navelgazing.omphaloskeptic.net Journal

Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

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To Seattle Olympic National Park, WA to Seattle, WA, Saturday, 13 August 2011 10:00pm

My bike got rained on a bit last night. I guess there is a downside to camping in a rainforest. My tent and hammock were under trees, so they didn't get wet.

Mosses
I got up early and hiked all of the short trails in the Hoh River area of the National Park. Huge trees, lots of ferns and mosses, and varied ecosystems. The Hoh River is fed by glacial snowmelt, and switches its course from year to year, so there are areas along the trail with different stages of the lifecycle of the forest, from newly-cleared meadows to enormous old-growth spruces and hemlocks.

I stopped for brunch in Forks, which, it seems, is famous for being in some book. I made a short stop at a Salmon hatchery, where I saw some large pools of baby fish and models of the adults.

Ferry
Have I really never taken my motorcycle on a ferry before? It seems like I should have, at some point, but I'm at a loss to remember having done so, or where I would have. Anyway, the bike and I crossed Puget Sound in the middle of a pack of motorcycles at the front of the boat.

I made it into Seattle almost exactly when I planned to, even with traffic. I'm going to spend about a week here, staying in my friend Lauri's guest room and doing horribly touristy things.

174mi in 6:21, SF to Seattle: 1269mi in 6 days