Anacortes

Rather than do battle on the highways and byways feeding the cities of Tacoma and Seattle, and to shorten our mileage by 100, we chose to take a ferry north to our destination of Anacortes. A short drive from Poulsbo to Port Townsend got us to the ferry terminal, wherefrom we loaded our 53+ feet onto the car deck.


We had glassy seas and a smooth crossing, the ship’s horn blasting at intervals to alert small craft to its presence. Small craft like this beauty:


We rolled off in Coupeville and drove another 45 minutes up through Deception Pass to the Pioneer Trails campground in Anacortes.
Within ½ hour of our arrival our friends Jim and Julie of Imperfect Destiny pulled in. We’d all met back in January in Lake Charles, Louisiana. It was so great that we were able to reconnect in Washington. I cooked up a couple of pizzas and we spent the first of four very pleasant evenings together.


The next day Jim and I pried the girls away from their computers and we all headed on down to town to hop aboard the ferry to San Juan Island. A beautiful archipelago, the San Juans remind me a lot of Maine, covered with coniferous forest and beautiful island homes. Three of the islands are large enough to have several towns and a sustainable farming industry. We drove across the island to Lime Kiln Point state park, walked down to the water and looked for killer whales. The resident pod of orca eluded us that day, but we enjoyed a few hours lounging in the afternoon sun, watching sailboats and kayaks cruise by, and porpoise plying the waters.


Later we went back to busy Friday Harbor, partook in a light meal and some drinks on a rooftop patio, and strolled the docks admiring the beautiful yachts tied up there. On the ferry ride back to Anacortes, Mount Baker hovered over the islands:


The next day I went for a great bike ride on the extensive trail system of the Anacortes Community Forest Lands (ACFL)Trail System. These were the most New-England-esque trails that I’ve come across since we left the northeast. It was nice to tackle trails with a healthy dose of rocks’n’roots. In the afternoon Nancy and I joined up with Jim and Julie and went down to Deception Pass state park, hiking out to a sunny bluff where we basked in the late afternoon sun and contentedly gazed out over Puget Sound. Back at camp J&J prepared tasty fish tacos and beef & bean burritos for our evening meal.

In the morning Jim and I returned to Deception Pass SP with our kayaks and went for a really nice paddle. It was low tide, so the sea-life viewing was excellent. Starfish, kelp beds, pods of baitfish, jellyfish, giant barnacles…


Lastly, we all drove to nearby Mt. Vernon to go to the county fair. Our first order of business was to scarf down greasy delicious fair food, like funnel cakes, sweet potato waffle fries, deep fried cheese curd and soft serve ice cream. Mmmm! Then we wandered around looking…


… at kids showing dogs, kids racing horses, big-balled sheep, earless goats, poofy-headed chickens, and this sow with as many piglets as she had teats! (Heh! Heh! Heh!...He said teats!)


A really excellent week enjoying the company of Jim and Julie. We’re not sure when we’ll meet again, but we are sure that we absolutely must. We very much look forward to it!

Poulsbo & Seattle

We wanted to see the city of Seattle, but didn't want to camp in an urban environment. So, we settled in at Kitsap Memorial State Park in Poulsbo, Washington, just across Puget Sound from the city. This small, quiet park and campground was perfect for our excursion into Seattle, but as a bonus, the nearby town of Poulsbo was fun to visit, as was the tiny picturesque hamlet of Port Gamble, and the enormous and excellent trail network that occupied all of the high ground between the two.

Poulsbo is a town with a strong Norwegian background, and this heritage is embraced and emphasized in the old town center. Colorful pastel houses in alternating shades surround the busy main street, where the flags of Norway flutter amongst lush overflowing flowerpots. Scandinavian goods are common in the stores, as well as the work of local artisans. You can pick up a souvenir plastic Viking helmet as well. Well, you can. I already had one :)




For our foray into Seattle we loaded our bikes into Gigantor and drove down to the ferry terminal on Bainbridge Island. The 30 minute crossing is free to pedestrians and cyclists, and offered a great view of the skyline. It was a gray day, but perhaps this is what the citizens of this city are accustomed to:


On our bikes it was a quick ride along the waterfront and up an elevator to famous Pike's Place Market:


This bustling farmer's/public market hosted vendors of an amazing array of goods, most notably the fresh seafood...


...and endless selection of flower bouquets:


Crowds gathered to watch the fishmongers hurl customer's orders from the displays to the packagers, chanting the items and preparations in unison like a navy drill team. Here a dungenous crab takes flight:


Another busy area was around the world's first Starbucks store, coffee lovers mecca:


In between our exploration of the populous places we made several trips into the trails where Toby enjoyed time off leash. Kinsey rides in her stroller most of the time these days. I had two excellent mountain bike rides on this extensive trail network, tearing down trails with names like Mordor, Mirkwood, Derailer, Bobsled and Skunkworks. A great time on Puget Sound.

Port Angeles, WA

Heading north from Hoquiam on highway 101 was a beautiful drive. It took us through the town of Humptulips (Ha!), and through countless miles of sparsely populated coniferous forest, much of which is actively logged, but most of which is still thick with trees. Down to the coast the road took us along Olympic National Park's coastal ecosystem, a 50-some mile long, dripping wet and misty stretch of Washington's coast. Although we were under tow I found an access point that we could use to walk down to the shore to enjoy a piece of this section of the park. It was incredibly, hauntingly beautiful:



We had left early in the morning so that we would arrive at our prospective new park by 11:00, hoping to score one of their 1st come 1st serve sites. We did get one, and a good one at that. Whereas most of the sites are oriented such that when backed in our rear window faced inland, we got one on the upper of the three tiers, and were oriented properly, giving us a great view from our rear window of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Victoria B.C.. The Salt Creek Recreation Area occupies a point of land, so we could catch both the sun setting into the Pacific...


...and rising from behind Mount Baker:


We took an afternoon and drove up into the mountains of Olympic NP. We followed the serpentine park road from sea level to Hurricane Ridge, about a mile high. Despite large areas still holding snow, the strong sun made it quite hot. Wildflowers were in abundance, splashing the lush green grass with patches of white, yellow, orange, pink and purple. The broadleaf lupine was particularly abundant and filled the air with its sweet fragrance. The horizon to the south was an endless progression of snow capped peaks, Mount Olympus at its heart:

Everybody sing: "The hills are alive....with the sound of music..."

The panorama (click to enlarge):

Another great thing about this place was the surprising good mountain bike trail that originated right at the park. Actually, it was great coming back. I got the impression as I rode out that it seemed mostly, tiringly, all uphill. At first I didn't mind, riding as I was through a towering coastal forest, the perfectly straight spruce, hemlock and cedar trees rising out of a sea of green ferns and mosses. But after a while I grew tired, literally and figuratively, of the unrelenting climbing. At last I came to an intersection and saw what appeared to be a very level track leading back, but no way...I'm not putting in the work and forgoing the reward, so I turned around and enjoyed one of the best riding experiences of the trip. That all uphill trail turned into a beautiful gravity fed ride through coastal forest. Along the way I stopped and hiked down to an isolated cove with a pebble beach:


Back at camp, a short walk from our site and down steps to the waterline revealed a fascinating collection of tide pools. We enjoyed watching the anemones, hermit crabs and sculpins until the tide chased us away:



Uphill from the campground there is a WWII Coastal Defense site. Two massive 16" guns once protruded from the earth-covered bunkers. These were each capable of firing one-ton projectiles up to 28 miles away. Projectiles like these (the three on the left :)


There was, however, a problem while we were at Salt Creek: our wireless devices were locking onto Canadian cell towers. Our phones were easily switched to a non-roaming mode, although the resulting connection to domestic towers was weak. The real problem was with our Verizon air card wireless modem. To make a long story short, we tried to work it out with Verizon, thought we had, but woke up on the third morning with over $200 in overage charges! Nancy had lots more work to get done, so we packed up and left. Too bad because this was one of the most beautiful campsite locations that we've had on this journey. Happy ending: looks like they're going to refund us the overage in its entirety.

Hoquiam, Washington

Our next stop was in the town of Hoquiam, Washington. It's not much of a town, mostly modest homes in need of repairs, lots of high mileage cars, not much commerce. The forestry industry seems to be the only thriving economy. Trucks loaded with fresh cut logs rumble through town constantly. The campground, however, was great, thanks largely to our lucking out and getting the best site in the place. Our big side window faced the river, and my dog fencing was able to be propped up to give our beasts the biggest yard of the trip.


Speaking of varmints, we were thrilled to see otters swimming in the river right at our doorstep. They came by quite a few times, diving, playing, crunching up their catch, peering at us inquisitively. They never seem to rest, never stop moving. Very cute!


I love otters...they're delicious! With a nice oyster sauce, some field greens, a smooth cabernet... The only thing I like better than otter is baby seal, although spotted owl is a delectable treat!

Seriously, though...it was great to see the otters' intelligent faces peering up at us, watch them dive and come up with fish, listening to the crunch as they hastily consume their catch...

We launched our kayaks right from our site and enjoyed paddling the tidal river:



The otters (there were three) were wary of us when we were floating in their element, but when I went out alone and drifted quietly I was able to get much closer and observe them in their daily routine. Remember, these pics can be viewed full screen by clicking on them.


"You keep watch while I eat my fish."

We took a drive over to the coast, to the beach town of Ocean Shores, where we had a nice, but windy, walk along a sandy spit...



...smiled at the entryway at Sharky's...


...and drove out onto the sand where folks were horseback riding through the misty shore wash.


Each day started cool and misty, clearing up late morning and warming to about 70 degrees. Pretty darn perfect.

Road Trip: Estacada, Sisters & Bend

With Nancy away back home for a week, I had some time to kill. I moved a short distance south to Milo McIver State Park in the small town of Estacada. This kept me within range of my new favorite mountain bike trail, plus the Clackamas River, and bought me some nice new digs at a cheap price. Unfortunately, like all state parks, this one was booked solid for the weekend, so I'd have to move again.

I did return to the Sandy Ridge trail system, and this time I got all armored up including my full-face helmet. This gave me more confidence to really try to get some hang time on the jumps. It was my first real ride with that helmet and with moto-cross goggles, and I was please with the comfort and visibility. I enjoyed the downhill run even more than before, spent even less time in contact with the ground, and managed to stick all of my landings and not crash. X-Games: Here I come!


My next activity of note was kayaking the Clackamus River. Milo McIver SP is big enough that I could launch at one end of the park, float for about an hour, and take out at the other end. I dropped off the boat upstream, drove to the bottom, biked back to the top, paddled, then loaded the boat on the truck and retrieved the bike. Self service shuttle. The float started out with a rapid that was a bit intimidating for my first white water in the Ocean Kayak Frenzy. I scouted it on foot, picked my route, then hopped back aboard and ran it. It was great, but I got very wet, so I pulled off again and changed out of my soaked clothes and into my wetsuit. The river split in several places, so I did quite a bit of scouting to make sure I stayed in the main channel and wouldn't miss my take out point. Once I portaged around a short but rambunctious rapid which looked to have a particularly high penalty for failure, but in retrospect, I think I'd have cleaned it just fine. The boat's high, wide bow was great for pushing over steep standing waves. It was great fun and I won't hesitate to run class II, even mild class III rapids with this boat in the future.


When I left Milo McIver it was weekend and I had a hard time finding a campground with availability. I finally did when I looked in the Bend area. A few hours southeast, on the other side of Mount Hood, I secured a spot at Crooked River Ranch in Terrebonne, OR. The drive up the shoulder of Mt. Hood and down the other side was pretty amazing - the landscape changes so much in so few miles. It transistions from temperate rain forest to high desert so very quickly. My campsite at CRR was less than ideal. I was backed up to a grassy area surrounded by large groups of campers. This lawn was the playground of what seemed like four separate family outings - tents, lawn games and little kids everywhere. Being there by myself I felt like some lonely nomad, sitting by myself watching all of the family fun. Toby found them riveting, though. He'd sit out there in the grass for hours watching the activity. I did have fun, though. I drove to the town of Sisters where I found some easy, but fun, trails to ride. On the way I got a good view of The Sisters, three volcanic mountains that dominate the view around here, and of the famous Deschutes River:


I passed by a-pack-a alpacas:


There must have been hundreds of them, all sporting their poofy post-hair-harvest do's, looking like the poodles of the hoofed animal domain.

But the best thing about visiting the Bend area was connecting with my cousin Bruce and his wife Cathy. We'd sort of known each other growing up, both of our families living in Maine. But Bruce and his brothers Steve and Jonathan were considerably older than Laurel and I, so we didn't really spend much time together. His little sister Sarah was the one who played games with us and kept us amused while our parents drank gin & tonics and talked. Anyway, it was great to get to know Bruce and Cathy this time. We had a great day hiking around Todd Lake with Mount Bachelor in the background, beautiful wildflowers everywhere, and lots of snow lingering in the shady areas:


We had lunch on the shore of Sparks Lake with an even better view of Mt. Bachelor:


We checked out the Descutes in an area featuring barren lava fields and where white-water rafters float by:


The day ended back at their house, where Bruce and I talked over gin & tonic while Cathy prepared an excellent salmon dinner. It was a really enjoyable day full of great conversation, including discussions of geneology, land use, hiking, biking, fishing, and memories of Friendship Sloops and sailing the coast of Maine. I wish Nancy could have been there, and I truly hope to see Bruce and Cathy again some day.

The next day I took a quick drive over to Smith Rock state park to see the spectacular rock formations along another beautiful stretch of the Descutes. Rock cliimbers dotted the sheer cliffs, the major routes white with chalk. Another example of the recreational opportunities that abound in this area:


I can see why Bend is such an attractive place to live - so much to see and do within an hour of town, and over 300 days of sunshine per year to recreate in! This is a place to revisit for sure.

Back to Troutdale for one more ride at Sandy Ridge (gotta ride the Little Monkey trail!) and to pick Nancy up from the airport. Our journey continues next in Washington State. Check back soon.

Portland

It looked like an easy drive from Astoria to Troutdale, our destination-du-jour, just east of the city of Portland. Alas, it turned out to be one of the most frustrating drives of the journey. Partly my fault - I chose the "quicker" route cutting straight through the hills instead of the meandering road following the Columbia River. This decision got us off on the wrong foot by routing us south through Seaside, and imparting upon us our first delay from stop'n'go traffic through this busy little town. Once on highway 26 we were out of traffic but into the hills. I've certainly driven through worse, but what made this frustrating was that it was unnecessary. In retrospect I would rather have wound along a twisting riverside road than subject the truck and transmission to the hills. Oh well. But the real treat was the re-freaking-diculous traffic jam in Portland. We timed the trip to arrive well before standard city afternoon rush hour, getting there at around 3:00. Nope. In Portland route 26 eastbound is apparently always a transit nightmare. We proceeded at a walking pace, while I provided commentary in the form of an increasingly colorful stream of obscenities, taking about an hour to cover nine miles. ANYWAY...we finally escaped the grip of the traffic and made it to Troutdale only to find our GPS conflicting with signage. We opted to follow the signage, but missed a turn and ended up taking an unscheduled tour of the suburbs under tow before finally pulling into the campground. A couple of stiff cocktails were required to unwind from the day.

Nice enough place, the Sandy Riverfront RV Park: well manicured, quiet and reasonably priced. The level pull-through site was a blessing at the end of a miserable drive. The Sandy river flows along the campground, and the cute little Main Street section of Troutdale was just a short stroll away.


We had a real mixed bag of weather while in Troutdale. The forecast was of no use as the bands of rain were rolling through interspersed with sunny interludes. We took a ride out along the Columbia River Gorge to Hood River, where people come from all over the world for windsurfing and kiteboarding. The spectacle of kites and sails was a sight to behold:


We spent quite a while watching the kite boarders getting set up, launching, skidding over the water, jumping, and landing. It was nice to see such a diverse group of people partaking in the sport: although all were fit folks, and many were ripped twenty-somethings, there were also many middle aged people of both genders, not all of whom were sporting sculpted abs, if you know what I mean. So, it was fun seeing all of these Charlie Browners freeriding, stomping their pops, enjoying a stiff enough breeze to keep them from tea-bagging...

Speaking of tea...and of tea roses, we went into Portland to Washington park, where we enjoyed the International Rose Test Garden:



And also the excellent Japanese Garden:



I had also read about a mountain bike trail system that was in range: the Sandy Ridge Trail system. I drove over one morning and subjected myself to the 3.5 mile climb up a paved road in order to enjoy my new favorite trail, the Hide and Seek trail:


What made this trail so good was its flow, designed specifically for mountain biking, taking full advantage of terrain to create a 3.5 mile route that can be ridden without pedaling or braking (once you get to know it). Even on my first time out it was a blast, packed with rollers, tabletop jumps and banked turns. The magazine article I'd found this in described it well as "pumpy and jumpy". I'll go back to this one before I leave this area.


Mount Hood was visible from the trail, through a break in trees:


I'll remain in the Portland area for the next week while Nancy is back home tending to her business. Hopefully I can finally get through the week without having to deal with dog issue and veterinarians! If so, it will be the first time that she has been away without some kind of dogastrophy!