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We stopped by McDonald's for breakfast. Unfortunately, this fast
food wasn't very fast. They were in the process of remodeling
the store, with ripped up floors and tables lying about, and trainees
behind the counter. It took almost a half hour between the time
we walked in and the time we got our food.
After breakfast we stopped by REI. I bought two large PowerMax
stove fuel canisters, and one small Camping Gaz canister for use
with my lantern. I picked up an Olympic National Park map. I also
bought a see-through mesh bag to carry my film in. Hopefully I
wouldn't forget it that way.
At the store I asked how long it would take to drive to Ozette,
the starting point for our day's hike. I got two different answers
-- 3 1/2 hours according to one woman who admitted she'd just
moved to the area, and 2 hours from the cashier. As we drove our
Monte Carlo rental car along the Washington freeways, it grew
increasingly clear that the longer of those estimates would be
correct. We took highway 16 to 3 to 104 to 101 to 112. Traffic
generally wasn't too bad, but Washington drivers are amazingly
slow. Much of 104, 101, and 112 are just one lane in each direction.
We'd get stuck behind a slow car which refused to use the turnouts.
And because the roads were windy it was difficult to pass. At
one point Jean noted that the leaves were falling faster than
the cars were driving in front of us.
In the end, it took us 4 hours to make the drive. We stopped by
the ranger station to check on the Hoh Rain Forest car camping
sites. We intended to stay there this night. The ranger made a
call and told us there were plenty of sites. Encouraged, we finally
started our hike to Cape Alava a little after 3:30pm.
After the hike, we drove toward the Hoh Rain Forest, the starting
point for our 3-day backpacking trip, and where we planned to
stay for the night. Along the way, though, we decided it would
be too late. Pitching a tent in the dark (it'd be after 9pm by
the time we got there) isn't all it's cracked up to be. So, instead,
we decided we would try to find a motel in Forks, Washington,
which was on the way and the closest city to the Hoh Rain Forest.
Along the way we stopped at a gas station (we were running a bit
low) just before it closed. We took 112 to 113 to 101 to Forks.
We drove through the entire city in a minute or so, looking for
a motel. Unfortunately all we saw was a row of "No Vacancy" signs.
We went back to the first motel, the Olympic Suites Inn, which
hadn't had a vacancy/no vacancy sign.
Lucky for us, they had one room left -- for just $59 a night.
And it wasn't so much a room as a 2-bedroom apartment, complete
with kitchen and washer and dryer hookups (not that we had a washer
and dryer with us). It wasn't the newest or cleanest place in
the world, but it was decent and would serve as our home for the
night and our staging area for our backpacking trip. We would
end up spending the better part of an hour or so packing for our
3 days in the rainforest
Considering there was only one restaurant still open, we decided
to take advantage of the kitchen and all the food we had with
us. If you've never had Stove Top stuffing mixed with salsa, try
it. Yum. Even tastes good cold the next day.
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