The Big Adventure: Part 2

On June 11^th we left Lake Tahoe and headed for Lassen Volcanic National Park. In contrast to Yosemite’s 100 degree temperatures a week earlier, we found that many of Lassen’s trails were still covered in snow. We stopped at the visitor’s center to chat with a ranger about hiking and to watch a video about the park. Then, we went hiking out of the Sulfur Works area up towards a lake nestled within the mountains. After about a mile of steep climbing, we started crossing large snow banks and soon we were blazing our own trail with only occasional signs of where the actual trail was. Our hiking poles helped us to navigate the slippery terrain and we eventually made it to the lake which was still half covered in floating chunks of snow and ice. I wanted to make things a bit more adventurous so I talked Alisha into scrambling across the stream running out of the lake so that we could skirt the lake and start climbing towards the ridge on the other side. We climbed up the steep ridge and onto a pinnacle of rock to get fantastic 360 degree views of the park and it turned out to be a really fun adventure that was made even better because we were making it up as we went. On the way down, I suggested that rather than hiking down some of the steep slopes, we just slide them. The snow was melty and squishy and so it was easy to do and pretty fun. After the hike we drove past the snow-covered Lassen Peak to the north side of the park where we camped by Manzanita Lake and had one of the coldest nights that we experienced (although thanks to sleeping bags plus liners we were not cold in the tent at night).

We left Lassen on the 12^th and headed to the coast. After making it through a lot of road construction, we arrived at the visitor’s center in Redwoods National Park. We talked to the ranger and immediately saw the campground that we wanted to stay at. We took a windy dirt road through thick forests that required you to turn your lights on in order to reach the coast for some sweet beach camping at Gold Bluffs Beach. We set up our tent at a site that allowed us to walk out the front door and literally be on the beach. The only downside of the campground was the freezing cold showers. Beach camping in California seems like it would be warm but there was often a cold wind blowing that had us out in our heavy coats as we watched the sun set over the ocean. In the evening, we did a sweet mtb ride that took us first on some lush singletrack, then on the famous Drury Parkway through the redwoods (that for some reason was currently closed to motorized traffic), and finally to the Ossagon trail. Ossagon was quite the adventure. It started like a normal singletrack trail but became increasingly overgrown with a narrow path leading through shoulder high growth on either side, riding right through streams, and boards over muddy wallows. We saw some elk close up on the trail and made it back to the campsite just in time for cold showers and hot soup before the sun went down around 9 pm.

We spent the 13^th in Redwoods as well but began the day with a trip up the coast to the tidepools at Wilson Creek where we found anemones, starfish, and other assorted ocean critters during low tide. A walk north up the beach took us to a cool rocky point to scramble around on behind some rocks. We went into Crescent City for some lunch and grocery shopping (more canned soup, yum). On the way back, we stopped at an overlook where whales supposedly come by. It was high above the ocean and without binoculars we saw something down in the ocean but couldn’t really tell what it was. One thing that I thought I saw turned out to be a rock after it didn’t move for 5 minutes or so. Next, we did a hike near our campground up the famous fern canyon in which there are 40 foot walls that are completely covered with ferns on either side as you make your way up the streambed. On the way back, two bull elk were very close to the trail and we got to take some photos. After a brief rest at camp, we headed out on a mountain bike ride up the Lost Man Creek trail which turned out to be a disappointing uphill road that was relentless. However, on the way back we passed a herd of elk with baby elk that were really cute and made all sorts of elk noises. Back at camp, we tiredly watched the sun set on another adventurous day.

On the 14^th, we continued up the coast on the very scenic 101. We took our time along the way and stopped to walk on the beach at a cool looking spot and at a small little café in one of the towns in southern Oregon. By mid-afternoon, we arrived in Coos Bay and walked around the boardwalk on the bay. At the recommendation of a local at the visitor’s center, we went out and did a hike along the ocean cliffs on the west side of town by one of the state parks that had fantastic ocean views. We also saw a whale and some sea lions. In the state park, there was also a very elaborate flower garden to walk through. We grabbed a pizza on our way through town and tried to eat it at a windy picnic area outside of town to the north. We drove a few more hours and pulled into the Devil’s Lake campground near Lincoln City, Oregon. Oregon has nice campgrounds and this one was no exception.

One thing that we hadn’t had on the trip so far was any cheese because it just seemed too difficult to lug around in our already full cooler. However, on the 15^th, our destination was the Tillamook Cheese Factory and we were ready to eat our hearts out. On the way, we stopped at Cape Meeres Lighthouse, but I must confess that I was thinking more about delicious food than about scenery that morning. We started our tour with delicious ice cream. Then, after seeing how the cheese was made, we went straight to the sampling room. We bought some of our favorite which was a black pepper smoked medium cheddar and yes it is as delicious as it sounds. Next, we got giant grilled cheese sandwiches at the cheese factory café. It was a lot of very very delicious cheese but our next activity was a hike up a mountain to the north and I was moving a bit slowly. We reached to top to find that it was mostly shrouded in clouds and offered only occasional views of Tillamook Bay below. However, we did work off some of that cheese at least. Our drive continued up to Cannon Beach where we encountered a huge crowd on a sunny coastal Saturday in Oregon. We didn’t stay long but headed north through Seaside and finally to Fort Stevens near Astoria where we managed to snag one of the last campsites in the huge campground at this old WW2 military base.

On the 16^th, we went to the nearby beach to see the famous iron hull in the sand of the wrecked Peter Iredale. We then went into Astoria where we attended the ward that I served in ten years ago as a missionary. Things obviously change a lot in that time but I saw a few familiar faces. Next, we went up to the top of the hill where the Astoria Column stands and walked up the hundreds of steps (that make me dizzy) until we reached the top and could see beautiful panoramic views in all areas. We headed into town where the Sunday farmer’s market was going on and walked around. I bought some raspberries which were quickly devoured and we got some cookies and Alisha got a delicious crepe. We caught the Astoria riverfront trolley which may be the most underpriced attraction on the trip costing only $1 for a narrated tour of the waterfront with some friendly old conductor/guides. We got off at the Maritime Museum which is a cool museum about all the shipwrecks in this famous area where the Columbia River smashes into the Pacific Ocean (known as the “graveyard of the Pacific”). We also saw a cool 3D movie about sharks and the 3D effects look really cool in underwater cinematography. Back at the campground, we went biking around the paved trails of Fort Stevens and checked out the old military bunkers. Our not-so-great idea of the day was to try to ride our bikes on the beach because in the morning we had found some pretty hard sand with the tide out. However, the tide was almost completely in and all we managed to do was sink in and for Alisha to get her feet wet.

We left Astoria over the famous 4 mile bridge to Washington on the 17^th. This section of the 101 seemed more remote than in Oregon where we passed through small towns continually and saw much of the coast. We didn’t see much until we reached the town of Forks. The Forks visitor’s center is decked out with Twilight stuff and there are many Bella (or Edward/Jacob) fans who make their way to this destination. When we arrived at the visitor’s center, there was a very excited teenage girl asking questions. When we left, there was a very excited mom doing the same thing. The lady there gave us a map to take the driving tour of all the movie locations but (sorry Twilight fans) we didn’t do the tour. I did drive down one street that had the Cullens’ house on it but to be honest I didn’t recognize it from the movies. However, Forks does have some amazing beaches that were the best we had seen. We took a walk on Rialto Beach out to Split Rock and Tunnel Rock. Then, we took a walk through a lush forest to reach Second Beach which takes the award for most awesome beach of the trip. It is a dark sand beach lined with driftwood in a cove with cliffs on the edges and small rock islands capped with green just off the shoreline. Our campground (Klahowya) was right in what seemed like the middle of the rain forest. Sure enough, we set up our tent and it started raining only an hour later and this continued most of the night.

On the 18^th, we drove out to the Ozette area on the northwest tip of Washington in Olympic National Park where we did a famous 9 mile triangle hike. The first three miles are through forest so lush that the trail is a boardwalk of wood. The next leg is on the beach and the third leg leads back on another boardwalk. The hiking was great, particularly through the woods, and with all the time I had to think, I started multiplying the number of wood planks per hiking step by the number of steps per hour and the number of miles per hour to figure out that there must be something like 50,000 boards laid down to create the trail that we did. I will admit that we were a little spoiled on the beach section which was covered in washed up seaweed and after marveling at Second Beach less than 24 hours before we wrote this beach off as not nearly as exciting. We did some tidepooling with moderate success despite all the seaweed and found some crabs and baby starfish when turning over some rocks. All day the weather threatened to rain on us and on the drive back the rain started. We pulled into the town of Callum Bay and had a pizza while the rain came down. Back at camp, it appeared to have been raining for several hours and our well-used Coleman Instant-Tent was at the maximum of it’s rain resistance. It was doing remarkably well for a tent with no rainfly (it is built into the fabric) and has been great all trip so far. Some of the water had started to pool on top, to drip through one of the vents, and to come up through some small cuts in the floor. The rain that seemed almost fun the night before now seemed less exciting now that everything was saturated. The lesson is that while one day of camping in the rain is fun, two days is when the novelty wears off.

On the 19^th, we packed up our still-soggy tent and left the rainy forest. We first traveled to Sol Duc where we did a short hike to the falls and stopped at the resort to soak in the hot springs. Part of the plan was also to use this as a shower since it had been several days. Fortunately, the facilities also included showers so we got a soak and some soap as well. We drove east to the town of Port Angeles where we had some of the best food of the trip at the Devil’s Lunchbox restaurant. We drove up into Olympic National Park to Hurricane Ride where much of the park was still under snow. We got some good, albeit partly cloud-covered views of Mount Olympus before heading down in more rain. However, I learned that Mount Olympus creates what is called the rain shadow effect because it is big enough that it blocks moisture flowing to some areas of the east side. I realized that this is the area in which I wanted to camp. And so we went to Sequim State Park on the northeast side of the peninsula and set up all our stuff to dry. We got a great campsite overlooking the water and even had a slightly restful evening where we didn’t do any adventures but simply built a campfire for once and sat around as things dried out a bit.

On the 20^th, we did some reconfiguring of our adventure based on the rain. The entire area looked like it was going to get hit based on the weather report and we had just dried out stuff out. We didn’t want to leave for the cruise in a few days with a bunch of wet stuff in the car and it also seemed silly to plan a big outdoor adventure day when it was going to constantly rain. Instead, we headed into Seattle for a city day. We started by purchasing a city pass to get access to many of the top attractions. We started with the EMP Museum which is a very interesting museum specifically targeting those around our generation from 20s to 30s (my mom loves museums and would have hated it). It had music exhibits on Nirvanna and women in rock and roll, fantasy exibits with stuff from Tolkien and others, and sci-fi exhibits with cool stuff from famous novels and movies. My favorite was probably the design of the fantasy part of the museum with a huge wooden door to enter, fake pine needles on the floor of the exhibit hall, a theme as if the rooms had been carved right out of earth and stone, and even a caged dragon in one corner. Next, we rode to the top of the Space Needle for one of Seattle’s over-hyped very touristy attractions that offered some nice views and a good half hour max of entertainment. Then, it was time for the science museum which had some interesting exhibits. Some of them made me feel like a kid, like those with dinosaurs and throwing paper airplanes. Others like the butterfly enclosure were very unique and cool. We saw a short IMAX 3D movie about airplane racing and started back towards our hotel just before 5 pm. I knew traffic would be bad, but I did not realize that Seattle traffic would require 1.5 hours to go less than 2 miles to the freeway. At long last, we made it to our hotel to catch the last half of game 7 of the NBA finals (I had been gone too long and didn’t even know who was playing). Alisha agreed to do the laundry if I would write up a summary of the last week so here it is. Tonight, we sleep in clean clothes and clean sheets for the first time in awhile.