6-8 June 2009
It had been a bit more than a year since we had last attended a concert by Paul G's fiancee, Val, so we were happy to hear she was singing at the Kingston farmer's market on Saturday. To add value to the ferry ride, we planned to camp in the Olympics and find a good hike.
Saturday - We had gotten packed up the night before so it didn't take too long to get out in the morning (OTOH, it required two - or was it three? - trips back to the house for forgotten items before we had gotten as far as the library). We were lucky enough to roll right onto the Edmonds-Kingston ferry and were parking at the farmers market by 1000. We ran into Paul right away and helped him carry chairs and stuff to Val's venue, a shade structure with lots of electrical power cords from the marina office. The farmers market was small and we quickly exhausted its interest. The rest of the town wasn't much larger but it did have a Mora ice cream shop with excellent flavors. Val sang and played beautifully as ever, and I guess the other listeners agreed because her CDs were flying off her stand and her tip bucket was filling up with cash. Later we toured Paul and Val's beautiful house east of Paulsbo and had a great dinner with Jim and Deb Gallant (and their boys, Evan and Max). We spent the night at Paul and Val's.
Sunday - We got a reasonably early start and crossed the newly refurbished Hood Canal Floating Bridge. The Olympic National Park visitors center in Port Angeles provided some information - socked in at Hurricane Ridge, minus tide on the coast - which got us heading for Lake Ozette and the Cape Alava loop trail. On the way we stopped at Olympic Raft and Kayak just across the Elwah River to ask about classes in paddling in surf (private lessons about $50 per hour for the two of us - probably 2-3 hours at Freshwater Bay). Then we stopped at Crescent Lake to walk in to Marymere Falls and then up the Benson Creek trail a mile or so to a lunch spot. Next on the spontaneous agenda was a visit to the Makah Tribal Museum in Neah Bay. It was well done and displayed artifacts from the houses in a village located on Cape Alava that had been buried by a landslide hundreds of years ago. As the museum was closing (1700) we considered buying the annual tribal car permit ($10) so we could explore Cape Flattery and Shi Shi ("shy shy") Beach but decided instead to head for the Ozette campground back in the national park. There were only three or four campsites occupied out of the fifteen available and we chose one right on the lakeshore but sheltered by tall grass. The warm sun felt good as we prepared dinner and set up camp. After dinner I took advantage of the Washington State "free fishing weekend" and spent a little time casting a spinner out into the lake. Didn't get even a nibble.
Monday - C.J. popped out of the tent around 0615 and shortly afterwards we were both getting ready to hike. By 0700 we were actually on the Sand Point Trail which passed through dense woods mostly on cedar boardwalks to the coast. (Took only an hour to reach the beach) Once there, we headed north on firm sand which became cobbles with some downed trees as we got farther north. Since the previous night had been a full moon we chose our time so that we'd get the most benefit from the spring tide (-1.3 at 0820 more or less) and not have to climb over any headlands, or get our feet wet. There were numerous bald eagles, many perched on sea stacks. We could hear sea lions but not see them on the rocks and islands farther out. However we did see a sea lion (?) carcass on the beach as we neared Cape Alava. We were watching some crows pick up something in their beaks, fly up and drop it on the rocks, and, as a result, we missed the marker for the trail back to Ozette. That was OK because we wanted to walk the half mile up to the site of the Makah village that had been buried in a mudslide hundreds of years ago, anyway. There was a tribal ranger station, unattended, and a replica longhouse with some bones and dentalia necklaces, along with a plaque commemorating the former inhabitants. It had taken us about three hours to walk the three miles of beach. We headed back toward where the trailhead should be and found lots of campsites above the beach on a grassy, treed bench. There was even an outhouse! The Cape Alave trail had more ups and downs than the Sand Point trail and it took us about an hour-and-a-half to walk the 3.2 miles back to Ozette. Back at our campsite we had lunch on the lakeshore then packed up the tent and other gear and headed east. This time we took the alternative to traveling along Crescent Lake on 101 and followed SR 112 through Joyce and on to Port Angeles, with one detour to see what Freshwater Bay looked like. Along the winding two-lane road we got surprised by a bald eagle taking off and flying right in front of our windshield. I'll bet he was surprised, too! A planned stop for Costco gas in Sequim was foiled by a closed warehouse, and we had to eke out our supply to reach the Silverdale Costco. [The Outback went 25 miles after the gas light came on and we still took only 14.8 gallons.] After a quick ice cream break, we headed home across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and got there around 1930 - a long day but full of good stuff!
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