Wander Where There's No WiFi

If anything, immediately after the shut down of schools in March and we were forced to quarantine and stay home, we soon realized the reality of a grim situation of not being able to frequent our beloved trails and enjoy the great outdoors. It was mind numbing for 30+days, but once the closures started to reopen some of our favorite outdoor spots, we were more than ecstatic to get back out into nature and explore the wild PNW. Brad and I made a New Year's Resolution to hike at least once a month, and we have kept our promise except for March. Here are highlights from our hiking adventures.

Slab Camp

Other than the steep incline back to the parking area, the hike down was amazing. It was one of the first hikes that was a bit busier than our normal hikes, but easy to avoid crowds. We might come back to this hike and backpack to where we had lunch. It was fabulous, right along the Dungeness River. There was even a perfect spot where there was a makeshift picnic table and campfire all set up. Jax did the entire trip by himself, with the exception of the last mile or so, where Brad ended up carrying him. Unfortunately, that last leg, was entirely up hill and didn't make Brad feel very grand, to say the least.

Happy Hiker!

Cool little table in the woods

Lunch beside the river

Crossing foot bridges never gets old

Break time: Brad's facial expression cracks me up.

Into the woods I go.

Jumping for joy after an awesome hike!

Perfect resting log

Hike completion: Refueling in the back of the car

Salt Creek: Striped Peak and The Cove

Salt Creek is one of our favorite places to explore, but Mother's Day Weekend it was: A) a negative Low Tide and B) Extremely packed, even at 9AM in the parking lot. The park itself was still closed to visitors, so we parked in the overflow parking and avoided the main beach and headed up a trail called Striped Peak, which met up with a short descent to The Cove. It was perfect: very limited people on the trail and we practically had The Cove to ourselves. This hidden gem is a fun one to explore at low time.

Chasing Washington Waterfalls

Secret Cove: Perfect beach glass combing adventure

Showing off her masking up skills

Up to the main trail

Her look after rolling down a hillside

Beach treasures

Cape Alava

One of our favorite hikes opened up finally the end of June and we got up extremely early July 4th to trek all the way out there to enjoy the hike, and hardly anyone on the trails. It was perfection. We enjoyed the misty rain that hovered over us as we ventured out to the coast and then the beauty that was along the empty coastline. There was a couple oil slicks in the tidepools, that had us curious as to what caused them, but the low tide stretched to a couple of sea stacks and islands along the shoreline. We saw evidence of a black bear that is said to hang out along the beach and were forewarned by a lone hiker, who yelled at us that the bear was along the shore, but we missed him. Thanks, dude. We did come face to face with a doe in the brush, saw plenty of eagles and other seabirds, and enjoyed a fantastic day along the Ozette Triangle. Here is a link to the video along the trail: Cape Alava Hike

Evidence of Mr. Bear

Low tide along the coast

Mr. Crab

Campsite views

Tubal Cain

We met up with our friends Steve and Nikki pretty much as soon as we hit Phase 2. Honestly, we had not seen a soul and had kept our circle tight and small. But we jumped on the opportunity to spend some quality time hiking with them. We ventured to Tubal Cain, another favorite hike of ours. Unfortunately, it rained. It rained the entire climb. It rained where the kids hated us and were miserable. Then, where we reached our spot to have lunch, it was snowing. That's right: early June snow. But we love this hike, rain or shine. We saw an owl swoop through the trees at us. We enjoyed the calm, stillness of the valley at the base of the mountains. Even if the hike out cost us a crying uncomfortable kid, and a loss of some good hiking boots (rest their soles), it was still fun and worth the trek.

Nikki and Viktor checking out the mine

Maddy and Olivia inside the mine

Rhody's were in bloom!

Geared up in the rain

Jax and O

Indian Paintbrush along the route

Foggy, overcast trails

Flowers blooming along the route

Stream crossing

Deadfall

We decided our second group to enter our circle was our friend Elsie and her daughter, Shalom, during our Phase 2 outings. So we headed to a trail named Deafall. It was an intense, 23% incline straight up a mountain side that meets up with two other trailheads. I don't think any of us were really ready for the intensity of the climb, but the blooming rhody's, the sun through the fog and trees, and the company made it worth the effort. :)