Portland ; Astoria ; Western Washington ; Olympic National Park

(Posted from Port Angeles Library)
(This post covers 23 – 27 September, 2009)

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Sunday, 27 September –

Today we needed a hike. We both happened to wake early (before dawn) so went ahead and prepped for the day and an early start. We drove over to the visitor’s center and first walked the two short trails there. One is the Magnificent Mosses Trail which climbs to a plateau filled with moss-draped trees. The other, the Spruces Trail, wound in and out around gigantic red and sitka spruces and Western hemlocks.
After the first trail we returned to the visitor’s center restroom area. I was rudely interrupted in my visit to the men’s room by Labashi, who yelled in the door ‘Get out here! I need the camera!”. Outside I found two elk cows and a magnificent bull, the latter keeping a very close eye on us.
On the Spruces Trail we came upon another bull elk, this a younger one we had heard bugling (we think) earlier in our walk. What a sight he made, as he glided along among the giant trees and the green, green bushes.
We had a break back at the van, then began hiking the Hoh River Trail. I had expected it to be somewhat less scenic than the other trails since it serves as the access trail for the serious backpackers. But it too was like a garden. We lasted about an hour outbound before having a snack to fuel our walk back.
We made it back to the van by early afternoon and still had an ultra-clear 72-degree day to enjoy more. We elected instead to find a nice, sunny campsite in the campground and relax the day away.
We read and I napped a bit to recover, then I went for another walk, this time re-doing the Spruces Trail in the early-evening light. When I returned we watched the sun set from our campsite, and immediately noticed a drop in temperature as the sun fell behind the mountain.
We buttoned up the van for the night and watched two episodes of ‘Planet Earth’ (‘Freshwater’ and ‘Caves’) on Labashi’s laptop before retiring.
Night-time temperatures are now around 43 degrees but daytimes are perfect in the low-70’s. We’ve not had any rain so far but rain is due tomorrow afternoon.

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Saturday, 26 September-

This morning we took a walk among the giant trees at Campbell Tree Grove. The Pete’s Creek Trail follows the creek for miles and would make a great horsepacking trip.
Once we got back to the main road we soon turned off again, this time to the Quinault National Fish Hatchery. A volunteer gave us a great tour of the hatchery and we learned quite a bit. In this case we’re talking steelhead, coho, and Chinook salmon. The tanks are kept very clean to keep the fingerlings and eggs disease-free. Everything is ready for this year’s run but the creek is far too low at the moment. It will take a week of rain to get the creek up enough for the run to begin. We are hearing of runs beginning on other creeks, though.
After lunch we headed north on 101 again, this time to the Quinault Lake area. We walked the Quinault Rainforest Nature Trail and saw more giant trees (and realized how nice our campground was last night!).
We followed the south shore of the lake and then the river for about 15 miles before finding a road to cross to the other side, then followed the north shore line back to the main road, all the time in beautiful forest.
We continued north toward the Hoh Rainforest but had a long stretch of Washington beaches before turning inland. We had supper at a beach overlook, then drove on to the Hoh Rainforest campground, arriving about an hour before dark. We began looking for a campsite in one loop but our way was blocked by a Roosevelt elk, browsing the campground foliage. We backed out and chose the other loop and settled in for the evening.
I took a walk through the campground loops to look at the camping rigs (nothing new or interesting, though) and met a couple from Homer, Alaska. We chatted quite a while about Alaska as we walked back to our sites.
Labashi and I spent the rest of the evening reading and blogging.

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Friday, 25 September-

After breakfast and showers this morning we drove into Astoria to cross the Columbia into Washington.
We spent the morning hitting several Lewis-and-Clark sites. First was Dismal Nitch, where, in November 1805 the Corps of Discovery was pinned down in a small cove by a Pacific storm. They were along a steep shore and the rain and high winds pinned them down for six days. They were soaked and miserable the whole time and had little to eat.
We briefly stopped at Station Camp, their camp on the Pacific Ocean, then went on to Cape Disappointment State Park. There we spent a few hours in the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center before taking a short walk on the Cape Disappointment Trail.
We then drove north for a few hours (and saw our first black bear of the trip along the way) to a Wal-mart at Aberdeen. This Wal-mart said it would be ok for us to stay in the lot but it was very busy and noisy so we pressed on.
We found a Forest Service campground listed under Humptulips, Washington but it was actually a 30 mile drive to reach it. We eventually found ourselves among a stand of very large trees, arriving (once again) just before dark. This campground is in the Olympic National Forest and is called the Campbell Tree Grove Campground. This one is amazing. The trees must be 25 feet around and two hundred feet high. We parked beside a tree that’s wider (a LOT wider) than our van. The ground is covered in ferns and the whole forest floor is a very lush green with a thick cushion of big, brown pine needles.
After supper I worked a crossword puzzle and then blogged while Labashi read.

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Thursday, 24 September-

After a ‘you-could-have-heard-a-pin-drop’ night at Gnat Creek, we drove on in to Astoria. We spent a few hours going through the very nice and thorough Columbia River Maritime Museum. I was particularly impressed by footage of Coast Guard training on the Columbia River Bar. Across the river is the Coast Guard’s Cape Disappointment Station and from there they train the nation’s maritime forces in operating in extremely rough water, using 48-foot self-righting rescue craft. When the Columbia’s outflow meets the rising tide, steep waves result. Now add high winds and perhaps some extra wave energy from a Pacific storm and you have massive, confused waves at the river mouth.
We then drove to the top of a hill to the Astoria Tower and climbed the 164 steps to the top. That gave us a 360-degree view of the area.
We then drove a few miles south of Astoria to Fort Clatsop, a re-creation of Lewis and Clark’s winter camp in 1805-06. In 2006 we had visited Fort Mandan, their winter camp in North Dakota in 1804-05 and the buildings were (of course) very similar in design.
I was happy to find some charcloth and linen-tow tinder as well as a tin box suitable for making more charcloth. I had bought a strike-a-light and flint at the Whitman Mission so now I have the ingredients to make fire as the pioneers did. We’ll see how that goes…
We then drove to Camp Stevens State Park for the night. We picked out a nice campsite, then went to the South Jetty where a platform gave us a view of the ocean and the Columbia River mouth. We had supper in the parking lot while watching the sun set.
In camp, I spent the evening reading today’s edition of ‘The Oregonian’ newspaper, then a few pages of my book about the Oregon Trail diaries.

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Wednesday, 23 September-

We took a short walk this morning from our campsite at Clackamette Park in Oregon City. Just before dark last night I had taken this walk and wanted to show Labashi what I had found.
Just south of Clackamette Park is Jon Storm Park, which is literally on Abernethy Green and the Williamette River (I called it ‘Abernethy Commons’ yesterday). This is the spot where the emigrants called their journey finished. Yesterday we had been at the End of the Trail Interpretive Center where we had seen the memorial stone which declared Abernethy Green the end of the trail. It’s just across the highway.
Nearby our location this morning is the stump of the Abernethy Elm, which was planted by Anne Pope, the wife of William Abernethy. The elm stump is very near the I-205 overpass bridge but a display in Jon Storm Park has a photo of the elm taken in 1970 as well as a detailed drawing of the Abernethy’s home.
Off in the middle distance we could see the Falls of Willamette, which were well known to the emigrants.
We then decided to get a sense of Portland. We took a tourist map which identified several neighborhoods (The Pearl District, Nob Hill, and the Mississippi District) and drove through them. The Pearl District mostly consists of old warehouses coverted or being converted to trendy shops and condos. Nob Hill is a wonderfully diverse neighborhood of many shops and restaurants and was crowded today while the Mississippi District is an area where do-it-yourselfers are re-habbing older homes and establishing a new neighborhood.
We then used the GPS to find a library and chose the Multnomah Regional Library for our wi-fi connection. We spent a few hours catching up with mail and posting the blog and reading the newspapers.
When we came out of the library we were parked in a Whole Foods lot so checked it out (Can you say ‘expensive’ ??? Labashi bought one organic heirloom tomato and it was $3.14!)
We had an afternoon snack in the parking lot, then headed out of town. We took US30 west through St. Helens, Rainier, and on toward Astoria, enjoying the occasional views of the Columbia River off to the north.
We stopped at Bradley State Park, a picnic area and viewpoint, for a short break, then blundered onto a sign for Gnat Creek campground pointing back a dirt road into the Clatsop State Forest. We couldn’t resist checking it out and found a neat little campground along the creek with $5 sites. Since we were less than an hour before dark, we decided to go ahead and stay the night and Labashi soon had supper underway.
We spent the evening working crossword puzzles and blogging (me) and Labashi worked on an email detailing our trip to friends and family.
We both liked the look of Portland and would like to have had time to explore it in depth. I don’t quite know how to do that. I’d love to take a three-month sublet on Nob Hill or the Pearl District and really get to know the town.

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