Sol Duc to the outer banks of a WET Washington!

Thursday, Sept.16^th – Sol Duc Hot Springs, WA

Left Port Townsend very late in the morning after much fiddling around trying to get new cell phone working.

I purchased a 10 dollar cell phone (called a Trac-phone).  It is a good deal because it gives you cell service all over the USA for about $.30 per minute.  However the company was having activation problems the day I bought it—what a headache!!  After 40 minutes on the phone I gave up to try another day.

The  6 lb halibut which we bought at Boat Haven is proving to be a big favourite and we are quickly demolishing a second quarter for dinner, and Adrienne is getting quite creative in her preparation of the fish. Sorry Otto and Charlie, I forgot to take any food pictures.  Very cloudy and rainy today. Not pleasant driving. Arrived at Sol Duc and set up camp in the Nat’l Park campsite – tarped our skylight due to a small leak. Hunkered down for a very wet night.

Friday, Sept.17^th – Fort Stevens, OR

Soaked in the Sol Duc hot springs in the misty rain for several hours, chatting with people from all over – Campbell River to Atlanta, Georgia. Dried off and headed back on the road around the Olympic peninsula. Stopped at a couple of spots for short hikes down to the beach, trying to time them between rain showers. At the two stops we found beautiful sandy beaches and craggy rock cliffs under a grey sky laden with misty rain. However, for the most part, the drive south from the Olympic Peninsula to the Columbia river that boarders Oregon was so-so at best. Most of the ride was a significant distance from the ocean, so the vistas were limited and the road was not up to American highway standards in our opinion.

One of the beaches we walked down to was called Fourth beach. It was a spot where a flat rock (seemed like a couple of hundred yards long) is located about ½ mile out from the beach. 100 years ago that rock was connected to the mainland by a spit of land. However the erosion since then has literally turned the tip of the former isthmus into a present-day island.