"The Way West"...Day 28...Tuesday, July 10, 2012

I'm up early again on another cold and foggy morning...it feels like the temperature is in the low 50's. I make coffee in the French press and cook up an egg, ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast.
Before I can head out to go hiking, a nice couple camping across from me beckons me over. There's a lot of wildlife in this park...deer wander through camp at all hours. This morning, there's a couple of elk grazing across the Hoh River from the campground. I manage to get a few photos before some other campers bring their dog out, and the barking scares the elk away.
My recollection of my last trip here in 2008 is that Shannon and I arrived late (near dark) and left early the next morning without exploring the Park at all. That's the main reason for my return this year...to see what I missed last time. But when I get out on the "Hall of Mosses Trail", it's very familiar...so now I'm thinking that we at least did a little exploring back in 2008. The trail is short...through dense stands of old growth pines and fir trees. It's often difficult to get "perspective" in photos that you take in a forest, so I like to take shots that capture the interplay of light and shadows.
The "Mosses" trail is short (about a one-mile loop), so I go on to hike the longer "Spruce Trail"...finishing up in mid-afternoon. My friends from Seattle are leaving tomorrow...headed to Neeah Bay...the m,ost northwest part of the U.S. I'm thinking that maybe I'll head up there in a day or two.
I spend the rest of the afternoon reading...now I'm on "In the Garden of the Beasts" by Erik Larsen. It's a non-fiction work in novel form about the experiences of the U.S. Ambassador to Germany and his family in the early 30's...it's a great book...highly recommended. I read Larsen's "Devil in the White City" a few years ago, and it was good as well.
I've still got some ice in the "drinlks cooler" so, late in the afternoon, I'm relaxing with a Maker's Mark on the rocks. The sun has finally come out, and it's warmed up into the 60's. For dinner, I marinate some thin-sliced pork in "Thai Grilling Marinade" and serve that up with some Indome Spicy Noodles and another bottle of Walla Walla red.
I picked up some firewood on my way back from camping and, now, a fire is going as the sun goes down and the temperature drops. When the fire goes down, I head to bed.