Strawberry Fields Forever

Sunday night we reached the southern edge of Olympic National Park. We found a trailhead, conveniently with a bathroom, and camped in the parking lot. The next morning we hiked in the Quinault Rainforest, and saw the worlds largest Spruce! The tree did not disappoint, it was truly massive. It either drizzled or rained most of the day. As we got closer to the coast, the rain ceased and the sun shone out briefly. We visited Ruby beach. It was a short hike from the parking lot, but well worth it! There was a rocky beach that was buried in driftwood from the incoming tide, large waves would pick up the huge logs like toothpicks and smash them together. As the waves receded, the logs were swept out with them only to return speedily with another surge! It was mesmerizing to watch! When we began dinner it started pouring, go figure! That night we slept in yet another parking lot. 

Guess what happened to the Jeep the next morning?! 

A) Bad starter

B) Dead battery

C) Big Foot broke into the Jeep

D) Lost our keys

If you guessed A, you have not been reading our blog! If you guessed C, you have a good sense of humor! If you guessed D, you know Lauren too well. In case this does happen we are prepared with five extra Jeep keys! If you guessed B, you, my friend, are correct! You win a smile! 

We stood on the side of the road with Jumper Cables in hand, and flagged down the first car we saw. He jumped the Jeep without a hitch, and we were on our way again! Our first stop was at the Salmon Cascades, where we got to see the Salmon jumping out of the water and making their way up the falls! That was a pretty cool thing to witness.

 

See if you can find all 3 jumping salmon!

After that we hiked a loop that took us to Sol Duc Falls. As we hiked we saw many fun guys...haha just kidding, Lauren just took many pictures of mushrooms and fungi! Next we drove around Crescent lake and took pictures of Madison Falls. We camped that night in a pullout near Highway 101 (the Pacific Coast Highway). We were reminded that night that only two states have legalized marijuana, Washington and Colorado. A Washingtonian saw that we were from Colorado and asked if we wanted a doobie. Don't worry we promptly said no, but had a good chuckle from the encounter!

Inside a tree stump!

In the morning Lauren's going to make pancakes! She didn't disappoint, and she even cooked up some apples with cinnamon for a topping! Dishes took a while, but it was worth it. From there we drove up to Hurricane Ridge, but the fog was so thick we could barely see 50 feet from where we stood, so the views were disappointing, to say the least. Instead we drove to the East side of the Park and hiked up Mt. Walker, with a whooping elevation of 2805'! It was, however, very steep since the ascension was from sea-level in two miles. Once again, disappointing views, but nonetheless a fun hike! After that hike we headed to Seattle to meet up with Chris' Uncle Roberto and his family!

Apparently, someone could not read the 30 signs in the park about keeping wildlife wild! 

Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah

It drizzled as we drove south to the North Cascades and it rained all night while we slept in the visitor center parking lot. In the morning, we drove farther into the park and did a couple of short hikes to take advantage of the sunshine for the day. We hiked up to a waterfall and along a nature trail that described and identified the huge trees that grew in the area.

We then drove towards Seattle and stopped to get the oil changed. While they worked on the Jeep, we watched a dumb game show in the waiting room of Big O. Our eyes were glued to the TV, it could have been Jersey Shores for all we cared, we had not watched TV since we left. It was then that we first learned about the flooding in Colorado. Crazy! It took us six and half hours to reach Bend, Oregon where we met Lauren's parents! Family, sleeper sofa, shower, and a free breakfast! What more could you ask for! It was good to have familiar company again. Tuesday morning we went mountain biking with Da(vi)d. It was a blast! There was a downhill track, named Whoops, that was awesome. It was so much fun that we had to bike back up and do it again! That evening we did laundry and ate at a Mexican restaurant.

Wednesday, the four of us hiked up Tumalo Mountain and discovered quite a bit of snow at the summit and good views of Bend and the surrounding valleys. We hiked back down and headed to the Tumalo River to try our hand at stand-up paddle boarding. To our surprise, all four of us picked it up quickly and had a lot of fun! Our only regret was that our lesson was too short.

That night we walked around downtown Bend and explored the little shops and a farmers market there. We had dinner at 10 Barrel Brewery. The pizza and beer there was delicious! Lauren experienced this first hand for the first time in 2.5 years and she never got sick! Hooray! Thursday, apart from being a pretty drive, it was pretty uneventful. We drove to the coast through an expanse of lava fields with beautiful views of the Sisters Mountains, saw some abnormally large wildlife, had a peaceful picnic, and toured one of the most iconic west coast lighthouses at Heceta Point. We then headed to our hotel in Newport. We had a lot of fun taking pictures, probably too many, on the beach as the sun went down.

The next morning we again went out to play on the beach and then began our trek towards Astoria. On the way we stopped at a beach that had some terrific views, rocks, and caves. We arrived to Astoria in the evening and ate delicious clam chowder at the Silver Salmon Grille. Nothing like clam chowder on a cold, rainy evening on the west coast!

 Saturday we started the day by climbing the stairs to the top of the Astoria Column. We then headed to Fort Clatsop, which Lewis and Clark set up when they wintered near the mouth of the Columbia River on the brink of the Pacific Ocean. After we toured the visitor center at Fort Clatsop and learned all about the voyage that Lewis and Clark made and the trials they endured along the way, we headed to Fort Stevens. This fort, as were many like it along the coast, was set up by the U.S. government to keep an eye on the Japanese expansion in the Pacific. It was a concrete bunker equipped with two cannon pits to house massive guns, rooms for the officers and soldiers, storage chambers for the gun powder and ammunition. It was shelled once during WWII, but soon after fell into disuse and was retired. Astoria is full of history. We got to see the Goonies house, some sea lions making a ruckus in the harbor, and the remains of the Peter Iredale, an English ship that had sunk off the coast of Astoria and washed ashore.

 We ate a late lunch at the Fort George Brewery and headed back to the hotel for some down time. In the evening we went to explore another beach that had more incredible views. Sunday morning, we ate breakfast (and got more than our moneys worth of food...our food supply had gone up exponentially in  yogurts, bananas, and instant oats) and said goodbye to Lauren's parents. We did not enjoy that at all, but we are very grateful for the time we got to spend with them and thankful for their generosity that whole week! We did another load of laundry at the hotel and stayed until the last possible minute. We went to a book store to trade in our read books and pick out new ones. We also went to the Maritime Museum and toured a 1950's lightship. We were stunned to learn how many ship had sunk in the sandbars around this area. There was so many that it was deemed the "Graveyard of the Pacific". We headed to Washington and towards Olympic National Park.

Born In The U.S.A.

Monday morning we made pancakes and went into Kenai Fjords. We hiked to the Exit Glacier and took pictures. We were not able to hike up to the ice fields above the glacier because of the rain. Even on our short hike to the glacier it was pouring so hard that we were soaked when we got back to the car. This particular glacier was amazing to see because of how close you could get to it and because the park service had marked the glacier's retreat starting in the 1800s. As we drove out of the park, parts of the road were flooding because of the rising water. That evening we headed towards Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and we saw some extraordinary scenery along the way. We made dinner and camped in the Jeep in a pullout on the side of the highway.

Wrangell-St. Elias was a huge disappointment. Not because the park itself disappointed us but because our timing was not very good and the information we received from the Park Rangers was misleading. After we visited the Information Center we began driving the remaining 90 miles towards the end of the park road. According to the park service, the last town with gas was Chitina, before we entered the National Park. Oops! The town had NO gas, so we had to turn around and drive 40 miles back to Glennallen to get gas. Then we turned around and after driving 2 hours into the heart of the park, we discovered to our dismay that in order to do any hiking we would have to pay $20 for a 5 minute shuttle over the last 5 miles! We left. We drove out of the park after we realized that in order to really see the park we would either need to do a lengthy backpacking journey or get on a plane. Plus the weather was not cooperating; as if it ever does during Autumn in Alaska! We hope to see Wrangell-St. Elias again! It is a huge park the size of switzerland with much larger mountains (9 of the 15 tallest mountains in N. America), a glacier the size of Connecticut, the highest coastal range in the world (they can get up to 60 feet of snow in a winter), and some of the fiercest weather in the world! After we drove out we camped again in a pullout on the side of the highway.

The next day we drove to the border of Alaska and Yukon. There we finally found the sign welcoming us to Alaska! We must have driven right by it on the way into Alaska.

We continued driving into Yukon until we came to a gas station. Ever since we drove up to Prudhoe Bay the Jeep started to have problems turning on, and it was shaking a lot whenever we drove over 55 mph. We thought the problems were related and were convinced that we had overfilled the tank and soaked the charcoal in the vapor chamber. When we parked at the gas station, we turned off the Jeep. It would not start when we tried to turn it on, the engine wouldn't even turn over. A man from Kentucky tried to jump our battery, convinced it was dead. Soon a man from Yukon joined him and tried repeatedly to jump our battery for about 15 minutes (for the record, that was his because of his insistence, we both knew it wasn't the battery). Finally Chris asked him to help us push start the Jeep. He towed us a little way in the parking lot with our tow strap until we got the Jeep running again. After about 45 minutes at the gas station we were on our way, with a new resolution to not turn off the Jeep until we reached Prince George in British Columbia. Unfortunately, instinct trumped our resolution. Even after we had just looked at each other and repeatedly reminded ourselves that we would not turn off the Jeep, Chris turned it off at the next gas station. We pushed it up and down the small hill in the parking lot four times, but were never able to build enough speed to get it running. It was super frustrating! We were even doing this right in front of a couple with an F150 and they never even offered to help us (although we didn't ask them to either)! We spent the night in the gas station parking lot, trying to sleep on our climbing pad. It was very cold, and we woke up early with a sheet of ice covering the Jeep. In the morning we waited for the gas station to open (24hr convenience stores do not exist in Yukon) and spoke with the station attendant about our issues. He gave us a battery to try. We put it in the Jeep and tried to start it...nothing happened! All we heard was the clicking noise. At this point another man who was extremely jolly and friendly helped us out. He helped us figure out that it was our starter that wasn't working. He said that it was probably because some water or oil and dirt had gotten in the starter and was blocking the connection. It made plenty of sense since it was the original starter from 20 years ago! "Now this is a Yukon vehicle, you'll fit right in here!" he told us. He gave us a tow and got our Jeep started. We scraped some mud out of the rims on the back tires to solve the shaking problem! Lauren stalled it at the next station, and a man there helped us push start it and get back on the road. From there on, we placed a piece of duct tape over the keys to insure no one would turn it off. All in all, we drove from 9:00 am to 6:00 am the next morning before we turned off the Jeep. It was extremely exhausting. From Haines Junction, Yukon to Prince George, British Columbia, a distance of 1100 miles! Once in Prince George we parked the Jeep on a steep hill, got two hours of sleep. Then we drove to one mechanic after another until we found one that had time to work on the Jeep. We dropped it off around 8:30. The owner was super nice, she came and picked us up at Starbucks and drove us back to the shop! The mechanic confirmed that it was our starter, replaced it and had us back on the road by 1:00 that afternoon. 

From Prince George we drove until we reached Whistler. There we stayed two days. On both days we mountain biked. The trails in Whistler were incredible. Flowing, technical, and beautiful! All of the trails we did were under large moss covered trees. There were many man made features and bridges to ride over! We both had a great time, and it was nice to be out of the car and active again. We had spent so many days in cramped or uncomfortable sleeping and driving conditions, so the biking was a welcome relief! After both days we did our best to bathe in the Lake. On the second day we swam for about an hour in the cold mountain water. It was very refreshing, and the closest thing to a bath that we had had in over a month! We left Whistler at about 1:00 after we bought lunch in the ski resort town and searched for a sticker to put on the Yakima! 

 Making good time through southern B.C., we reached Vancouver, and there became entangled in traffic for 3 hours! It seemed that we hit every red light, and there were A LOT of red lights, as well as several construction detours! Finally we reached the border, and crossed back into the good ol' USA! Everything went smoothly at the border, except that the border patrol confiscated our kiwis, and destroyed them! Poor kiwis! After the border we began our drive to North Cascades National Park.