I love the wilderness (and so does Brady). I'm not tough about cold or wildlife, but I love being in the mountains or trees more than any city, and I can't say exactly when that transition happened for me. On the ferry ride over to Port Angeles, it was really cold. We went outside on the deck for seconds and rushed back immediately. The park looked socked in with clouds and the weather report was kind of pathetic for the end of July, forecasting a bunch of rainy days. We texted our friends the Varneys and told them we were about to turn into POGsicles.
The Varneys, our friends of over 12 years, came through for us in a big way. They packed every bit of camping gear AND the food for both of our families. I saw a clip on FB mocking camping, saying it's a really expensive way to live like a homeless person, and I totally agree. The bigger issue with camping is the preparation and clean-up, and they took it on for our trip. (I promise we had no intention of abusing them that way. We found a place to rent gear in Port Angeles and we completely planned to contribute to food, but these friends are something else.)
Luckily, we found 2 camping sites side-by-side. The best part of the sites were they allowed for exploration. The girls were so excited to show us their fort, and the boys built and played in one, too. Everyone climbed up this tree stump.
The first night, we set up until after 10pm. The next morning, I went on a run first thing, and although I spooked myself into worrying about bears, it was perfect and the only wildlife encounter was a deer in my path. We enjoyed some of Aaron's fine camping cooking--the first of many meals. Vacuum packed, previously prepared french toast, pancakes, and hot cocoa.
Our first excursion was to Hurricane Ridge. The ranger told us it would likely be socked in with clouds and wreck any chance of a view, so Brady pulled over a few times on the way to make sure we captured some of the beauty.
Of course the best view was our backseat. Kate was thrilled to have cousins to play with. We explained again and again that these were friends and not cousins.
Off we go on our hike! 4 Varney kids and 2(.425) Edwards kids, plus adults.
The fog started rolling in.
We snapped a few family shots, with both Savannah and Kate sleeping soundly.
Yeah, I agree that my jacket is too tight. I swear it didn't look that bad before we left on our trip.
Trey is a wildlife enthusiast, and every time we turned around he was capturing or chasing an animal.
The deer were very comfortable next to us on the trail.
Kate and Savannah woke up in time for lunch.
And sweet Caroline got a turn to hike, too!
Zac's response to Trey's animal catching: rock collecting.
Trey caught a baby bunny! The kids all took turns holding it. Kate told me later, "I can't believe I held a real bunny!" That's when I realized I probably need to take more trips to the Humane Society.
Audrey is completely photogenic, and even though she is Zachary's age, she made Kate feel like they were best friends the entire trip.
We turned around when the switchbacks got steep, just before we hit three miles one way. I love that these kids are all hiker kids. They loved it, and Caroline would have loved to hike more of it (out of the pack!).
Another deer spotting. He'd come up close to us and then trot off into the woods, only to reappear moments later.
Deer spotting again, this time while doing his business. He looks like a kangaroo!
My kids taught the Varneys the shaka.
And Kate pretended to be a sister.
Trey and Zachary are two peas in a pod, and even with the age difference, they played together the entire time. Trey was patient explaining things to Zac, and Zac was good at keeping up with him.
More family shots; this time with alert little girls.
We were really happy with the views, considering our lowered expectations from the ranger. That's the ocean in the background.
Booty shake!
This picture stirred up a mad case of island fever for us. Wilderness! We miss you!
The girls couldn't be cuter on the final walk to the car, skipping and singing and holding hands.
The boys hid out to spook us.
That night, we ate another camping feast: pasta, green salad, and piping hot garlic toast. To a family used to eating hot dogs and tin foil dinners, the change up was very exciting! We of course followed that up with s'mores.
During the night, we got quite a bit of rain. We wondered how the weather would do for us, but our plans were to hike in a rain forest. You obviously expect to get rained on in a rain forest. I was glad we bit the bullet and bought our kids rain jackets before we came. They were put to good use.
The Hoh Rainforest is one of the best examples of a temperate rain forest in the United States. It gets between 140 and 170 inches of rain a year. Everywhere you turn, there is a carpet of green on the trees and ground. What an exceptional hiking experience! (As a side note: to get here, we had to go through Forks, aka Twilight land. It was pouring rain.)
We do not have as many pictures of this hike because, well, it was raining.
Julie named this "armpit hair":
The girls decided to sleep again.
Audrey is the toughest little girl I know. She had a pretty solid fever the night before and in the morning, but still hiked over 5 miles without complaint that day.
We stood in a nest of yellow jackets to get this shot. Oops.
Yay! More family pictures!
This is one of my favorite pictures from our trip because it captures the unique environment and the happy we all felt.
The kids loved pointing out the slugs, although Kate was mildly terrified of them.
Driving back to our site, it was raining hard. It rained most of the night, and that combined with a poor weather report and a sick Audrey and Aaron led us to pack up in the morning. We tried to find a hotel in Seattle and go a day early, but there was nothing under $500 a night. Instead, we decided to drive an extra four hours and stay with Aaron and Julie the next day. This turned out to be one of the best calls of our trip.
Before leaving in the morning, we had clear skies for a couple hours. We threw rocks in the lake and hiked along a nearby trail (really a paved walk) before we left.
The RV in the site near us had paddle boards, which looked very fun, but I would sure not like to fall into this freezing water!
The best part of the walk that morning was spotting and counting banana slugs. Our final tally was 42.
Zachary saw us taking pictures of Kate's hair and asked if we wanted a picture of his hair, too. He is proud of his long locks.
Goodbye, campsite!
Missing are pictures of our night with Aaron and Julie. They figured we were bummed to be rained out and driving again, and sent us a text with an itinerary that included berry picking (my first time ever), hot showers and laundry (much needed after 3 days and nights camping), peach and fresh blackberry dutch oven cobbler, a hike exploring parts of their 5 acre property, mountain biking around their property, and ATV rides. The kids were in heaven and so were we. They moved into this house a few months ago and it is so perfect for their family. We loved our time with them and in their home. The night finished off with a video Aaron just "threw together" on the car ride home, complete with pictures and videos of our camping trip. These friends go the extra mile and made us want to be more generous.
At our goodbyes after church on Sunday, our kids begged to stay another day. We felt the same way. We don't see them for years, but when we do, it's as natural and easy as the first years of our friendship cheering on the Cougars and camping in Utah.
p.s. We all found out later that Aaron wasn't just sick: he had pneumonia.
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