Ozette Triangle
It all started on a mamamovil - We rented one and we all drove to the camp on it. It made for an enjoyable drive, instead of a long daunting one. We rode the ferry into Bainbridge. Being a Friday and in the opposite direction of the commuters, the ferry was mostly empty.
After stopping at Port Angele's Safeway for some snacks, we made it to the trailhead in good spirits. It was a sunny day, mostly dry and pleasant. Not too hot, not too cold.
We hiked the short 3 miles into camp. The trail goes through a flat wooded area that appears to flood and has a board walk most of the way in.
We were the second party to arrive, even though I felt we were late. We got to choose a prime camp spot that gave us easy access to the beach with views of a very nice island on the other side.
We set up camp and proceeded to have lunch, relax and then gather/treat water.
We gathered some drift wood and built a fire with it about one hour before the sun set.
We had dinner while we took in the beauty, anticipating when the seals (presumably at the island) would go to sleep. Daniela made the bet that they'd never do it and she got it right. They partied all night. It was like a seal's rave out there. Either that or they kept guard rotating to make noise throughout the night. I like my rave version better.
In the morning it was cloudy with some small chance of drizzles. We woke up early and set out on the beach towards Sand Point. The first low tide was around 9:30 and we wanted to round the headlands with an outgoing tide.
At weddings rock we couldn't find any petroglyph. We didn't search very hard as we started hiking later than planned and we were going slower than expected. It was still disappointing to not see a single one.
Still the hike on the beach was mostly enjoyable.
It was a tricky walk. Slippery and wet everywhere. Some tide pools had anemone. Lots of small crabs and seashells everywhere. There were huge banks of fermenting seaweed to keep us company all the time. It was full of tiny flies that buzzed madly and had this rotten smell to it from time to time. Ahh the memories...
Somewhere in there we found a carcass of a whale. It's always impressive to see the size of the vertebrae of these animals.
The highlight of the day was a beautiful bear we saw!
Close to Sand Point, about 10 minutes away, on the flatest portion of the hike I rolled my ankle. Surprise surprise. It was my good ankle (meaning the one that had surgery already) It got swollen like a mandarin orange.
Sand point was a much nicer beach, although it was more crowded and didn't allow campfires. The water source was about half a mile away, close to South Sand Point, but we were happy to have one.
Since I rolled my ankle I couldn't climb the viewpoint, and then to top it all, I got a stomach illness. Stomach issues in the backcountry are no fun. I ran out of toilet paper and had to use moss. I had a ziploc full of moss with 4 squares of TP to do the final pass. Imodium saved me. It wasn't a nice day for me, was it?
We were forecasted to get 0.75 inches of rain overnight, but the event kept being pushed later and later. We opted to wake up early and hike out as soon as we didn't need headlamps. It was windy, cold and cloudy. Later at home I confirmed from the weather stations that there was over an inch of precipitation. We made the right choice!
