Day 12. Anacortes, Washington to Hoh Rainforest (Olympic National Park)
   Miles today = 175
Total miles = 2820		  
     
   
   
     
     
 
Okay, so I loaded up my website again this morning at a Starbucks in Anacortes, just down the block from another Starbucks on the opposite side of the street. Not the next block mind you just the opposite end of the block. I must surely be out of the loop on Starbucks coffee. Sure they gave me free Internet, sort of, with a cup of coffee. Maybe its time I start up my boycott of Starbucks again, or at least the two in Anacortes, or maybe just the ones that are within a block of each other. It’s hard to be a selective consumer in a mass consumer world.
Anyway, it actually didn't take me too long to get out of my funk, well partly I guess. I had a great mix of songs to listen to while I started out which was perfect timing. The ride down from Anacortes to the ferry to Port Townsend really wasn't the scenery I was expecting from Rand McNally’s noted scenic route. So far they have been excellent but this stretch was 30 miles of sprawl punctuated with a gas station here and there.
The ferry ride itself was quite smooth and I did take a few pictures but there was a good amount of fog even at noon. I ended up talking with Mark from Santa Fe who was up on his Honda for a trip of his own. It was nice to swap stories and we had a fair amount in common due to circumstances surrounding our rides. I don't think the ferry ride was more than 45 minutes and Port Townsend was what I pictured a California coastal town to look like.
Needless to say I headed out of town to get away from the people. It actually took quite a while to get back into the woods. Port Angeles was a zoo of traffic if only because they had to route the highway through town just to prove that they too could build strip malls. Though the town before that I was pointed to for gas, didn't follow through on its directions so I got to ride around town looking for the gas station, which meant I got to stop at the same light twice for an eternity because school had just let out and it was only green each way for about a second and a half. The town also looked to be laid out in a walking community sort of plan. Lot sizes were smaller than mobile home parks and narrow streets— nothing that I couldn't straighten them out on. I, at least, would start with the problem of signage.
Otherwise, the southern edge of the bay was interesting only for about 20 miles. Sheer rock straight up on one side, nice cool pleasant water on the other and wet grooved pavement to ride on. I wasn’t quite confident to fly through there like the two Lexus minivan SUVs that were the exact same model and within 10 yards of each other and moving quite rapidly.
Then there was the road into Hoh. Quit snickering, I had to drive through Sapphos to get here. As rain forests go, the 18-mile road to get in here would have been much more interesting had they not logged the first third.
I was also going to say that it really isn't a rain forest without monkeys but then something to my right was cackling quite loudly like some exotic rainforest bird or a Washington rainforest monkey, I’m certain.
The ride in, meanwhile, was, after a ways, a thick canopy of trees and twisty turvy. Wet, but not all mossy and ferns like I had assumed it would be. Here at my campsite it is more of a tangled growth but we'll see in the morning if it changes on the trails by the visitor center. Otherwise, I'll have to talk to the authorities that downgraded Pluto and see what they can do about this as a rainforest. Though I have to admit, on the way in there is a Hard Rain Forest Cafe. It also looked much more authentic than the Rainforest Cafe in the Mall of America. I wonder if local folks here road trip to the Mall of America?
In the way of wildlife, as dinner was cooling I walked my allotment of exercise for the day of about 30 feet and in the bend of the stream not more than 100 yards away from my tent was a bull elk eating and drinking from the stream. He looked up and we stared at each other but I didn’t see a camera trained on me as I had one on him. Otherwise, the animal quotient is down considerably from Montana.
Who convinced me to leave the bug spray at home? Sure, you all have drizzly rain, cool temps and no mosquitoes where you are, I'm sure, but here it’s biters and warm, in the low 70's. Probably a low in the mid 40's tonight and again it was another cloudless sky.
I'm getting better at this campground decision-making process. Earlier today, I evaluated my needs while looking ahead and as I was at my target site for the day I saw that the signs for Hoh showed only 27 miles more. Like hell did it mention the extra 18 to get from the highway to the campground itself, but I digress. I figured I'd be coming in anyway in the morning and this gave me a head start. Just so that it doesn't turn into a Grand Coulee damn spectacle and I don't leave until after noon.
Which brings up another thing, I think I am giving up on making oatmeal in the morning. Sure I'm camping and all and oatmeal is the traditional breakfast, well after pancakes, but I'm not car camping remember? It takes way to long to pack up in the morning because the cooking related utensils and stove are just about the first thing to go on the bike. And anyone that has watched me strap it all on knows that I’ve got a system down, a very looooong procedural system but a system none-the-less. So while in Anacortes I bought some oatmeal cereal bars that don't taste like those candy breakfast bars. Actually, I think they came first before the actual idea of not making cereal, but again I digress.
Though packing up at the motel did go quite smoothly this morning even though I had to repack just about everything after doing laundry last night. And let me tell you how sweet life is when you get to wear clean underwear and socks two days in a row. And a hot shower this morning too. Sure it was a motel getting a makeover and makes my tent look good, but that shower was so nice. But those packets of soap made in China…who would by soap from china? Which they themselves were a not-so-nice word to open, or am I the only one that doesn't open them until I get into the shower? Not a paper wrapper, mind you, but one of those slippery when wet potato chip hermetically sealed types. Lets just say that the soap does taste like it made the trip from China.
You know the shower holds quite high in my mind when I can tell you the shampoo from India was quite nice. I wasn't going to draw conclusions that the manager (new owner) was Indian (India Indian) in appearance. She did give me a nice pen that took the edge of the overpriced room with the mildew stained chair well that and the kitchenette helped. Why I didn't go the last 5 miles to the campground and saved…what would probably have amounted to zilch...hmm...I slept ok, got laundry done, updated the site and I got to check out the weather channel.
And speaking of the site, I did put in an inquiry to my hosting service about why some files were lost and older ones in their place. I know that you, my loyal fans, were probably quite worried about my health after dropping off the face of the earth for a few days then seeing no trace my web diary. But I am sure that as I sit here in the middle of the night under the canopy of trees and stars on a moonless night it is being taken care of and you my loyal readers will be able to catch up on my whereabouts. (I later found out they had a hard drive go down and they weren’t able to back up my new files so they replaced my files with what they had)
I will say that I certainly miss having Henry about so I can at least get his clueless furrowed forehead look to my nonsensical questions about why WHY WHY WHY can't people use their signal lights? I mean it’s easier than flipping somebody off and which in itself is communication too. I came to expect it in Montana where them pick-em-up truck drivers had a cell phone talking to their sweeties in one ear and the other hand on the wheel which, I guess is okay in the middle of nowhere with miles of roads and little traffic. I should be so happy the other hand was on the wheel. But people! Talk to the person who is in the vehicle with you and not someone who really doesn't need to know why you bought what you did in the grocery store. Its a simple concept "Dance with who brung yah.” Aww hell, throw the phone out the window and think about why you don't know how to signal. Get that down and then we will see about you learning to parallel park. 		       
Lighthouse along the island's coastline.
I'm pretty sure that is Vancouver Island shroudec in fog on the horizon.
Mt. Rainier visible off the back end of the ferry.
My campsite in the Hoh Rainforest in the Olympic National Park a couple hours before sunset.
A view of my campsite and the still quite green foliage.
Right inbetween the two trees you can make out the bull elk. I am standing just beyond my campsite. I had dinner on so I couldn't stray far.
The big daddy bull elk that was hanging out near my campsite in Hoh.
 

I am digressing a bit this evening aren’t I? Just goes to show I'm in a better mood again. Though the woman in Anacortes who chatted me up because of my "Nuke and Pave" shirt helped, she told me her son in San Diego had one. I asked if he had a sense of humor too.
I now have a new device to use if you are lost on a desert island. Sure everyone knows about a deck of cards because when you play solitaire someone is always over your shoulder telling you were to put the card, but also a map. Stand around with a map long enough and someone will eventually offer help, advice, or just chat you up about your trip. And there sure are a lot of folks out there that need to take a trip. If anything I can show is that taking a trip doesn't take much more than a couple of bags of gear, a vehicle and a Rand McNally atlas.
Heck, I'm going to bed. You’ve enough to chew on let alone figure out what I wrote. By the way it is what it is because if I did the battery would never allow for so much ranting and raving time and more time than the day allows.
Nighty night, don't let the grizzly bears bite.

Route: Highway 20 Spur to West Highway 20, to West Highway 101, to Upper Hoh Road.