Oliver Moss

I've been working on trying to get a good, inviting picture of a hiking trail. So far, this is my best get. This is from the Heart Of The Forest trail just inside the northern part of Olympic National Park. It's one of the few bits of hiking I did, because my first night there is when I started to get sick. I didn't feel good on the hike, but was just caught up in trying to soldier on.

I stayed in the park in one of the original cabins built there. They are vintage and rustic ...



Either the lake is tilted or ... Actually the forward lean was worse than the side to side lean so beautifully shown by the lake. It barely had heat. I knew that being in the cabin would be roughing it a bit, but trying to ride out being sick in a cold, tilting cabin was not the best thing ever.

I am all about preserving stuff, but if they ever try to raise money to replace these I will donate. Very little original still exists and any vintage/historical charm is lost on me. If I go back, I will stay elsewhere. I'd really like to go back and hike around the lake and try to find the trail to undeveloped hot springs that I know exists, but I couldn't get concrete info on. I couldn't even get concrete info on like anything. I don't want to be harsh because our parks need more funding but damn, this one does not live up to the expectations I got from visiting other national parks. It was like each Ranger Station lived in an island unto itself and couldn't even get info on anything outside it's little area.

The one trail I did was pretty cool, but I am still a bit salty that I didn't do the other two I has my heart set on.

The trail was pretty gnarly at times:



After I bit I realized I had to strike out for home. The only adventury thing I allowed myself was to take the more Western route out of the park before heading to I-5 and skipping the rest of my trip. I passed a bunch of things I planned to do or would have loved to have explored, but I did stop at Ruby Beach.



I did not try to climb out onto all that. I just rested there for a bit.



I only knew that I was driving through the main town from Twilight or whatever because someone told me that a few days beforehand. I had just crossed the border into Forks before I saw my first Anti-Twilight sign, a motel promising a Cullen-free experience. It was funny to see that the locals are still salty AF. I almost wish I had gone to that teeny, tiny town when Twilight was huge just to see what it was like at the time.

It took me a full day to do 5 hours of driving. I nearly bailed and grabbed a motel just an hour outside of Portland.

I am now mostly better except for my back and my knee being a little touchy from the fall. I am going to see if a massage helps later this week, if not I will try other stuffs.

So, that was my adventure that was full of questionable life choices and various inconveniences. I did still manage some decent pictures. I may do another post just of some more images. I haven't fully sorted my iPhone pics. I am not sure when I might try to travel again. I feel like my adventure bug has been squashed for now.

Day 2 was the day I'd planned to be my big driving day. I had two ferries to catch and a lot of north to go. I originally wanted to go more north overall, but planning was so tricky. My thought was that this trip would be a good way to learn what I needed to know to take a more adventurous trip in the future. Right now adventure doesn't sound exciting.

This sign pretty much determined a lot of my day.

( Short reviews of the cider places )

I only had tiny sips and had about the equivalent of a shot glass of cider at each place, and then hung for about an hour. I usually don't drive at all if I have had any alcohol that day, so a few sips and then waiting an hour is pretty relaxed for me. So that took up a bunch of the day.

I went to Port Townsend to catch to the ferry to Whidbey Island. When I went to get my ticket I was asked if I had a reservation. When I said I didn't the lady went 'Oh, honey ....' Never a good sign.

( More pictures and winding up in Port Townsend for a bit )

I am back early from my trip. I got a stomach bug. I tried to tough it out, hoping that it would only be a 24 hour thing, but it wasn't. I drove home in about twice as long as it should have taken because I kept stopping to rest. I made it, though at a point I almost just got a room for the night. I come from a family that proudly drives while too sick, exhausted, old or drunk to drive safely and I make a point of not doing that. I will not drive if I am not fit to.

While good things happened and I will post pictures when I can, right now I am going to sit here in a tired, sick bruised lump.

The first day I was hiking I took a bad fall and broke my main camera. It's not the end of the world as I have two more camera bodies that use the same lens and accessory ecosystem, but that Pen 5 was my main and preferred camera. I also hurt my knee, so even before I got sick I scaled way back on what I was doing.

I had an OMD camera body with me, so I still took shots but I am less sure of what the results will be like. I really, really prefer Pen to OMD. My only other Pen body is the original one and is very old.

So, other than sick, injured, having my fave camera break and winding up in some guy's basement it was great.

Okay, the basement story and then bed. I will post better travelogs later. I booked some Air BnBs for this trip and they were amazing. In the areas where I was traveling, hotels and motels are scarce. The night my planned Air BnB host cancelled on me, I booked a traditional B&B through hotels.com. My thinking was that it would be nice to stay some place more usual in case the other places were awkward and stressful. The room turned out to be in a finished basement of this really weird guy. Guest parking was a stupid distance away. Everything about the place was off, unfriendly and creepy. I nearly ditched but this was one of the nights I was on an island and it was past the last ferry.

And now, bedtime.