2008 – Week 14

Tuesday, July 29, 2008:
Well, NOAA weather was right. We had rain last night, not a lot, but enough to wet the ground. It is 57 degrees and not expected to clear before tomorrow morning. Daisy and I took a walk around the closed section of the campground and came upon a sign that talked about a big storm that came through here on February 12, 1979, knocking down 79 large trees in that section of the campground. The remnants of that storm is still visible, but the recent damage was caused by two storms in late 2006 and 2007, according to a local who comes here often. Last summer only 2 of the 5 sections were open. He was very complimentary of the US Park Service and their efforts to reopen the areas. I learn lots during these morning walks. We met a young couple from Washington DC who were making a 3 week round trip and camping the entire way. They recognize that that is nowhere enough time, but are doing what they can. There are using the National Geographic book titled ‘America’s Most Scenic Drives’ (or something like that) that we used when starting these expeditions. From all the posted signs, this must be cougar country and not bear country. They tell us to fight back, but we’re thinking ……... We were contemplating what to do when the sky cleared and that decided it. We took a 3 mile round trip walk through the forest. This was different from the Hoh River Forest in that the growth on the ground was less dense and we could see further. This forest is ‘old growth’, and the trees have a very shallow root system. If there is a long stretch of rain and then a big storm, many are toppled. We met an older couple from the area, and he described how it is in the forest when the trees begin to fall. It is noisy and very scary as you don’t know where the next one will fall. All along the walk, we saw toppled trees in various degrees of deterioration. Many ‘nurse logs’ were evident and as before we saw large trees that must have started on ‘nurse logs’ but the ‘nurse logs’ had decayed to nothing, leaving a very funny root structure. It was a great walk and took about 2 hours, stopping to identify plants and trees and picture taking. After the walk, we had lunch and went to Port Angeles for food, gas and mail. From Port Angeles, we drove west on WA113 and went to the Clallam County Campground at Salt Creek near Joyce. The campground is on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and we have a spot in the rowclosest to the water. We are the smallest RV here, and I think there are more large RV’s here than we have seen in any other place except for the RV dealer showrooms. We see Vancouver Island when there are no rain showers. For a brief moment, the sun broke through the clouds and shined on a large lighthouse on Vancouver Island. Since I don’t have any charts, it is tough to determine which one it is. It is white in color with horizontal red bands and located to the west of Victoria BC, which we can see. I found a designation of Beechy Head on a Rand McNally Road Atlas but who knows if that is correct. 
We watched the inbound and outbound shipping which so far has been a large contained ship, a tug pulling a string of barges and several large freighters. Boy, does the weather change quickly here. The wind is now coming from the west at about 30k and the temperature has dropped to 52 degrees with the low expected in the 40’s. With the tide going out (west) the sea is a bit bumpy out there. Susie has suggested that we spend a second night here as it is such a great place. I concur.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008:
What a glorious sunrise! It was quiet when Daisy and I took our morning walk. We explored the park and came across a fortification that must have been built around the same time as Fort Worden but I am not sure. It was a gun emplacement overlooking the Strait and while the gun was no longer there, the projectiles that the gun shot were there so as to give us an idea of the size. Walking down the hill to the campsite, I slipped on the fungus, lost my grip on Daisy’s lease, but she stayed with me, wondering I’m sure why I was on the ground. No damage done. When we got back tot he RV Susie was ready to go to visit the tidal pools that appear at low tide. It was low tide, and all three of us spent several hours exploring the exposed rocks, seaweed, mussels, kelp, taking pictures and goodness knows what else. The tide was low at 9;04am and was well on its way in when we left. It will be high at 3:00pm, and I took some pictures to show the difference between high and low tides. We have seen many inbound and outbound ships, plus small fishing boats and one yawl trying to sail with the very little wind. We can back to the campsite, had lunch and then took showers. It was nice to be clean again! I spent about 2 hours sitting outside the RV reading. Susie came back from her shower and asked if I had seen the bald eagle that flew by, about 50 feet in front and 10 feet above where I was sitting. Of course not, I was reading. The wind filled in, clouds arrived and the temperatures have dropped to the upper 50’s. When the sun peaked through the clouds it is quite enjoyable. The visibility across the Strait is excellent, and I sat at our campsite just looking across to Vancouver Island. When we were on our walk, we could see a long distance to the west, but since it is about 60 miles to Cape Flattery, the most northwest point of the lower 48 states, I am sure we didn’t see that. The campground was full of day visitors and numerous kids. We had to rescue footballs and soccer balls from under the RV to prevent Daisy from putting a hole in them. Staying here an extra day was a great idea of Susie’s, and we enjoyed it greatly. We didn’t listen to NOAA, but the weather has exceeded our expectations. I tried to fly my battery-powered airplane with limited success. We had several wing repairs before the battery ran out. It was not a bad first attempt, but we needed more room than there was at the campground. At least I didn’t fly it into the water.

Thursday, July 31, 2008:
We were slow getting moving this morning. Susie was able to take a shower but I was not due to a jammed coin box on the shower controls. As we were leaving, we tried to dump our sewage, but the dump station was locked. We left the campground and headed west on WA112 and finally arrived at the Makah Indian Reservation. Somewhere along the road, the rain started and the fog settled in. Neah Bay is the only town on the Reservation and the port to many fishing boats. I think I have this correct; the Indians have no restrictions on when they can fish. Unfortunately, the fish are not as plentiful as they were in the past, and the industry is not as profitable as it used to be. There was some road repair work going on, and the man holding the sign controlling the traffic from our direction came over and started talking to Susie, who was driving. He was really funny and managed to have her going in circles in just a few minutes. We continued through Neah Bay and on to Cape Flattery, the most northwest point of the contiguous states. It was still raining so we played a few games of gin rummy before deciding to brave it. Daisy wore her raincoat and Susie and I wore our special LL Bean raingear, bought because we knew we were heading into the rainy northwest (it really has rained for about 25 days). Directly off Cape Flattery is Tatoosh Island. As a side note, when I was working on the JAYC Reunion last year, we were trying to find a young man whose family on Long Island Sound owned a sloop named Tatoosh, and the question was asked where the name Tatoosh came from. Now we know (maybe). I asked a representative of the Makah Tribe who was at the Cape answering questions and looking for whales (he had seen some, but we didn’t) if Tatoosh had a particular significance to the Indians, he said no, it was a Canadian family, adding that his wife’s maiden name was Tatoosh. Funny how things go around. We headed back to the RV and Daisy had lots of compliments on her raincoat. We drove east on WA 112 (no alternatives) to the town of Sekiu WA and secured a site on the harbor. Sekiu has been the center for several local industries: commercial fishing, shipping of logs and finally recreational fishing. No matter what, the industries always have the use of the Strait of Juan de Fuca as a base. On our way out and back, we noticed that the residents had large supplies of wood for winter heating, and there was smoke coming from most of the chimneys. We must have missed fall. It was still raining and the fog had become thicker so we didn’t get to see much. Susie made a good dinner, and then we called Diana. She said Denver has been terribly hot with less rain than normal. They are breaking all sorts of records (in a bad way). Meanwhile Susie and I sat here with a temperature in the mid-50s, rain and fog. NOAA says that it is to rain all night with some possibility of breaks tomorrow.

Friday, August 1, 2008:
When Daisy and I started our walk, there was no sign of sun anywhere, but as we returned, the sun had started to break through the clouds in the east. It was still foggy and dark to the west. Numerous fishermen were on the water, all working the ebbing tide. We went to take showers, and while I was waiting for Susie a young bald eagle flew overhead and landed in a nearby tree. When Susie came back from her shower, we got her bird book and decided, after much discussion, that this was a fledgling born this year. It was not black yet, but was well on its way. We started to search the skies and eventually found 2 adult eagles and 4 fledglings. We were unable to determine if it was a single or multiple families. If it was multiple families, they were living in close proximity, unusual but with an ample food supply probably OK. By the time the eagle show was over and we had breakfast, it was 11:30am before we left the campground. We drove in the rain for about an hour to the Mora Campground. This campground is located in the remote section of Olympic NP on the Pacific Coast extending from the Makah Indian Reservation approximately 60 miles south to the Quinalt Indian Reservation. Most of this section of the Park has a wilderness designation and thus very few access points. One of the access points is Rialto Beach. It is within walking distance and a pebble beach with tree stumps and trunks that were washed ashore. The pebble beach has large stones above the high water mark and become smaller and finally ending the size of sand at the low water mark. Off to the west we could see the clouds beginning to break and wondered when we would see blue sky. We returned to the RV and noticed about an hour later that the clouds had broken and overhead were patches of blue. We had dinner, and Susie took Daisy for a walk as I cleaned up. They were gone longer than I expected, but returned safely. She had found a walk-in campsite on the Quillayute River and sat to watch the goings on of the area. She saw a bald eagle with a big stick in its talons, trying to fly but it lost altitude as it crossed the river to the point the end of the stick was dragging in the water. Once it was over dry land it was able to gain altitude and fly on. Susie watched it until it was out of sight. At 9:00pm, we went to a US Park Service Ranger talk about the efforts to remove 2 privately owned dams on the Elwah River that flows north into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The construction of the first dam was started in1909 to provide electric power for a lumber company in the area. The construction of the second followed shortly. Today they supply 38% of the electricity for that company and are being removed to allow the salmon to return to their original spawning grounds. Before the dams were built it was estimated the 400,000 fish returned to this river every year and now only 4,000 do. The removal of the dams is to start in 2012 and take 2.5 years to complete. No demolition or water release will take place when there are fish in the river.

Saturday, August 2, 2008:
It didn’t rain last night, but it is 57 degrees and completely overcast. We learned this morning two fire fighters who lost their lives fighting a forest fire were employed by the US Park Service and were from this immediate area. One was just out of high school, stationed in Mora Campground and was killed by a falling tree. It was a dismal enough day without hearing that news. There is no wind and a heavy mist with not many prospects for improvement. Susie made the comment that whenever we go to an area where the weather might not be the best, we see mostly campers and small RV’s. There are no large RV’s to be seen. We have discovered that the warmest places in this campground are the toilets. Excessive use of electric hand driers must be the cause! We decided to head to the Indian town of La Push on the opposite side of the Quillayute River as we going on a US Park Ranger tour of Second Beach. For orientation purposes, Rialto Beach is the furthest north, then the Quillayute River, La Push, First Beach, Second Beach and finally Third Beach. First Second and Third Beaches are separated by headlands during high tide, but you can walk from one to another during low tide. La Push is a large fishing port for the Indians and is protected by stone jetties. It is also a town that is showing signs of progress and is building tourist facilities. There is a new hotel (that was full) and an expansion is underway. A RV park is being added. These facilities overlook First Beach. There is a US Coast Guard Station here. There seemed to be only one restaurant in the town and is adjacent to the marina. We had lunch there and the place was about 75% full. The food was good and reasonable. Before we had lunch, we had venture out to a parking lot near the entrance to the Quillayute River and noticed a number of surfer dudes trying to get organized. The waves weren’t very high but the boom box was at full volume. Susie noticed a bald eagle (if you hadn’t noticed, they are pretty numerous here) and watched him land in a small pine tree about 100 feet away. Armed with my camera at the ready, I walked as quietly as I could to get a photo of him. I think I did OK and was having fun watching him have fun watching me. It was great until some teen-age girls drove up close, took a picture and then locked the car door with a remote that flashed the headlights and blew the horn. The eagle flew away! After lunch we drove to the Second Beach Trailhead to park, but it was full. We drove up the road a bit to a medical clinic (closed) and parked in that lot. We met the Ranger a 2:00PM and were the only 2 on the tour. It took us an hour to get to the beach, and after he left Susie and I both agreed that we have been here long enough as we knew most of the answers to the questions he asked. The beach was full of trees, including the roots, for a width of about 75 feet. Very interesting to walk over! Some of these trees must have had a 4-foot diameter. There were numerous seastacks along the beach. Seastacks are pieces of the original mainland that remain after the ocean water erodes the land between them and the mainland. They are large enough to support tree growth on the top that is at the same elevation as the mainland. Some can be reached at low tide without getting your feet wet. We walked the entire length of Second Beach, around-trip distance of 3.5 miles and brought back plastic bottles, foam rubber and polyester line to throw in the trash at the Trailhead. The life of these products is more than 200 years so if you’re on the water, don’t throw it overboard. We learned that every April there is a volunteer effort to walk the beaches of Washington to pick up trash. It must be a success as there really wasn’t much debris. We returned to the RV and had a snack before returning to the Campground for dinner and another Ranger talk, this time on Sea Otters. Back in the mid-1800’s there were estimated to be about 400,000 seat otters, but, due to hunting, by 1900 they were down to less that 1,000. A treaty stopped the hunting of these animals that were desired for their fur pelts. The population has rebounded but over the last 10-15 years there has been a decline in the population in Alaskan waters. In brief, the overfishing of Pollack (faux crab) and sardines has reduced the number of seals, thus depriving the orcas of a food source, and the orcas have started eating sea otters. It continues to amaze us how the impact of one decision (overfishing) trickles down and impacts many other species. Tomorrow we leave the Olympic NP, wash our clothes in Fork and head south towards Portland. We then turn east, following the Columbia River upriver, to explore the northeast section of Oregon.

Sunday, August 3, 2008:
It was cloudy and humid this morning so we put our heads under the covers and kept sleeping. When I finally got up, Daisy and I had a long walk along the river, but didn’t se a thing. We spent a good portion of the rest of the morning brushing all the pines needles of the inside carpet and the outside walking mats. Susie to Daisy for a long walk, and she was lucky enough to have a bald eagle fly from a tree, disappear from sight and then fly down the river about 100 feet away. Unfortunately she didn’t have a camera so the great view was lost. It was almost as if the eagle was putting on a show. We drove to town, noting that the sky cleared about 6 miles from the coast, and spent about 2 hours and $25 washing the laundry. We had promised each other that we would not get as far behind as we did last time, but that promise was broken quickly. We had lunch in a local café, taking advantage of the local seafood. We stopped at a local produce market and replenished our fruit supply. We had a piece of paper that indicated that there were showers in town, but we couldn’t find them and so started south along US101. Every time we approached the coast, the clouds returned. We drove about 120 more miles and ending stopping in the town of Montesano WA where we had dinner and camped at Lake Silvia SP (been there before). There are lots of kids here running around and making lots of noise. Hopefully the exercise will make go to bed early. Tomorrow we head south into Oregon. Once again, we are having problems charging the house battery again but I think I may know the answer. Anyway, we’ll conserve electricity as best we can. We also have smelly water again. We have flushed the tanks a few times and asked the RV Repair folks, but they said just keep using the water an don’t let it stand around. We may try some baking soda. We also have a leak in the same area that was fixed this winter. I hope that the collision on the ferry didn’t open any joints. I have tape and will try to seal a suspect area.


Monday, August 4, 2008:
We had a nice morning and Susie walked Daisy around the lake. Daisy didn’t want to go to the end when I walked her earlier. We put baking soda in the water tank in the hopes of clearing up the smell. We left the campground around 11:15am and headed towards Portland where we’ll spend the night and then head west along the Columbia River. We had to buy some new fluorescent lamps for the bathroom, and that took us 2 stops. Susie needed more pencils for her drawing so we stopped at a Michael’s. By the time we reached Portland, we had driven 135 miles, and it was 4:30pm. We turned the RV off when we were checking in, and when we went to restart, nothing happened. We have plenty of battery so it must be in the starter circuiting someplace. We found a Winnebago dealer, and he gave us the name of a Peterbuilt GMC repair shop in the area, and we called AAA and arranged for a tow at 10:00am tomorrow. Susie and Daisy will stay here in the RV Park while I ride with the tow truck. We are not sure that we will cured the intermittent house battery problem, but if we can drive this thing, all the better. There is an isolator that controls whether the car charging system is capable of charging the house battery and something may be wrong there. Hopefully I can launch my blog for Week 13 before we tow the RV to the shop.

2008 – Week 13

Tuesday, July 22, 2008:
Happy 41st Anniversary to us! I was right, the Rest Area wasn’t any worse than some of the places we have stayed and paid for. We left at 7:15am, arrived at 7:30pm and gave Daisy a bath with the outside shower. She wasn’t happy. We pulled in to Winnebago Repair shop, but they were not ready for us yet. Not all of the parts had arrived, but they were convinced that the fiberglass repair could be done not as the missing piece was trim and would be done as one of the last tasks. It is due to arrive on Friday morning. The next hitch was that they didn’t rent cars to out-of-staters, even though the lead service associate had assured us last week that they did. Enterprise to the rescue. After I picked up the car, we went to lunch at the same place we had the week before. As we were close to Wal-Mart, we went there to get more camera batteries (fyi the new silver & blue Energizer Lithium batteries are very good). We headed south to Snohomish to the Snohomish Inn (they take dogs). We had trouble with their internet, but finally straightened that out before going to dinner at Romano’s Macaroni Grill. We came home and went straight to bed, victims of too much good and rich food. We opened the window as much as possible and turned on the AC to make sure we were comfortable.


Wednesday, July 23, 2008:
About 3:30am, Susie awoke with one of her migraine headaches, the first in many, many months. The AC had quit, and the room was hot and stuffy. She took aspirin, and I finally was successful in turning on the fan (only). That helped, but she was to struggle with the headache almost the entire day. I worked on putting photos in some old blogs while she slept. We went to brunch at noon and came back to the hotel around 2:00pm after a quick drive around town. This must be the center of the antique activity in the area, and we plan to look through some of the stores tomorrow. It was a quiet afternoon, working on photos, replanning our trip through WA and OR, etc. We tried to find a park where we could walk Daisy and 2 of the 3 we tried didn’t allow dogs in them. The third did, but our guess is not for long, as the dog owners didn’t pick after them. We went into town for dinner. Susie had a Portobello mushroom sandwich, and I had a bison burger. We looked for a place to have ice cream for desert, but everything was closed. Back to the hotel to do more work and planning. The wildfires in northern CA are creating a problem. Looking at NOAA Weather, there is a respiratory warning just where we’re trying to go. A cousin, Ella Crow, who lives just north of the CA/OR border says it is really bad in her area if the wind is from the south, but OK if from the north. We’ll just play it by nose.

Thursday, July 24, 2008:
A bit foggy this morning when Daisy and I took our walk. When we returned Susie was up and at her computer working on her blog. I suspect that input using WiFi as slower than hard wire, otherwise it wouldn’t be so popular. Daisy is sleeping after her strenuous walk. I called the RV repair shop and all is on schedule. We had breakfast in the same place as yesterday, discussed where we’re going for the next few weeks and then started a tour of the antique shops. We came across an old building that is supported on temporary wood and steel cribbing while they excavated beneath it to add a basement. Don’t know how that will pay for itself, but that’s up to the developer. We bought a few things, had pie ala mode for lunch and returned to the hotel to continue work on the blogs. Hopefully we’ll be up to date by tomorrow morning. I took Daisy for a walk and discovered how to access a soccer complex with about 6 fields. Too bad I don’t have my new airplane, it would be a great place to learn. We went downtown to a real Mexican restaurant and had dinner. While looking out the window we saw 2 large hot air balloons and 1 soft winged aircraft (powered by a small gas engine). There was no wind and the balloons just floated in the air. On the way to the restaurant, we saw a sign directing people to the historic residential area of town. It was on the high ground away from the Snohomish River and had numerous old and restored homes from the early 1900’s. We saw at least one that was undergoing restoration, and it promises to be as grand as the others. We came back to the hotel and noticed the same 2 hot air balloons again plus 3 of the soft winged aircraft. The sun was setting and the 3 landed nearby, but the hot air balloons were still in the air. We wondered how they would be able to find and access an open field. Tomorrow we pack up, get the RV and head back to Olympic NP.

Friday, July 25, 2008:
Susie had another headache this morning so we must get out of this place. It was sunny and calm. When I was taking Daisy on her morning walk, I noticed one of the hot air balloons from last night floating about the town. I wonder (not really) if he was up all night? We had breakfast at 9:00am and left the hotel at 10:30am after Susie had a discussion with hotel management about the cleaning people who were smoking in the rooms while cleaning. No wonder the sheets and pillowcases all smelled of smoke. There were signs posted everywhere about the illegality of smoking with 25 feet of any entrances. They said that we would get a discount next time we stayed. Good luck! We arrived at the RV Repair at 11:00am, and I took the rental car back. When I returned at noon, the RV had been painted and moved to another work bay. We fooled around for a while, then went to the new RV Sales area and determined that we like the layout of our RV and will keep it (not that we were seriously thinking of anything else). For lunch we went to Wendy’s after trying a near-by smoke-filled casino. At 2:30pm the awning was being installed. Here’s hoping that there are no bent parts that were hidden from view. I am confident that we’ll be out of here this afternoon. They buffed up the new work and then gave the RV a wash. The new work looks beautiful, but I should buff it completely when we get home to get some of the old wax off and make it uniform. We filled up with propane, but it was past 5:00pm so we found a campground in Everett WA and stayed there for the night. There is hardly any space between the RV’s but it’s only for a night. I defrosted the refrigerator and now we can go food shopping before we continue back to Olympic NP. We have some Express Mail to pick up in Port Angeles and then we’ll head counter-clockwise around the mountains before saying good-by to the State of Washington and heading to the northeast portion of Oregon. We may drive through Mt Rainier NP again to see if it looks a bit different now that some of the snow is gone. I talked to Jon Guth today about his attempt to summit the mountain last weekend, which he did and so deserves our congratulations. According to Jon there is still lots of snow in Paradise, his starting point.

Saturday, July 26, 2008:
We left the RV Park at 10:15am, a bit delayed by Susie having a spasm in her back. I gave her one of my shoulder pills and that seems to have helped. We’ll know better tomorrow morning. We decided that we would drive south through Seattle on I-5 to Tacoma, turn north on WA 16, west on WA106 and finally north on US101. The purpose of this route was to see the east side of Olympic NP. This route also took us along the south and east sides of Hood Canal. It still amazes us how much water and shoreline there is in this part of the State of Washington. Houses are built on the shore, and some look as if the shoreline has been built out to accommodate them. The roads are right at the front doors. Entering and exiting US101 must be a bit dicey, but I guess that the owners become used to it. We stopped in the USFS office in Hoodsport to determine the camping availability and were not given much encouragement by the volunteers. Everything to the south (where we didn’t want to go anyway) was full and they had no knowledge of the status north. We were able to fill with gas at $4.049/gallon in an Indian Reservation. There are numerous USFS Campgrounds on the east side of Olympic NP and after having lunch overlooking (through the trees) Hood Canal, we decided to try the first one we found. We had by-passed a few commercial campgrounds, but then turned west on USFS Road 25, drove 6 miles and found Hamma Hamma Campground in the Olympic National Forest. It has 15 campsites and vault toilets. There is no trash service and no drinking water. We’ll need to be a bit careful, but it’s only for one night. The campground is pretty typical of the USFS. There are numerous trees and an abundance of ground cover. The Hamma Hamma River is adjacent to the campground but is flowing quickly so whether or not Daisy gets to swim is a question. The fire hazard is HIGH so the only fires allowed are in the fire pits, and vegetation has been removed for at least 10 feet in every direction. There were rumors of rain showers, but the dark clouds have blown over with the southeast wind. When I took Daisy for her evening walk, I noticed that the clouds were coming back and obscuring the mountain tops which are at 5,000 feet.

Sunday, July 27, 2008:
The clouds were low this morning when Daisy and I took our walk. When we came back, she had breakfast and Susie and I had our morning coffee. Susie’s back is better but she still must be careful. Susie colored in her blog, but I don’t think I did anything productive. After breakfast we took a short walk and let Daisy swim in the Hamma Hamma River.

We left the campground just before noon and headed further into the interior to see if there were any great views, but the clouds still obscured the tops of the mountains. When the asphalt pavement ran out and a sign said “Road Closed 25 Miles Ahead” we turned around and left the NF. We turned north on US101 and when we reached a Washington State Park we refilled with drinking water, which I had forgotten to do the day before. The drive on US101 along the Hood Canal was as magnificent as the day before, but the houses were fewer and more of the weekend type. We continued north on US101 and then WA20 to Port Townsend. This was the Port of Entry in the late 1800’s as it was close to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but protected from its winds and a much easier place for the sailing ships to get to than what is now Seattle. However, when the railroad came to Seattle and the ships turned from sail to power, the town went into a decline. The area along the water is the historic commercial part, and they have done a great job of restoration and redevelopment of the old structures. Away from the water, and up the hill, is the historic residential area. Once again, many of the ld homes have been restored. We had stopped at the Visitor Center to get information on restaurants. Comparing their advice and that of AAA, we selected “Fins”, and as both strongly recommended we had clam chowder. It was the best we have ever had. It consisted on a cream sauce, potatoes and other miscellaneous vegetables topped off with more than a dozen fresh steamed clams in their shells. This could have been a full meal by itself, but we didn’t know how rich it would be and ordered a main course to follow. Time to watch out for gout! We had plans to stop at a recommended shop to have pie as desert, but we were much too full. We wandered through the shops (most of which were pretty pricey), and Susie bought a leather bag (which was not) she had been coveting. We walked back to the RV and headed to the Fort Warden State Park where we will camp tonight. Fort Warden was built in the late 1880’s, along with several other forts, to protect the entrances to Puget Sound. It has been restored and is now used as a conference center plus other state functions.
Many of the old military houses have been restored and are rented as vacation units. We have seen several 1800’s military installations over the past years, but this is certainly the largest and most impressive. In fairness, the others were built much earlier and located along routes that the settlers used coming west. I selected a campsite down on the beach on the Strait of Juan de Fuca near the Wilson Point Lighthouse. I am hoping that the light is not active. Daisy went crazy over the prospect of having a swim, but since it is salt water, she won’t have the chance. In an attempt to walk off the lunch and to exercise Daisy, we walked around all the gun emplacements in the Park. Lots of ups and downs since the gun emplacements were at the highest point in the park, about 265 feet above sea level. The walk took about 1.5 hours, and I’m not sure that Daisy was tired. Susie is almost caught up with her drawings. It has been a long process, and she sure hopes that she’ll not fall so far behind again. NOAA Weather says it is to clear tomorrow, and so we’ll go to Hurricane Ridge to get a view of Olympic NP from the top. The wind changed to the NW, and the skies began to clear. Tomorrow looks like it will be a good one. By the time we went to bed, the wind was blowing hard and the temperature was dropping. By the way, today completes 3 months on the road, and we’re not sure where all the time has gone. We have had all sorts of weather, but it never has been really hot and humid so we’re thankful for that.

Monday, July 28, 2008:
When I awoke, the outside thermometer read 54 degrees so before taking Daisy for her walk I put on a few extra clothes. When we went outside, the sun had warmed the air, and I was overdressed. We walked along the beach and saw a USN destroyer headed into Seattle, the Port Townsend ferry headed to Whidbey Island, three sailing cruising boats headed west down the Strait of San Juan and a multitude of fishermen on the beach and in small boats. I think I had heard seals in the distance, and if so they were also fishing. The fishermen call them “pirates”.

We returned to the RV, had showers and headed into town to get some breakfast treats. Unfortunately, the store we were looking for had gone out of business, but we found another named the “Courtyard Café”. It was run by a young couple who had just taken over the operation a month before. Susie had crepes ‘to die for’, and I had a skillet full of eggs, potatoes, ham and cheese. I sure hope they make a go of it for it was wonderful food and a wonderful atmosphere. We started driving towards Olympic NP, but had to stop at an art supply store so that Susie could replenish her drawing supplies. Continuing on, we went to the Post Office in Port Angeles to get a package from home and then headed into Olympic NP. When we entered the Park, we noticed some trees down, but it wasn’t until we drove around the Heart O’ The Hills Campground to select a site that we realized how severe the damage was. The campground has 5 separate sections, and one of the sections was closed off due to fallen trees. The campground section we are in is open but certainly had some damage. There are numerous trees down and signs that chainsaws were hard at work recently. We reserved a campsite and headed further into the Park to the Hurricane Ridge Visitors Center. The Hurricane Ridge Road is under repair and improvement, and signage indicated that we could have 40 minute delays. We were stopped for 10 minutes, at the most, a pleasant surprise. We hiked a bit, being careful not to stress Susie’s back, but went to Sunrise Point (peak elevation 5,462 feet) from where we could see the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Port Angeles, Vancouver Island, Victoria BC, the San Juan Islands and Mt Olympus (peak elevation 7,969 feet) plus lots of other mountains.
While we are not at the top of the world, we can certainly see a long distance in all directions, and it is wondrous. We are only a few hundred feet before the snow line on the glaciers on Mt Olympus, and there is still snow here on July 28. We decided to stay at the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center until sunset to see the view and have dinner. The Ranger said we could stay here all night if we wanted; too bad we paid for a campsite. The clouds appear to be moving in, and we may not have much of a view. We had dinner and at 8:00pm decided that the sunset was not going to be worth staying for and the temperature had dropped to 54 degrees. The trip down was much faster, but the road seemed to be more of a washboard than when we came up. Must have been the speed. We entered the campground at 8:45pm and cleaned up the RV. NOAA says it’s going to rain after midnight and continue through the day tomorrow. If it does, we’ll probably sit tight.

2008 – Week 12

Tuesday, July 15, 2008:
We left the campground at 7:15am and arrived at the RV Repair Shop at 7:45am for our 8:00am meeting. The insurance adjuster was there, and the estimate the shop made was accepted. The shop removed the awning structure so that we would feel more comfortable driving down the road. We will return next Tuesday to have the work done. They expect it will take 3 days so we should be back on our trip the end of next week. Since we can drive the RV, we are planning to use the time until next Tuesday to visit Olympic National Park at the extreme northwest corner of Washington and Victoria British Columbia on Vancouver Island. We had lunch in a small restaurant, changed the engine oil and transmission fluid and then drove south from Marysville to Edmonds and took a short ferry ride to Kingston. This trip eliminated the need to drive south around to get around the head of Puget Sound. This part of Washington State would be an entirely different place if they didn’t have this ferry system. By the way, the State of Washington is auctioning off some old ferries and may have put them on eBay, so if you always wanted a ferry, here is your chance. We drove northwest across the Hood Canal Bridge towards Port Angeles. The bridge over the Hood Canal is a floating bridge as are two others in the Seattle area. It opens by pulling a floating section out of the way. I am not sure if any private traffic is allowed in the Hood Canal, as it is the base of several nuclear subs. Since 9/11, there has been security at this bridge whenever it opens for the submarines to pass through. When we passed over the bridge, there was as US Coast Guard cutter, maybe about 80 feet long, on the north side just sitting there. We stopped at the Sequim Bay State Park. I took Daisy down to the cold salt water. She hesitant at first, but decided retrieving sticks was still a good game. We played for about 20 minutes, and then I insulted her by giving her a cold fresh water bath. It will be a few days before she forgives me, but she sure smells better. Sequim Bay is probably 3/4 miles across and 2 miles long with 2 spits at right angles to each other at the entrance that gives good protection. The hills around the edge are about 100 feet high, giving it a wonderful feel. No matter where we seem to go, the scenery is terrific. We took a walk around the campground, and a large dog on a too long lease came into the road in a very aggressive manner. The Owner’s comment, while still talking on her cell phone was that her dog likes to chase people. People with attitudes like that make it hard on responsible pet owners. Sunset was beautiful. I made reservations on the ferry to Victoria and 3 nights in a nearby campground. We’ll go there Friday late afternoon and return late Monday.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008:
Awoke this morning to 57-degree temperature and low hanging clouds. We took showers and are feeling very clean; that 2 showers in 3 days, not bad. Susie is trying to catch up with her drawings before we leave to travel west along the south shore of the Strait of Juan de Luca. We left the campground at 11:00am and headed west, only to be diverted by a trip to the Dungeness NWR. The NWR consists of a bit of land and 5 mile long sand spit in the Strait of Juan de Fuca that grows 15 feet in length every year. When it was built in 1857, the New Dungeness Lighthouse was on the end of the spit, but no longer. Now it is almost a half mile from the end.
From there we went to the Olympic NP Visitor Center in Port Angeles, talked to several rangers who gave us lots of consistent advice and so we headed west and then south to the Hoh Rain Forest section of the NP. Before we left Port Angeles, we stopped at Safeway, bought groceries and filled up with gas. On the way we passed Crescent Lake, a lake formed by glacial action thousands of years ago.
The lake is 624 feet deep, and the water is as blue as any we have seen, except perhaps Lake Superior. Daisy went for a quick dip but it was too cold for her. Hoh Rain Forest is a temperate rain forest with more than 12 feet of precipitation, mostly from October through March. As we drove east into the west side of the NP the effects of this moisture became apparent: more moss on the trees and more lush undergrowth. The road into the Hoh Rain Forest follows the Hoh River upstream. The river was full of downed trees, some of them recent, from the raging river. The riverbed is full of small diameter river rock worn smooth by the river action. Once we were in the NP, we saw the “Monarch of the Rain Forest” a 500 year old Sitka Spruce.
It was 250 feet tall and had a diameter of 12.5 feet at 6 feet above the ground. We continued into the park and found a campsite and settled in. We had dinner, after an application of bug spray, and then listened to a Ranger talk about the need and actions of fungus in the growth of plant life. It was an early to bed night, with the Hoh River rushing in the background.

Thursday, July 17, 2008:
Low hanging clouds and mist drifting through the very large moss covered trees was the view as I looked through the RV windows. Before I got up, I thought it had rained but then remembered about the fast running Hoh River. There was not much activity in the campground until after 8:00am. I walked Daisy, fed her and then restocked her food container. Susie worked on her pictures from the trip yesterday. At 11:00am we went on a Ranger led walk along the Spruce Nature Trail Walk along the Hoh River, followed by another Ranger led walk along the Hall of Mosses Trail Walk in the afternoon. The first was a great introduction to a temperate rain forest in its natural state.
The NP does not clear trees that have fallen nor do they permit logging or salvage. The only time a chainsaw is started is if a tree has fallen across a road or trail. We walked back to the RV after the first tour to check on Daisy and to shed some of our warm clothes. The second walk built on the information we learned during the morning. During the second tour we were introduced to the 7 main trees in the western portion of the park: Douglas Fir, Sitka Spruce, Hemlock, Red Alder, Big Leaf Maple, Vine Leaf Maple and Western Red Cedar. They were all first growth trees. The Douglas Fir, Sitka Spruce, Hemlock ranging from 250 feet tall, 6 feet in diameter and 300 years. The Douglas Fir are resistant to forest firs because of its thick bark. We saw signs of elk, but no elk. We saw Coho Salmon, about 3 inches long, were born this year. We learned that if a 100-year-old tree fell in the forest it would take about 100 years to completely return to the earth. As we walked through the forest, we noted as many as 5 trees in a straight line and were told that a fallen tree had become a “nurse log”, and seedlings had used it as a source of nutrients and moisture. Often we could see through the base of the new tree where the nurse log had been. We were also told that one of the very large trees had fallen near the Visitor Center with such violence that all of the alarms in the cars in the parking lot were activated. Now, one of those things is annoying, but just imagine 75. The Hall of Mosses is a clump of living maple trees that are completely covered with hanging moss. From another source, we learned about the Park’s program to reintroduce the fisher species into the park and the State of Washington. These are very shy animals, a part of the weasel family, and we first saw one in Adirondack State Park in 2003. Susie saw another while running a few years later. We took Daisy to the river and found a spot where there was back eddy so she was able to swim safely. We threw some sticks, but they all sank!

She will sleep well tonight. While Daisy was swimming, we talked to a newly married couple on their honeymoon. He has recently graduated from the Colorado School of Mines and will be starting work when they return. We think they have been traveling for about a month and have decided to head back home in Golden CO. They were excited about what they have seen so I’m sure they’ll do some more later. We were going to another Ranger talk, but there wasn’t one, leaving us to work on our blogs and pictures. It has cooled down a bit, and the sky is absolutely clear.

Friday, July 18, 2008:
When we awoke, the clouds were so low that they obscured the top half of the mountains, and it wasn’t until 11:00am that the sun broke through. We had a leisurely breakfast of eggs, sausage and coffee and then started to pack the RV for the trip to Port Angeles and Victoria BC. Susie had started to take Daisy for a walk but returned saying that there was a bull elk (Daisy discovered it) in the adjacent campsite. I found the camera, took a few pictures and realized that the elk was moving towards our campsite.
He saw me, gave a good look as if the say “What are you doing in my eating area?” he was gone in about 10 minutes, but during that time I was unable to retrieve the Coleman stove and other miscellaneous breakfast dishes. Susie had left with Daisy for her late morning walk, and I met them in the Hoh Visitor Station parking lot. Susie and I only had time for an hour walk, so we took the Hoh River Trail that extends to the base of the glacier. We only went a mile or so and then had to turn around. We some examples of the trees we had seen the previous day. We also saw downed trees along the trail, some of which must have been 200 feet in length.
They had not yet turned into nurse logs, but soon they will. We left the Hoh Forest and drove to Port Angeles replenishing cash and gas along the way. We saw a very unusual sight on the way back to Port Angeles. A large RV, one of those that looks like as bus, was driving down the road with its slideout (a slideout allows the operator of the vehicle to increase the living space when the vehicle is parked) on the left side projecting about 2 feet. So instead of an 8 foot wide vehicle, it was 10 feet wide. In comparison to our misadventure, if the slideout hit anything at 50 mph, it would probably rip apart the entire left side of the vehicle. We could not imagine that the driver didn’t know, unless he never uses left outside mirror. In the gas station, we saw Chris and his wife. They had an enjoyable hike along Crescent Lake. The ferry departed at 5:15pm, and we arrived at 3:30. While Susie was making lunch, I checked in and in the process spied a Dairy Queen. We had desert before the main course. The ferry departed on time, and we headed across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Leaving the harbor, which is behind a sand spit (Ediz Hook), I noticed a US Coast Guard station with numerous buildings and an airstrip. The waves were crashing against the seawall so I was a bit concerned for Daisy who was in the RV. After a bit the seas calmed, and we had a nice ride. As Victoria came into view we began to think it was not just a quaint little city because of the height of the building and the 2 large cruise ships moored to a pier. We departed the ferry and wandered through the city to the campground where we’ll stay for the next three nights. We received the most valuable information on transportation opportunities etc from the campground we have ever received n all our travels. There is a bus nearby so we’ll use public transportation and leave the RV in place. We took Daisy to a leashless dog park, and she had a great time playing ball. It is not often we get to let her run loose. We also spent some time talking to a model airplane enthusiast who was flying his battery powered plan around the park. It looks like fun. We returned to the campsite and flushed the water systems to make sure all was well. It is still light here at 9:30pm, and I think we are near a car racetrack, and a single line rail track splits the campground. Let’s see what those bring.

Saturday, July 19, 2008:
Today was a bit different, we move campsites so as to get better WiFi service and found that the occupant of the adjacent was a Canadian who was also an artist. He told us that there was a festival sponsored by the Art Museum named the “Moss Street Paint-In”. We took a double-decker bus (sitting in the front right corner in the trees) into town and started walking. There were more than 150 artists, mostly painters but some potters, one glassblower and one rope mat maker (he used manila rope something I haven’t seen in a long time but remember how tough it could be on a small boy’s hands). If anyone is interested in an unusual outside entrance mat, his web site is http://www.theropedoctor.com. We started walking about 11:00am and finished a t 3:30pm without any nourishment except for one small cookie split between us. We knew we were in trouble when we stopped to get a sausage in a roll and were told “no more rolls”. I bought Susie a hand blown perfume bottle that was made by one of the exhibitors as a wedding anniversary present. We finally found food at the museum and had cheeseburgers, fries and sodas. There was an exhibit of Andy Warhol in the museum, and today it was free. I declined, but Susie went in, and I think I cap-napped while digesting my lunch. When she was done, we started walking into the heart of town to visit the toyshop we were told about yesterday. After much hemming and hawing on my part Susie bought me a radio controlled model airplane powered by an electric motor. Knowing that I was a beginner, we bought a spare wing, spare rudder and spare battery. As I am writing this, I think it might have been almost as cheap to by another whole plane, but too late for that, I think. We took the bus back to the campground and checked our e-mail.


Sunday, July 20, 2008:
Today we went downtown to Victoria to tour the Royal British Columbia Museum. They had a permanent exhibit that explained how Vancouver Island came to be, and the animals that came and went during that period. It was an extensive exhibit, and we both think the best of its kind that we have ever seen. The information was the same, but the presentation was great. A temporary exhibit honored the Centennial of British Columbia. It also was well done. We think this museum gets top honors. We grew weak in the knees and had a bit to eat in the Museum Café before walking along the harbor to kill a bit of time before we went to a tour of the British Columbia Legislative Building. Like all the government buildings we have seen, this was magnificent and perhaps a bit overdone given the number of people it served in British Columbia when it was completed in 1898, but expanded a bit later. After all, there are only a little more than 4,200,000 people now. Each member of the legislature serves 50,000 people. I wonder how that compares to our states. We learned that the first judge in the territory was known as the hanging judge, not because he hung all the defendants, but because he threatened to hang the jury if they didn’t bring back the verdict he thought was proper. It was a great building, and in the 1950’s someone had the bright idea to renovate it. They were going to replace the mosaic stone floors and wood floors with sheet linoleum. They actually put a hung ceiling (2 ft by 4 ft grid and acoustic tile) in the main reception area, complete with fluorescent lighting. This obscured all the wonderful woodwork and the interior view of the dome. That bit of work was quickly removed and the space returned to the original design after a successful hue and cry from the public. It rang a bell with us because in the 1950’s the owners of our present house did a bit of the same, covering the original molding and destroying base pieces to put up a fiberboard wall covering more commonly used for basement finishing. We reversed that in 2005. We saw Toyota Prius hybrids used as taxicabs. We then walked north and went through Chinatown, but didn’t buy anything. We walked to the bus and returned to the campground where we had a nice time with our neighbors. They are full time RV’ers. He is an artist, and she works as a consultant for the RCMP. He managed to put together a painting in 2 days. If we hadn’t seen the partially started sheet on Saturday morning and the completed painting this afternoon, we wouldn’t have believed it. He doesn’t do any work with a pencil, just ink and then paint. No room for error there. They left to make a movie on cable, and Susie and I dove into our evening tasks. It was a beautiful and fruitful day. The only downer is that our feet and legs hurt from pounding the pavement. Tomorrow we head north to Sydney to catch the 5:30pm ferry to the US and RV repair. By the way, we are getting tired of hearing that the US Dollar is not worth as much as the Canadian Dollar. Some places really take advantage and others accept US the same as Canadian.


Monday, July 21, 2008:
We spent the morning walking Daisy, doing another 4 loads of laundry, cleaning the RV (and ourselves) before leaving the campground at 11:30am. We stopped at Canadian Tire to purchase 12V light bulbs with a higher intensity than we can find in the US and then went north on the peninsula to look at the Blum????? Gardens. It was a bit pricy and full of common plants so we decided to continue up the west side. There were wonderful views along the way.
We never cease to be amazed by the amount and quality of the plants in this part of the world. We arrived in Sidney way too early, but walked Daisy and then the town where we discovered numerous galleries and, best of all for both of us, an old time bakery. We bought 2 sugar donuts for immediate consumption, 2 chicken pot pies for diner and finally 2 apple strudels for breakfast tomorrow. We loaded on the ferry back to the US at 5:45pm. The ferry stopped at Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands and then continued on to Anacordes WA at 8:30pm. We drove east and then south on I-5, planning to spend the night at the RV repair place, but found a Rest Area that allowed overnight parking and stayed there. We heated up the pot pies and had a good, but late dinner. Sleeping in the Rest Area was really no noisier than some of the campgrounds we have paid good money to in the past. Up tomorrow to head a bit more south to get the repairs done.

2008 – Week 11

Tuesday, July 8, 2008:

When I took Daisy for her walk at 8:00am this morning, there was a fog bank hugging the Vancouver Island shore, and the wind was mostly calm. Two hours later, it was blowing hard from the southwest with whitecaps, and the edge of the fog bank was 300 yards offshore. We thought that it was good we were not going on the kayak trip today. All morning we heard foghorns from the freighters traveling north and south in the Haro Strait. The tide was going out, and we saw a few sailboats beating to windward. There was lots of pitching motion as the boats slogged to windward. One of them on port tack disappeared into the fog bank, and we both wondered aloud whether she wouldn’t be safer closer to our shore and out of the shipping lanes than vice versa. About 20 minutes later she popped out of the fog bank. It must have been cold on board with the cold water and air temperatures in the low 60’s, but I guess that this is what they are used to. Every so often we would see wakes from powerboats, including a bright yellow one that we believed was the PILOT boat, traveling north very quickly. We had a very late breakfast and then traveled north to see Roche Harbor at the northwest corner of the island. We stopped at the British Encampment during the Pig War and toured for about a half hour. The best view was a nesting osprey family that was visible with the naked eye, but there was a telescope and we saw more detail, including the young being fed by the parents. Continuing north we stopped at the Westcott Bay Reserve for Art and Nature. This Park was established in 2001 and features sculpture displayed in a 19 acre field.
There are narrow mowed paths between all the pieces and most of them were quite fun. There was a small pond and floating in the pond were 3 model freighters, each about 6’ long. Resting on the deck of one of the freighters was a mother duck and 3 ducklings. There was a metal horse constructed with all sorts of miscellaneous parts such as locks, gears, stable door latches, strap metal strips, etc. We finally made it to Roche Harbor. This is a nice harbor with a big marina full of large yachts. Not many sailboats, but lots of powerboats, many larger than large. In the late 1800’s Roche Harbor was a company town with the sole purpose of manufacturing lime from limestone. McMillan, a lawyer rom Tacoma WA, bought the land in 1884 and was producing lime in 1886. The 800 workers were paid in script and that script was worthless except in the company store. There were more than 20 kilns, each one burning 10 cords of wood every 6 hours. All the trees in the area were cut down to feed the kilns. McMillin also developed a way to manufacture barrels that were used to ship the lime by sailing ship to places as far away as Japan and China. Rather than using individual staves and metal hoops, he used a large knife blade to cut a continuous sheet of wood from a spinning log that had been cut to the proper length. His company was able to make 4,000 barrels per day with this method. McMillin also built a hotel to house business acquaintances and family friends. The hotel was an expansion of one of the Hudson Bay Company buildings. The company and land holdings were sold in 1956 and redevelopment began as a tourist destination. A portion of the original pier where sailing ships docked to load and unload materials still remains, as do several of the kilns, the power plant and the hotel. We had ice cream as a final treat. We were returning to the campground when the phone rang, and it was Diana returning an earlier call. We had to turn around and find a good cell spot, which turned out to be a driveway. Susie was just about finished with the call when a man stopped and asked what we were doing. Turns out he was keeping his eye on the property and was just checking us out. We drove on to the campground, had dinner and then went down to the shore again to see what we could see. Just as we arrived, so did the Orcas. We must have seen 30 of them over the space of an hour and a half. It was amazing. However, there were 2 people in a kayak who had the best view. They were much closer, but most exciting was when a large male Orca left his pod and came over to investigate. The Orca must have thought they were not a hazard because he went up close, rolled over, slapped his tail and waved his flukes. From our vantage point, the distance between the kayak and the whale was less than 50 feet. He played around the kayak for 20 minutes before going south to herd the rest of his pod north. A bald eagle flew overhead, and the sun went down. Not a bad end to the day.



Wednesday, July 9, 2008:

Today was our day for a kayak trip. The morning wind was from the south at 10 knots, the seas were generally flat, except for the wake of numerous ships traveling to and from the Port of Vancouver, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The water temperature was 48 degrees. We left the beach at 11:30am and headed south along the coast, consisting mostly of volcanic rock on our port (left to the non-sailors) side. We had a gentle paddle just a bit short of 2 miles before pulling up on a small pebble beach just north of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse. As we were the only 2 paying customers, we had great interaction with the guide, a very laid back fellow who farms organically and reads some pretty advanced books. In the middle of the meal, he stopped talking and pointed to the north where we saw 2 fast moving orcas. It wasn’t but a minute more that another set appeared and it didn’t stop until at least 30 had passed by our location. Unlike the orcas we saw last night, these were in a hurry and acting much differently. Jesse, the guide, indicated they had probably found a school of fish and were on the hunt. Two or three orcas breeched, sending up large splashes when they crashed back into the water. The show went on for about 45 minutes, and we all sat silently marveling at what we were seeing. It is impossible to describe the wildlife we have seen since Sunday night. We launched the kayaks and headed further south to a point a bit south of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse where we turned around and headed north. At the Lime Kiln Lighthouse, a scientist was placing a microphone system in the water to record the orcas as they passed by. We paddled slowly north tight against the coast. We passed by a log stuck on the racks until Jesse asked us if we had seen the seal. Looking back at the log, it was a log with head, eyes and flippers, so it must have been a seal. Further on we saw a seal that turned out to be a log. We saw the nests of bald eagles and osprey. We paddled close to shore, running aground on unseen rocks twice (just like the Exxon Valdez). We returned to the Park at 4:00pm and felt that we had had a marvelous day. We have seen wildlife ever day, but the most exciting has been the orcas. I have been on the water for a long time, but never seen anything approaching these last days. We just don’t have it on the East Coast. Several people staying in the campground had been on other kayak tours today, and everyone was overwhelmed by the sites of the last 24 hours. It is impossible for me to put into words the thrills we have experienced. We returned to the campground and did some cleanup, ran the generator for the 2nd time today and had a snack. The weather report is for the wind to turn to the northwest at 20-30 knots this afternoon, but the only sign of a change is fog on the Vancouver Island (west) side of Haro Strait. We went to a talk about the wildlife on San Juan Island that ended with 2 bald eagles, one with a fish in its talons, the other circling around, flew overhead. Everyone wondered how the lecturer did that. We learned that there are 3 resident orca pods in the Puget Sound area, and the pod we saw last night and today was Pod L with some 40 members.



Thursday, July 10, 2008:

Another beautiful morning, absolutely clear skies with an 8:00am temperature of 58 degrees and very little wind at 9:30. A tug with several tugs in tow was headed south and a small coastal freighter headed north. It is very quiet, with the exception of an occasional car behind and small piston-engine aircraft above. We hung out at the campground and talked with several families before heading out to visit the American Camp during the Pig War. It is on the south end of the island on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It is a beautiful view, but it must have been miserable during the winter months. The officer in charge was the same Captain George Pickett who gained some notoriety as a General in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The officer in charge of constructing the fortifications was Lt Roberts, fresh out of West Point. He later became head of the Army Corp of Engineers and then wrote Roberts Rules of Order, the “bible” of parliamentary procedure. The beach area, known as South Beach, below the fortifications is covered with logs that must have been driftwood. It is said that at high tide it is a log walk, not a beach walk.
We had lunch, at 3:30pm at a DNR Interpretative Center that was formerly one of the first radio direction finder (RDF) systems in the US. It was used to assist ships coming through the straits. The RDF I remember had an aid to navigation send out a radio signal that the ship would home in on and take a bearing. By using 2 or more different aids, it was possible to determine our location. It turns out in the earlier systems the ship sent out a Morse Code message requesting a location. Three different shore locations homed in on the ship’s signal, determined the location and transmitted it to the ship. A bit more cumbersome, but still a great improvement from dead reckoning. We also saw Etchells #42 sailing out from Friday Harbor into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We found a doggie-daycare place for Daisy tomorrow so we can take a ferry to Lopez Island and ride our bikes. We drove into Friday Harbor to check out parking areas. We think we have found the right one, so we’ll drop Daisy off at 8:00am, drive into Friday Harbor and bike down to the ferry that leaves at 8:45am and gets us to Lopez at 10:20am. Back to the campground. As of 8:00pm, there are no whales in site. Oops, at 8:15pm we saw 3.




Friday, July 11, 2008:

Up at 6:30am for a walk with Daisy and then a scramble to leave the campground before 7:45am to get to the doggie daycare facility at 8:00am. We made it and at 8:10am left for our selected parking spot. We stored all the necessary stuff on the bikes, rode them down to the interisland ferry and waited for the ferry to leave. It was a beautiful day with a light wind, but with a 15-knot ferry, it was a bit cold. We stopped at Orca Island, Shawn Island and then Lopez Island at 10:20am. The only wildlife we saw was a harbor seal and a pair of nesting seagulls with babies. The babies were primarily brown with some black and were nesting in the steel structure for the ferry bumpers. Neither Susie nor I have ever seen a baby gull before. We landed at the north end of Lopez Island and rode our bikes from the dock to the top of the island. It was a bit steep, but we knew about it and so were not discouraged. At the top of the hill, we shed the long pants and lightweight jacket we had needed on the ferry trip. We rode to Lopez Village through woods, open fields, woods, farms, etc until we reached this very small, but only real village on the island. We had coffee and a bagel, and hen went searching for a place to buy a lunch to go. We ended up at Vita’s Wildly Delicious and bought a turkey panini to go. On the counter, I saw rhubarb and custard pie with a whole wheat crust, top and bottom. I bought a piece for Susie, and she didn’t get out the door before she took the first bite. I was a hero. We continued south on the west side of the island, passing by Fisherman Bay. Fisherman Bay is a protected anchorage and about 30 boats were moored there. It had a different feel from other anchorages because there were no large marinas. We continued south for a bit and then turned east on Dill Road north on Center Road, west on Lopez Sound Rd and finally north on Port Stanley Rd. We visited the Spencer Spit State Park on the east shore, hoping that we could follow the shore while approaching Swifts Bay. No such luck. We backtracked to Port Stanley Rd and continued north to Swifts Bay. One of the houses had a great wind mobile with sailboats.
We stopped to look and noticed the owner looking out the window. He came out, and I asked how he found it. He thought he had a card but could not find it. It came from Whidbey Island so I’ll go on the web when we have an internet source. Continuing north we went into Odlin County Park, sat on a driftwood log and ate lunch while looking over the water. Our ride was 18 miles and pure joy. When a car passes, you can tell the locals because they all give the bicyclists a wide berth and wave. The visitors drive on by, looking grim. This place has the feel of the Maine Coast, but it is much better. The weather is clearer, although some people have told us it is unusual to have so many clear days in a row. There are many more islands and water seems to be used more even though the temperature is in the high 40’s. We returned to the ferry for the 19 mile return trip to Fridays Harbor. Just as we left Lopez Island on the return ferry trip, we had some fantastic views of Mt Baker (top elevation 10,778 feet)
and the Cascades and then as we approached Fridays Harbor, two more mountains appeared.
Talking with 2 locals, we think one of them was Glacier Peak (top elevation 10,513 feet) and neither of them knew the other. So much for local knowledge! We were a bit late so we had to scramble to get to the doggie daycare before it closed at 6:00pm. We made it with 5 minutes to spare. Back to the campground where we had dinner. Susie brushed Daisy and we had sponge baths. We didn’t see any orcas tonight. There has been a bigger volume of shipping headed into Vancouver BC during the last few days. Tomorrow we head to the Farmer’s Market to select some local vegetables and bread. Organic farming is big here, and we had many opportunities to buy today, but no method to bring them home on the bicycles.



Saturday, July 12, 2008:

Usual morning drill today except that while walking Daisy a bald eagle flew over our heads. It couldn’t have been more than 50 feet above. We left the campground at 9:45am and found a place to park that wasn’t far from the Farmers’ Market. We bought frozen salmon, fresh carrots and a beautiful apple pie to give to the de Garves, friends from NJ who we haven’t seen is some 23 years. We then decided that better than a cup of coffee was a full breakfast at a restaurant that the locals seemed to favor. We then headed back towards the campground but took a small detour to visit the Lavender Garden. The story behind this wonderful garden is that a wealthy gentleman first bought the land to live on and then decided to move. Rather than sell the land and let it be developed, he sought to find an agricultural use. First, the land could not compete with the of agricultural uses on the island, second given the relatively low 20 inches of rainfall a year, the use could not be water intensive and last it must be a use that was financially successful. The result was growing lavender. The garden and growing areas covers about 40 acres and is in color from July through September.
Due to the late spring this year, it was not in full bloom but was pretty good. Across the road, and we’re not sure if it is part of the same complex, there is a pond of about 30 acres with 8 El Toro dinghies that were being used to teach kids to sail. I suspect the water is much warmer and thus a safe place to learn. On the way back to the campground, we stopped by the Lime Kiln Lighthouse again to confirm details of the activity of the whales. At 3:30pm we left the campground for the De Garves house. There are on the southeast shore of San Juan Island, with a piece of land that is bounded on one side by the American Camp and on the other by a large tract owned by a dot-commer whom they have never seen or talked to. They are wonderful gardeners and when you look to the east from their back porch, you see Mt Baker and the Cascades. They were quick to point out that the sky is not always as clear as it was today and Mt Baker isn’t always visible. With the limited rainfall of 20 inches, Rob had developed a water capture system with a capacity of 80,000 gallons that provides irrigation for the entire summer. We learned that all the employees on the interisland ferries live in the San Juan Islands and took great pride in those ships. The ferry gates at Shaw Island were manned, or womanned in this case, by the nuns from a nearby convent. Unfortunately, this little quirk was terminated a few years ago as the nuns aged and could no longer perform the function. We also learned that a few years ago, when the ferries were being repaired, a workman with a chipping hammer put a hole through the hull. Oops! It turned out that these interisland ferries had no bulkheads so it the hull was punctured, they would sink quickly. The US Coast Guard became involved, and there was a scramble to get replacements. Lots of great things you learn from locals but not from the tour books. We stayed for 3 hours, probably much too long since Rob had a bad back, but the time flew and Daisy and their young German Shepherd Dog Tiki had a great time running all over the place, stealing each others toys, etc. Tiki even went into the RV and was ready to settle in. We returned to the campground and ate some of the goodies we bought at the Farmers Market. There were no whales tonight, but a bit of fog was visible of the Vancouver Island side of the Strait.



Sunday, July 13, 2008:

It was a bit warmer last night up where we camp, but down nearer the water it was at least 10 degrees cooler. Spotty winds again and the visibility is terrific (again). I had an idea this morning while walking Daisy, We feel that we have not seen as much as the islands as we would like and maybe we can stop at Orcas Island on the way back to Anacortes and to the Winn ebago shop in Marysville tomorrow. We are planning to go to the Strawberry Festival today and we’ll check in with the Ferry Office to confirm we can do what I want to. We saw 2 orcas this morning, and one of them spy-hopped for us. Spy-hopping is when they stand in the vertical position with about 6-10 feet of its body out of the water and swivel around on the vertical axis. There were so many whale watching boats in the area (most too close) that this may have been a defensive maneuver. We left the campground around noon and headed in to Friday Harbor to have strawberry shortcake at a church fundraiser. It was fun, and we talked to a few people who were either year-around or summer residents. I talked with a man who had owned a wooden Hinkley but now owns a trawler they use to cruise the area. It turns out that the summer season has the least wind and sailing can be very intermittent during July-August (sort of like Long Island Sound and Chesapeake Bay), but the weather never gets very hot during that period. Susie talked with a lady who was securing easements from landowners to prevent too much development. We left after an hour and went to the ferry office to check out my plan. It works so we went to the grocery store and the Shell station to put in gas at $4.829/gallon. What fun! We went back to the campground and started to get ready for tomorrow. The wind is from the southwest at 20-25 knots, and this has lowered the temperature in the campground. At 6:15pm it is still blowing and the waves are big enough that if there were orcas out there, we couldn’t see them. When taking Daisy for a walk, I looked up and saw 2 mature and 1 immature bald eagles flying above the campground. They were all in close proximity so I think it is safe to assume they are from the same family. Bald eagles do not get their characteristic white heads and tails until they are 3-4 years old. Susie saw an amazing thing tonight when she took Daisy for her last walk of the day. She was walking long the road and a black fox kit popped out of the grass in front of Daisy and her. The kit looked at Daisy and Daisy looked back! The kit had a grey tip on its tail plus a grey spot on its stomach. Susie talked to the naturalist who said that all the fox kits on San Juan Island are colored this way at birth and then turn red or gray as they mature. We have seen several red fox during the week so the only question is “Why black?”.



Monday, July 14, 2008:

We left the San Juan County Park for the last time this morning at 7:30am after having taken a last look for orcas without any success. We went to the ferry and loaded without incident (Susie was driving). We left the ferry at the Orcas Island stop and planned to spend a few hours driving around the island, planning to be back at the ferry landing in time for the 2:10pm trip to Anacordes.
We were on time, but there were so many vehicles ahead that we didn’t get to load. Orcas Island is 56.9 square miles, almost double the size of San Juan, the one we just left, and it has a population of 4,894 people about 65% that of San Juan. The terrain is much more rolling, and the top of Mt Moran is the high point of all the islands at 2,407 feet. Not much compared with where we’ve been. The farms are much larger and the main village, Eastsound, is small and touristy. The coastline consists of some long beaches but there are numerous coves that provide protected anchorages. There are several oyster farms in the bays that have sandy beaches. The island is loaded with artists, authors, potters and maybe a few curmudgeons. I don’t believe that I have mentioned this before, but all the houses have 8’ high fences around the property to protect the gardens, flower and food, from the black-tailed deer and other animals. Susie said it reminder her of Lesotho Africa where everyone fenced their houses to keep out the cattle. It is colder today than yesterday, the result of more wind blowing across the cold water. We are now waiting for the next ferry at 4:20pm to go to Anacordes. A bit of ice cream to help the time along, and suddenly it was 4:20pm and the ferry wasn’t there. It was late and then it took a long time loading because of the number of cars. We made the passage and headed south to a RV Park on a lake. We had the first real showers in more than a week, but the sponge baths had done a pretty good job. Tomorrow we’re off to the Winnebago dealer to get started on the repairs.