The following morning, I awoke, peeked through my curtains, and found that many more people had arrived during the night. I found that highly odd, considering I had arrived at about 9:30, and stayed awake until sometime between eleven and midnight, and there had been no audible sign of any one else’s arrival. Anyway, I got my things in order, and drove away from that campground. I was none too fond of it.
After regaining the real road, I traveled for some time before coming to what I believe was a town called South Bend. I decided that it was time to buy some gasoline for my poor little truck. After that decision was reached, I stopped at some nondescript gas station, inquired within as to whether or not they accepted traveler’s checks, and then attempted to pay with credit card. This took me quite a while, because I kept on sliding the card in the wrong way without realizing it. It was incredibly frustrating. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, fixed it, and bought the gasoline. Then I got back on the road and headed toward the rain forest.
Not knowing where a rain forest (the rain forest?) was to be found on the peninsula, I didn’t want to take any chances, so I closely inspected each road sign for clues as I passed slowly by them. At some point, I decided to go down a road to some national forest lands, thinking that it might just be an unmarked rain forest—which I kind of think that it was, but cannot tell for sure. So, I went down this forest road, drove for a long time, found other roads and driveways and even a small town, but nothing rain foresty. So, I decided to go down one of the roads. I made my turn, went about a hundred yards, and found a no trespassing sign. After that, I turned to go back to the 101, but decided to try again on the way back. There was another road that I’d had thoughts of driving, so I took my chances, and made that right turn. Again, after about a hundred yards, I saw something I did not expect. The road came to a T. I took the right turn, and the road suddenly became something that only bulldozers are meant to travel down. For some time, I found this road quite an enjoyably bumpy ride. I felt as thought I were getting some of the off-roading out of my system. There were some twists and some turns that were more than unexpected, but what really caught me off guard was the point at which the road abruptly ended. If it was anything, I’d have to say the road was not a two lane, nor a one lane, but a 7/8 or 3/4 lane road. There were gnarly stumps and the jagged ends of trees protruding impolitely into my driving space, and were avoided as needed, but when it came time to turn around in that space, that’s when the challenge of the situation really set in. There’s such a thing as a three point turn, and what I had to do was somewhat related, but in the double digits, I’m fairly certain. Anyway, I made my turn, was dissatisfied at not having seen anything but regular forest, and made my way back out to the forest road.
On my way back out of the forest I remembered I’d passed by a park on my way in. So I decided to keep watch for it and stop when I passed it again. After I passed it again, I stopped, turned around, and went back to it. It was there that I saw my first hints of rain forest. From what I’m told, the Olympic rain forest has a lot of moss, and that’s really the big (at least visible) difference between it and most other kinds of traditional Olympic forests. Here’s a picture of some moss on a tree:
I wandered around the park for a while, including crossing a stream by way of wet rocks, then crossing back by the same method but different wet rocks, then got in my truck and headed back to the coast highway.
Once there and after a few miles, I saw a sign that said something to the affect of “Giant Cedar,” and a number of miles to go before making a right turn. This, I didn’t think, could be simply passed by. This, I thought, required further investigation. So, after however many miles, I made that right turn, and drove up a nice little road to a parking lot and thought to myself, ‘I sure hope this isn’t going to require some giant hike,’ and it sure didn’t. There was a path from the parking lot (clearing) to the tree that was probably less than fifty yards. And there to greet me, was the biggest cedar tree I’ve ever seen. Have a look:
It looked like something from a fairy tale or something. Or maybe from The Lord of the Rings, yeah, more Lord of the Rings. It reminds me of the tree that tries to capture the hobbits. Anyway, it’s all gnarly and bendy and whatnot (oh, and huge). Here’s a closer look:
The only thing about it that sort of takes away from its authenticity, I guess, is that it looked more like it was four or five trees that all grew together. I can’t really discount its hugeness just because of that, however. Here’s another picture:
You know, after I took that picture and downloaded it, I really wished I’d maneuvered myself a little better, to a position where only the little girl was showing, and none of her dad. That way, I could have made some kind of comment about the scale of the full grown adult to the tree. Alas, that joke cannot now be made. Alas, and alack.
Here’s another interesting tree that was right nearby. There was one that had fallen down many long years ago (presumably), and another tree growing vertically. However, it looks as though there is only one tree there that has a sort of ‘L’ shape to it.
A ways further north on the Pacific Coast Highway was another sign saying vaguely the same thing about a giant cedar in so many miles on the right. I thought to myself that the other one was so awesome that there was no way I could pass up a second one. After the first one, however, the second was a little disappointing. Here it is:
It is only one tree, it looks kind of dead, but still has leaves so apparently is not, and I could get far enough away from it to get the whole tree in frame. And here is a picture of the sign commemorating the tree’s bigness:
After a while, I found the entrance to the Hoh Rain Forest. I got all excited, and drove down the road to the rain forest. After another long while, I officially entered the Hoh Rain Forest, and nothing looked any different from the twenty some mile drive from the highway to the entrance check point. The road in was the same as the road out, which is to say that you drive in, you turn around, then you drive back out. There is no cutting through to the other side of the peninsula or anything. From where I was, it was still a pretty good sized drive to the end of the road, so I decided to stop and examine the rain forest for rain forestyness. There was a lot of moss. And a river. Here is a picture of a branch in the river:
And here is an example of how mossy things can get in the rain forest:
Further mossyness:
An extreme mossy close-up:
After that, I decided that the end of the road was not worth going to, so I turned around, and headed back out. Unfortunately, I was kind of unimpressed by the rain forest. I’m not entirely certain what I was expecting, but it wasn’t simply moss. Oh well.
Back on the 101, I rounded the peninsula, began the trek eastward on 101 (which kind of weirded me out, that there was an odd numbered highway going east-west). I procured further gasoline in Port Angeles, and continued on my merry way.
I passed by some things with surprisingly odd names, like the John Wayne Marina:
And various others.
After that, the endingness of the trip really began to set in. I realized that the water I was seeing at that time was the Puget Sound. The water I’d looked at basically all my life. Things stopped feeling new and different. The moment that that feeling of the trip being over really hit home was shortly after 101 became a freeway. I saw this sign:
So, I got on the northbound side of things and drove the road I’d driven many, many times before. After that, pretty much everything felt ordinary. I thought it was a thoroughly bad way to end something of the magnitude that this trip had been for me.
When I got into Seattle, I decided to surprise a couple of my friends. The first wasn’t home. Then, I proceeded to the second, for whom I’d procured many, many cans of Barq’s Red Crème Soda. I felt it was a good time to make a surprise delivery. In fact, a few hours earlier, I’d taken a couple cans out and put them in the cooler to be enjoyed upon delivery. It was pretty good. We sat on my truck’s tailgate and did a bit of catching up. A little while later it was time to go home.
I’ve made the drive from Seattle home a ridiculous number of times, so everything felt incredibly ordinary by that point. Nothing felt strange, or momentous when I rolled up into my yard, only that my parking spot had been taken over by a different vehicle.
In no way did it feel like I’d been to 17 or so states, traveled about 8,000 miles, been gone for nearly two months. It was very strange to me how nothing felt different.
The next day, I felt that it was in some way required of me to go back to the beach that I’d gone to immediately upon leaving. Here’s a picture from that brief excursion, which I don’t officially consider to be a part of the trip, but for personal reasons feel needed to happen.
It’s a bird. A bird on a sign.
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