Turn up your volume, there is music on this one..
A tree grows out of a boulder, it's roots spread across the rock to find nourishment below the surface of the rocks.
We all must do this, find our nourishment by reaching as far as we need to to find it.
that's about it...
I drove to Edmonds and visited friends having a 4th of July party, then left for the Peninsula on the Kingston ferry.
I arrived up in the mountains at the Dungeness area and packed my stuff in. It's a short hike, a mile or so only. I had been once before, and had a little trouble finding my way way up in the mountains, Seems I always get turned around when I don't have Puget Sounds to guide me.
No one was at the campsites, but people were hiking. I crossed the footbridge and found a campsite near the convergence so I could hear the water rumbling. I set up my tent, gathered kindling, and firewood for later on. Then I went for a hike. I took these photos then, of the boulder and the pool of water, and the trail.
Filtered Sun lit Trail
July 4th a few years ago..I remembered the time before I came here with a friend who went up around the bend, as as soon as they were out of site I fell into a creek and got completely wet. I had no gear, it was nearing dusk, and I was about 4 miles from camp. I wandered to the river and managed to squeeze some water from my clothes. Now remember, it's cool up high in the mountains, and even though there are some sunny spots, the day was waning.
Of course my friend who was going just to look around the bed didn't come back. So after I managed to squeeze water from my clothes, I began hiking towards where they would be. I hiked over a mile and a half.
About then I decided I must have missed my friend, so I started hiking quickly back to camp.
Evening was falling, and I was alone in the woods, cold and wet, not matches, nothing. ( don't do this, ok?)
I began imaging mostly to entertain myself, that it got dark and I couldn't see the trail and was stuck in the woods over night alone, cold and wet, Did I say that, cold and wet?
A whistle would be nice.. I thought, and some M&M's with peanuts too!
(the 11th essential)!
Soon as I was hiking at at pretty decent clip through woods, I was imaging telling this story to Karen, my Granddaughter, and it was fun, but now I was beginning to scare myself. (just a little bit)
Soon I was back where I had fallen into the creek, and walking very fast, The trail was even and soft under my feet, Not too high or downward sloping, now, just a gentle terrain, some bones of Mother earth (tree roots on the pathway) to maneuver, but most of the trail was gentle. I was now looking for shelter just in case... I told myself, I had to be prepared, (ironic huh?)
Clipping down the trail, faster and faster, I was moving real fast now, and hit my stride. It felt good.
Soon I heard some one behind me, turned and it was my friend, who had promised to be only 5 minutes..
...laughing at me, one sock on one sock off, soaked to the bone.
Ha Ha!
So I grabbed dry socks and a dry tee and drank some water, ate an apple, put on my headlamp, and we took off through the woods, I made it back to camp before nightfall, all was well. I felt invigorated. Nothing like a little adventure to get your body working really well.
I don't remember the rest of the evening, uneventful I imagine in comparison, but it was then I learned that you always have your own day pack regardless of what another is doing. In other words, don't trust anyone else to take care of you the woods.
The convergence of the stream is powerful, large rocks thunder underneath the waters, and it sounds like a storm. Absolutely amazing.
No doubt this is God!
This is just one of my backpack adventures, or maybe I should say misadventures.
So this time here alone, I wasn't going to make any dumb mistakes, and get wet or not have my gear with me. I hiked and went back to my quiet 'lonely' camp, fixed dinner and ate, watched stars, fixed hot cocoa, went into my tent and read by candle lamp light until I was sleepy and drifted off to sleep.
The trail after the campsite leads you by these areas where boulders pock the landscape betwixt trees. Amazing.
I call this my natural jacuzzi.
A foot bridge crosses Royal Creek, beautiful isn't it?
I really don't remember much of this trip either, to be truthful, except I took a photo of myself in the tent, calling it my tenthouse. I took these other dynamo photos, really I think they're pretty good, don't you? Here you can't take a bad photo. :)
I only stayed one night, and drove to the ocean the next day to Railto Beach, where I got in too late to hike down the beach to camp, so I slept in my car, That was awful!
Next morning, I got breakfast in town at Forks WA, (bacon & eggs), Forks is a small, and very sleepy town, where motels close up before 9 PM, I learned ...so drove back to the beach and hiked down to Hole in the wall, and a bit beyond.
I remember one night a pretty good moon was shining and I was with a friend backpacking again on this same beach, the tide was in, so we had to hike over logs the entire way down the beach. I had my headlamp on, and I had just enough light to see the silvery log in front of me, step by step I proceeded. Going a pretty good speed, This was only about 5 years ago I think.
Anyway, we hiked until we were at Hole in The Wall Beach down from Rialto, and hiked up over Hole in the Wall, and down to a campsite I think, or maybe we just slept on the beach, I am tired just remembering it. (It took us several hours to do this). Normally it might have taken 35 minutes to walk down the rocky beach. Next day I realized that if it had been daylight, I don't know if I would have felt so confident about hiking all that way with a backpack on my back in the dark on logs. It required focus, that light on the subject might have dampened. Course I had done it a million times, I used to run logs on the beach when I was in my 40's.. (telling my age now) but heck, I'm getting old you know? My balance is not what it was 5 years ago, and neither is my vision.
Haystacks and Hole in The Wall in the distance.
Hole in The Wall Beach a distance from Rialto over marbly rocks,
hard to get traction walking on. The beach is violent, it rearranges huge logs each year many times so that the beach never looks the same. The power of this nature is amazing to witness.
You can see the smoke from campsites in the wooded areas along the beach from this shot.
The tide is out, people are migrating down the beach through stretches of loose rocks that are very deep, a gravelly rock, and some sand as seen in this photo.
I brought my Grandchildren here for 5 days backpacking about 4 years ago, or 5.
John and Karen, amazed, and always now, have this memory of what is beyond TV and video games, and socializing in the way most kids socialize.
I am hoping Jeremy will be out this summer still to see this place as well.
(Leaving cell phone at home, they don't operate here anyway, thank goodness)
The waves crash on the haystacks here, as the tide comes in , covering the tide pools and bringing food in for al the mussels and sea life in the tidal pools and attached to rocks. Seaweed covers the landscape as water rushes out to sea, leaving the ground difficult to walk over, slippery, and slimy, but amazing.
Did I say I was glad I got a divorce and was able to make my way NW to this incredible land, and have lived this as few if any I know have?
Adventures, I like adventures, I think I better get in shape for more, I'm not ready to retire yet.
I hurt my knees skiing, and running in ice on MT Rainier, (don't do that)! So now I have work to do if it is possible to get my knees in shape again without surgery. I don't want surgery.
I miss my million back pack trips, and alpine skiing, and all that. (youth, enjoy it)
Mostly now I snowshoe, but it only because my friends snowshoe in stead of ski downhill.
I admit I am a bit of a lost cause when it comes to safety in sports, I just seem to have these silly accidents like falling in to creeks 'unattended'. lol
But seriously, I remember these times when I am challenged in some way or another. These are the high points of my adventures. I do realize adventures can get out of hand and turn into nightmares, so I am somewhat precautions. I haven't backpacked alone since this 4th of July trip, and probably won't do it again.
All I can say is for sure is I wish I had started this life style years before I did, but, I was held captive in the middle of Texas for some years before I could escape (divorce) and make my way to the Pacific NW to enjoy nature on my own terms. Too bad I didn't leave sooner, but I guess we leave when we're ready.
It seems too bad I didn't get here earlier, but I am glad I made it here anyway.
Sometimes life seems a bit slow, like now, and I have to remember I have had more adventure than most people ever have. I remember my trips, adventures, sports, travels and successes, escapades, and feel fortunate that I lived a life that was different. I've worn many hats, and looked into many things others never would have. Life leads me on. I am ready for change now, again.
I lack the security many have, retirement etc. I was no corporate person. But somehow I will finish out my life in some style I think. Right now I am thinking moving to Bangalore.
We'll see.
Often, it appears, 'thinking' is enough to get you into a new situation, ...or trouble!
That is precisely how I arrived in The PNW, I simply wanted to be here! Viola! Here I am.
I wanted to go to Alaska and the Yukon, been twice, wanted Japan, been there done that.
Hmm, there is something to this idea of manifesting you know? Knock and the door will be opened! Will be interesting to see what happens! I'll keep you posted! You keep me posted!!
Logs completely line the beach, so that it is almost always possible to hike solely on the logs down the beach, from log to log to log hopping, with a backpack, especially in the moonlight. Ahh, I can't tell you, to have lived a lifetime just to have this one experience makes it all worthwhile!
Life has been amazing.
I'm not sorry I am an adventurer, spiritually and physically, I am happy to be an explorer.
Starfish, look innocent, but you can't imagine what they can eat!
Giant Green Sea Anemones, natural to our beaches.
These giants shrink and expand over a life span of 100 years
depending on what they have to eat.
BTW, Michelle, seagulls live for 100 years, when they die, they just fall out of the sky!
You probably knew this!
A Rialto Sunset
This is me at Rialto, I should find a few others of huge logs to post. One young woman I met at the beach one year from Charleston SC was wandering around alone, saying, "I have never seen or knew anything like this existed". She was almost in a trance.
It is extra un-ordinary.
This log is not a rarity on Rialto Beach. Many such huge logs wash up on shore, Imagine the storm that washed these logs ashore!
This demonstrates the power of nature.
By the way, this beach is about 9 miles off a major fault line. If there were an earthquake here, it would hit the beach in something like 10 minutes, certainly never enough time to get down the beach to drive away into the Tsunami zone.
There is a hill covered with ferns as tall as I am behind the campsites in the woods near the beach, or I should say, ' just off the beach'.
One would have to climb this hill and run fast to escape a Tsunami.
I don't know if it would be possible.
An earthquake took place here 400 years ago, scientists have found, It generated an orphan Tsunami in Japan that was devastating.
400 years before that is recorded another earthquake, and 400 years before that another. So one is overdue! Yikes!
That's enough to keep you awake on the beach at night, and out of a strangling tent, half asleep on the beach in your sleeping bag, star gazing! I have watched the constellations revolve at night here due to that very sleeplessness after watching a TV special about this fault line near the N/ West beaches that could take out Oregons's coast line, Seattle, and Vancouver BC.
Still, I am taken back to this beach many times a year, to pack down the beach, and to enjoy the wildness of nature here. We all have to go sometimes, somehow, maybe this would be as good a way as any!
Last weekend when Daphne and Jeremy were here, the last thing we did was backpack Rialto Beach, {must be the most sensational beach in the world ...shh don't tell}
