Day 51: Deception Pass WA to Rossland BC

Saturday, June 6
Deception Pass WA to Rossland BC
Odometer Begin: 115,245
Miles traveled: 402
Time spent traveling: 8 hours
Other: Minutes spent at the Canadian border: 20
Wx: cloudy high 60s F then sunny high 70s F
States traveled: WA, BC

We were heading to British Columbia toady but couldn’t decide which route to take. Our choices were enter Canada in Washington or drive through the Northern Cascades and then crossing up. We flipped a coin and the coin said to spend more time driving in BC. We changed our minds and chose driving through northern Washington. The Cascade mountains are incredible! Today also marked the first change in weather that we had had in about 40 days. We wore pants all day and didn’t have sun until later in the day. We reached Rossland around 6:30 and met up with our friends Patric and Moriah for dinner.

N Washington

Day 50!!: Upper Hoh Rd to Deception Pass WA

Friday, June 5
Upper Hoh Rd (south of Forks WA) to Deception Pass WA
Odometer Begin: 115,060
Miles traveled: 185
Time spent traveling: 8 hours
Other: Number of times we saw the word “Twilight” on main street in Forks; 5
Wx: sunny low 80s F
States traveled: WA

We got up and out today, leaving the rainforest of Olympic for the mountains. On the way to Hurricane Ridge we drove through Forks. If you don’t keep up with female teenage culture, you may not know why Forks and Twilight go hand in hand. If you really want to know, click here. Forks is a small town but reminded me of home in that if seem to emerge out of the timber industry and it is simple. Although,… there is at least 3 espresso stands in town.

It was cloudy and cool in Forks but as soon as we turned inland and east the clouds gave away to warm sunshine. Next on route 101 was Crescent Lake, which is absolutely gorgeous. The lake is large and clear and the mountains start right at it’s shores.

We took the drive up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park and the views did not disappoint. We saw alpine meadows in bloom, snowcapped mountains and Black Tailed Deer. We had a 2:15 ferry reservation in Port Townsend, which is like an upscale Eastport ME with a paper mill on the outskirts of town…smelled faintly familiar. On the 35 minute ferry ride we saw many water fowl and even a seal! We ended today at Deception Pass State Park, with another great campsite and chicken fajitas for dinner.

We are off to British Columbia tomorrow and therefore will only post text messages from Brian’s phone to the blog. We will post photos when we reach the US again.

OP to mainland

Day 49: Quinault WA to Upper Hoh Rd

Thursday, June 4
Quinault WA to Upper Hoh Rd
Odometer Begin: 114,968
Miles traveled: 92
Time spent traveling: 2 hours
Other: Miles run this morning: 4
Wx: sunny low 90s F
States traveled: WA

We had a leisurely morning with today being a short travel day. We got up and ran the Quinault Rain Forest Loop. We then had eggs, using the last of our fuel and packed up. Along the drive up 101 we stopped a couple times looking for more fuel with no luck.
The Olympic National Park has three ecosystems. The ocean, the rainforest and mountains. We stopped by the ocean first were it was probably in the 60s. We then took Upper Hoh Road to the Hoh entrance of the park to the Hoh Rainforest. We found fuel (yay!) at Peaks Adventure and dinner was saved. The rainforest was cool. We started out on a small hike that was similar to this morning but a female Elk, (do they call them cows?) put an end to that one. Elks are giving birth right now and we were told by Rangers and signage to give the Elks room, as they are aggressive this time of year. So we turned around and hiked the short Hall Of Mosses trail instead, which I have to say, I thought was a cooler trail. It took us through old growth rainforest. It was not totally what I was expecting given the weather is hot and dry but it was lush and green and cool…er.
We found a free campsite managed by the state of Washington by the Willoughby Creek, which runs quite swiftly and is glacial runoff so we are not going in it.

Olympic NP

Day 48: Shelton WA to Quinault WA

Wednesday, June 3
Shelton WA to Quinault WA
Odometer Begin: 114,873
Miles traveled: 95
Time spent traveling: 2 hours
Other: Cost for a new clutch and part of the exhaust: $1040...damn
Wx: sunny low 90s F, which isn’t supposed to happen in the Olympic Pen!
States traveled: WA

So no movie last night, because it was either Up, which is Pixar so it could have been good, or Night At The Museum 2 (or whatever). We watched House MD reruns instead. But yesterday did give me a chance to catch up on the Fug Girls and to take off the month and ½ old red nail polish on my toes.
Today we dropped Subie off to get a the new clutch and were told it was going to be about 6 (!) hours. Robin, the office manager for Transmission Plus drove us back to the hotel were we were graciously given the check out time of 11:30 as opposed to 11:00 which everyone else had to adhere to. We watch some POINTLESS television…although the History Channels show about ancient alien astronauts was entertaining. We then checked out and walked toward downtown to Suzan’s Grill for lunch.
After that we strolled over to a shady area by the Taco Bell and across the street from the Wal-Mart…scenic. Upon checking in with the guys over at the Transmission Plus and finding out Subie needed a new part of the exhaust too, we decided to “hike” around Wal-Mart. We ended up buying books to read. We walked the mile and ½ back to Subie only to find no shade so we ended up walking a little further and sitting on the shady side of a vacant building on the corner of two major roads…lovely. The car was ready at 5 so we picked her up, transferred our savings to a silver “account” with four wheels and headed around to Olympic National Forest where we scored the best campsite so far at Willaby campground. A swim was in store, and then off to read our new book purchases.

S Olympic Pen

Day 47: Puyallup WA to- Subie is in the infirmary

Tuesday, June 2
miles travelled: 63
Other:Mileage when transmission gave up the ghost: 114, 865

Well Subie, who has been crankin' along through all we asked of her, gave out on us today. We made it out to US 101 and Port Angeles was on the horizon when the clutch started to slip. The final straw was going out to pass a car and she just didn't want to stay in fifth. We selected the Auto Services option on Garmina and she lead us to Transmission Plus. They have to order a clutch kit for the ol' girl and will not be able to work on it until tomorrow. So, we find ourselves in Shelton, WA. We are going to see what the local movie theater has to offer...we'll keep you posted.

Day 46: Portland OR to Puyallup WA

Monday, June 1
Portland OR to Puyallup WA
Odometer Begin: 114,566
Miles traveled: 243
Time spent traveling: 5 hours
Other: Date of Mt. St. Helens eruption: May 18, 1980
Wx: sunny low 80s F.
States traveled: OR, WA

We had a small crisis this morning while leaving Portland. Garmina wasn’t making sense! The directions she was giving us were crazy out of the way and she kept “recalculating” while we were on interstate 5 without giving us any directions. What were we going to do? Were we going to have to READ a map and come up with our own directions? How would we know what time we would arrive? What would happen if we missed a turn? Were we going to have to start paying attention to road signs?!! It was a sad moment, but then we remembered that we had set the system to Pedestrian yesterday, so she was giving us walking directions, of course I-5 didn’t exist in that universe. We reset the system to Automobile and peace and calm was restored.
We visited the northwest side of Mt St Helens today, which was pretty crazy to see and read the incredible stories of the survivors and witnesses. Then it was up to Puyallup to see Kim and Dave, who just moved out from Gorham. Tomorrow it is off to Olympic National Park.

Mt St Helens

Day 45: Portland OR

Sunday, May 31
Portland OR
Wx: sunny low 80s F.
States traveled: OR

Today we checked out the area of the city that we are staying in. We had dined street side for lunch, browsed the Saturday Market and then caught a session at Kells Irish Pub for dinner.

Portland