The Olympics.
June 26th - 29th
I started with Lake Quinault’s 5-mile Loop Trail featuring the world’s largest Sitka Spruce tree (lower right). Learning after, the Quinault Forest is Olympic Park’s most picturesque. A future visit may be required.
After, I worked my way up the coast, stopping to watch seals fishing as an overcast sky descended into darkness with a bowl of popcorn.
Wednesday, starting at Lake Ozette, I ramped it up to 12 miles on the Ozette Triangle Coastal Trail. I watched a watercraft counting salmon, then took too many pictures of the ridiculous 4+ miles of elevated, boarded trail. I found it hard not to admire the effort, having built many boarded bridges back in Vermont.
On the coast I met Teal, a Ranger documenting a raft of 50 seals. Missing the hieroglyphics at Wedding Rock, I did see tons of tiny crabs, a seal spine, and bald eagle.
Before heading inland, I stopped off at the westernmost point in the contiguous United States to listen to a squeaking seal pup and watch their parent fishing.
I took more pictures of the ridiculous forest boardwalk, made friends with a chatty PNW Douglas squirrel (middle below), swam with otters off a dock, and astoundingly drank hardly any water over the 12-mile hike.
I found an amazing place to park for the evening. Waking up to take my longest swim this year to the middle of Lake Ozette and back before driving on.
My favorite L.A. so far, Lake Angeles, Washington. A PNW smooth 3+ miles trail straight up made for a enjoyably speedy decent.
After a dip in the crystal clear, cold water, I hiked up to Klahhane Ridge, for an amazing vista that included the Canadian Coasts Vancouver Island across the Salish Sea.
With exponentially more elevation, the 10-mile Lake Angeles hike required the whole Nalgene of water.
Friday, I left the Olympics to see Ashley for the first time on the West Coast since 2018. I stopped off at Port Angeles’s Lincoln Park disc golf course, then the amazing Rainshadow course an hour east which begrudgingly ate another of my discs. 😭
