Going Losting-- Mini exploration of the Olympic Rain Forest

During Garrett's week off we wanted to camp since our children felt extremely robbed of their camping season last year due to moving, and remind us of their camping deprivation constantly. We originally had planned on heading east of the mountains and camping somewhere near Bank's Lake, but the closer we got to the time to go, the more we decided that we wanted to go someplace new, and explore something we hadn't seen before, even if it meant cutting our camping trip short because of rain.  

A few facts about this trip:

1. I discovered I'm not nearly as mobile as I thought I was. I am getting lazy about moving, apparently. The lack of mobility is cutting down on my multi-tasking skills.

2. Therefore, I took hardly any pictures. 

3. This is bugging the crap out of obsessive, focused, driven me very,VERY, very much. Like, A LOT. I will regret that until something else comes along for me to regret and fills up my brain's current regret RAM space. But, probably in some tiny portion of my head I will always regret the photos I did not take on this camping trip. Because, as previously mentioned, I am a bit obsessive. Also, there were some really cool shots that I was just too lazy to go get the camera for.

4. So, this camping post will be slightly less picture-y and slightly more word-y, because it was full of great fun and memories, and I didn't take enough pictures!! Dang it. 

5. It is very hard to sit on the ground and put boots on your feet when you have a baby belly.

I don't think that was actually a proper orderly list, but whatever. 

So, Thursday morning dawned lovely and gorgeous here, and we had my sister Clare with us, YAY! and we headed out and down around to the Peninsula to see what we could see. 

 We started out planning on just finding a camping area to set up and then explore from there, because a lot of checking had indicated to us that there weren't really any trails/off-road camping to be had. When we got to the campsite we had planned on camping at however, it looked a little too RV-ish for our liking, it was right next to the freeway, and the utter HORROR voiced from our little Brianna in the backseat at the thought of camping next to a road with cars and people on it convinced us that maybe we could just head down the road a ways and see what we could see before setting up camp. So, we did. 

 We followed Hood Canal quite a ways... it was absolutely beautiful. We just wandered along looking for camping sites, Forest Service Roads to explore, whatever we could see. And, we finally turned in towards a rural campsite sign at the Duckabush River. It turned into a Forest Service Road that headed up a valley, and dumped us into the Olympic National Park eventually.

 We went on for quite some time... it was spectacular. If either Garrett or I have been in this forest before we don't remember it--we both would have been kids. And, we certainly wouldn't have gone in this deeply with our parents, so it was very new territory for both of us. Since we wanted to find a campsite before dark we didn't stop to get out and take pictures. It was crazy steep on either side of the trail, and there wasn't really the usual plethora of rustic campsites that Forest Service Roads usually have--the rustic authorized campsite closer to the beginning of the road was gated. We drove up to the snowline before turning around, and we finally turned down a little road and found a few flat-ish areas with fire rings, so we picked the biggest driest one, and set up camp there.

 This forest is WET. Like, wetter than anything I've ever seen. Wetter than the Lolo Trail in the Bitterroot Mountains, FOR SURE! Which is crazy,  because I thought that was pretty wet and non-flammable. I think that might be why it's called a rainforest? Haha! After we set up camp Garrett and I took a little mini-hike to see if we could find firewood. I tried picking up a small, (but not that small!) fallen tree, and it literally fell apart in my hands. Wet, wet, wet. Next time we camp here we will FOR SURE bring our own firewood. We finally found the driest wood we could, and headed back to camp. Thankfully Garrett had packed the Coleman two-burner stove instead of just our little backpacking burner, so he split-up the wood and we tried drying it on the Coleman stove to get it to a point where it would burn. I did not take a picture because my camera was 15 feet away in the Rover and that would have required moving and multi-tasking since this was going on while I was making dinner. Kicking self. This wood-drying business was successful only with some flammable additives to the fire. You could hear the water boiling and steaming out of the wood while it burned. Crazy.  

 Rovey in his natural environment. :-)

 My view when my oldest child is sitting on my lap. She's so big. It makes my heart ache. I just love sitting around a campfire with my kids. I love hanging out with them at home too, but there's just something about a campfire. They fully relax, and just live in the bliss of the moment--you can tell that they're perfectly at home and content there, and I'm so thankful for that family time with them--nothing but campfire, babies, chairs, and their bottled root beer/our bottled beer. It is contented bliss--moments that a parent writes on their heart and treasures forever.

So, we went all night without it raining. It was a cold night, although we were all able to stay pretty warm. Brie ended up climbing in Clare's bag in their tent, but that's somewhat normal for her. I was uncomfortable, but not entirely because of being pregnant. I was uncomfortable first of all because my nose was so stuffed for some reason I couldn't breathe.  Of course it would clear up completely every time I sat up. That is just obnoxious, I tell you. Why do noses do that?! Then, a little later the pregnancy woes hit--and I had forgotten my heartburn medicine... Oops. So, I had heartburn with acid clear up in my mouth, regardless of the fact that our tent was on a slope and my head was at the top, HA! Doesn't it seem like that should have helped? and then the leg cramps hit. I don't know if you've ever been in a mummy bag in 30-some-odd degree weather with leg cramps, but it is just plain irritating. Oddly enough Garrett got leg cramps too that night--we were a pathetic pair. I like to think he got sympathy leg cramps. He's pretty sure they were just plain old leg cramps. :-) 


Finally I fell asleep, and slept pretty good. But, it was hit and miss there for a while. It's lovely to fall asleep to the sound of a forest.


The next morning we got up pretty late and did breakfast. As we were sitting around, pretending to have a fire with our coffee and hot chocolate, it started to rain.


And it rained harder. 


And harder.


And much, much, harder.


So, we agreed to wait it out for just a bit, and if it didn't clear up we'd head home. We all took our coffee and hot chocolate to our respective tents, and settled in. I wished, yet again that I'd had my camera with me. I'm thankful that memories live in our heads too though. I loved this time because I've never been in a tent when it's raining before so it was fun. 


...The sound of my kids and Clare in the other tent, giggling and laughing like crazy loons, mixed with the sound of heavy rain...


...My husband meticulously cleaning up every drop of water on his side of the tent with his handy microfiber backpacking towel and then hanging the towel right over the top of my pillow... I don't know why but this just cracks me up every time I think about it... it doesn't drip or anything since it's microfiber, so it was fine, just a really funny move that made me laugh...


...Being so impressed with our tent... remembering that when we bought it we read reviews on it from someone who'd lived on the west coast of Ireland for 3 months in these tents and stayed completely dry. Talking about how wet we would have been if we'd been camping in our cheap tent that we had before we bought our better tents. SO thankful for all our good gear...


...Watching the water puddle at the top of our tent. Pushing up on the puddle, and being amazed at the sound of the waterfall that crashed to the ground. Doing that over, and over, and over again...


...Having it rain so incredibly hard that all we could hear was the sound of the rain on our tent, not even the kids yelling in the tent right next to us...


Watching the rain fall on the top of our tent... on the star-viewing window especially, which I just love. Wishing I had my camera. Looking at my boots and rain jacket and thinking that I didn't want to put them on just to go get the camera, knowing I'm going to regret it, and still being lazy... 


...Saying my feet were just the slightest bit cold, and my husband tucking my SmartWool stockinged feet between his SmartWool stockinged feet... we really really love our SmartWools... And, I really love that man...


Yelling between tents over the sound of the rain indicates that Brie has to go to the bathroom. This is, of course, my job. Wrangling my boots and rain jacket on. Getting the shovel. Squeezing between a wet muddy Rover, and the wettest tree branches you ever did see, picking our way through the rivulets of water that are pouring through our campsite on the ground...


...Hiking a ways, and digging a hole in the weirdest dirt ever, more like moss and rock, and holding Brie over it so she can do her business. Normally this is not a big deal, but I am still super sensitive to the smell of bathroom activities, and so I begin gagging and nearly threw up while trying to hold my 50 pound kid out in front of me over the hole with zero balance and limited control over my currently-feeling-like-jello-hips to begin with. Gagging, hanging on, gagging, she feels terrible, but what can you do?! Me assuring her it's okay sweetie, just finish up. And, wouldn't you know it, after all that it is the SMALLEST, TINIEST little turd you ever did see. This, for some stupid reason makes me unreasonably mad. I mean, if you're going to put me through all that, you better at least have a respectable sized turd at the end of it. We finish up, bury the goods, and my poor Brie with the rain dripping of her hood and her tiny little face buried in there, and her big dark eyes looking at me feels terrible for it all, I apologize for getting mad over something so incredibly ridiculous, as if she could do anything about it!?! and begin to see the humor in it all, and it makes me laugh, possibly slightly hysterically... thankfully she's very forgiving...


...and as we're walking back the rain is easing up...


...You have to really pay attention though--the rain from the sky is easing up, but all the trees around us are still dripping and raining, so it sounds like it's still raining, even though it's not. The forest is just lovely in all it's mossy wetness...


...we check the sky and decide this weather isn't going anywhere. Surprise! It's a rain forest in April! We look around, decide that our campsite isn't going to be salvageable for the enjoyment of another night, and use the break in the weather to work together all of us, and pack up all our crazy wet stuff as quickly as possible...


...And, we head down the mountain. The trees look like a giant's pick-up-sticks--perhaps several ice storms have ravaged through? Moss is SO thick. Over the trees and branches everywhere. I'd say 4 inches thick in some places. There are glorious waterfalls pouring down the steep hillsides everywhere, and I want to get out and take some landscape pictures of all this gloriousness, but it's raining again, and I love our camera...


And, as we emerge from the valley road out onto Highway 101 the blue skies and sun are shining there, and it is just beautiful. We look back up the Duckabush River Valley from whence we came, and the clouds are low and dark. It's raining up there, without question, and snowing even higher than where we were.


So we slowly meander home. 


I'd say we went into this camping trip with the right attitude... have fun, don't hesitate to go home if it gets uncomfortable, and just enjoy exploring something new. That being said, I could definitely tell that we are used to camping in very dry Eastern WA, as opposed to the west side. Our gear was weather appropriate, thankfully, it was just a matter of what we're used to. It's easy to forget how deep the wet permeates over here--when it's done raining on the other side your stuff dries out really fast. Even a really heavy rain storm will usually be drying up in a matter of minutes. I've forgotten how over here if it rains the ground can be wet for up to a couple days after it stops raining... and that is especially exaggerated in the location and conditions we camped in this trip. So, we tuck it in our "camping information" mental file, and enjoy the memory of it, both the good and bad. :-) 


I CANNOT WAIT to go back and explore that area more. In August, or something. It is beautiful, and I'm SO glad we found a Forest Service Road with a few not-official-campsites off of it, instead of staying in the campsite by the highway. 


And, so ends my wordy, not very picture-ey reconstruction of our first camping trip of 2012.