Enchanted Valley, Spring Break!

Me and Sarah decided to do some backpacking on the olympic penninsula! It was fantastic! We went up to Seattle, saw a some friends and family. The next day we went across on the bainbridge fairy, and went to our first trail head. We went up the Elwha River and camped beside a cute brook. Then we hiked to Mary's Falls.. it is a hidden waterfall! We then hiked out and headed to our next destination. That night we broke in the forrester! Its first night of roadside gorilla camping. I must day, it is a nice set up! and we camped right by the ocean too! lovely.
We spent the next day just driving along the coast. being lazy and carefree. We went to Cape Flattery! the most northwestern point in the lower 48 states! woohoo. Plus it was a seriously beautiful place. It looked like it should have ruins of a castle or elves or something. There was also a crazy hail storm going on, that made it even more fun. It hurt though. Oh yeah and my forester had another first. We decided to go up this first road, hoping for a look out above the Cape. Sho nuf, we found it, but not before going driving up a road that have been carved up something crazy by the rains. I'm pretty sure my other car would have had to have been towed out. hee hee, a little scary for me, but satisfying.
We hit another beach and some big trees on our way down the coast, and finally ended up at the next trail head. The Quinault River trail. After a night of luxury, in the subaru, we hiked up the most beautiful trail i have been on yet. It is amazing how much life is in that forest! the most amazing part is how much death there was too. There was soo many fallen trees, that I kinda felt sad, but each fallen tree had layers upon layers of life on them. A fallen tree was not a tragedy in that forest, it was an other, vibrant green, variation in the landscape.

We actually didn't have a camera for the whole trip, so I stole this from some one's blog. This is the Quinault river.

This is the ranger station at Enchanted Valley. There are usually like a hundred waterfalls coming down the sheer cliffs behind the ranger station. But because there was still so much snow, there was only very small water falls, but a lot of AVALANCHES! ah yeah! we got to watch at least 10 thunder down the cliffs of the valley.Way exciting. this is also where we had planned to camp but didn't for reasons below.
Some of the scenery that we hiked through. This is the guy from who's blog I stole pics, I guess. snicker snicker.

Anyway, I had foolishly thought we were all alone on the trail, because the weather had been rough, and there had been no cars at the trail head in the morning when we set off. So, when looking for secluded places to answer the call of nature, away from the trail, i was half-hearted in my efforts, and paid for it. I stood up one time after finished my business only to look up the trail and see and Mom and her three teenage boys walking toward me. The mother's jaw was dropped and the boys were smiling...I'm not sure but I think they saw my bare bum! So acted cool, waved and said hello. They said hello back and passed on their way. As soon as they were out of sight, i shriveled up inside and the voice in my head screamed AAAHHHHHHH. Phew

So Sarah had talked to them a little ways down the trail where she was waiting for me. We knew that they were headed to the same camp we were, we also found out that there was much more snow that we thought up there due to the night before, so because we didn't want to snow camp and because I didn't want to camp with strangers that had possibly seen my bare bottom, we camped a little lower down and hike up there the next day for a day hike.
We hiked out the next day and met up with my parents at a lodge by the lake. It was nice to hang out with the folks with none of the usual distractions. For two days we read and relaxed My mom kicked our buns at bananagrams, and took many pictures and my dad swan like a fish in the pool. We sat by the fire a lot and ate yummy fancy food at the restaurant... oh yeah and don't forget... WE BATHED!It was really really nice having them all to myself. I have never really grown up, i need my mommy and daddy still and always.
We finally headed back, and saw more dear friends on the way home through tacoma! i love my friends. Dave and Campbell, really, those are two boys with hearts of gold. We stayed the night with sarah's friends and threw captain crunch all over their tv room, now that is a totally wonderful and fun family.
And now I'm back and Well, i'll survive til summer i guess.