Aug Journal

In an effort to save all you faithful readers the trouble of having to scroll down all the way to the bottom of Jen's Journal, we decided to split up the Journal by month. this page will be dedicated to Jen's August notes.

The Guestbook will still be located on the Archived July Journal page. Feel free to go and sign in.

What a CRAZY day! Believe it or not, the hike up to The Notch was not that bad. We were wondering whether Jenny and Kim would make the trek up or not because they were really exhausted from the day before.

We took our time up the steep incline from camp to the junction, then carried forward toward the snow-covered Notch at 8382 ft. with a beautiful blue lake directly below it. Turning around afforded us spectacular views of the path we already traveled as well as mountains lining the horizon. Toward the very top, we had to maneuver ourselves through loose, slippery shale that surrounded the thick, snowy ridge. Once at the very top, we got a beautiful view of peaks as far as the eye could see on the other side of the ridge. We saw Clint on our way up, whom was traveling back toward the junction because he wasn’t able to get a camp site on the other side of the Skyline trail – another indication on how fortunate we were. We also met a couple from Colorado at the very top of The Notch and began to chat.

Rick and I decided it was too chilly and quite windy to be sitting around for too long, so we thought we’d head along the trail to look for a quieter spot. What a joke that was. The whole ridge was a spectacular one, but we couldn’t stop to enjoy the view for too long because the wind was UNBELIEVABLE!!!! This powerful wind put Chicago winds to shame!! Rick was imagining it might be about 60 to 70 miles an hour, as a guess. All I know was that I had to fight to keep myself standing, using a wide gait like I had something stuck up my butt.

At one point during our battle in the gusts, I saw the Colorado couple waving us to the side of one ridge to catch some relief from the wind. While were stopped for a mini break to take pictures, I listened to the howling of the wind over our heads, and I swear it sounded like ocean waves crashing ashore on a beach. As soon as we walked back up, the wind just took over again. After a couple minutes passed, I decided to sit down to catch my breath and find some relief. As I sat, though, I quickly realized it wasn’t a great idea because a flying piece of shale whooshed from behind me scratching my knee. Seeing that speedy, airborne rocks aren’t necessarily a good thing, Rick and I practically ran to get the next cover. It was somewhat of a shame that we couldn’t stop periodically and look around, but at the same time it was such an interesting adventure.

We finally reached a quieter point where we sat on a boulder high above a valley eating a snack. Soon the Slovakian girls passed us but were to stop in their tracks nearly 1/4 a mile down from us. We looked over in the distance to see some animals, one black and the others grey, but we were unable to identify them so we yelled to them asking, “What is it?” They yelled back, “Wolves!” Rick and I decided to hightail it down to them because there’s safety in numbers for all, but by the time we reached them, the wolves had headed for higher ground and the girls met up with another couple, Koen and Gabi from the Netherlands. Apparently the wolves were very close to Koen and Gabi, so close they had to make noise and intimidate the wolves away (which is what you’re supposed to do.) The couple seemed a little shaken by the event, so we made it a point to stick together.

Another mile from there was Tekarra Campground, which made it a total of 7 1/2 miles for the day, so we set up tent, washed up, played some Backgammon and ate. At one point we looked up over the ridge toward where we had just been to see a strange red cloud flying overhead. We got a bit nervous thinking it was another forest fire that had just started on the other side of our valley, so Rick, Koen, Gabi and I talked about our plan of action and concluded we would stick around to see what happens. We knew that Kim and Jenny from Virginia would be coming in later because they liked to take their time, so we’d talk to them when they arrived. Apparently that was smoke from a fire in British Colombia many, many miles away. We were relieved by that.

I talked to Kim and Jenny upon appearance because I was concerned about their late arrival. Apparently they had exchanged wedding vows between themselves up at the top of the ridge! It wasn’t “official” per se, but in their minds they had just gotten married. I was really excited for them and they were beaming, so it was hugs all around for such a glorious, adventurous day!

The hike out was a long but easy one. It was about 8 1/2 miles with a small amount of elevation gain, most of the trail being a fire road. We met up with Koen and Gabi and chatted the whole way out. They were such a sweet couple and it was nice to hear about their lives in the Netherlands.

When we reached the end of the trail, we vowed to email each other and off we went looking for another campground and showers. We ended back in the “normal” campground, Whistlers, where we washed ourselves and unpacked and did all kinds of maintenance stuff. Our Italian dinner out was a flop though, like the cook was really Chef Boyardee. Still, it was an end of the day from a terrific adventure.

Travel Day from Jasper, through Banff, and out the other end of Yoho. We traveled for nearly 3 ½ hours and the whole time we drove through smoke-filled mountains. The forest fires are really affecting the Canadian National Parks, so much so that Jasper was put on Alert 1 status. Alert 2 means evacuation of the town. Basically, though, any alert status is not good.

We stopped quickly in Yoho to find out the situation with the smoke and if it would be worth it for us to trek up to Lake Ohara – supposedly the most beautiful lake in the park. We decided against it and drove on, stopping at the perfectly-named Emerald Lake.

We found a camp spot in the town of Golden, outside the parks, and grocery shopped and spent the day relaxing.

First order of the day was laundry, and since the campground washers were used nonstop, we drove back to our favorite laundry facility. There we met an older couple from Florida/New Jersey and we gabbed for a while about the beauty of the mountains. This discussion, as we would later find out, diverted us from remembering we had a few items still left in the dryer.

Glacier National Park, Canada was the next stop. It’s truly amazing to me that the parks are so close that they are connected, and yet the all are distinctly different from one another. Glacier Canada was by far the steepest, rockiest mountains we’ve gone through so far. There are merely no foothills, just straight up, jagged rocks.

We walked into the visitor’s center to see what we could do. The park is really quite small, so most of the day hiking is localized in one central place, which happened to be where our campground was for the next two nights.

We got a site and decided to hike up Glacier Crest trail. HOLY BANNANAS!! Even though we didn’t have the heavy overnight packs on our backs, this hike was the most rigorous we’ve done. For three miles, the trail went straight up for 2623 ft. Of course, we did get the “WOW” factor at the end, especially since we worked so hard to get there. We were impressed with our increasing strength because the average time the park allotted for that trail was six hours, and we finished it in four.

Even though exhausted from the day, we still decided to drive back to Golden (an hour away) to pick up the laundry we had forgotten. This turned out to be a mistake because even though we were on a highway in the middle of the mountains with no towns to speak of between Glacier and Golden, we sat in stop and go traffic for 12 miles! Apparently all the traffic diverted from the forest fires was on this road. Someone on their bike passed us stating that she heard it was stop and go all the way to Calgary – hundreds of miles away! I guess a few socks, bra and a favorite pair of shorts wasn’t worth the three hours it took us to retrieve. Oh well. Life is still Good.

We decided on another strenuous hike, Abbott Ridge, one that was plotted as even higher in elevation – three miles, 3432 ft. in elevation. As soon as you started the trail it was straight up, but as you got higher, believe it or not, it was better. Rick and I both agreed that this trail wasn’t as hard as Glacier Crest, even though the elevation gain was significantly higher. That just goes to show how the position of the trail makes a tremendous difference. On our way down, can you believe we met a couple and the woman grew up in Westmont and Naperville? Travel all the way to Canada on top of a mountain ridge too meet someone who grew up 40 minutes from you. Once again, we were impressed with our own abilities seeing that the park allotted eight hours for the hike and we did it in six.

Since showers are not available in the park, we did the only obvious thing we could – rinse off in the FREEZING COLD stream. It’s a very humbling experience, let me tell you, especially when you step in up to your calf and within minutes, that half of your leg is going numb. Some people may ask why we do this for a vacation, and my answer will sometimes be “I don’t know.”

Once again, a great day of hiking that afforded us beautiful views and great exercise.

This day started out harmless enough, even though the coffee I bought was worse than Hillsbrothers. The morning was spent driving out of Glacier heading our way towards Rick’s sister’s in Whistler, British Columbia. The ride was pretty uneventful, which allowed me to get some of the 4th Harry Potter book read. We knew we were going to drive through the semi-big town of Kamloops, so we figured we’d update the website.

So after three hours in a web café and $14 later, only 15 minutes of it was actually productive by checking email. The website updating turned out to be a huge flop, and we both walked out of the café in a truly crabby mood. To add more fuel to the fire, we pulled into our RV site an hour later in a dump of a town called Cache Creek that afforded us a nice don’t-touch-the-walls-of-the-shower type of atmosphere.

After 15 minutes of sitting in Millie with annoyed pouts on our faces just staring at each other, Rick tried using the trump card for cheering me up – “Want to go out to dinner?” Of course, after having seen half the town – all of 10 buildings – I didn’t think that prospect would be very alluring. Still, I said let’s drive around and see what’s happening. I even checked in our somewhat-reliable AAA Travel Book to see what it had written up, and to my surprise it did have a section on “Where to dine” in this town of 1045 people. After driving the one minute each direction and noticing no grocery store in sight, we decided on the AAA recommendation, Wander In.

Now I feel compelled to write my own assessment of this recommendation – maybe I should even submit it to AAA:

WHERE TO DINE: If you enter the town of Cache Creek, do yourself a favor and drive right through it and out. If you have absolutely nothing in your car/camper to eat to hold you through to a neighboring town or to the next morning, the only choice we can give you is to eat at Wander In, a Chinese-Western cuisine. They have two waitresses working for the whopping four tables that are occupied. If you really need a drink, wait until the next day because you’ll pay $6 for a bunch of juice and ice with a drop of Vodka in it. Even though the menu declares using only the freshest of food, assume your hamburger will be a previously frozen sausage patty and the Chinese choices will be some spices thrown on Ramen noodles. All in all, the food tastes as good as you can warm up a previously frozen meal and it’s so quiet in the room you could hear a pin drop. Bon Appetit.

The biggest kicker of it all was that we got fortune cookies with our check (with Rick’s hamburger, obviously), and Rick’s read: The social scene will be a lot more fun today. We had a great laugh about that.

Needless to say, the quicker out of Cache Creek, the better. We noticed if only we had decided to drive another half hour, we could have camped in a beautiful area by a huge lake and just washed up in there. Believe me, it would have been nicer.

The drive quickly turned more picturesque and once again we were enamored by the beauty. Rick had spoken to Michelle on the phone, and she recommended a day hike at Joffre Lakes located on our way to see her in Whistler, so we took that advice.

The minute we stepped on the trail, we immediately noticed a huge difference in trail terrain from most of the hikes we’ve done so far. It looked very similar to the types of trails out in the northeast with large tree roots overtaking the ground and boulders strewn about everywhere. There was a ton more vegetation, which we later found out that we were near rainforest areas. The hike was a relatively short but rigorous one, kind of like a Stairmaster maze. The trailhead begins near “the lower lake,” further up you hit “the middle lake” and then finally “the upper lake.” (I wonder where they came up with those names.) Once again, we had such beautiful views of a glacier-covered mountain. It was a good recommendation by Michelle.

We met a couple from Toronto by the middle lake as well as a couple from Arizona and got some great recommendations of delicious Canadian candy bars. Rick decided to test his bravery – also he was dared by a guy – to walk out along a huge log extending in the lake. I had the camera ready just in case he took a plunge, but no such luck for me.

Once back to Millie, we drove about a half hour into the town of Whistler where we met Michelle in her office. We stayed for a bit and updated the web – successfully this time – and went to her apartment to wash up and go to dinner with her friends in town. Here’s Rick and me showing up with our baseball caps on smelling of sweat, and these visiting friends of Michelle’s were city girls all the way with their huge suitcases, tons of makeup and stilettos. They were super nice though, and we had some good laughs hanging out and drinking some yummy beer.

We still slept in Millie on the driveway this night because we showed up early during Victoria and Lizzie’s visit and there’s not enough room in Michelle’s place for five, but it didn’t bother us. We’ve gotten used to our home, Millie.

Today was spent getting Millie into tiptop shape again for the parents’ visits coming in a couple weeks. We did some cleaning and rearranging, which took into mid-afternoon. We stopped in town to eat Mexican lunch with Michelle and treated ourselves to some tasty crepes for dessert. The rest of the day was spent on long-overdue “housework.”

After delicious blueberry pancakes for breakfast, it was another girly day for me of walking around the shops of Whistler! Whistler is basically a ski town that is comparable to Vail. There’s lots of money around this place, and pretty soon more structures will be built due to the Olympics coming here in 2010.

We walked in and out of shops for a while before we realized how hungry we were. We chose a Mediterranean cuisine restaurant that was fabulous and made up for the horrid meal we ate in Cache Creek. Afterward, Rick gave me two hours to browse the shops with Michelle while he walked around on his own. Of course, that wasn’t enough time, so when we met up with him again, I spent the next half hour with a moping husband on my tails. I’m quite sure many people know exactly what I’m talking about with that scenario.

Michelle drove us around town to see some of the amazing architecture that can be built when you have oodles of money. There is one house called The Mushroom House, and it literally is a mushroom shape. What a unique and detailed structure. Right outside the house there was a plaque that displayed www.themushroomhouse.com, which I’m sure when you go there it displays the inside of the house as well. Another home was in the process of being built, and that will have a huge waterfall flowing right in the front with probably a Jacuzzi right in the middle of it. Oh, to have all that money.

We spent the evening eating, drinking, playing games and being merry. We played a game called Hedbanz where you have to place a card in the band on your head and ask yes or no questions to figure out where, what or who you are. We had some good laughs, especially when Michelle happened to pick up the same card again and took a while to figure it out.

Michelle and I drove to the upper portion of town and walked around the produce/art market for an hour. It’s always a plus to be able to pick up fresh veggies.

We went back to pick up Rick and headed out for an afternoon hike up to Garibaldi Lake. It was a total of 10 miles roundtrip with 2400 ft. in elevation change each way. On the way up, I turned around to find that Rick had taken his shirt off. I questioned him when he had taken it off, and he declared that he’s gotten very good at taking off his clothes while hiking. He mentioned how he’d like to take off his constricting underwear, at which point I proceeded to dare him to take those off while we hiked. Next thing I know, Michelle and I were frantically searching for a camera while staring at his bare bottom. Of course, Rick had the camera so he skated out of another naked picture.

It was pretty chilly once we got to our destination, but I suppose that’s what happens when you’re near a huge glacial lake. The stunning scenery just never ends. The lake was such a beautiful aqua/teal color that our camera just couldn’t seem to capture. Before we turned around, we chowed on all our goodies we brought to snack on, one of which was the recommended Wonder Bar, which is peanut butter, caramel and chocolate Canadian deliciousness. I can’t believe it’s made by Cadbury and yet not found in the U.S., although I’m sure I’m better off not having easy access to it.

We hobbled our exhausted bodies back into Michelle’s place where my fabulous husband made us chicken stew. What a lucky gal I am.

Moving on. We packed up our “home,” ate lunch with Michelle and shoved off to continue the adventure. From the moment we drove into Whistler until this point the weather was overcast and chilly.

Nearly an hour into our travels we hit a bit of rain, but it died down quickly. We drove straight to the outskirts of Vancouver and stopped to decide where our next destination would be. After a few calls to travel agencies and much debating, we decided to nix the idea of going to Alaska. Due to the drive being just too darn far, our hope is to travel there another time, so we set our sights on the Sunshine Coast. We had no idea what that was until talking to Michelle, but basically, there’s a bay that sits between the main island and Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast is the drive on the main island side. Still, the only way to get on it is to drive the car onto a ferry and float to it.

I was thrilled to drive onto the ferry with Millie. I felt as if I was in a foreign film, so I made Rick talk to me in a pretend foreign language to get the full effect. He didn’t have any subtitles though, so who knows what the heck he was saying.

By the time we began the Sunshine Coast, it was getting late and finding a campground to stay at was proving difficult. The first half is really about two hours’ drive from one ferry to the next. We ended up driving most of the first half of the coast, no doubt missing things along the way, but finding a site in a small area becomes priority. Much to our relief, we found a reasonable place to camp right off the bay late in the evening. The problem with these travel days is we eat horribly, like having a bag of Sun Chips for lunch. Oh, well, we’re on vacation. We’ll either exercise it all off or come home fat. Either way, I’m sure we’ll be happy.

Drove on the ferry once again (yippee!) and got to the second half of Sunshine Coast in the late a.m. Our plan was to find a campground in Powell River, the largest town in the Coast area, and see what there is to do. The drive took no more than an hour from the dock to town.

Once set up with a campsite at Willingdon Beach, we stopped into the visitor’s center and got some ideas of things to do. We wandered into Hooked on Seafood shop where they had all kinds of selection of salmon. I asked the couple if they would move to Chicago – oh, to have a seafood shop like that! – they said they’d love to. I won’t hold my breath.

Our ideas took us a half hour north of town to reserve sea kayaks for the next day. The son running the operation told us tales of their sightings of Lockness-type creatures, which was a fascinating story. After reserving the kayaks we drove the neighboring areas to check out provincial parks. I made Rick stop at one point because I spotted wild raspberries on the side of the road. I was to later learn that blackberries are like the local weed in this area. They’re three times the size of the ones at home and super tasty.

After finally arriving back at camp, we cooked up some salmon patties we purchased at the fish store and ate a delicious feast.

What a wonderful day!! We got a somewhat early start to begin our sea kayak adventure. After getting quick lessons, we shoved off for our seven hours on the bay.

What a peaceful ride! I have wanted to try out sea kayaking for a while now, and this became a perfect opportunity because the waters were very calm. It’s such a strange feeling floating slightly atop the surface of salt water with little jelly fish floating all around. I surely didn’t want to spill over into that water.

After roughly an hour of paddling, Rick and I spotted something in the water which we couldn’t really identify from our distance. Of course, as soon as we got in viewing range, it popped its head under water. Rick declared it as being a seal. Soon after, we saw another one pop up far away. Later we would discover they were all around us the whole day. At lunchtime, we headed to the rocky shore for a bite to eat and saw a splendid colorful array of starfish, clams galore and crabs of all sizes. It was fun to explore the shore and watch the clams spitting water and hearing all the noises these sea creatures make. At one point I looked up to see a seal sticking his head above the water checking us out. After getting back in the boat, we rode a small distance to find a group of them flopping on the open rocks. It sure was a fantastic addition to our kayaking adventure. We even saw a house – with lamp shades and everything -- literally floating on top of the water! It wasn’t sitting on an island; it was floating on boards!

The paddle back was a tired but rewarding one. The only somewhat challenging part of the whole experience was maneuvering the waves from the boats passing by us.

By 5:30 our boats were returned. Millie was sitting right next to bushes of enormous, sweet blackberries and of course I couldn’t pass the opportunity for a load of berries that would cost a fortune at home.

What a terrific day on the water spotting such different wildlife than anything we’ve seen so far.

Woke up early and rode the ferry to Vancouver Island. Once arriving in the harbor, we drove right into the town of Comox where we stopped coffee shops to update the website and check email, which took a bit of time.

We made a stop at the visitor’s center for some island info and drove north up to Campbell River, a town on the easternmost edge of the island, a couple-hour drive that follows the bay most of the way. We got a campsite at Elk Falls Provincial Campground just outside of town, which was a beautiful spot to camp. All the spaces were nicely wooded, so we enjoyed a bunch of privacy while pouring over brochures to figure what to do in the area.

For the most part, the day was a productive but relaxing one. I even began a new endeavor of carving soap stone. We’ll see if I can be artistic enough without cutting my hand off.

I must admit, I definitely started this day off in a crabby mood. We got up and made some eggs and pancakes with the fresh black berries I picked. As we were eating, we saw some people frantically running around calling out a name. Come to find out that a four-year-old and seven-year-old went to go to the bathroom and never came back to camp. We think they did finally find them, though.

The afternoon was filled with walking around some small shops in Campbell River, and then driving up to the northern part of the island, Telegraph Cove, where we were to go on a three-hour whale watching tour. The three-hour drive was nice with lakes and small mountains and raspberry bushes lining the roads, but it’s extremely apparent that there is much forestry service activity with bare spots everywhere you looked.

To mine and Rick’s relief, all my crabbiness disappeared the minute we stepped foot on the vessel. What a magnificent experience that could not have been better, in my opinion. We motored out into the area where the whales generally are located, and soon we couldn’t snap enough pictures. By the way, it’s really not that easy to take photos of swimming fish; you really go through a lot of pictures trying.

Anyway, we got to see over 25 Orca “Killer” Whales in the first half of our excursion, and we even listened to them chattering away underwater via a submerged microphone. As we were watching, a group of dolphins appeared playing around one of the Orcas.

After a good hour of that, we next headed in a different direction to find some Humpback Whales. En route, we saw three bald eagles proudly perched high up on trees at the waterfront and then a few more Orcas with very tall fins. Finally, our skilled guide brought up close enough to see three Humpback Whales, one of which jumped into the air and seemed to be playing. The Humpbacks are the whales that are noted for their big tails (flukes) extended into the air before they begin to dive deep. There are many photos out there of just a fin out of the water, and that is the signature of a Humpback. As we watched the fins sticking up, out in the distance appeared a few porpoises zooming by.

We could not have asked for a better range of sightings, and even the captain remarked that it wasn’t common to see the fantastic assortment of species like we did. It’s such an amazing experience to view these creatures in their natural habitat!

Needless to say, what started out as a cranky day for me ended on an extreme high, and I went to bed a happy camper.

Another day driving Millie around checking out the area. We both were in a feisty mood having some laughs on the return ride to Campbell River. After a bit of grocery shopping in town, we moved on to exploring Strathcona Provincial Park, which is located just slightly north of the island’s center and west of Campbell River.

It took about an hour or so to get to Strathcona Park. It looked as though it would rain, but it actually turned out to be quite nice. Seeing that it was already 3:30 by the time we got out there, we didn’t go for any hikes. We just stopped and ate the rest of our delicious smoked salmon near a beautiful lake by the island’s mountains. When we stopped, we noticed a missing person poster plastered on a bulletin board, so we happened upon a park ranger and asked her some questions about it. Apparently this man went out for a day hike two weeks ago, at the end of July, and never returned. His brothers and search parties had been out since then, but they couldn’t really seem to find him.

For a bit of time, I got into deep thought about the possibilities of what could have happened to him, and I fought to not let it disturb me too much. We stopped and walked over to snap some photos of beautiful Myra falls, which helped focus our attentions elsewhere.

As we drove out of the park, Rick decided he wanted me to take a picture of him sitting atop the giant wooden elk that welcomed you to Stratcona Park. He got me laughing so hard watching him try to mount this thing from the rear, and I got some great blackmail photos to prove the whole event!

We drove back to the RV campground where we ate some yummy Hawaiian pizza. Being in the goofy mood that I was in, while I dried the dinner dishes I told Rick that the best way to dry our floppy, plastic cutting board was to wave it around all over in the air while dancing and singing “Looking for some HOT STUFF baby this evening, looking for some HOT STUFF baby tonight. . .” Rick laughed at me, but he decided to join in with the collapsible-handled frying pan. It was pretty funny, and it got even funnier when the handle of the frying pan did collapse and the rim of the pan whacked Rick right in the you-know-what. Man was that some good laughs! It’s always funny ‘til someone gets hurt.

Our destination for this day was to drive all the way to the west coast where we were told about some must-see beach called Long Beach.

The drive lasted most of the afternoon. In the north-central Campbell River, where we started, it was a bit overcast and as we drove it turned sunny. The sun continued to shine all the way to the south-central town of Port Alberni.. After stopping for some gas and fresh veggies, we drove on the main highway straight west through a mountainous zone into the Pacific Rim Park where it was quite chilly and overcast. There’s one main road traveling north-south that only extends for a total of 21 miles on the west coast. After driving the east-west road, we hit a junction that allowed you to turn north toward Pacific Rim National Park/Tofino and south toward the town of Ucluelet. We turned north and headed straight for a campground. We knew the few campgrounds in the area would book up fast, and we soon found out that they would cost much more than any campground we’ve stayed in to this date.

Once we found a satisfactory site, we stopped in the northernmost town of Tofino to pick up an electric adaptor. We didn’t stay in town; we weren’t all that impressed or interested in it.

A late lunch and stroll with bare feet along the shores of Long Beach was surely ideal. The beach name is definitely appropriate because the sandy beautiful beach extends for 12 miles. This was the first time I had ever seen surfers on waves that high. It was fun so sit and watch people of all levels attempt their skills riding the “high” waves. (The park posted day listings of the size of the waves: low, high or extreme.) The sea kelp, which we also saw a ton of while kayaking, looks like a giant onion with a “tail” that extents so far it looks like a giant-sized whip.

After our feet became so numb they hurt, we thought a trip to the south end toward the town of Ucluelet would be interesting. Not so much. It turned out to be just another dumpy boat town. We also wanted to find out more about hiking the West Coast Rim, which is supposed to be a beautiful hike, but finding an info center that was open and had knowledgeable people proved to be difficult. So once again, we drove back north toward Tofino at a loss for what to do next. We decided to take a short hike through the lush rain forest, but we had already passed it, so for the umpteenth time we turned around and drove south again. We wondered how many times we could actually travel up and down the same road.

After our half-hour nature walk, we drove AGAIN back north to camp where we strolled along the beach (you could see the ocean from our campsite) and then ate some dinner.

Long Beach was by far our favorite attraction on the west coast, and if you’re interested in trying some type of surfing, that’s the place to be. There was also kayaking adventures and whale watching tours, but nothing was really jumping out for our next adventure. For some challenging hiking, this place wasn’t the right fit, so we stopped at an info center to ask about the West Coast Rim. This trail is only accessible by boat or a very long, tough gravel road. After learning more about it, the time we had left on the island was not going to be enough for preparation and hiking this intense hike, so we discounted the idea and drove back to the southeastern town of Port Alberni.

Since it’s best to go to info centers in the area you wish to stay, we spent considerable time searching for one once we got into town. I had read in a Vancouver Island magazine that there is a beautiful waterfall, by far the tallest in Canada, that is only accessible by boating on a lake. We found out you could rent a canoe and paddle to the end of the lengthy Great Central Lake and spend two days hiking up to Della Falls, which should turn out to be a four-day excursion. That quickly became our adventure of choice, and we headed to the lakefront to rent our canoe and get a campsite for the last sleep in Millie for the next three nights.

The place we rented our canoe from was the Ark Resort owned/operated by a balding but long-haired blonde man they call Rosie who is definitely a character. After five minutes of chatting with him and his sidekick, we got the distinct smelling impression that Rosie spends most of his income on beer. The beer gut was our first clue, though. Still, he was a nice guy, and come to find out he used to live about 20 minutes from where I grew up in a town called Wilmington. Small world.

Since our site was ten feet from the crystal clear water, we had no choice but to go for a swim. Near our site a bridge extended over the water, so we went to the top and jumped 15 to 20 feet into the water like a high dive. I haven’t jumped into water from that height in a long time. It sure got my heart pumping. Of course, right before I went to jump, two guys walked up to the edge and dove in as if they were standing on the shore jumping into the water. That just shows how much risk-taking situations can be mind over matter.

The rest of the evening was spent getting our gear ready for the next outdoor adventure!

Now, some people may think we’re crazy for deciding to paddle a canoe on a lake for 22 miles in one day, and after finishing, we think we’re crazy too. Holy Paddling!!!

The beginning of our paddle started at 8:00 a.m. and it was smooth most of the day. The scenery was outstanding with the mountains that surrounded the unbelievably clear water. We also got a close-up view of some of the workings of a logging operation.

After roughly five hours of paddling, we stopped off in a nice, beached picnic area to eat lunch and rest our arms and sore butts for a little while. From that point, our camp destination was two hours further and most of it was relatively calm, until the end portion where we were pushed toward the dock by the increasing waves.

Once ashore we hobbled ourselves over to set up camp; I with my blistered hand and Rick with his aching shoulder. We were one sight, that’s for sure. It became openly obvious that paddling a canoe is not our strong point.

A dip in the water was wonderfully inviting, and we gabbed with other fellow-canoers on the dock. Some people chose to pay a hefty sum of money to get ferried across the lake by Rosie, and other idiots thought it’d be more adventurous to paddle a canoe. Somehow I found comfort in the fact that we weren’t the only stupid ones to do it.

After a hearty dinner that was well-needed, we crashed our heads onto the pillow for what would hopefully be a restful, repairing sleep.

Once we got our aching bodies out of bed, we headed off from the dock/trailhead to begin our hike to Della Falls. The trail was once again a different terrain. For the most part, it was loose stones of varying sizes which made it tough on the ankles and knees. Since the trail is not in a very accessible area, the trail maintenance was somewhat lacking as well. There were many downed trees that we needed to climb over and duck under, which becomes a challenge when you’ve got a 35-pound backpack on your back.

The beginning two hours of the trail were a piece of cake, flat as can be. The second two hours were a bit steeper but still very manageable. The fifth hour was a bit more rigorous with managing ourselves around large boulders for a little bit of time. By the time we hit our camp spot, we had traveled five hours and it wasn’t bad at all. Hiking is definitely our stronger point.

After setting up camp, we walked 20 minutes to the bottom of Della Falls. Due to it being late in August, the flow was weak, but it was still very beautiful. Where the water begins its steep descent, three separate cascades are distinct, so it looks as though it’s three waterfalls close together rather than just one. Sitting at the bottom, though, didn’t really afford us a good view because ledges prevented us from seeing the top.

Sometimes when you’re out hiking in such a remote area, it becomes evident how peoples’ careless ways can really impact the environment. Just at the base of the falls, it looked as if someone decided to spread peanut butter and jelly all over the rocks. I don’t really consider myself a “save the trees” nut, but I do believe in picking up after yourself and pack all your garbage out. Even though there was a campfire ban in all of Canada, it didn’t seem to stop a few campers. I don’t consider myself absolute by-the-book kind of gal, but I’d like to think I have pretty good habits to do my part to preserve the beautiful nature we have.

Anyway, the rest of the day was spent mending our bodies from the last two rigorous days by rinsing ourselves in the freezing river (once again) and lounging/resting. At one point, two guys stopped by our site. They informed us that they spoke to a couple who traveled the well-recommended day hike toward Love Lake, and they came back stating they hiked for two and a half hours, ran out of water and never even reached the top. These two guys were hiking back down to the trailhead and decided not to hike to Love Lake on this other couples’ advice. It appeared as though they were trying to “forewarn” us of the rigorous trail ahead and maybe not do it. We figured we’d sleep on it and decide in the morning.

Against the advice of our fellow hikers, Rick and I took the trek up to Love Lake. We figured if beer-bellied Rosie recommended it to us as a must-see, it shouldn’t be all that bad. It turned out that the hike to Love Lake became the highlight of our whole trip, and it even made the paddling worth it! Of course it was steep, but with our packs left at camp, it took us less than two hours to get to the top with most of our water bottle still full. We have no idea what those guys were talking about, but they sure missed one beautiful sight!

The top of the trail allowed us a bird’s eye view of the Della Falls as well as the surrounding mountains. Love Lake was a pure turquoise gem nestled inside the mountains surrounding it. If it weren’t for some swarming mosquitoes and the fact we had to hike back to the trailhead, I bet we could have stayed there all day.

On the way back down, we stopped and chatted with passing hikers and they all seemed to say the same thing, that those two guys were warning them not to hike to Love Lake. We hypothesized that maybe those two men were just telling danger tales to make themselves feel better because they didn’t hike it.

Once back at our packs, we ate a quick lunch and scooted down the trail. By this time Rick’s knee was really acting up, so we took it slower down the really rocky terrain. We stopped to chat with a dad with his two older kids who were debating whether to camp where they were or go to the end. Apparently they met the same two guys everyone else did because they thought it would be too hard to hike the rest of the trail with backpacks on. After telling them our opinion of traveling the rest of the trail and leaving them, two minutes later we found ourselves backtracking because of a nearby black bear. We stayed with the group watching the beautiful, shiny black coated bear gracefully move his body up and over the rocky land as if it were flat grass. What an extraordinary sight!

The rest of the trek was fast-moving, and by the time we got to the trailhead both my big toes were blistered up and Rick’s knee was really sore. Still, we were glutton for more punishment because we really wanted to crank out at least two hours of paddling before dark so that the next day was more bearable. The waves were quite choppy and the wind pushed us a bit, so it was a little fight. Even in the midst of fighting the waves we caught glimpse of a soaring eagle!

After deciding we had enough for one day, we pulled ashore to a perfect camping peninsula where we watched a glorious sunset and swam off some of the sweat from the day.

Because the early morning hours have some of the calmest waters, we got up and on the lake by 8:30, but we were to soon find out that calm waters weren’t in store for us. The first 45 minutes were a bit of a heart-racing experience because the waves were growing to two feet high, just enough to threaten tipping our little bobbing canoe. Once we rounded a small peninsula, it became almost smooth sailing for nearly the remainder of the paddling day. With the wind pushing behind us and riding the waves toward our destination, we chatted and sang our way back to the Ark Resort, our ending point.

The decision to paddle two hours the night before was a perfect one because this day was only a five-hour paddle day. Those two hours made a huge difference in our energy level. I even decided to use my ground pad as a butt cushion, so I was even relatively comfy sitting in the boat.

Due to Murphy’s Law, the last ten minutes the wind shifted on us and blew right in our faces, so we paddled like madmen and made it back relieved to have finished our grueling four days, 44 miles of paddling and 28 miles of hiking!

After gathering our gear and picking up our beloved Millie, we stopped for a quick swim in the lake and replenished our wild black berry supply. Onward to meet Rick’s parents in Victoria!

It took roughly three hours to drive to Victoria from the lake. Bob and Marie pulled into the hotel parking lot practically five minutes before we got there making it perfect timing. We spent the next few hours chatting, introducing the “P’s” to Millie and cleaning up. Dinner was spent next to a picture window in a seaside restaurant catching up and eating seafood. We actually spent our first night in a hotel this evening! It was a great evening spending time with the folks.

(As an aside, I was recently informed that my day counts have been way off. Since being jobless, my counting skills went right out the window, so I figured I’d better stop trying to count. It’s actually been 54 days.)

After everyone was up and dressed, we wandered down to the cafeteria to eat our continental breakfast. Soon a woman approached our table asking us to snap a picture of her and her husband. She informed us that her husband woke her up the morning before and said “Pack a bag; we’re going to Victoria for our 20th anniversary.” It was really cute to watch the husband blush while the wife, Debbie, bragged about her sweet hubbie. We soon found ourselves chatting away with this lovely couple from Calgary.

After realizing an hour of conversing had passed, we said our farewells and went on our way. Rick and I split from the P’s in search of a campsite. Once our “home” for the next two nights was found, we went off to purchase some groceries while we waited for his sister Michelle to arrive on the ferry. While stopping to pick up literature at the info center, I noticed the grounds were so lush with blackberries that I couldn’t resist picking another bowl full.

Since we needed to waste an hour before picking up Michelle, we wandered into a winery, tasted some of the Victoria wine and bought a couple bottles to share with the P’s. The drive around the area gave a fantastic flavor of the beautiful homes in Sidney, which is just north of Victoria. At one point we saw a boy no older than seven waving a lemonade sign and we couldn’t resist stopping for a glass.

Once we picked up the goods (Michelle) we met the P’s in beautiful Victoria to wander into the shops in town. We also walked along the harbor viewing good from local vendors and watching a street performer. We ate dinner at a renowned seafood restaurant, which was a fabulous meal of crab, salmon and shrimp! It was a nice switch of pace to stroll around town freshly showered, eating a remarkable meal and being with wonderful company!

Rick and I camped about 20 minutes from the P’s, so we drove back to the hotel in the a.m. to steal a shower. About noon we drove off to see the nationally acclaimed Butchart Gardens, a color flower wonderland. When we arrived in the parking lot, we gave Rick’s parents and Michelle a typical Jen and Rick lunch on the run consisting of ham rollups. I think his parents got a kick out of us preparing the meal and eating sitting on the floor of Millie. Oh, the camping life.

Butchart Gardens is such a magnificent flower heaven, even for those who may not be much of a flower person. The gardens were started by a woman who wanted to beautify a dingy limestone quarry next to her home. In the beginning years, anyone who came to see the gardens got served a cup of tea, and in 1915 alone they served over 10,000 cups! After the walk through the gardens, we watched a cute half-hour version of the Wizard of Oz performed by a group of young performers.

Once leaving Butchart Gardens, we all went back to the campground where Rick and I cooked up a Millie’s Dinner Special for the family which consisted of guacamole and chips as an appetizer, and a canned chicken stew with fresh carrots, potatoes, and green beans for the main meal. We made sure to make an authentic meal to give the true flavor of our trip meals, thus the easy-preparing canned chicken mix. To top it off, the dessert consisted of our newly favorite Canadian candy bars, the Eat More and Wunderbar, while we played a game of Zilch (called Farcle from my neck of the woods).

By 10:00 we said our byes to the family after the fantastic visit and got ourselves packed up for the next day’s ferry back to the U.S.

Since we arrived in line for the ferry early, we parked Millie and wandered into a few gift shops in the area and loaded up on the coveted Wunderbars due to the fact we would no longer find them in grocery stores. I found a great Victoria T-shirt with a VW bus on it and just had to have it as a cute reminder of our travels with Millie. After packing all the cars in like sardines and spending an hour and a half reading on the main deck, we at last re-entered the U.S. in Port Angeles, Washington! Our first order of business became reserving a camp spot in Olympic National Park, then checking our somewhat neglected emails and washing two weeks worth of stinky hiking clothes. While Rick stayed with the clothes, I set out to find a grocery store, which turned out to be a frustrating fiasco because it took me about 20 minutes to find it from the directions of a local. I find it very interesting that when you ask some locals for directions in a small town, they don’t even know the street names. It’s not like Chicago with thousands of streets. My food shopping left me overwhelmed with irritation, but when I returned to the Laundromat, I found Rick with a distressed look on his face. Apparently his Down sleeping bag had clumped up from the washing and he feared it was ruined. We spent the next 45 minutes fluffing with our hands and tossing it in the dryer with my gym shoe. Thankfully, it was fixed, but our moods were yet to be lifted. The obvious solution to that was going to dinner, of course. A delicious salad bar and seafood dinner sure did the trick, and we headed off to bed happy to have finished our housekeeping.

We awoke to an extremely overcast and misty day. By this day exhaustion had truly taken over my body. The whole morning I was in one big stare unable to pull myself out of the funk. We decided to take a drive up toward a lookout point and take a little stroll, but when we parked Millie we found ourselves sprawled out on her floor in a deep nap for about an hour and a half. Upon waking we scoffed down a bunch of junk food and brought our rejuvenated bodies outside for a view of the northern part of Olympic Park. As we walked along inclining paved walkway we marveled at the effects of weather. To our left we had a cloudy but visible view of the craggy, snowy peaks filling the horizon; to our right was a dense white cloud of fog that prevented us from seeing anything farther than ten feet in front of us. According to the informative plaques located at viewpoints, what we were supposed to be seeing through the cloud of whiteness was the ocean and Vancouver Island and beyond. During drive back down the mountain, at one point we’d be in a thick cloud of white and misty rain, and the next point it would be clear as can be. The remainder of the evening was a dinner of Nilla Wafers and reading a book. It was a desperately needed day of eating junk food and sleeping!

Every now and then I have an episode where I awake in the middle of the night half still in a dream and half awake and I’m talking complete nonsense. This morning I woke up fearful that Rick and I were going to be attacked by the bear living in the black hole at the foot of our sleeping bags. I woke up saying something like “We have to get away from the bear in the black hole!” Rick, who awoke but still in a half sleep, thought I was talking about some giant spider trying to eat us. He heroically opened up the bottom of his sleeping bag so I could protect my legs with his away from the nasty spiders. By this point I had managed to climb down from Millie’s pop-up into the “downstairs” and seated myself in the passenger’s seat waiting for Rick to come down. At this point he’s still opening his sleeping bag to help cover up my legs with his when he suddenly realizes I’m no longer next to him. Apparently, for a brief moment he thought that the spider had gotten me. He cried out, “Where are you?” I replied, “Down here.” Even though Rick was thoroughly confused by the whole event, I think by this point I managed to bring sense into my mind that there couldn’t be any bear in a big, black hole inside Millie, so I climbed back up into my sleeping bag and within minutes we were both once again asleep.

Today we worked our way toward Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park. There’s no road that cuts through the park, just one that widely circles the perimeter of it with different entrance points that allow you to drive toward the center. It’s not an easily accessible park.

We drove out toward the overcast beachfront of the ocean to catch a glimpse and spent the early afternoon hopping along on the enormous driftwood that covers the rocky beachfront. I knew my clumsiness would get the better of me because at one point I slipped trying to jump atop one of the massive pieces of wood and gave myself a nice golf ball on my shin. Still, it was neat watching the power of the water and the way the waves rolled into the shore. On our way back to the main road, I spotted more black berries to replenish our supply, so we stopped for a quick berry fix.

At one point we stopped in the town of Forks to buy ourselves a luxury item – a shower. Olympic’s campgrounds have flushing toilets only, so finding a shower can be a bit difficult. The couple who own this small hotel obviously recognize the need for shower for those who camp in the park, so they charge $3.00 for you to wash up and even give you a clean towel.

By late afternoon we arrived at the entrance to Hoh Rainforest and worked our way in toward the campground, set up camp and relaxed for the rest of the evening reading and carving soapstone.

In the early a.m. we took a short nature walk to see the beauty of the rain forest. It’s so amazing to see moss draping all over these giant trees and lush green all around.

We hopped in the car and headed to Quinault Rainforest to meet up with my parents. It was pretty entertaining trying to meet up with them because cell phone reception is quite spotty and there ended up being three hotels to stay at that had nearly the same name. My mom left us a note at the front desk of one of the hotels to tell us when to meet them, so drove down the street to pick out a camp spot for the next two nights.

After our reunion of the P’s, we drove up the Quinault Lake a bit to see an enormous tree and a few other sights, then headed back to our camp to show pictures and catch up on all the latest news. The evening topper was a delicious seafood dinner in the Quinault Lodge. It was a nice reunion with the P’s.

Because we arrived back at camp so late in the night, we didn’t have a chance to level Millie appropriately, so in the middle of the night it became apparent that the two of us would be stuffed into one corner if we didn’t separate. It became a quick lesson on the importance of leveling the car before you sleep in it.

By 8:00 my parents arrived at Millie with coffee in their hands – yea! – and we spent the morning making a hugely fattening breakfast of eggs, bacon and camper’s biscuits, reminiscent of my camping days with my family. Since we stuffed ourselves, we figured a long 4-mile nature walk through the rainforest was appropriate, so we spent the afternoon marveling at the giant clovers, moss-covered trees and huge osprey nest.

Once back at the car, we hopped in and drove to an outfitter’s store that we had tried to stop in a few times the day before. We drove toward the back of a ranch house where the outfitter’s building was placed, and as we pulled up a boy no older than two stood proudly on the porch wearing a wide-brimmed black cowboy hat. He was so cute my mom just had to snap a picture of him. As we walked through the small store, we wandered by a stuffed cougar, at which point we struck up a conversation with the woman owner who told us the story of the cougar. Apparently last year was a bad year for cougars coming into the town and being aggressive with people. The stuffed animal before us was a sobering testament to the size and dominance they bring to the wilds of Olympic.

After a scenic drive around the lake, we stopped back at camp to share a bottle of wine we bought in Victoria and then headed back to the lodge for round two of a delicious seafood meal. After stuffing ourselves once again, we stole a shower from the P’s and headed back to Millie for a well-needed sleep.

Rick and I separated from my P’s and headed toward Seattle while they took a drive through Mt. Rainier before arriving in Seattle themselves. The day started out harmless enough for us, but we were to soon realize that finding a decent campsite around the Seattle area was not in the cards for us. We literally spent the whole day driving EVERYWHERE to find a camp site. At one point around 5:00 p.m. in the middle of God knows where Rick looks to me with a somber look and wearily asked me to sing him a song. This is not something that ever has happened, but due to the circumstances I figured it couldn’t worsen our mood, so I started singing a familiar tune. Soon Rick joined in and we were two hippies who lost our way singing the night away. It was quite humorous.

Finally, I had reached my tolerance capacity and made a desperate plea for our first paid night’s stay in a hotel. Even though we could have crashed at my P’s hotel in Seattle, waiting another hour was just unthinkable at that stage, thus the first hotel night since leaving Chicago July 1st and the first movie we’ve watched since then as well.

Today Rick and I split ways for the day. He went for a day hike with some Seattle friends while I caught up with my parents to get a flavor of the city. I have wanted to visit Seattle for quite a while (maybe Sleepless in Seattle had something to do with it) and it didn’t disappoint me.

Mom, Dad and I hopped on the hotel bus to bring us down to the Market Place where we spent half the day wandering into specialty and gift shops and watching fish being tossed in the air by fish vendors. We stopped to listen to one set of New Orleans style street musicians that was particularly entertaining. One guy played a washboard with metal tips on his fingers; another played a bass-sounding instrument made of a metal tub, a string and a long stick; another played a funky-sounding guitar.

The assortment of fish in these parts is so enticing that we had to stop for a fish and chips lunch. Being from the Midwest, I snatch up as much fresh seafood as I can get my hands on. We even stopped in the very first Starbuck’s. I was to learn later that the logo at this store is different than the logos of all the other branches; the girl on the original logo has wilder hair and a bare chest.

In the afternoon we took a tour of the Underground. Basically, it gave a history of the early settlers in Seattle and how backwards they did things. After a fire burned the city to the ground, townspeople began immediately building new homes. Soon an engineer brought up the great idea of leveling the ground from the 45% grade it was to 15%, but that was to take place after people had already begun rebuilding. They went ahead with the plan anyway by pushing soil over the first level of many newly built structures, and thus became a partial underground city. It was a fascinating tour made even more enjoyable by the fact that our guide was really funny and entertaining.

After Rick’s hike, he picked us up from a nearby lounge and drove us to a pizza place where we enjoyed the company of his friends Jay, Jen, Jack, Belinda and John. It was a fantastic day in Seattle for me that was topped off with a comfy and restful sleep in the P’s hotel room.