Monday, July 27, 2009

Cape Alava, day 3 (of 4) - Tidepools

Woke up (amazing how each day starts with the same activity...waking up), ate breakfast set about our day.  It's funny when you camp on a beach...it makes the decisions for day hiking much easier.  Let's see, here, yesterday we went South, how about today we go, er, uh North?  Yes?  North it is!  Little did we know that we'd hit the area "just right" (at low tide) and have a blast exploring all of the tidepools.


My higlight was arriving at a little cove; Dave, Kath and Julie all took a brief rest while I set out to explore the point, solo.  I noodled around all of the tidepools for awhile and finally came around to the point and was shocked to see it open up with a HUGE bed of muscles.  They were everywhere!  The muscles were most plentiful where the waves were the largest.  It was really cool to see!

After our little day-hike, we lit another fire; this one the biggest yet.  Kathryn really wanted to see if she could start a fire on her own so after Julie and Dave got the "one-match" fire going, Kath lit one of her own.  Eventually, the two fires melded into one.

We were treated to another beautiful sunset as the sun dipped below the clouds/fog.  Another great day.

Click here for all the day 3 pictures.















Sunday, July 26, 2009

Cape Alava, day 2 (of 4) - Petroglyphs


Day 2 was a lazy morning; I was the first one out of the tent but surprisingly slept until about 8:00ish. I had a chance to explore the island a bit and then was met by Julie. We had fun tipping rocks, looking at hundreds of thousands of shore crabs, and smelling a humpback whale carcass...yum yum.

After a late breakfast we packed up and head about 2 miles south to the petroglyphs. The sun came out and the hike along the shore was fantastic...as you can see, as well, the petroglyphs were also amazing. The highlight of the day for me was finding the "ship" petroglyph; one that we had read about but hadn't seen yet. Honestly, it didn't take much hunting...I just got lucky to walk a few feet and find it.

At any rate, we explored the petroglyphs, chilled out watching the waves (and eating our lunch munchies) and really, just enjoyed creation.

We hiked back in the early evening and had an amazing night; highlighted by a bigger campfire on the beach, an amazing sunset, and a glorious night complete with star-gazing. Obviously, being that far out on the coast, you can guess how many stars we saw...and even the milky way galaxy was visible. A great day to be sure.








 
(Was supposed to be a "one match" fire but I think it was a "two match" fire instead)







Saturday, July 25, 2009

Cape Alava, day 1 (of 4)


Last weekend Julie and I were able to go on a 4 day/3 night backpacking trip to Cape Alava, out on the Olympic Coast.  The trip was GREAT...it's a beautiful place to visit.  We were able to camp about 10 feet from the edge of the beach; right where the "rain forest" meets the "ocean."  I've broken my posts down into the 4 days; mainly because I have a lot of pictures to upload.

Day 1 started with a 7:15AM departure from our home in Bellingham followed by a 7 hour drive out to the trailhead.  The trail starts at the Ozette Loop Trailhead next to the Ozette campground which is, you guessed it, next to Lake Ozette which also happens to feed the Ozette river.  Ok, that was a little lame.  However, the hike was anything but lame...  Click here for a good map;

It's about a 3.5 mile hike, fairly flat (which was good considering my 45 lb pack).  The hike out to the coast is mainly through wooded areas, as well as one part through a small prairie.  It was a beautiful sunny day on the hike in, but about 1/8th of a mile from the coast we hit the fog bank.  That first day the fog never lifted and we had a damp evening with no sun/starts.  Still, the coast and beach were beautiful.  We chose to hike about 1/2 mile north around the point to find a more secluded campsite where we could also enjoy the sound of the waves.  Surprisingly, on the south side of the point, (Cape Alava and Tskawahyah island, which actually is only an island at high tide), there were no waves at all...and thus, no sound of the waves.  Once you get around that point, though, instant waves!  I loved falling asleep to the sound of the ocean.

We made camp by about 5:30, had a nice dinner of freeze dried ____ by 6:30, and had a campfire going by about 7:30/8:00.  If you're counting, that's about 10 hours from Bellingham to having a tent pitched...not bad!  We'll wrap up day 1 with that;

I should note: we were camping in the Makah Indian Reservation...quite a bit of history here, but also a little sad to see some of it dying out.

A few pictures below, click here to see all the day 1 pictures.

















Thursday, July 16, 2009

4th of July a little late

Ok, finally, I'm posting some pics from the 4th.  Click here to see them all!


























Sunday, July 05, 2009

Catching Up

Ok, so I've been taking lots of pictures but been dragging on posting them.  Here are a few from the last couple of weeks.  Click here to see them all.


1) Julie and I made it down to see FC Seattle Sounders play (and beat) San Jose.  While there Julie did something a little out of character - her hair.


2) Just some more shots from our lovely city.


3) A killer "white spider" that lives in our yard.  First up he killed this bumble-bee - then, just a couple of days ago, my wife witnessed the spider jumping on top of a monarch butterfly and repeatedly "biting" it or something - the spider killed this big, beautiful butterfly...if I would have been home, the spider would have died.  Still, I'm curious about this spider...anyone?


4) Julie ran and finished her first running race - a 5k.  I was very proud of her - she ran the race with her friend, Sue.


5) Lastly, Julie and I hiked up to Pine and Cedar Lakes in the Chuckanuts...