the morning after Hoh Hum we headed deep into the Olympic National Forest to the Hoh Rain Forest
we got lucky and scored an awesome campsite right next to the river, with views of mountains on both sides. of all the campsites we've seen along the way (and not camped at) this is undoubtedly the best. most campsites have the sites too close together in my opinion. you're there to get away from people and be in nature, and you're right next to other campers and their noisy kids.. this one was way spaced out. lots of space and privacy between each camp. we couldn't see anyone else from where we were.
later in the evening we did discover the one drawback about camping in a rainforest: it fucking rains. and rains and rains...
it's not easy to start a fire in the rain. even using the umbrella technique i invented
later in the evening it started pouring so hard all we could do was stay under our "easy to set up, waterproof" canopy, which was not easy to set up or waterproof. literally everything was wet. we were sitting there at our picnic table with our feet in a puddle. if it weren't for my $5 raincoat i would have probably gotten pneumonia. it poured rain all night long.
camping without a campfire in pouring rain is kind of a drag, but at least we had beer. and games.. (and Patrón)
later on our ranger, Larry, came by and said he'd be giving a fireside talk at the visitors center about elk and mountain lions. "fireside" sounded good so we figured we'd check it out.
Larry gave us the low down on what to do if you encounter a bear, mountain lion or elk in the forest. basically, if you get attacked by a mountain lion or bear, you're fucked. with elks you have a better chance. if you run the other direction they'll usually leave you alone. but you have to be careful with mother elks and their young. he said sometimes they'll look like they're being passive and ok with you being nearby, but suddenly run at you and attack, so to watch out for those.. he also gave everyone a lesson on conservation of the planet and even sang the lyrics to a Janice Joplin song (Big Yellow Taxi). it was very educational
here's Larry giving his talk:
picked up some good reading material at the visitors center to read aloud to kiki on the road
on the way out of our talk, of course, we encountered a mother elk and two babies in the dark. that definitely freaked us out, but we survived.
the next morning we lucked out with only mildly rainy weather and got to go for a hike in the rainforest. it was truly beautiful
later that day we ran into Larry and shot the shit with him for a while. he's from New Mexico so we talked about mexican food and peppers and got some advice on restaurants to go in in Santa Fe. he was basically the coolest person in the world. meeting him was one of the highlights of the trip so far. i think if i ever decide to change careers i'm going to become a ranger like Larry and grow an Abe Lincoln beard
1 comment:
Post a Comment