Road Trip USA on towards Seattle

Decided to take out a day fishing license for tomorrow and so back to Forks we travelled and also stocked up with some steak for a treat tomorrow that is if I don’t catch any fish – Ha, ha!

This camp site must rate 10 on a scale of 1-10 for pretty and position. It is in the temperate rain forest and overlooking the beautiful Hoh River with its turquoise water. The trees on the far bank are a mixture of green and autumn colors and the sunlight as it filters through the trees and ferns creates a magical atmosphere. The only facility in the camp is a pit toilet and so we had to resort to a daily swim or a bucket bath or both. The price however was great, as the forestry department maintains it as another free camping spot and I think it picks up some of the overflow from Olympic National Park.

We were told by a local woman that you never swim in the blue water because it is too cold as it is melt water from the glazier in nearby Mt Olympus and also has strong undercurrents. As I had swum in it the last few days I was glad to get that information. Audrey did always stand by incase I got swept away so that she could…….. ? I really don’t know what? Perhaps notify the authorities and family? Take a photo?

The big fishing day, my third of the trip, resulted in a really marvelous day on the river with a couple of really small trout being attracted to my fly – this time I did not resort to ‘night crawlers’, as the local worms are called. I did however use a spoon on my very light spinning rod hoping I would not hook a big 20 lb salmon, but my concerns were unfounded. As the day came to an end Audrey suggested we walk up a forest walkway to see what the river looked like further up. My literally’ last cast’ into a lovely waterfall pool saw a fish follow my spoon. A repeat cast resulted in a broken rod and my first cut-throat trout and a meal of surf and turf- trout and steak. We went from starve to feast in one cast. Audrey filmed my hooking and landing of the trout, a small miracle, what with the rod breaking as I lifted the fish out of the pool.

Tuesday we reluctantly packed up with every intention of getting some miles on the clock towards Seattle. We got some miles but again in the wrong direction as we ended up camping on a camp ground near the beach about 40 miles north of Hoh river, the result of some serious rock hounding and a trip to Cape Flattery with many stoppages for road repairs and lookout points where another ‘Wow view’ amazed us and we had some good views of Surf Scoters and two more Bald Eagles.

The camp site at Harrison Camp Ground provided some excitement as some of our neighbors’ got into a serious argument about music being played rather loudly, not really a problem to us as it was only eight o’clock. Another camper phoned 991 and within 17 min.( Audrey timed them) the State Trooper arrived and shortly afterwards the local sheriff and his back up vehicle. Needless to say by this time everything was quiet and peaceful in the camp! Talk about overkill – no wonder they still have not found the bank robber that they are looking for at nearby Port Angeles! We spent an hour at Joyce doing our laundry and I did some catching up on this newsletter and then on to Port Angeles and Seattle via Crescent Lake in Olympic Park.