Day 18 - Oregon Coastacular

Day 18
Cape Lookout State Forest, Pacific Sunset Inn, Brookings, OR
Splurged on a flash back to the 70's hotel for $60 tonight.  The owner Lydia is nice.  She has lived in this area for about 35 years.   She likes the weather.  Who wouldn't?  Love it.  I'm only 14 miles from the Redwood Forests.  I've wanted to see them since I first heard about them in elementary school.  I still can't comprehend how a tree can be large enough for a car to drive through.  Oregon coast is spectacular.  It took me forever because I couldn't pass up a viewpoint.  Visited a spot with sea lions.  Wow!Maybe I'll be rested enough to think of something witty to blog tomorrow night.  :-)

Day 17 - The Day of No Room at the Inn

Day 17
Hoh Rainforest Olympic NP, Washington - Cape Lookout Campground, Oregon
Milage:  5,071
Favorite State Ever:  Washington State

It has...Seattle, the ocean, average temps in the 70's in the summer, rugged coastline, mountains with snow & baby deer.  It has...Chipotle, fresh, sustainable food markets, elk, wildflowers and diversity.  It has...rainforests, national parks, moose (although well hidden), marmots and wildlife sanctuaries.  It has fresh seafood, scenic vistas, ferries, inlets, sounds, herons, eagles, osprey and cool breezes.  Tomorrow...Oregon!

Today started with a walk in the rainforest where I spotted a pileated woodpecker, a Stellars Jay and a dark-eyed junco.  Traveled the rest of the Washington coast, crossed into Oregon and realized it was Saturday.  This seems to be a day when everyone decides to go camping.  After several failed attempts to find a campground or a hotel I pulled into the day parking of Lookout Point State Park in Oregon.  After avoiding the sign that said no admittance between 10pm and 7am I found a quiet spot and squeaked in a few hours of sleep before waking up early enough to beat it out of there before the people who put the sign up got there.  I even successfully snuck a shower at the campground bathrooms before hitting the road for Day 18.  :-)

Day 16 - The Night Camped in the Rainforest (Okay, it’s a temperate rainforest, but still.)

Day 16

Seabeck State Park Campground, WA - Hoh Rainforest Campgroud, Olympia NP

Milage:  4,780

Clothing:  95% dirty 

Accidents: 1 - thankfully I wasn’t in it, I just had to find a way to drive around it or wait the estimated 1-2 hours for the road to be cleared.  I love my iPhone navigation feature!!

Herons:  24

Bald Eagles: 1

Ducks:  6

Robins: 2

Gulls:  5

Deer: 17

Moose: 0

I’ve hit my favorite area of the country so far!  Northwest you are the best.  Washington state is super great.  For Seattle I’d go to battle.  Route 101, you’re #1.  Excellent breakfast at Barbie’s Cafe in Seabeck.  An omelette with onion, shrimp, avocado and cream cheese with hash browns and a grilled english muffin.  Mmm...in fact that was lunch as well.  :-)  When I move to the northwest I will live in the city and have a weekend home on one of the bays or sounds southwest of Seattle.  

Day 15 - Seattle Public Market

6:45am - Time I left the campground

10:00pm - Time I rolled into tonight’s campground

Cheney, WA - Somewhere else in Washington on the other side of the state.  :-)

Time in car...about 10 hours.  My foot is starting to resemble a gas pedal.

Today’s spot to not sight a moose:  Turnbull Wildlife Refuge - I did see lots of great birds including a Canadian Goose that just stood in the middle of the road and then ran alongside the car when I would try to squeeze past it.  See video that I’ll post to my page later.  (Does anyone know how to rotate videos before uploading to facebook?)

Seattle’s Public Market area could be days worth of fun!  Also, there is a Chipotle only three blocks away.  Double score!  I think I could live in Seattle.  It has a great energy.

After leaving Seattle I punched in my next destination and hit “go” on the GPS.  It let me to a ferry instead of giving me land directions to my next location.  An hour and a half through rush hour traffic both ways.  I think I may need to shut the GPS off and just use my spidey sense instead!  Worst news:  The ferry was in the opposite direction of where I was actually trying to go.  How did I not notice this?  I believe I had ceased to think at that point.

Oh, forgot to mention the guy who came running toward my car waving his arms last night when I got off an exit in Spokane to look for a park.  Luckily the light turned green and I sped off...only to have two people on the highway honk at me.  Doggone those headlights!  At least I didn’t have another run in with the men in blue.  

Tomorrow:  Olympic National Park - Hoh Rainforest, Oregon and maybe Northern California

Day 14 - The Vortex

At The Vortex ;-)

Day 14
West Glacier, MT - Cheney, WA
296 miles + detours

After sleeping in a tshirt, fleece, long pants and thick socks...under a sheet, down blanket and sleeping bag...I awoke to rain.  Nix the hiking idea.  Warmed up the breakfast I prepared the night before.  Stopped at a few more overlooks.  Saw a warbler of some sort.  Took Route 2, the road less traveled.  Saw lots of interesting little towns.  Visited the vortex, an area with some sort of special energy that makes people shrink and tree branches grow funny.  I think it may have been optical illusions...but I'm not so sure.  Stopped at lots of pull-offs that threatened to have wildlife viewing.  Ha!  Found the Kootenai Wildlife Refuge and did see some white tail deer, a kingfisher, three new kinds of hummingbirds, red tailed hawks and 2 bald eagles.  I also met a guy who recommended I go to Turnbull Wildlife Refuge, so I'm camped 3 miles away and checking it out in the morning.  He guaranteed a moose sighting.  ;-)  Tomorrow my toes should touch the Pacific.

Day 13 - The Day I Decided I Don’t Really Care If I See Wildlife (Reverse Psychology)

Me standing beside a huge wall of frozen snow.  Brrr!

Day 13

Caldwell, MT - Glacier National Park, MT Avalanche Campground

Travel Time:  5 hrs to park and 2 hrs driving half way through

What I can see as I type this:  my campfire and my breath...it is freezing!!

Yesterdays Temperature Span:  33 degrees in the morning to 88 degrees at noonish...tonight I think it’s colder.  I actually ran the heater in the car this morning.  So, in the past 13 days I’ve been at 33 degrees, 116 degrees, at sea level & at 6640 feet above sea level.  

Total Miles:  3763

With each new park comes a realization I might have made earlier had I researched any of the parks I’m visiting before departing home.  :-)  Here’s what I’ve learned about Glacier.  It’s all trails with one road cutting through the middle.  Although the road is called Going-To-The-Sun Road, it rained during 90% of the time I was driving on it today.  I think the mountain lions, moose, bighorn sheep and grizzly bears forgot their raincoats because there wasn’t a one in sight.  However, I’m sure they all have their designated spots along the hiking trails for people who take to the woods to have exciting wildlife sightings.  In the morning I am going to hike a trail near my campsite.  Before I leave I’m going to rub myself down with some good smelling food and not make a sound as I round blind corner and bushes, in hopes to see something terrifying.  I’ve already burned some paper towel with butter on it in my campfire in hopes of luring one in tonight.  Actually, I am just out of fire starters and had to come up with the next best thing.  

Tips for Travelers  

• Remember the marshmellows. 
• Altitude is nothing to shake a stick at.  It’s harder to breathe, things cook funny and it feels like winter after the sun goes down.  
• It’s good to find a campsite by 7:00pm, even if you could drive a couple more hours.
• When passing through a National Park in 24 hours it is best to choose 2 things to focus on instead of driving through trying to stop indiscriminately and making yourself nuts
• Gas up before you have less than half a tank...there are a lot of corn fields and cow pastures between you and the next gas station. 
• Most of the northern half of the US is less developed than MA.  Forget finding a Whole Foods or a Chipotle.  You’ll feel like you’ve struck the lottery when a gas station has mini vegetarian pizzas ready in 8 minutes.  Today I ran across a market that sold organic and locally grown products...it’s the first one I’ve seen since leaving MA.  
• Have plenty of Wet Ones
• A clean & organized car is a happy car
• Figure out some way to be ready to take a photo of a pheasant as it flies out of the grass in front of your car...because that would be a really cool looking picture to post on facebook.  
• And last but not least...sometimes the quickest way to get somewhere is to slow down.

Day 12 - The Day I Met Lee and Tiva

Day 12
Yellowstone NP - Lewis & Clark State Park, Montana
Total Miles:  A lot
Total Bison:  Probably more than miles
Total Bug Bites:  About 15
Hours to Glacier NP: 4.5

Today's highlight was meeting Lee and Tiva...man and dog.  They are traveling from Oregon to Arkansas together...on a bicycle with an attached cart for Tiva to sit on as Lee pedals!  I caught up with them during a water break.  Apparently lots of people have been enjoying the photo op, even Tiva was looking great for the camera.  Yesterday they were being tracked by a wolf until someone in a truck came by and gave them a ride out of harms way.  Very interesting fellow.  I think I should have invited him to have some lunch with me and stolen a bit more time to talk.  The side of the road with bugs circling like vultures is not the best spot to chat.

Tomorrow it's off to Glacier where I am determined to see a moose, mountain goats a bear or two and bighorn sheep (I think they have those.)

Animals, new to me, I'm pretty sure I've seen so far: bison, elk, mule deer, marmot, pica, black wolf, pronghorn & lots of new birds I haven't IDed yet.