Pet Parade!

 The residents here at Evergreen Coho Escapees RV Park in Chimacum, WA are slow to start up their post-Covid19 activities, but this morning a few brave souls gathered for their annual Pet Parade.  

There are more pet owners in this park than petless people, but after more than a year of no social activities, it will take a while longer for event organizers to get back into the swing of things.  The pet owners and I had great fun anyway!

They milled around in the middle of this street talking to people and letting them pet the dogs before moving on through the park.

Another day "at home" tomorrow,

Louise and Duane

New Plan

For our bike trip today Brock, Steve and we decided to explore the northern boundary of Washington.  Our route started at Chimacum on the far right, along US 101 to Port Angelus, then on CR 112 all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  We decided that the 240-mile (there and back) meander would take all day.

By 9 am Steve, Brock, Duane and I were on the road headed west.  (Cathy and Leola were willing but unable to make such a long trip.)

The weather and the scenery were beautiful.  We were all enjoying the ride until

 about 30 miles down the road our battery light came on.  Uh oh.  The last time that happened (before we left Texas in May) when Duane turned off the engine it didn't start again.  A new battery seemed to have fixed the problem until today.  We bid the guys good riding and turned for home.

After some calling around Duane found Destination Harley-Davidson in Silverdale had time to take a look.  After a quick lunch we were on the road for a short 30-mile ride south  to Silverdale.  Unfortunately about 10 miles down the road we were stopped for 10 minutes for road work.  5 miles later the battery was dead.  Eagle could no longer fly.  😞😞😞

It was a good thing Leola decided to stay home.  She was glad to come to our rescue.  When they travel, the Spyder rides in the back of the truck.  Leola and Duane had poor Eagle resting comfortably there in a few minutes and after another 15 miles we had arrived in Silverdale.

After consulting with the service guy, we left Eagle in his care and found our way home.  Our 60-mile trip took about 3 hours.  We arrived only about an hour before Brock and Steve returned from their ride, which Brock said was wonderful.

We were glad they enjoyed their ride.

Louise and Duane

Interesting Hoh Stuff

Sasquatch is alive and well in Northwest Washington. 

llama

Cobra? or Otter?

He Man showed up to clear the path.

Oops! Sorry He Man. 

Brock made us wave.

The only things this log nursed was a lot of sitting people.

Oh! No!  Not him again!

More exploring coming up.

Louise and Duane

Hall of Mosses

One of the reasons Olympic National Park was created in 1938 to preserve  "the finest example of primeval forest", making the Hoh (pronounced hoe) Valley from the park boundary to Mount Olympus look much like it has for 5,000 years.  Mild winters, cool summers and up to 12 feet of annual precipitation produce the giant conifers (cone bearing evergreen trees) that dominate this area of the park one of the most spectacular examples of temperate rain forest in the world.

Although this loop trail from the visitor center is only about a mile long with 100' of elevation gain, it proved to be quite a hike for our friends Brock and Leola, both of whom have physical problems that often limit their walks to short strolls on flat surfaces.  However, they came a long way to see giant moss-covered trees and away we all went.

Those trees were not hard to find.

Remembering our "nurse log" lesson from the Visitor Center yesterday (Around Katie's Barn blog)

we were able to easily identify remnants of several "nurses" and their "babies"

and where several "nurses had completely decayed leaving part of the remaining trees' root systems permanently above ground.

We learned about blow-downs also, 

but without the sign would not have been able to identify this blow-down stump covered with seedlings, mosses and ferns.

This stump has apparently only recently uprooted.  A section had been cut for the trail between it

and the rest of the tree to give a horizontal view of its length.

By the time we had walked, rested often, and taken over a hundred photos--each, we were thoroughly satisfied with our visit.  We piled into the truck and drove to Forks, and stopped at Blakeslees Bar and Grill for supper

then reversed our drive of this morning and headed for home.

The drive from Chimacum to Hoh Rain Forest took 3 hours because the rolling, curving road reduced our average speed to 40 mph, typical of most national parks, but also typical of most of the roads along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  We had originally planned to ride the bikes on this 260 mile (round trip) excursion, with an overnight stay at a local motel, but found that all of the motels and inns were "booked through August".    Plan B went into effect.  We left at 8 am and rode together in our truck, made our usual stops for restrooms, food, and scenic views and photos (going and coming), and took our time at Olympic National Park, then drove home.  We arrived about 9 pm, tired but happy with the way our trip turned out.

Ready for a couple of days home,

Louse and Duane

Around Katie's Barn

We're here in Chimacum, WA  (far right under printing), primarily to visit Olympic National Park. 

Our first visit (see Olympic blog) our friends and us rode the bikes (aka motorcycles) along the red road (top of the map to the left) to the first green box, the Park Visitor Center, then down to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center (green box under Park VC).  On the second visit Duane and I drove the red road along the right side of the map to the bottom (the same route our friends and we rode the bikes the day before--Saturday Ride blog) then up to the green box which is Staircase for a hike along the north fork of the Skokomish River (Sunday Hike blog).  Today Duane drove Brock, Leola and me to the Hoh Rain Forest (green box in the middle of the map).  This is not too far from Hurricane Ridge, but we couldn't get to Hoh from there.  We again drove the red line across the top, but went all the way to the left, down, then to the right in a 3/4 circle.  (In Ohio when we go around-about to get someplace, we say you can't get there from here, you have to go around Katie's barn.)   

 As we rode through Port Angeles, we encountered heavy fog

but were relieved to find that we quickly left it behind.  The rest of the day the weather was perfect.

We stopped for a stretch and pictures at Lake Crescent, just past Lake Sutherland (both at green box middle top of map).

Here we learned that both lakes were formed by a giant glacier that filled the whole valley from 600' under the surface of the lake to over the top of some of the mountains.  Lake Sutherland was cut off from Lake Crescent by a landslide.

Lunch stop on the porch of the Hard Rain Cafe

then we joined the line into the park.  The parking lot was full, and as a car left a car was allowed to enter (one out-one in).  When told that the wait was approximately 1 1/2 hours, many people left.  We just kept yakking and inching forward.  

A mere 40 minutes later we were welcomed to the Hoh Visitor Center where we started our education with this info board. 

Inside we learned what makes a rain forest including the amount of rain,

the types of trees,

how those trees grow,

and what grows on the trees.

Armed with our new information we were ready to visit the rain forest.

To be continued.

Louise and Duane