Washington
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The rainforest was our first and favorite part of the park. The place oozes with ferns, moss, and tantalizing toadstools. I wouldn't dare pick one, though. Our pictures may give you a clue to its look and feel but they are a far cry from the real deal. The thing about this place that makes it rad is how things grow so fast here. They showed us a tree from this area and compared it to a tree on the other side of the mountain and the Hoh rain forest tree rings were twice the size of the other tree. You could just tell that the place is just all about growing and the mosses help it grow even more. They say in the summer it slows down, but during the rainy season - they say you can almost feel this place growing. Plus this place is known as an old growth forest - so it's got stuff in there from thousands of years ago - pretty rad. I'm really getting into the geology of stuff as we go. It wasn't that interesting in school, but then again we were sitting behind a stupid desk, not really seeing it first had.
At the beaches we found surfers and followed them to their local longboarding spots. Nothing much going on but a pack was out, nonetheless. Though the spot had a nice setup. There was a headland above it that would block the nasty north easterly winds so the conditions were clean and glassy. The wave was a little on the fast side, but it was makeable. It had tiny - top of the wave barrels - so you could get a view if you were good. But the access to this spot was through a paid campground site operated by the local indian reservation so we couldn't drive up to it, so we only checked it from the road. This beach was called first beach, and down the road a bit there was second beach, and third beach. We hiked to the other two beaches to check them out. Second beach looked like a good surf spot if there was a swell, but no one was out that day. Third beach look good too. The all had nice set ups with a bit of head land blocking the wind and the swells would kind of wrap into the bays. Definitely worth a check on a good Northwest swell (if i'm ever up there again).
We ended our tour of the park with a drive along the Hurricane Ridge to get a glimpse of the surrounding mountains and found a primo spot to park the van and cook dinner. This was my first time seeing a huge mountain range like that. I've seen the Sierra Nevada, but this place seemed a bit different. The mountains were close together and they had glaciers on them too. It was a good view and i spent a good amount of time just staring at them. Afterwards, we gave our full bellies a rub and rolled on out.
A common mode of transportation around the Puget Sound is via ferry and after our park tour we decided to load up the Hulk for a trip over to Seattle. We had to pay double for having such a tall vehicle but was still a fun experience.
Once in Seattle, we parked the van and took the bikes out for a spin. My main objective was to find a Starbucks and sit down with my love, Steve, and my love, java. I hadn't had a cup in several weeks and it felt like Christmas, holding that warm cup in my hand. Actually it sort of is Christmas every time I go to Starbucks because I get free coffee, thanks to my coffee cards from Vickie, John H. and Jessica, my old co-workers and boss who made sure I would never have to go without(at least for the next year or so).
We checked out the Space Needle, which was much smaller than I had thought, and the fish market, which had quite a selection of ocean critters. Also on our agenda was a visit to the huge REI store. This outdoor outfitter came complete with dirt trails that circled the building, which you could use to field test the newest mountain bike or backpack. It had everything, and had we an unlimited budget, we would've walked out of there with a truckload of goodies.
After a few days of sightseeing and a pit stop to do laundry at the "Splash-n-Dash", we were off once again. Next stop, Alaska......or so we thought.
Our plan was to put ourselves and the Hulk on a ferry from Vancouver. We knew this was a common means of transport to the 49th state. What we didn't know was the fare, which was going to require $1300 from us each way. We had certainly missed that little detail in our planning efforts. Bummed, but not yet defeated, we pulled over to a Barnes & Noble and began digging through books about driving the Alaskan Highway. It actually looked like it could be a great adventure. The only problem was the time involved in driving such a great distance. Taking that course would certainly destroy our plans to make it to the East Coast by fall. So with heavy hearts we decided to put off the Alaska trip for another time. Now we would start heading east to Glacier National Park