Poppy-Ay

day 7.
refreshed from the good night sleep, we threw back and forth the idea of staying in the redwoods for the morning or heading south. we decided to stay in the park and do some hiking.

Ah ~ Pah Interpretive Trail was our first stop, what seemed to be a nice long hike turned out to be overgrown...



so we took 'ossagon trail' to the coast, a nice 4 mile crescendo of a hike.



theres something about a crazy good hike that is completely rejuvenating. we took off down california 101, sippin hot cocoa, takin it all in.

the weather was not what we had hoped for, rainy and overcast. ahead of schedule, we decided to veer of 101 to highway 1, which continued down the coastline. we rode the edges of the pacific ocean for hours, hypothetically talking about what prime pieces of real estate we would buy...

night fell.
just north of sanfransisco, we took the windiest road i've ever been on. 45 miles at 20 miles an hour. we passed through too many wineries to count, the moist air brought out the smells of the thousands upon thousands of vines of grapes. i am pretty sure i daydreamed, or nightdreamed of being a winery heiress for a solid 2 hours.

forest drove the entire day, we were pretty spent. bedtime was upon us.
papier (poppy-ay) was what i called grape juice as a young child...

forests

day 6.
we woke up early, grabbed a handful or so of granola for the road, and kept south on 101.
forest nabbed this one of southern oregon...



forest was SO excited to see the redwood forest, it was the topic of conversation for weeks prior, so the fact that we were getting close was kind of a big deal.

we drove through the forests, dwarfed by sequoias and redwoods, some 2000 years old.
guilty as charged for succumbing to the tourist traps...





we did alot of driving through the park for the next hour or two... and looked for campsites half-heartedly but as the night fell, we decided a motel was the ticket. we stopped, i cooked what was left of our vegetable beef concoction and paired it with fat turkey franks wrapped in grilled bread and topped with grilled onions and cherry tomatoes.

the showers were money. the food was money. but the t-v and half the lights fizzled out within the first hour. which was fine, cuz we were sleepy lil fat-bellied bugs.

oregon

day 5.
before leaving our camp in southern washington, we took one last look at the beach only to find a rescue training session in full force.





we jumped on 101 South, feeling good. cape disappointment turned out to be a cathartic experience. rad.
we stopped in seaside oregon and both fell in love with the town and the beach...



cannon beach, our second favorite



there is those smiles.



next stop...tillamook...



as the sun set, we found ourselves near central oregon, in newport. we stopped and played.














101 is windy. thats so an understatement. it took us a very long time to travel short distances. we decided to drive on after sunset and made it to oregon dunes national recreation area 'ish'.
it was cold.
we were tired.
and so we starfished it. and slept well.

charts.

day 4
it was a strange lil day. maybe intense would be a better descriptor.

the colorful array of human emotion spans the charts...sprinkled with hues like bright yellow to moody blue.
this day took residence on the moodier portion of the emotional color chart.

speaking of charts, if only i could chart the depths of my own personal psyche and where it takes me. i think i may drown if i dive that deep. but this particular day, there was some sort of unshakable sadness that nested itself in the crook of my shoulders. ahh, and so be it.



we made it to 101 and drove South to what is called cape disappointment. thats no metaphor. thats really the name of the park on the southern tip of washington that we stayed. gotta love that irony.

it was beautiful. and restorative.

rex thought so too.





hearts to my baby....



our first sunset





our campsite was pretty phenomenal, the best yet. we DID have raccoons, however, and they came out that night looking for food.



dinner consisted of fresh garden vegetables and freshly caught crab.



and that was that.

salty crabs

day 3.
on the road again. our spirits were a little low, we were a bit on the edgy side, and quiet. salty little crabs we were.

our drive to seattle was flanked by pine trees, small lakes, and more pine trees. for a montanan, it was pretty underwhelming.

seattle crept up on us, followed by the salty crab filled ocean. forest and i felt right at home.

we boarded the ferry...



and floated along sequined waters...



to port townsend. a colorful victorianesque city, the kind made for postcards.



our destination was this hot springs campground in olympic national park, called sol duc hot springs. we pulled in with just enough sunlight left to set up shop.




our homeade vegetable and beef stew found a home in our bellies that evening.



now, at this point, after 3 full days of driving, our bodies had it out for us. soothing mineral water was the answer. we soaked for a good 2 hours. it was packed with russians. foriegners just look different. their noses, their skin, their body language, the whole shabang. i couldn't help but stare, like a puzzled but interested child.

after soaking and staring, it was back to the coleman mattress and marmot sleeping bags for us. we started a nice fire, carved a pumpkin with a third eye (thanks to forest), roasted some pumpkin seeds, and fell asleep.

the following morning our joints and muscles were feelin good so we took sol duc trailhead 4 miles to deer lake. it was a rugged rocky 8 miles of mushroom clad trail. it felt great to breathe in that oxygen rich air.

bog of eternal stench

day 2 of our travels.
we one-wayed it out of sandpoint with our sights set on mount baker in washington. the drive was a bit windy and took us through high elevation mountainous national parks.

this particular drive turned out to be fairly uneventful with the exception of a small apple stand that we stopped at which delivered the largest, juiciest, and sweetest apples that forest and i had ever tasted.

we came up to mount baker later in the evening as the temperatures dropped a bit. it was damp and cold. We found a spot in the park nestled at baker lake, at the foot of the mountain. at this point, it was too dark out to see much scenery but we were tired and hungry....so we made it camp for the night. with feet and hand warmers stuffed in our socks and gloves, lit by headlamps and lanterns, we managed to still make a pretty incredible 'coleman style' dinner. forest threw together his creole shrimp and i roasted a batch of colorful veggies...quite possibly the highlight of this particular night.

we shivered all night.
i woke up on the wrong side of bed because of it. just a foul mood.
looking out in the distance, we noticed that this little lake front campsite we pulled into was no more than a muddy graveyard of trees.



it reminded me of the bog out of the labyrinth... serious yuck.



void of much life. damp. foggy. foul.



needless to say, we wanted to peace out as soon as possible. so after a nice long run to get our blood flowin, we bounced.

sarah, angie, and andy

as i write this blog, i am in northern california. driving through the redwood national forest....looking for sweet coastal bluff trail heads with my boyfriend forest.

this particular blog, however, i am taking you back to day 1 of our travels.

the big FIRST day of our journey came creeping up on us, slowly at first then nipping us in the butt... we were prepared. everything from homeade vegetable soup to spanking new gear. even a whistle. thats right, we have brought a whistle. its silver with a yellow string.

we slept in on our day of departure. mosied about, took our time. we packed everything in forests nissan but the the kitchen sink. we even brought a pumpkin, which we managed to squeeze somewhere in between loads of pillows, dry food, and bongo drums.

the sun held our hands for several hours as we drove to sandpoint, Idaho. This little town is sprinkled with people i am fond of. family and friends.



i called miss angie ragland, my beautiful friend/sister/cousin/whatever you wanna call her. and she just so happened to be up in the woods at Andy Anderson's house, another long time old friend of mine. It had been about 15 years since i had seen Andy actually and he is still as adorable as i remember him, only with carharts, a wife, and facial hair now. We sat next to the campfire, swapped stories of old, laughed, played guitar, sipped on sierra nevada and angie's economy size bottle of white zinfandel.

Sarah Shaffer, my other ethereal Sandpoint cousin graced our presence shortly after forest and i showed up. yes, sweet miss sarah, who has been blessed with the most contagious laugh of anyone i have ever met. sarah, just like when we were kids, was the source of tall tales and witty quips. so there we were, around a roaring campfire, sarah romanticizing stories of the past, leaving us all in stitches.

beautiful night. but we were sooo tired. we stayed at sarah's triangle house that night and got a great night sleep.

the next morning, i made my way downstairs to find sarah dehydrating freshly picked plums.



her floor was covered in harvested tomatoes and peppers. the grape tomatoes were the sweetest ever. yum!



over a cup of jo, we crammed in 6 years of catch up into one morning. forest made us breakfast with sarah's fresh chicken eggs and tomatoes.

i wasn't ready to leave. i could have stayed much much longer. but i will take sarah in whatever capacity i am able. left with plenty of love and a tote plum full of tomatoes and peppers.