Seattle and beyond Sept 24th-27th

Searching for a real bed and a hot shower we showed up on Mike's sister, Elizabeth's doorstep in Tacoma Washington. She and her family have just recently moved into a really nice house right on the Puget Sound.A sampling of the view from the house

One of the days we went down to the sound with Patrick and Katie. Mike was trying to teach Katie how to skip rocks, and Patric was having a really good time burying things and then digging them back up. Oh yeah, we saw some seals too. Every now and then you would see a head pop up and then disappear again.

Then we watched a pretty sunset and headed back to the house.

One of the reasons we wanted to stay near Seattle was that Amber was flying in to visit us. We picked her up at the airport on Sat (the 27th). From there we headed out of the city to let Amber have a taste of outside climbing. About 45 minutes later and without too much difficulty we found the place we were looking for. Then we wandered around in the woods for another half hour or so, and managed to actually end up where we were hoping. Not bad considering the directions didn't mention anything about the tromp through the woods. Then we started climbing

This was a neat climb called tunnel of love, where you actually climb through a hole created by a chokestone. The only problem was that the whole bottom part of the climb was really wet, which made it a lot less fun.


Amber stemming like a pro

The wall we were on was called interstate- and unfortunately that was what you heard a lot of, it was a pretty view anyway though.

It has become Mike's new favorite pastime to make a whistling alien noise- action shown here

That's a loooong way down

Safely back on the ground

I think Amber summed it up best when she described the climbing as a "horizon expanding experience". We had a really good time and even found our way back to the car without trouble.

We drove back to Tacoma to spend the night at Elizabeths and made a very yummy pizza for dinner.

The Ocean Sept 23rd-34th

Before leaving our free campground behind us, we decided that we should check out the Sul Duc river tube style

The water was a little chilly...

After the morning dip, we were on our way to the ocean. Passing through the rest of Olympic we made our way to Ruby Beach. It was a really neat beach, with all these little islands called sea stacks. It was very reminiscent of the movie Goonies.

I was trying hard to get to that island, it looked so close

but I couldn't quite make it although maybe I should have just gone for it, my knees got all wet anyway.

We were hoping to camp right on the beach, but the closed campground we found, was actually closed and the not closed campground was 14$. So we had to retreat further inland and find a nice free campground that we had to ourselves. Although the river wasn't nearly as nice as a few others we had seen, it was nice enough.

The next morning we planned to head back to the beach, but woke up to rain all day long. We decided that it was time to revisit civilization.

Olympic Sept 19th-23rd

After leaving the North Cascades and Bacon Creek we continued to travel west toward the coast. Right around sunset we got to the sound. Not really truly the ocean, but pretty darn close.

To cut out some time and gas money we decided to take the ferry over to Port Townsend. It was dark, so we didn't get to see too much, but it was neat anyway.

The next day we went through Port Angeles and were keeping an eye out for a bike shop. We found one on the main street and went in to so if we could find some good rides in the area. These guys made us want to move there. They talked about the really good riding, and how when they're not riding they'll ride there kayaks on the surf, and if the surf isn't good then they'll just go rock climbing. It sounded about perfect.

Unfortunately the riding that we found wasn't all that great , probably partially due to the fact we were almost run over by a couple of motorcycles, and then on top of it the trail had some very ugly clear cut sections.

That night we stayed near salt creek, and checked out the tide pools in the morning

Tide pools

For the rest of the day we decided to go find Olympic hot springs. It's about a 2.5 mile hike one way, and there are these really nice rock pools, the perfect temperature for dipping. There was also a very not hot-spring fed river near by. So after a nice soak, we jumped in the cold river too.

The waterfall before the cool dip

Enjoying the natural hot tub

That night it rained a lot, we got up and decided to try another trail in the area. Mt Muller was fantastic. After 3 loong miles up through pine forest we got to spectacular views. The only problem was that we had gained so much elevation and it was so windy that by the time we got to the top we were freezing. We had to boogie the next 9 miles shivering the whole way. All said, I would definitely like to ride it again sometime, maybe when the weather is a little warmer and less wet.

One of the many amazing views. That's looking back into Olympic NP, I think it's crescent lake.

And the way down, which was a blast

We got down just in time for sunset

After the ride, we headed down the road to a campground that was closed, but still open- meaning free. It was a neat place, especially so considering we had the place all to ourselves. It was so green and so full of life, including giant slugs, I took a ton of pictures. Some of which are below.

The only problem with Bacon Creek

So here we were at the most beautiful place I had ever seen. We had a nice dinner over the fire and were getting ready to turn in for the night, oblivious to the events that were about to change our lives forever.

We folded out the bed, crawled into our sleeping bags and started drifitng to the sound of water tumbing along the rocks. Right as I was on the brink of sleep, Michael exclaims
"Emilie, EMILIE"
"what"
"There was a mouse on my back, there was something on my back"
"WHAT? no you had to be imagining it"
"No, I felt something, was that you"
In a sleepy groggy tone "No, I don't know what you're talking about"
Comforted by my own ignorance I got ready to drift back to sleep- things calmed down, silence rolled in, until.... schmme shcmme schmee scratch scratch boing boing thump thump thump thump crinkle crinkle....

We both sat straight up in bed, grabbed our flashlights and beamed them around the car- nothing. Now I was on patrol, if there was a vermin in our bedroom I knew it was going to be a long night. Comforted by the fact that I was now on gaurd, Michael fell asleep, the little butt. He woke up 15 min later with me hunched over the food staring in every direction trying to spot the intruder. It was at this point I realized I couldn't take it.

I told him I was moving to the tent (we had set it up and put our bags in it earlier).
He said "no, no, I think he's gone, I'm sure it's fine just stay here"
"No, I can't I'm really tired and I know I won't be able to sleep at all"
"Just stay, it will be fine"
"No, I can't, I'm going" and I gathered up my sleeping bag, and pillow and ran to the tent.
I threw all the bags out and crawled in, ready finally for a quiet night.

About 5 minutes later I hear koosh-scwek, as the van door opens, then "hey let me in, I can't sleep in there with that thing alone"

So the mouse won- he kicked us out of our house, and had the whole place to himself, so in the morning, this is what we came back to...

The little monster got into everything. Among the list of the damaged included a package of cookies, 2 tortillas, and brownies that Vince had made while we in Bozeman. Not to mentioned he just pooped everywhere. In the cupboard, in all of our dishes, and then made a nest out of the toilet paper. This was war.

We stuck all the food into the big kayaking tupperware box we have and put it on top of the car. Then Mike contraped his finest invention yet- the perfect mouse trap. Large empty gallon jug of juice, with crumbled up cookie from the first attack- the hope was the little guy would crawl in to get to the cookie and wouldn't be able to get himself out at which point we would spring forward grab our trap and take it far far away ( of course this design only works under the assumption that there is only 1mouse...).

So we had a wonderful day, and once again settled in for the night. About 15 minutes after everything got quiet, about the time that Mike and I thought maybe the little monster had just run off, we hear... schmme shcmme schmee scratch scratch boing boing thump thump thump thump crinkle crinkle...

Lights go back on to search lights, and we are on patrol. And then- there he is, doing laps on the carpet- up above the trap....we hold our breath...he steps out onto the bottle...we lean forward... his nose goes in, front legs...and then....nothing he turns around and runs up one of the seats. Frustrated we sit back to watch the show. The little guy was running all over the place. We'd see him go in front of the drivers seat, and then suddenly he would pop out from behind the rear seat. And then once again nothing. We looked at each other trying to decide what to do.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I see 2 beady eyes peering over the top of the bed, he crawled up and started heading toward Michael. We both scream and shoot back, and he jumps off the bed in a panic and disappears again.

It was about this time that Mike decides he can't take it anymore.

"I'm going to the tent, come with me"

"no, no, I think it's fine, maybe we scared him off"

the look- "I don't think we scared him off"

"but I'm tired, lets just stay here"

"we won't sleep at all if we stay here"

"alright you're right, lets go to the tent"

So that's what we did, again. The mouse had won, again. Then, to add insult to injury we checked our trap in the morning, and the little monster had pooped all over the edge of the rim, and in the Lid- the nerve!

That next morning we had decided it was time to move on, and were sad to leave the perfect campsite, but very happy to leave our mouse problem behind us. We're pretty sure they or it had found a path in from the outside, and were just hanging out with us in the evening and then going back to there little holes for the daytime.

So we left with the bitter score being Mouse 2, Us 0.

This is just a side note, doesn't have a thing to do with mice- but we also saw some huuuge slugs around the site- this is one of them- they were really neat to watch.

Bacon Creek and the Skagit September17th-19th

Driving through North Cascades National Park we found ourselves looking at the Skagit river quite a bit, and pulled over at a boat launch. Mike left me and the kayaks in search for a take out down the river. He pulled over to look at a particularly white looking area, and debated for a very long time if we should try it, or if we should get out before hand. Thankfully, he decided to err on the side of sanity and we stopped before the biggest continuous wave train I have ever seen.

I can't think of anything witty to say about this picture, but I think it's pretty funny anyway

It looks so pretty and calm right here, but even in the calm spots the water was really moving-It made me dizzy to look down while we were zooming along, especially since the water was so clear and you could see all the way to the bottom.

The scenery was really nice along the way

And here is the famous wave train- we were actually trying to decide if we should try it (I almost just parked the vanagon right after this, and wasn't' going to tell Emilie, leaving it for a nice surprise at the end.) After we took out we went by and got this view from the road. At a closer look, the waves were the size of me, so maybe it was a good thing I chickened out.

A very good thing

After the river we decided to try to find a place to camp for the night. Driving along we saw a sign for Bacon Creek Road. It was a gravel road in the national forest, always a good sign for free camping. And sure enough, about 2 miles down, we came to out best site yet. It's hard to describe how amazing it was- so I'll just let the pictures do it...

And then there was the creek- I wasn't expecting much from a place named Bacon Creek, but it was amazing.

So of course, when you have crystal clear water, multiple rapids and 60 degree weather, what choice do you have but to tube down it? We were hooked as soon as we tried it- and ended up spending the better part of 2 days floating and screaming down.

Notice my death grip on the rope, this was the first time we actually stayed in the tube going down together, so I was pretty excited.

Oh yeah, and we found a couple of blackberries right along the road- we had them with everything. Blackberry pancakes, blackberry oatmeal, blackberry cereal....mmmmm

September 9th-16th Kayaking, biking, bears, climbing, and sleeping at trailheads

September 9th: After spending the night at some kinda scary looking lake in West Glacier we were ready to have another exciting day. We got up decently early for us and were ready to hit the river. We dropped off the boats and myself, and Mike drove back into town to the take out, and then hitchhiked back the 7 miles.

We thought we were going to be in for a relaxing float for the first 3 miles or so we had to paddle and everything, but the water was so clear and so deep and the scenery so neat we didn't mind at all. And then out of nowhere, we turned the bend and heard the crash of water and knew we were in for it. We both got through the first couple of rapids. Exhilarated we pushed on, me bravely leading the way (by bravely I mean whimpering the whole time). Sure enough we hit a tricky spot and the water violently grabbed the back end of my kayak and flipped me over like I was nothing more than a leaf. Well even though I had practiced my roll when we got in the water, I wasn't able to pull it off in the panic and had to bail...again (sigh). My consolation was that Mike said it was one of the funniest things he's seen in a while... just you wait I thought to myself.

So I dumped out my boat and we headed off again, and the rapids just kept coming, and they were not joking around. I was still leading the way until a particularly roaring rapid. (It's bizarre, being so close to the water you can't really see what you are coming up to...you can just hear it). Well this one sent a particularly vicious whimper out of me and a plea for Michael to go first. So finally he comes to the front shouting "Watch out, Here I come to save the day!" And then immediately goes down the first drop and flips over. Now I would be lying to say that I wasn't at least a tiny bit happy when this turn of events happened. But then he didn't pop back up like usual, as I went over the lip of the drop I saw his little head pop up and then go back under. Meanwhile I just realized that I had gotten myself into a hole, and if i didn't start paddling I would soon be facing the same fate. So with three hard paddle strokes I was free of the hole and cascading down the rest of the rapid, and Mike was still under. Finally he pops up next to his boat, he had to bail to, and once again I would be lying to say that I did not have at least a little smile on my face at this. We make our way over to a rocky shore to regroup. Of course by now his kayak is full of water and he's holding on to it so it doesn't simply take itself down the river without him. This predicament made it somewhat difficult to simply pull over. He perched himself onto a rock holding on for dear life to his boat which simply wanted to take it's very full heavy body downstream. Finally he's able to get out of the water, and this is when he realizes that his paddle which we so cleverly tied on to the boat is missing. The rope had snapped. So he sends me out looking for it, hoping I can catch it before it's too late. So I take the next 2 sets of rapids by myself, which were no small potatoes mind you, but no paddle. So I pull over, wondering what the heck we're gonna do now.

Luckily 2 rafts were following us down the river, and although they didn't find the paddle they did offer to take Mike and his kayak down the rest of the river. They were very friendly, and we were very lucky. The only problem was that when the 2nd boat tried to pull Mike's kayak along the river it flipped over and filled with water, so the guide decided to just pull it onto the raft instead...still full of water. This would be a difficult task no matter what, but these rafts are equipped with screws which the guide not so gently pulled the boat right over. I know it's terrible to complain about people helping you, and I still have no idea what we would have done it they hadn't come along....But there are now two giant Deep scratches in the bottom of Mike's boat...just very eh. Oh and and top of the sorrow of losing the paddle, Mike also had a t-shirt in his kayak which was never accounted for either- and it was clean!

But anyway, I ended up just following the rafts down the river, and there was no more flipping, although a couple pretty good rapids left. Meanwhile Mike is sitting in the raft listening to the boring people talk about jobs and fishing and stuff as I'm getting thrown around all over the place and fighting for my life, he was a little on the jealous side.

The rafts were taking out at the same spot we were, so they dropped us off and bid us farewell. Overall it was still a really fun run, but Mike was not in the best of moods for the rest of the night. Although he realized it could have been much worse, but it was still really frustrating. We figure that the paddle got stuck where he flipped and that's why we never found it. When he tried to use it to flip it hit the bottom and then he lost his grip- this is all very confusing and adrenaline pumping when you are under water and running out of air. To make matters worse, he wasn't able to bail right away. When he tried to reach the loop to release the skirt the water was pushing him into the ground and he couldn't reach it for quite a while, but finally he managed to pop out. We do have an extra paddle, (Mike's boat came with 2) so we are not out there, at least not until we lose another one.

Just so you get an idea of the river these are a couple of pictures from rafting companies doing the middle fork of the Flathead, same river, same stretch and everything.

One of these days we are gonna have to figure out a way to get pictures of us kayaking, but none yet.

Sept 10th-12th:Moving out of the Glacier area, we decided to find some biking. We stopped in at Glacier Cyclery in Whitefish Montana where a guy was super helpful and gave us a couple of good rides and even a free camping spot, about 25 miles out of town. So we spent the next couple days there riding a 15 mile ride, and then 26 miles the next day. The second day we ran into a couple of downhill riders who were not too happy to see us. Mike passed them on the way up, and then one of the guys started riding right behind him like a madman, looking all funny with his seat all low and tons of body armour and everything, and completely out of control. I turned the corner just in time to see the guy not make the turn in front of him and go flying off the trail tumbling down the steep hill side. Both Mike and I stopped and asked if he was ok and he gave us the yeah yeah I'm fine, in other words leave me alone. We let him go in front, but about 2 miles from the end Mike started to get a flat tire, and had to ride on it so that the air wouldn't all come out (since he's riding tubeless) so he managed to catch up to the two of them again, and this time on the final downhill portion of the ride. Boyyy was sir-crash-a-lot,ride-completely-out-of-control pissed. Mike tried to talk to him after the ride while he was waiting for me to finish and all he got out of him was that he wasn't from North Carolina(what the license plate said), and that he was from somewhere around here (even though we were in the middle of nowhere) and...well i guess that was about it.

Sept 13th-14th: After those 2 long rides, we decided we needed at least a day off the bike and so decided to press westward.

We spent one night right next to the Kootenai river, at a pretty campground that actually didn't have trash in the fire pit. The campground was closed for the season, so of course it was packed with RVs.

The next day consisted of lots of driving we finished off Montana, went through the tip of Idaho and got half-way across Washington before we decided to stop for the night. We stayed next to a dirty lake and had a dirty fire with algae wood, but it was free...so no complaints

Ready to hit the road again, notice the basil plant is still doing well, despite travelling from St Louis and getting run over by atvs at the gallatin, she's still going strong- yay basil!

September 15th: The next day we wandered into Winthrop looking for another bike ride. After establishing that there was only public restroom in the city, and it was closed, and that there was no such thing as free camping we headed off to starvation mountain.

After picking out the best of the about 50 free camp spots we found we loaded up with water and started up the road. Highlights included a very long ride on the road, a very steep sandy side trail, 4 black bears playing in creek about 20 feet from us (a mom and 3 cubs), more very long road riding, being certain we were lost, finding out we weren't, another 5 miles up on the road, and then finally going down- as Mike described it, the worst part of trail he's ever ridden. Now, I don't think it was quite that bad, but it certainly wasn't good. But after flying down a rock strewn gully essentially for a mile or so, things got much more interesting- the trail narrowed, really narrowed.

The next 12 miles were all downhill on singletrack and just got more narrow as we continued. We rode through some a recently burned forest right on the ash from the fire, and then we got to the cliff edge. For about 3 miles we rode down inch wide tread on the edge of a cliff on sand. Precarious doesn't quite sum it up, finally we got down to the bottom only with one minor over the handlebars mishap. It actually didn't hurt at all, but it was really hard to get back up on the trail. So overall, we were glad we did the trail but certainly didn't feel like doing it again anytime soon.

September 16th: Trying to stay well rounded we found a climbing wall. It was a nice place with some cool climbs and friendly people.

Climbing near Mazama Washington

We drove into the National Forest and started to look for a place to camp. But all the campgrounds were not only not free, but costly, and all of the gravel roads had trailheads. Usually not a big deal, but this National Forest was charging 5$ per vehicle to use the trails. Absurd, to park in a parking lot- Mike is even more vehement about this, don't get him started. Anyway we decided that we weren't really using the trail anyway, so we should be fine. We hunkered down at the Pacific Crest Trail trailhead and set up camp, making sure to leave early just in case- we didn't want any more friendly wake up knocks.

The drive through the cascades was beautiful...