The Greenest Green

I had a couple days off of work, so we decided to make the most of it.  We planned an Olympic coast backpacking trip!  I have always wanted to go and we finally made it happen. I was worried at first that my dad wasn't coming with us, because he just seems to know everything about outdoorsy stuff, but Brady pulled through and showed his boy scout knowledge!
We parked at Ozette Lake (near the NW corner of the peninsula) and hiked 3 miles to our first campsite that overlooked the Pacific Ocean.

Yes, we're wearing matching shirts.  And yes, we love to do that.  Well, I do!

We've never seen anything greener than what we saw during this adventure.

We spent the night at Cape Alava.  We picked the most beautiful spot and the best view.  I was telling Brady that there are so many places that we want to go and see and explore in far-off places...but we have all of this beauty right here in our own state! We were so glad to experience it.

Brady- king of the log

We like to look off into the distance

Brady climbed this huge rock to get a better view... of me ;)

Sunset love

We started off the next morning at 8:30 am.  We didn't sleep that well the night before.  I woke up probably every hour.  I must have been worried about Rocky the raccoon and bears.  We had a long journey ahead of us.  10.4 miles to Shi Shi beach.

This deer was about 10 feet away.  We were worried we would scare him off, but he just looked at us quickly and said,  "hey, what's up?" and went back to his leaf eating.

We splurged and bought these boots... and we are sure happy that we did! They had so much grip and protection.  Brady mentioned how happy he was that we bought them about fifty times :)

This is inappropriate.  But this reminds me of Gentlemen Broncos.  "You took my nads, Daysius!"

We couldn't have picked a more beautiful and perfect day for this hike.

I look kind of angry... but I was just focused.  One slip and we could have injured ourselves. Thank goodness we never did!  We climbed up and down big rocks throughout the hike.

Captain 

It's hard to see, but we came upon this cool little plant, and we liked it!

We had to cross a raging river! :(  It only went up to our knees at the deepest point, but the current was pretty strong and the rocks were slippery.  I have a hard time crossing rivers with just me, and adding a 50 pound bag on my back didn't help!  Let's just say it was a struggle.

The water was freezing balls...

I made it and Brady was laughing at me the whole time.  X-(

Our freezing toesies!

We saw so many bald eagles along the coast!  Probably 10 total.  My dad would be so amazed.

Brady's first star fish!  So sheltered growing up in Utah ;)

These signs were posted along the way to inform hikers when to climb the highland.  In some cases, you didn't have to climb the cliff if the tide was low enough, but for the specific highland, we had to climb it because there was no other way.

We had to squeeze under this fallen tree... dang fat back!

Climbing the cliff was hard work... I took a little rest

Ropes were provided on the steep cliff sides. We basically repelled down.

Point of Arches

We went up and down two highlands. It really wore us out!

We saw this momma deer with her two bambies :)  They were so cute!

We finally made it to Shi Shi!  We were completely exhausted.

We took a little nap.  We got there at 4:30 pm, so that's 8 hours of hiking with hardly any breaks. Brady was a no-break Nazi.

Our beautiful view from our camping spot.  Once again, I think we nabbed the best spot!

We had a mouse take this pic for us.  When it got dark later this night, there were mice all over this drift wood.  It was disgusting and I had a bit of a meltdown.  I got in our tent and just closed my eyes.  I couldn't handle it!

We played cards when we weren't hiking, eating, or sleeping.  I'm can do the bridge like mad!

We had our own little swing at our campsite!

Our original plan was to walk the 10.4 miles back to Cape Alava and then the additional 3 back to our car... but after hiking that the previous day, we just didn't feel like it.  Looking back, we should have just bucked up and hiked it all again... so we decided to hike up to the Shi Shi parking lot and hopefully catch a ride with a hiker back to our car at Ozette.  Which was about 17 miles away from the Shi Shi lot.

Here we go again.  

Brady is trying to make friends

Footprints.  Shi Shi style

The view on the way up to the parking lot at Shi Shi

Cheeser

The hike through the forest took a long time.  We left that morning at 8:30 am again, and we didn't get to the parking lot until 11:30am.  The trail was extremely muddy so we had to meander through all that.  Once we got to the parking lot, we didn't have any luck with catching a ride.  This is the part where we made a big mistake.  We decided to walk the distance back to our car and hitchhike.  Don't tell my dad! haha.

So here's the scoop.  We were walking in an Indian reservation. It was a very beautiful area. We had just walked by a house with a woman who trained security shepherds, she smiled at us and we continued on our way.  About 5 minutes later, she pulled up in her truck and asked, "you guys just going on a hike?" We didn't respond very clearly (which I later regretted) and said we were trying to make it back to Ozette.  She was going into Neah bay, so we figured we shouldn't ask her for a ride because she was going in the opposite direction of where we needed to go.  But then she said, "you guys are a lot braver than me.  I don't go in my backyard without my dogs.  There's been a few big cats around here that have taken down elk and even took down a bear.  Be careful!"  And then she drove off.  We were shocked.  I was scared to death.  I've never been scared for my life like that before.  I wanted to cry. We started walking quickly.  We changed our minds about our game plan.  Now we were going to hike to Neah bay and figure it out when we got there.  Going the way we originally wanted would be too dangerous.  We said a quick prayer for comfort and guidance and that someone would be kind enough to pick us up.

Not long after, a man with his son and daughter picked us up in a beaten down jeep.  I never felt safer!  I was so glad to be in a vehicle.  They were very kind and took us into town.  The man pointed out areas where he had seen wolves.  Brady and I looked at each other with wide eyes and said another quick prayer of thanks.

We walked another couple miles and started to get back into the forest area and I started getting worried again.  We said another prayer.  Another car stopped and a wife and husband picked us up.  They were headed into Port Angeles and could take us another 20 miles.  Once again, I felt so safe! The man told us some history about Shi Shi. He said hippies used to live down at the beach and he wife added that it was more of a nudist colony.  Haha! Pretty awesome.  We drove along the road that looked directly onto the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Canada.  It was stunning.  So blue, so beautiful!

They dropped us off at the junction that lead back to our car.  We had another 21 miles to go.  At this time, it's 2 pm.  We hiked until 3, we covered a few miles.  We got worried again.  What if we had to walk the entire 21 miles? We wouldn't get back til midnight and we were spent.  So tired.  Thank goodness we had food and toilet paper! 

We prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for the people he sent us, and for the protection we had.  We also asked for help again. About 15 minutes later, another car stopped.  A guy from Germany named Emmanuel (very fitting name) stopped and asked where we were headed.  He said, "Ozette!  Yes, that is where I am going."  Relief. Pure relief.

He told us of his adventures.  He was visiting a friend in San Francisco and decided to road trip up to Washington and hike and camp along the way.  I told him we would always remember him.  I was so happy to sit in my car when we got there.  We said a prayer of thanksgiving again and we were on our way home.

This was on the res.  Only people who are trustworthy can pass ;)

Before this experience, I would have said that hitchhiking is dangerous and scary.  But I would much rather sit in a car with strangers than walk where cougars walk.