We have just begun a 10-day trek around the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. We spent the first three nights at Lake Quinault. This area receives about 12 feet of rain each year and stays fairly mild because of that gigantic body of water to the west. As a result, the vegetation is thick, healthy, and often over-sized…perfect for keeping Big Foot concealed!
Speaking of “over-sized”, the largest Sitka Spruce “in the world” was about 50 feet from the trailer. This enormous tree is over 55 feet around and is nearly 200 feet tall. It’s estimated to be over 1000 years old!
NOTE: The tree directly behind the kayaks is the largest Sitka Spruce in the world. It’s about 50 feet behind the truck so the perspective in the picture doesn’t do the tree justice. It’s massive!
Other than the steady flow of folks checking out the Sitka Spruce in our back yard, the campground was peaceful. Our campsite had electric and water, but no dump station for our tanks. No sweat…we’ll empty them at the next stop.
Shortly after setting up camp, we headed into the rain forest for a 5-6 mile hike. We saw a couple of pretty water falls and a bunch of banana slugs. I think the huge, yellowish slugs are cool, but they give Arleen the heebee jeebees. She was a trooper and posed with one…
On day two at Lake Quinault we did a 30-mile bike ride around the lake. About 2/3 of the route was nice paved road with very little traffic and the other 1/3 was ok dirt road. Arleen did fall over once but did not lose any skin – phew. Part of the ride took us into Olympic National Park. We stayed in dense forest with massive trees covered in moss most of the time. We also took a 1-mile detour hike to see the world’s largest Western Red Cedar.
World’s largest western red cedar
On day three we kayaked three miles to see where the river enters the lake. I played around at the mouth in the funky currents…it was a lot of fun! The wind picked up and caused 1-2 foot waves on the return trip. It was tough paddling that took concentration and muscle. We were worn out. We got back to the trailer a bit cold and a bunch hungry. Arleen cooked some big bowls of soup that fixed us right up! Only the top half of our bodies got a workout from the kayak trip so we decided to exercise the lower half with a 6.5 mile hike. We hiked up to Willaby Creek and relaxed on the river rock before heading back. Portions of the trail were blocked by massive fallen trees. So hiking often meant scrambling over, under, or simply walking 100 feet along a huge log… Only in a rain forest! By the time we got back it was about 5:00pm and time for dinner so we had a great meal at the historic Lake Quinault Lodge (http://www.olympicnationalparks.com/accommodations/lake-quinault-lodge.aspx). The lodge was built in just two months in 1926 and was very impressive. President Roosevelt visited and the dinning room is named after him. I had buffalo meatloaf and Arleen had scallops, asparagus, red peppers, and mushrooms in a acorn squash bowl… we are still licking our chops!
To finish up day three, we did our laundry. Now that we spend so much time on the road this is how our plethora of dirty clothes get cleaned. If we weren’t so active we wouldn’t dirty so many clothes…screw that!! It’s worth it!! Besides, laundry mats often have decent wi-fi so it’s not a bad way to spend time.
Our final morning we did an out-and-back 10 mile bike ride for exercise. The goal was to keep our heart rates up and wear us out. It worked! In four days we biked 40 miles, hiked 12 miles and kayaked 3 miles. These bodies need a break! Maybe at our next stop?
Sasquatch eluded us. We’ll continue to keep our eyes, ears, and nose open!
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