Exit Stage North – Not Pursued by a Bear

Excluding Alaska, we’re now heading into the far north-west corner of the USA, a great mountainous promontory with Puget Sound and Seattle in somewhat of a rain shadow to the east and nothing but Pacific Ocean to the west.  The Olympic Peninsula rises to nearly 8,000 feet and we head up the eastern side in the expected rain towards Port Townsend, a town noted for the many Victorian buildings still there.   About an hour or so north of Olympia we’re running alongside the water, a natural tidal area strangely called the Hood Canal and we notice a rocky piece of foreshore with a few birds.  So we stop and get the binoculars out and find on closer inspection that there are fifty or so seals, four adult Bald Eagles and half a dozen or so immature Baldies plus other birds.   There’s a café right next to us and no sign that anyone there takes any notice of what is a pretty spectacular spot and what is the best sighting of Bald Eagles we’ve ever had.  No sign “watch the Bald Eagles in comfort with a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun or a beer”, no list of birds or other wildlife to see, nothing.  The café/bar had four empty tin cans by the door hanging on strings labelled ‘redneck wind chimes’ and there were a few severed animal heads hanging on the walls.  Anywhere else, this location would be a marketing opportunity but I suppose here it’s commonplace and unheralded.  It reminds me of someone I knew who had gone to Madagascar and had a local complain “why don’t you stay in your own country and watch Lemurs”, clearly unaware that Madagascar is the only place where Lemurs are found in the wild.

We drove past a house called Weatherin Heights and it had mostly stopped raining by the time we arrived in Port Townsend which has all the Victorian buildings for only one reason.  It’s the same reason so many places still have them and that’s because when the towns fell into decline after whatever boom had caused them to expand in the first place, there wasn’t enough money to knock the place down and modernise.  Then the value of the historic town is recognised both culturally and touristically and the buildings are preserved.  It does have wonderful views across the water to a variety of islands adding considerable interest to what would otherwise be just water.  Port Angeles, the next town along the north coast was where we had decided to stop so another hour of driving and we were there in bright sunshine looking across the Straits of Juan de Fuca to Victoria in British Columbia.  Port Angeles gave us much better access to the mountains for some hoped for walking.  

I’ve been drinking cider here rather than beer because I have it in my head that it’s better for a potential gout sufferer.  Plus despite all the microbreweries I’m just not keen on the beer.  Now I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before but cider here means apple juice.  Cider as we think we know it is called Hard Cider but it still isn’t necessarily what we think of, fermented apple juice.  A whole host of flavours are available although the list isn’t as bad as coffee but there is pear cider (not perry) and dark cherry, ginger, apricot and more plus what’s known as the more traditional, meaning apple.  I even had one which had hops added to it.  Also, when ordering you have to remember that Cider is sweet, Dry Cider is sweet and Extra Dry Cider is sweet and it usually comes in a bottle with a glass full of ice.

Surprisingly, after heavy rain during the night the day dawned to sunshine and we hotfooted it up the mountain on another hour long drive to enjoy a really good walk at a place ominously called Hurricane Ridge.  A few people, cool but not cold, sunshine, a picnic lunch, fabulous views and no bears (or hurricanes).  Just how I like it.   We could clearly see Victoria across the water to the north and although we could see snow inland from us on Olympia, the peaks were hidden from view by clouds and mist which had got themselves hooked onto the mountains and fortunately for us stayed hooked.  As we made our way back to the visitor information centre after our walk we passed a car draped in a wet tent, wet clothes and wet camping gear.  A damp and bearded young man was with it and he was camping in various wild places with his next stop being Glacier National Park in Montana which we nearly went to earlier in the trip.  It must be three hard driving days away.  I still had the Bear Spray which had to be disposed of.  An outdoor shop in Portland couldn’t take it “for safety reasons” and it seemed ridiculous to throw it away so we gave it to him. 

The next day was also unexpectedly decent weather but cloudy so we set off for a walk further west in a much wetter area full of shadows, rocks, fallen logs and looming trees dripping with moss and lichen.  All very Brothers Grimm stuff.   What didn’t help were the prominent notices about ‘Bear Activity’ in the area.   Now, where did I put that Bear Spray again ?   So we walked for half an hour so until I was getting jumpy and then walked back to the car.

One thing we have noticed which has surprised us and that is the lack of security in public places.  We went to the top of the Columbia Centre in Seattle, no security, no bag check.  We went into the heart of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia, one of the biggest Hydro-Electric systems around, no security.  We got the hydrofoil ferry to Victoria, no security.  Earlier in the trip at the Mount Rainier Lodge, a huge and rather wonderful wooden structure which has hundreds of people just wandering in and out, I was sat with Bonnie on one of the comfortable leather sofas while Heather and Newt had a walk.  I noticed an apparently abandoned rucksack next to the piano or organ in the centre.  After a while I reported it to the hotel desk.  “Thanks, I’ll look into it” were his exact words and when I pointed out that that might not be the best thing to do with an abandoned bag, he just looked like a man who’d won a looking blank contest.  Maybe it’s my accent.  The bag was still there when we left but I haven’t heard anything.

Heather does a great job arranging the bookings on these trips and she was organising our route to Victoria.  Straight across on the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria would have been good but for the fact that we had a car to return to Seattle.  Seaplane now sorted !  Then an email on the evening before we were due to fly - bad weather.  Seaplane probably not sorted.  This was complicated by the fact that for once some advance planning had been undertaken.  Our hotel in Victoria had been booked and if we couldn’t tie things up we’d probably have to spend a night in Vancouver, then cross to Victoria and then come back to Vancouver.   Ferry timings from Seattle were too early, the train was too late.  So Heather checked again and found that there was now (but not on a previous check) a midday hydrofoil from Seattle so that got booked pronto and the seaplane was cancelled.   Online booking proceeded as follows.  Country ?  United Kingdom listed.  Excellent.   County ? Choice of England, Scotland or Wales.   City ?  Variety of mixed places including Hull, Kent and Hastings.

All jigsaw pieces now in place, a 100 mile or so drive to Bremerton, find a motel and restaurant, early ferry to Seattle, check our bags in, return the car, stroll through to Pike Place market to collect lunch (sandwich at the best cheese place, yogurt at the best yogurt place) and off to the ferry for midday.  Perfect, and we found out that there had not been a midday ferry earlier but when they realised (!) that it was Thanksgiving weekend in Canada they put an extra ferry on.   It always works out well in the end and just after we left Seattle the sun came out.  Before we left the dockside the announcement ran as follows  “We’re expecting motion today so if you’re prone to motion sickness or do not want to find out if you are prone to motion sickness we have free Meclizine(or something like that) tablets for anyone who would like them”.  The hydrofoil took a long route to avoid choppy seas so we went in and out of the San Juan Islands on what turned out to be a very calm trip and as we pulled into the dock at Victoria a seaplane banked overhead and landed just along from the ferry.

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