The Hoh Rain Forest / Home again

Tuesday July 7 The Hoh Rain Forest

Happy Birthday Mom!

We ate and packed in record time, and headed north to Forks. We had to pass the Hoh rainforest to get to Forks, but we needed gas so badly we couldn't drive up into the rainforest and out, and not run out of gas. Forks was an interesting little town. It looked like a throwback to another year, but what other year was hard to say. Certainly not the last two decades, with the exception of the Twilight signs around town. That must have been quite exciting for them. (The popular Twilight series of books/movies was set in Forks) We got gas and a slightly cheaper bundle of wood and went south again into Olympic National Park to find a campsite.

I was really worried that the Hoh would be full, but there were lots of nice sites available. Quiet sites, with songbirds and no crows. There were some flies and lots of mosquitoes though. Always a trade off.

We unloaded, set up the tent and bedding, and ate the last of the awesome sandwich stuff while we played speed on a table identical to the last campsite. I packed my backpack, reloaded the car with the food (It has to be locked up because of the bears) and we drove to the trail head.

There were many lovely trails but we chose the middle one that followed the course of the Hoh river. I liked that it was not steep and wound through beautiful old growth. The trail was well maintained and they obviously were concerned with drainage because much of it was gravel. That also made it uncomfortable to walk on. I saw more nurse trees than ever in my life, the diversity in the forest was fantastic. Come to think of it the people we saw hiking were a pretty diverse group also. Most of the elderly and Asian went on the trail called Hall of Mosses, but we took the trail less traveled. The one without the screaming children.

Ru started off good with his usual exploring up, on, around, and under the trees, but somewhere around mile 1.5 he totally fell apart. He wanted to sit and rest but every time he stopped 6-8 flies landed on him. They were fine while you were moving. So we turned around. He then got a headache, and drank all the water and was still thirsty, and he then put it into gear and marched ahead of me the last tedious mile to the car. I was nice about it all, I think he was going thorough travel overload, and electronics withdrawal. I sent him to the fly free tent, with a snack and water and my old phone with the games on it. I have high hopes when he emerges he will once more be my happy travel buddy.

In the meanwhile, I will figure out how to wash my hair, or maybe just read my book.

Later…

After a good snack and a few games of War in the bug free tent I decided it was time to wash my hair. I heated some water on the stove and recruited Ruben's help.

I washed my hair while he poured water on my head from the water jugs I had poured warm water into from the stove. My hair got clean, but biodegradable soap is awful.

I wore my wet snarled mess of hair to the campfire program with Ruben in tow. The bugs were out and we kept smacking mosquitoes off each other. The ranger who gave the presentation was hilarious, it was her first presentation and she had just arrived the week before from Georgia. She gave a short talk about the kinds of trees and animals in the woods, and about the Native Americans from the area. Ruben became a junior ranger and got a piece of candy. We walked back to camp still smacking mosquitoes. I'll just say that Ruben wasn't a happy camper that evening and it was firmly decided that the trip needed to end. 

Wednesday July 8

We slept really well and long, it was very quiet in this campground. Not having to worry about packing up and quickly finding another spot in another campground meant our morning was peaceful as well.

We ate a great breakfast of fried potatoes with onions, scrambled eggs, and banana pancakes (with honey). Then we slowly packed up. We were pretty good at the packing this time.

I wasn't fast enough, the mosquito but him on the head before I smacked it. 

Another incredible sandwich: GF bread, avocado, onion, mustard, mayo, pepper jack cheese, ham, salami, lettuce, and tomato. With salt and vinegar chips. 

The hall of mosses trail was very popular. So we didn't take it. We still saw moss. Lots of moss. 

Sad face

Our campsite in the Hoh

A triple war; I ran out of cards so he won!

After some deliberation we decided to take the coast all the way back. There wasn't much eventful about the drive home, which is good. Ru and I sang along with a lot of my roadtrip playlist on Spotify. He chatted with me (because he didn't have any electronics) and did a terrific job navigating.
We stopped at the creepiest grocery store ever in Aberdeen for some lunch items. I really didn't like the southern Washington coast. It was such a depressed area, the people we saw were sullen, the houses dilapidated, it was like the entire region just gave up. It got a little better back in Oregon, but 101 between Astoria and Seaside is still pretty bleak. 

We stopped at Hug Point and Ruben had a great time swimming in the ocean. It is a really cool spot with a waterfall and cliffs that block the wind. We stayed about half an hour then hit the road again, 

We turned inland south of Tillamook and took the 22 back to Salem, ate pizza, unpacked, blogged, bathed and went to bed.