wildcelticrose.net

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Oh yeah… By the time escrow got delayed by the seller not doing things he agreed to do when he agreed to do them, my scumbag neighbors being even bigger asshats than normal, lots of changes at work (that will greatly increase my already insane workout) and my mom’s probate I was well across the “batshit crazy” line. (seriously, I was scaring myself)

I had no choice, I had to get the hell out of town, away from cell phones, computers and television/radio.

I needed to go alone because people in general were starting to piss me off. Not only was it a last minute trip, but I didn’t feel like organizing or being responsible for anyone else.

I chose my favorite quick backpacking trip, Rialto to Hole in the Wall in Olympic National Park on the North Coast Wilderness Trail. It’s faster to get to by car than most of my favorite coastal haunts (more time ON the trail and less on the road) and is a relatively quick hike in (only 1 ¼ miles before you’re legal to camp)

I went in to work for a bit on Friday even though I’d already put in my 40 hours in anticipation of taking that day off to close escrow and did a few things to make sure that Stephani’s return from vacation was stress free and then headed out.

I was packed, loaded up with great grilling food and on the road before my anticipated noon departure. I was all set to be lounging on the beach, grilling dinner over a driftwood fire while lounging in my perfectly set up camp and getting ready to photograph a fabulous sunset.

I made it across the Narrows Bridge (a toll bridge) and was out on the peninsula headed towards blessed freedom, an afternoon, and two full nights of blessed solitude.

Then the cell phone rang.

It was my realtor and friend Beth (who is awesome and has been working her butt of in my best interest) “How far out of town are you?”

“You have GOT to be kidding!” was my “less than nice” reply.

Let it suffice to say that in order to keep escrow closing (just) three days late and not go even longer, I had to turn around and go sign papers at 3:00 PM (it took almost an hour for the huge pile); meaning that I’d have to drive back over the bridge at rush hour and fight to get out there, get my permit and get camp set up before dark (no moon).

I signed them I didn’t bite anyone’s head off, and then I took the sneak route to Highway 16 from South Tacoma (gotta avoid I-5 at that time) and burned rubber (or as Dale called it when my Facebook status showed when I got to the Wilderness Information Center in Port Angeles to get my permit, “flying low”)

I made excellent time (I am a serious “road warrior” from way back) got my permit, hit the trial head and managed the creek crossing as the tide was coming back in but before it got high. I probably made my best time ever out to my (for eight years now) camp, which I have dubbed “Ghost Tree” (because of this landmark)

I got to “ghost tree” and got camp set up before sunset (an amazing accomplishment)

check out my “wine on a tree”

and my serious “white man fire” (ONE match baby… ONE match)

I can’t remember the last time I used my wonderful REI Quarter Dome solo tent; I LOVED it!

Luckily, the sunset fizzled due to clouds low on the horizon so that I wasn’t tempted to hike out to the point to photograph the sunset when I needed to have the fire going and coals ready to grill on. (it’s not like I don’t have several years worth of sunsets there photographed that have been published several places online and in print)

It wasn’t as relaxing as I would have liked (having to haul butt and all) but I was there and that was good enough.

It was not a good move to bring my 35 degree sleeping bag (the term “comfort” rating is subjective, it would best be renamed “you won’t die of hypothermia” rating) It was 37 degrees out and in that bag in my mesh tent, I was a bit chilly. (I went wimpy and took the lightest tent and sleeping bag I had)

I woke up the next morning and enjoyed my coffee with the silly giggling sound that bald eagles make in the background.

I finished my coffee in time to go do some tide pooling at the wonderful minus tide.

I spoke with all of four people the entire weekend, a couple that mistook me for one of their friends, and a couple of guys from Florida that really needed a local’s help in finding good photo spots. The only discussions I had involved photography and good camping spots. No escrow, no depressing current events/news, no personal stuff. (yes, normally I’m an extrovert and extremely social,but I REALLY need to be ALONE)

after the tide came back up, I headed back to camp and spent a blissful afternoon alone, reading a delicious murder mystery. (THIS is the life baby!)

After I was done, I inscribed the word “enjoy” on a blank page, wrapped it up and left it in camp for someone else to find and enjoy.

I did have one intruder on my solitude. (the cheeky critter went after my nuts)

I had a wonderful time collecting firewood (driftwood fires and legal on the beach) and keeping the fire going and waiting for sunset.

The 2nd night’s sunset did not disappoint.

The rest of the photos are available here http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildcelticrose/sets/72157623954373861/

I slept very well my 2nd night out and hiked out about 9:00 AM with the low tide in order to avoid an epic creek crossing.

I headed into Forks (just a few miles) for breakfast and chose a place that looked like where the locals eat (you can tell by the cars in the parking lot) rather than one that catered to yuppie tourists from Seattle (I most certainly didn’t look or smell like one)

I was waited on by the sweetest little high school boy who appeared to be new to the job and was worried about being tired because he’d been up till 1:00 AM for his senior prom. If I was a 16 year old girl, I’d totally be crushing right now. He and the other high school kids working there served me up some great food and were very interested in my camping adventure (and I can neither confirm nor deny that they shared a super seekret squirrel tide pooling spot further North with me)

When I was getting ready to head home (in NO rush to get back to my scum bag neighbors or “real life”) I realized that one of the many blessings of traveling alone is that I could head home as slowly as I wanted.

I stopped off in Quilcene to visit with Jonathan (my best freind’s brother and my “brother by proxy”) to see his (relatively) new home. I brought him a couple bottles of wine, some cheese and some smoked salmon. He showed me the great Coho fishing hole just across the street (I need to get a salmon license this year) and his sheep.

THIS guy was a “crotch sheep” – ya know, like some Golden Retrievers are? (I have to admit that those pointy horns that close to my girly bits made me a bit nervous)

We shared a beer and some cheese (and some good news on his part that is not mine to share) and I headed home for a blessedly uneventful drive across the Hood Canal and Narrows Bridges.

Escrow is allegedly going to close tomorrow (seriously, I signed the papers, the seller signede the papers and funding is confirmed for tomorrow morning) It will be a week and a half before I can move in because I need a fake wall torn down and am having the carpet torn out and the 100 year old fir floors refinished. Swedish Finish which is the best for this purpose is very toxic so I have to delay my move. Although I will be asking for some help with the kitchen table and island on Wednesday afternoon.

Stay tuned for details, but mark Sunday June 13th on your calendar for a housewarming party.

It will start in late afternoon and go on until evening. I will have PLENTY of room for those who want to stay the night.

Oh how wonderful it is to be able to say that.

*BadKitty is still extremely pissed off that I was gone that long and is being very annoying.

~L

Mood: still anxious

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I don’t have time for an update, but here are pictures from this weekend’s two day escape/solo backpack trip to the coast.

~L

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What a weekend.

On Saturday I went in to work and then worked at home a bit to get caught up from all of the “stuff” and associated time off I’ve had.

Saturday afternoon, I went out to University Place for some badly needed and long overdue best friend time.

We had a lovely afternoon on the deck, a wonderful “counter dinner” (home made fish and chips served “on the counter” and Cajun music) and then a run/walk.

There is a 10K loop around the Chambers Creek properties down through the golf course around and back (steep hills included, some day I’ll check the grade on my Garmin, let it suffice to say, it’s steep)

I wanted to take some photos of my favorite subject on the golf course, even more dear now after the attempt on its life.

Charlie finally gave up on us after Molly passed him at a fast clip (I had left the house before them realizing how close it was to sunset) and then I passed him after a brief “pause for the cause” at the park.

I ran like a mad woman (with camera gear) down to the golf course and then down the hill to the bay (note to self, prodeal new running shoes… OUCH!)

It was worth it.

The rest of the picture are available here:

On Sunday, I was up bright and early for a Seattle Photo Safari adventure. All by public transit. (I have a monthly Puget Pass for my train commute) No traffic, no gas, no environmental impact, no parking, no hassle.

It was an easy ride from the Tacoma Dome to downtown Seattle.

The first stop was the Pike Place Market. (I even took some photos of the original Starbucks location, just for my friend Jen in Texas which are on my Flickr’ page)

I had an amusing “encounter” with the “socialized cats” guy. He and a younger man set up a table with their ‘highly socialized cats”(who do amazingly well with the crowds at the market. They have a refuge of sorts for cats.

Anyone who knows me knows what a sucker I am for kitties.

So in this public market, with a cat on a stand that is there to draw attention to their cause, I decided to take a picture of the kitty (a little free publicity never hurt any cause right?)

The older guy (wearing leapord pants and a hat with cat ears on it) grabbed the cat and said, “You can take pictures but FIRST you need to know what we’re about.”

[thinking out loud here]

Uh, First… I can READ.

Second, I’m from here, I’ve listened to your schpeil many times over the years.

Third, you’re in a public place in one of the biggest tourist attractions in Seattle, If you don’t want pictures; this isn’t the place to be (and, you have no legal right to prevent it)

Fourth, bloggers and magazine writers/photographers can help your cause. (if you don’t act like a crazy asshat and drive them away)

He continued to be snotty to myself and another woman that walked up, so I turned and left.

I told him, “I know what you do, I’m from here.” and he yelled “Oh that’s different” after me.

[thinking out loud again here]

Too late asshat, you aren’t getting any free publicity from me.

After some more walking around, we headed back that direction.

I couldn’t help myself…

I knew the guy was a bit of a nut case, but I did it anyway… (I’m a bad bad girl)

I walked up to him and said,

“You know, you shouldn’t be rude to people like that; you never know who might be a writer for local magazine.”

He replied, “Well I thought you were a tourist.” (uh…. scuse me? Why set up at what is arguably the #1 tourist attraction in Seattle if you’re going to be rude and mean to tourists?)

I smiled and replied, “Well you shouldn’t be rude to tourists either.” then I turned and walked away to go about my business. (personally, I think it was good advice)

No shit, there I was, walking down the street with the crazy dude, in the leopard pants and wearing a cat hat, literally chasing me a full city block yelling at me that I “picked a fight with him” and “shoved a camera in his face” (didn’t happen-I had no interest in a picture of a crazy and unattractive guy in bad pants)

It was quite the show; and there was an audience watching him chase me.

I wonder how may donations he garnered with that performance?

Sadly, I found it amusing. (there’s something about remaining calm while someone else makes a fool of themselves I get a perverse bit of pleasure out of)

The waterfront is always good fun and well worth a wander before it gets too crowded on a weekend.

*for more insight into the seagull feeding sign, check out this YouTube video that I did a few years ago:

Next on the itinerary was the Elliot Bay Water Taxi (or whatever they call it now), also covered by the transit pass) a walk out to Alki Beach (West Seattle), lunch at Bamboo and another ride back across the water.

Next, was a trip up to Greelake to visit my friend Lisa who I’ve “known” through LiveJournal for several years.

Here she is getting the best angle on a photo possible

There was a wonderful tour of Greenlake which even included a stop to visit some neighborhood chickens.

The lake was beautiful and is a great place for people and critter watching. (I haven’t been there since I moved here 11 years ago)

check it out, water DOES roll off a duck’s back…

(check out the turtles on the log in this photo)

Lisa has the mirror image of this photo, she was taking a picture of the dogs (she’s in the background of this picture) at the same time I was.

It was a good (and long day)

Unfortunately, there was some very minor “drama” on the bus on the way back.

Apparently, when you choose to move to the back of the bus to get away from people being loudly and extremely negative (it’s their right to moan, whine, bitch, complain and swear to anyone who will particiapte, and my right to excuse myself when it’s ruining the trip) because you’ve had a good day and would like to keep it that way, you’re an asshole.

Such is life.

Anyway, it was a lovely trip and adventure and that’s what I’m going to focus on.

The rest of the pictures are available here:

Or individually here

~L

Mood: Photo Geeky

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I had a brief opportunity to escape phone calls, emails and snail mail relating to my mother’s death while waiting for paperwork to be mailed from the Public Administrator’s office. (after a final call to the Medical Examiner’s office on Saturday, it was confirmed there was nothing more I could do until the paperwork arrived Tuesday or Wednesday.)

I was close to melt down, so it was time to escape the real world and get to the ocean.

Not just any beach mind you. One of the most difficult (distance wise and logistically) places to get to where I’d be subjected to as few people as possible.

Although I would have been just fine alone, the Icky Boy, who was already sore and tired from a backpacking trip in the Olympics turned right around and took me out to North Coast Wilderness of the (Olympic National) Park. (I can neither confirm nor deny that there was whining on the trek out)

Sunday morning, it was starting to heat up in the Puget Sound Region and even though we’d be back before the worst of the heat wave (a record breaking 103 in Seattle and 105 here in Tacoma)

Shi Shi Beach inovles getting a National Park Service Wilderness permit, then stopping in Neah Bay for an annual recreation permit ($10 for the year and the money is used for trails) from the Makha Nation. (note, the most Northwestern point in the contiguous 48 states, Cape Flattery, is here)

Once you have all your permits, the next trick is to find parking. There is no overnight parking at the trailhead, so an overnight backpacker needs to use (and pay for) secured parking .6 to 1 mile from the trailhead (depending on whose yard you park in) and then walk or get a ride to the trailhead. In the past, I’ve used the parking that is a little over half a mile from the trailhead, but this time we pulled in to “Donna’s Parking” about a mile away. The rumors were true and Donna’s husband Dana (a very nice guy who works for the tribe under an EPA grant running an air quality monitoring program) gave us and our gear ride to the trailhead. Since I used to run a class 1 air quality monitoring station at Canyonlands National Park, we had plenty to chat about.

I had been reading Twitters and Facebook updates on my phone as we were driving through Port Angeles and was already reading a lot of complaints about the heat building up in the Puget Sound region. We almost felt guilty as we were so cool in the shade that we put long sleeved shirts on.

We hit the trail and were pleasantly surprised to not only have cool weather, but to find that in late summer after a dry spell, there is much less mud that usual. Normally, the second part of the trail is a soul and boot sucking mess of shin deep mud.

As we hit the first overlook, we could see that the rocks and islands were shrouded in fog.

It is two miles from the trailhead to the beach on a gently graded trail/old logging skid road and then a sharp drop down a cliff to the sand below. Since it wasn’t muddy and slimy (I usually go in the Spring/Fall) my trademark “crabwalk/butt scoot maneuver was not necessary)

Once on the beach, one can pitch a tent anywhere above the expected high tide line, or continue on to Petroleum or Willoughby Creek or if you’re lucky like we were, all the way (2 additional miles) to a site right at Point of the Arches.

We had met a group in the parking lot who were leaving and had just cleared out of the camp site I’ve been coveting for over five years. Right at the rocks where you can pitch your tent on the beach but be in the shade of trees all day.

At that point, the “race” was on. At that tide, no one was going to come in from the South and snake my spot (there is no overland trail past the point and it can only be passed at a tide of 4′ or less)

I was a woman on a mission. When we got to the bottom of the cliff, I saw a man with a couple other people not far behind us. I gave him the stink eye and hauled butt down the beach.

My heart sank when I found kayaks near the spot I had my heart set on, but they were just a bit North. We Got THE spot at the point.

By this time, the fog and clouds had moved in and we were actually cold.

Some of the bits of driftwood were a bit too big for a nice little fire… (note the creative wood breaking going on in the background)

Once camp was set up, it was time to explore the tide pools as the tide was going out and the diffused light was nice for photography (the fire was not lit until we got back)

My reputation as “weather witch” is still intact. We had clouds and fog to cool our hike in, but the sun broke through and provided us with a lovely sunset and later moon and stars.

We had cheese, crackers, smoked salmon and a nice old fine zinfandel for “happy hour” and then grilled prawns and veggies for dinner. (in addition to my weather witch duties, I’m also the “foodie”)

One must carefully clean camp and store food after cooking something like that.

Hard sided bear cannisters are required in coastal areas of the park. The bears usually leave them alone, but the mutant fire eyed German Shepard size raccoons from hell are another matter entirely.

Monday morning, I was faced with an assault upon our camp that I had never experienced before.

We were raided by killer banana slugs and they wanted our food…

There were at least half a dozen crawling on our around our food cannisters.

It was turning out to be a weird trip.

Everything with my Mom’s death and all the pressure to make instant legal and financial decision before you even being to wrap your head around the death more or less process it or actually grieve was making me crazy (and not in a good way) which is why we were there. Surpirsingly, the waves pounding the shore and the songs of birds did not relax me; especially not the first night when the brain gerbils were working overtime to make me insane.

Oh well, if you’re going to be kept awake by attacking brain gerbils and nightmares; it might as well be in a pretty place. (with no cell phone or Internet access) Just give me my coffee and no one gets hurt!

We moved our coffee and breakfast setup out into the sun so that we’d have a view while waiting for the tide to recede so that we could adventure South.

We put our food away (being extra cautious due to the killer banana slug incident) and headed North around the point.

I opted to back off and head to our Point as the tide approached it’s lowest point. This area was rocky and I had since decided that I wanted to spend as much time as possible barefoot. All of my pictures were taken barefoot; it was my theme, my refusal to subject myself to the wearing of shoes. (unfortunately, this resulted in my feet getting burned/tanned just enough that my Z shaped Chaco (sandal) stipes are gone [sad face]

I really get into my work.

I was excited to find this guy (or girl) with many arms…

I believe what we have here is a certified star fish (OK, Pacific Sea Star) Orgy. Apparently they like to diversify with the anemones. What ever floats your boat (or tentacles as the case may be)

Let’s step away from the sea stars now shall we? That’s right, slowly, keep you hands where we can see them…

and on a walk to the creek, I found this little spermy lookin’ guy (on come on, you all thought the same thing when you saw it)

I also has some fun with seagulls later in the afternoon when we walked to the creek for water (which we teated)

After exploring the tide pools and hiking to the creek for water, it was happy hour (hey, it was 5:00 PM somewhere and we were ready for our wine (did we mention that it was old vine zinfandel?) and smoked salmon.

After grilling the rest of the previous night’s dinner, we settled down for some reading, and then I scampered off take some sunset pictures…

After that, it was time to sit by the fire where I finally unloaded a bit about how much stress this was creating and much pressure I was feeling. It was good to cry a bit and let it out. I slept better that night.

We were up bright and early on Tuesday morning because the Icky Boy had a board meeting and I had to get paperwork that was supposed to be sent by then filled out and back to the crematorium (I don’t know why it was such a rush on my end, nothing will be done until her doctor signs the death certificate; it’s a safe bet to say he’s in no rush because it doesn’t affect him. If it doesn’t affect him, he doesn’t deal with it.

Once again, the weather witch provided cool moist air to hike out in:

It was a hot Hot HOT drive home (and a fairly warm climb up the cliff followed by the mile walk back to the parking area)

The trip didn’t bring me peace or healing (too early for both) but it did get me away from phone calls and emails (all of which were nothing I could act on until Tuesday) and distracted me with running through the sand barefoot chasing shiny things to photograph.

It worked as best anything could and that’s a good thing.

The rest of the pictures are available here:

~L

Mood: tired

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Here’s a slide show of this weekend’s trip

Or, you can check out individual photos here

Here is the Park Service Map and the Garmin track on the Google Satellite map to give a better idea of where we were…

*note, if you are viewing this via LiveJournal or an RSS feed where the map or track doesn’t show up properly, you can click on the “view larger map” link below the image.

View Larger Map

After a hike through the forest, We arrived at Third Beach to this view… (not bad considering that it was raining on the way out there)

There were of course, ropes and ladders to navigate… (yeah, we call this “trail” around here, note-the 2nd ladder is just past Toleak, I didn’t get a good shot of the first ladder)

Tom found a cool Chiton

This was the view from our camp at Scott Creek

There was ICE, on the BEACH in the morning… (well, it is February)

We had a (unforecast) sunny hike from Scott Creek to Toleak

Here is the view from our camp bonfire on the beach at Toleak

The next morning we went for a walk and experienced yet another unforecast beautiful day (had to go to the creek to get water and wanted to explore)

There was a really cool, almost entirely intact sea lion carcass out on Toleak Point

We saw otters, (I watched one run from the water and yelled, “HEY! There’s a weasel!” to which Tom replied, “Weasel Hunting”; it’s not just a job; it’s a lifestyle,”

The Bald Eagle Alarm Clocks were working flawlessly at Toleak, but not at Scott Creek the night before. I had to tell the next Bald Eagle I saw the first morning that they were not doing their usual good job.

Oh, we got SNOWED on between Sappho and Crescent Lake on th way home and drove through snow still on the ground to get there.

It was a great and unusual February weekend.

And as far as Valentine’s Days go… I’d much rather be on the beach, in front of a fire watching a spectacular sunset while eating smoked salmon and drinking wine than waiting in line at an overpriced, overbooked restaurant.

~L

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I’m waiting for 122 10-megapixel photos to upload to Flickr’; even with cable internet, that’s going to take a while…

The icky boy asked if I wanted to go backpack on the coast this weekend. After the stress of the last few weeks, I decided that it would be in my best interested to get out and away, so I agreed (with some trepidation because someone might call about my mom)

We headed out Saturday morning, a bit later than we would normally leave for such a trip, but we were both tired, had things to do before we left and didn’t feel like rushing.

We thought that an easy walk out from Ozette past Sand Point might be nice, but we really hate the boardwalk out there (designed to protect the wetland) which is 3 ½ miles of monotony because it’s slimy and you can’t take your eyes off of it for a second to look at the scenery or your on your butt.

When we stopped at the WIC (Wilderness Information Center) in Port Angeles to get our permit, we changed our minds and decided to go out to Toleak Point, also on the coast in Olympic National Park. It’s a good challenge with steep headland trails, points with no way around that need to be timed with the tide, walking in sand when you are on the beaches, and cable ladders and ropes in some areas, all of which are made more challenging by wearing heavy packs.

Here is the track we took from my Garmin 305 data uploaded to the motion based web site.

I didn’t track all of our beach exploration which would add up to a lot more miles, just the main tracks in and out, plus Saturday’s exploration past Toleak to show where we went.

We gained 3,604 feet in elevation going up and down those headland trails where the points are impassable at any tide, and of course we lost 3,604 feet as well, so it was a good workout on all the leg muscles.

If you are viewing this on LiveJournal or RSS Feed where the map (or the blue line showing our track) doesn’t show, you can click on the “view larger image” link and see the map.

View Larger Map

Tom had never been there, and I hadn’t been there for 4 or 5 years. As a matter of fact, this was the first coastal backpacking trip I ever did.

I wasn’t sure I was up to it after having been sick and having stress related back pain, but I did fine. As a matter of fact, carrying a heavy pack in challenging conditions appears to be good for a store back. It actually feels better now.

We had a slight delay just outside of Forks when Tom got pulled over by an eager young Clallum County Sherrif for having a headlight out (it was day time) so of course, going by the book (he looked fresh out of the academy) the stop was thorough and took a while. Luckily, no ticket.

I suspect that they had to back off of the border patrol checkpoints and are likely using local law enforcement and probably cause like a head or tail light out to make less controversial stops. That, or he just looked like a hippie in a slightly beat up old car smuggling BC Bud… In any event, no ticket and only a slight delay.

We had already stopped at the world slowest Taco Bell (I am NOT kidding) in Port Angeles to carb up on the way so we were pushing our luck to get to camp before dark.

We hit the trail head at 3:00 PM, which is pretty late to navigate what we had to and get to camp before dark, but we were determined.

The rope and cable ladders off the first beach were in decent shape.

The 2nd climb up the slimy clay bluff just before Scott Creek was… slimy. Tom traversed some talus on the far side, while I went with climbing the rope up the cliff. (I was sick, tired and feel better not having to rely 100% on tired legs for balance.) He looked at me like I was nuts for dealing with the mud. (it IS after all the route and that’s where the rope is, so I’m not THAT crazy)

The farthest we could get the first day to camp was Scott Creek because the next point can’t be rounded until the tide is below five feet and there is no headland trail.

We got there right at sunset, set up camp, built a fire and had a nice dinner of cheese, crackers, wine and shrimp.

It was below freezing that night and there was frost on the beach (the logs, and even the sand in some places)

We slept in the next morning to wait for the tide to go down and head South towards Toleak.

The weather was supposed to be rainy, but it wasn’t; it was sunny and beautiful. (my luck of always having good weather on the Washington Coast is holding true)

We had a few clouds move in during the late afternoon after we set up camp and Tom mocked my status as “weather witch”, but it cleared up and we had another spectacular sunset viewed from a bonfire on the beach (and smoked salmon for dinner)

We slept in again (hey, we’re not lazy, it’s all about the tides) and headed back to the trail head enjoying another sunny day that was also not forecast. Tom finally had to concede to my weather witchery/luck/whatever….

We got back to the car at about 2:30 PM on Monday and headed home. We stopped briefly in Bremerton for food and to change out the headlight bulb and were home and sitting in the hot tub by 7:00 PM.

I feel a lot better now.

I think I’ll go scrounge up something to eat while these pictures are still uploading.

~L

Mood: Rejuvinated

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We’ve been cloaked in a dark nasty gray wet cloud of stagnant air (we had an air quality advisory issued) here in the Puget Sound region for almost as long as I can remember (well, at least back to the snow and ice storms and floods)

It was not helping my stress level or making me feel any better physically while trying to get over this bug (more than a cold, just short of being the flu)

Tom and I looked at each other yesterday morning and said, “We’ve GOT to get out of here and find some good air and sun!”

The place it appeared that we would find it was out on the Olympic Peninsula on the Straight of Juan De Fuca in Sequim.

Neither of us being 100% well (me, a week behind him on getting over the crud he so generously gave me; darn boys and their cooties) we thought low elevation and relatively easy walking would be a good idea. A quick check of the tides showed that it was the perfect day for a walk on the Dungeness Spit at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge.

Visibility was only a few hundred yards crossing the Narrows Bridge, but once we got out on the Peninsula, the sky turned an interesting azure color (we were told it’s called “blue”) and a mysterious orange ball appeared (we’ve heard stories about this “sun” thing which apparently was worshiped as a god in ancient Egypt).

We were disappointed to find heavy fog on Hwy 101 entering Discovery Bay and on in to Sequim.

I called my best friend Molly to ask her to check the Park Service website to see if the road to Hurricane Ridge was open. At that point, we figured we’d “go high” for sun. It was open, but there was an hour wait at the entrance due to the parking area being full.

Oh Great!

We wanted no part of that and decided to take our chances on the spit and hope for sun.

The closer we got to the water, the more clearer the sky appeared. When we reached the parking lot of the wildlife refuge, there was sun, glorious sun.

I danced around the parking lot like a maniac saying… “Isn’t it beautiful? Isn’t it wonderful?” while the people who were not for the Puget Sound region looked at me like I was a loon. No worries, I’m used to that.

We hit the trail out to the spit and were greeted by lovely blue sky and water…

The tide was going out so it was fairly easy walking on sand with only a few rocks. If you go at the wrong tide/time, it’s rock hopping and log crawling.

It’s a ten mile round trip hike which I haven’t completed in 16 years, because I always get there too late in the day to complete the 4-6 hour trek. We arrived at 12:30 PM to a sign that said the refuge was closing and we needed to be back to the entrance station by 4:30 PM, so that gave us four hours.

I wore my new Vasque Breeze hiking boots in an effort to start breaking them in for our Grand Canyon backpacking trip in March/April. I don’t want to have to wear my full grain leather boots down there.

Yeah, two sickies, the sickest one hauling a heavy camera bag wearing new, not broken in boots, and wanting to stop and take pictures of every little thing went for the fast hike (and a tour & lunch, meaning we’d have to do the hike in 3 ½ hours).

Dang it, I was tired of not making it all the way out, and I didn’t care how crappy I felt, I was going to make it all the way to the darn lighthouse this time. So we hit the trail with a mission…

We hauled butt when I wasn’t stopped to take pictures.

On a clear day, you can see Canada, eh? I twittered to my friend Christina in Victoria BC that I’d be waving to her from across the water and did (yeah, that resulted in more strange looks from people who apparently don’t have friends in Canada to wave to)

We passed a shipwreck after about a mile on the spit. I think Tom looks a bit like Gilligan in this picture…

As we got closer to the lighthouse, Mt Baker came into view. It was still somewhat shrouded by nasty fog and smog, but the view cleared up as the day progressed.

We were just in time for a lighthouse tour. I was less interested in an actual tour than I was just getting in there to take some pictures.

The keeper was kind enough to bend the rules and let me out on the deck outside the tower to take some pictures. I didn’t even ask. It must have been the camera equipment…

Here’s the view looking back the way we came.

We finished the trip up with a nice hike watching the sun set over the Olympic Mountains, a trip the HUB for happy hour pizza & beer (happy hour all day on Sunday) and a dip in the hot tub. (which is a good thing, because I forgot how tiring and hard on the legs walking ten miles in sand is)

I have a slideshow of the hike, lighthouse and even a Golden Eagle (we don’t see goldens at home, just Bald Eagles)

I’ll post more about today’s adventure (it involved dodging de icer trucks on my bike) later today…

Mood: Tired