Woke up in the motel and did some real trip planning for this day. Originally I had planned on spending three nights at Olympic National Park, but I spent an extra day in SF, and an extra day in Portland (neither of which I regret), and wanted to be in Vancouver for the weekend. So I had a day to get from Aberdeen, to Hoh Rain Forest, to however it was I was going to get to Vancouver.The drive was great; this was the first time I went through severely logged (clearcut) areas. It's very weird. Since they are, basically, farms, they face all the issues that farmers who plow do in losing their topsoil. I saw some farming in Oregon that seemed to have no care for the fact that they were kicking up dust clouds for miles. I don't know how much erosion occurs in some of those clear-cut slopes; unlike some other ecosystems I have driven through, there seems to be a very healthy amount of underbrush that might help in holding the soil together once it's become tree-less. It was a horror that old growth forest got cut down for this, but once that happens, it's the same as having plowed up the prairie.
Is there anywhere in Washington State where you do not have an incredible view of a glacier-topped mountain in the distance? Mt. St. Helens; Mt. Adams; Mt. Rainier; Mt. Olympus; Mount Baker; Glacier Peak?
Hoh Rain Forest was cool; but August is the dry season, and there were lots of tourists. I did a short hike and got some great moss pictures. The Sitka Spruce, which grows only in these coastal rain forests, gets particularly enormous here. That's my backpack at the base of the trunk.
Then the driving schedule set in. I had originally planned on taking the Port Angeles ferry to Victoria, and then another ferry from either Victoria or Nanaimo to Vancouver. When I invesigated the schedules, I was only going to be able to make the last Port Angeles ferry, and my brief glance at the other schedules made it appear that I wouldn't be able to get to Vancouver that evening. In a more intense look at the schedules, and also knowing what my real arrival time turned out to be (10pm, instead of, say 4pm), I probably could have made it totally via ferry.
So I raced for Port Townsend to catch the ferry there to another place in Washington from which I would be able to get on I-5N. On a sign approaching Port Townsend, it said to call 511 because reservations were required. Oops. I was not ready for that. I called, and they do have a limited number of standby's available, first-come first-served. They're running on only one ferry, at half-schedule, etc, so reservations were strongly requested. I missed making it onto the first ferry, but was the first standby onto the second.
Got on I-5N north of Seattle and south of Bellingham, and saw an incredible sunset. What I've finally realized is that these particular sunsets I comment on are not everyday events. The locals talk about them with reverence and awe. "This is the land of beautiful sunsets, but today's was prime."
They actually have signs on the highway telling you the border wait times at the various crossings, so I went off I-5 to save twenty minutes of waiting. They were, of course, surprised that I was visiting from Vermont, only had a vague knowledge of where I was going to go in Canada, and was driving a newly bought California car. So I got sent to immigration, which just ended up being them using my IDs to run a background check, and I was sent on my way. No search! That was nice.
I arrived at Mario's at around 10:30pm. I showered, got settled in, and dragged out for some Vancouver night life, which was fun. Mario lives on the 20th floor of a building with great views of the harbor/bay, and right walking or biking distance to everywhere. I can understand why he likes it here so much.
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