10-14 August 2014

C.J.'s sister Ginny was flying up to visit Uncle Harry who is in an extended care facility in Puyallup. C.J. invited her and Wally to stay with us, at least until the 14th when we had to leave for the Oregon coast to meet Paula, Stephen and their family.

10 Aug, Sun - Ginny got in fairly early but had to catch a shuttle to Puyallup to pick up her rental car. Apparently this week several cruise ships were due in port and the price of a car rental for 4-5 days doubled or tripled at SeaTac. She visited with Harry and had dinner with Xxxx, the former wife of Harry's son, Jim (?). Then she picked up Wally at the airport; he had spent the day teaching his"critters" at Ed Levin. So they didn't get here until close to 11 pm.

11 Aug, Mon - We had oatmeal with blueberries, and blueberry cream cheese muffins for breakfast. After visiting and lunch, the rest of the party walked (in the heat) to the outlet mall while I stayed home doing this and that.

12 Aug, Tue - After a breakfast of blueberry pancakes cooked on the deck, we went down to Puyallup to visit Uncle Harry for an hour or two. We brought a 1.5 qt. carton of ice cream and finished it off along with some chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Then we drove into Tacoma to visit the Museum of Glass. Parking ($5 for 0-3 hrs) was available under the building. We spent some time in the "hot shop" where a glass artist was making something that looked like a mask. It was pretty interesting but would have been better if we could have heard what the presenter was saying. Later we visited the galleries; one had large, brightly colored glass letters and numbers; another had early Chihuly works some of which played off Joyce's Ulysses, others were traditional Irish Waterford. Just before the museum closed at 1700 we went outside and toured the Bridge of Glass - not made of glass, but containing glass art objects. To the west of the bridge was the old Union Station, now the law court, and to the east was the Washington State History Museum. Definitely a place to return to. We drove back to North Bend and changed clothes and went to dinner at Jak's. We were shooting for 1930 but we had a 30-minute wait. Fortunately there were stools available at the bar so we didn't have to wait outside in the rain. The steaks were as good as we remembered them, as was the garlic mashed potatoes.

13 Aug, Wed - G and W went out for breakfast at the NB Bar and Grill. After a lunch salad of leftover Jak's meat and veggies (and potato made into a pancake) we headed out to kayak from Enatai Beach under the I-90 bridge that crosses to Mercer Island. C.J. and I used the kayak cart to get our boat to the beach while G & W rented two Current Designs singles. We all paddled under I-90 and up the slow-moving waterway known as the Mercer Slough. There were several large great blue herons and many ducks. We were able to get up close to a couple of turtles who were sunning themselves on logs. About a tenth of a mile before the slough ends at a fish ladder we turned left and made our way around an island which had several office buildings. The total paddling distance was 4.65 mi according to Google Earth. We returned home for a great dinner of stuffed zucchini.

14 Aug, Thu - C.J. and I planned to get on our way to the coast before 1000 and leave Ginny and Wally behind to pack up and return to Puyallup to visit again with Uncle Harry. They decided to wash the sheets and towels at the laundromat on North Bend Way, and eat breakfast at NB Bar and Grill again. We got packed up ourselves and were just about ready to leave around 0930 when they got back. [I had already removed the racks from the Sorento so we were hoping for better gas mileage for the 6-hour trip to Waldport-Yachats.]

Visitor from the Past

2-3 August 2014

Bob Koppe was a couple of years ahead of me when I was a student at SUNY College of Forestry. I never thought much about what his major was; I don't even remember if I realized that he was also a student at what is now known as the college of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). I just figured he was another one of us hooked on the Outing Club. Anyway he was visiting the Northwest to attend an Appalachian Mountain Club hiking week based out of Packwood, WA, and he decided to drop in on old friends from his past. 

Bob got here Saturday around 1030 or so. The weather didn't look too promising with a strong chance of thunderstorms, unusual for the Northwest. I was planning to drive down to the northern boundary of Mt Rainier NP and hike to Summit Lake, but gave up on that idea when I found out that Bob had already done six days of hiking in the Rainier area, besides, the thought of being stuck in a thunderstorm on the trail did not appeal. So we hung out at home catching up on the intervening 49 years. Bob had gone on to graduate school in the Midwest (Ohio State?) and then to MIT where he continued hiking and climbing in the White Mountains. He worked many years for Con-Ed of NY keeping their nuclear power plants running. Apparently he learned a lot about power plants in general because he is only semi-retired now and serves as an expert witness in court cases involving power plants of all kinds. He lives outside of Boulder. Bob is a couple of years older than me  but is still actively hiking with the ADK and AMC, especially at the fall hike week(s) in the Whites.

On Sunday morning, shortly before Bob had to head off to meet with his next friend in Redmond, WA (then on to Mt. Hood, and to meet up with Paul Haggard near Sisters, then to pick up friends at the Reno airport to hike in the Sierra), I dug out my old clippings from the SU "Daily Orange" about his winter trip to the White Mountains to do a traverse of the Presidential Range. He and his three companions, Craig F., Peter, Catelli, and Peter Bradford, got trapped by a storm and had to wait it out in the Edmunds Col emergency shelter between Adams and Jefferson. They were safe but hungry, and just beginning to head off to finish the traverse when a search plane spotted them and the rescuers insisted they be flown out by helicopter. I gave Bob the clippings since I had no connection to the event except that my Kelty pack had gone on the trip. I dug out my earliest box of slides and found just a very few photos of SUOC activities. Maybe I have some more printed pictures somewhere.

Around noon Bob loaded his Honda Fit and headed for Redmond, his next stop. C.J. and I then started packing up ourselves for an Olympic Peninsula trip.