Hike to Cape Alava, March 12, 2006

14 hours outdoors on Sunday March 12th 2006...

This hike in the Olympic peninsula is listed as one of the great 100 hikes in Washington, 9.3 miles of Olympic wilderness. It takes about 5 hours drive from Seattle to the Cape. Adding 6 hours suggested hike time and 5 hours return journey to that made us feel that we need to start at 4 AM. And as it always happens, we left home at only 7:30 AM packed with grub for the way, some music, the map and our cameras. The weather was spectacular, bright sun and little chill. We hit the road, eating bananas and cheese curls and listening to NPR and 'Bunty aur Babli' alternatingly. The road was familiar to us from our last trip to the Olympic peninsula in 2005 and next in turn was the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry. We queued up for the ferry about 30 minutes before its departure and that was the ideal time for us to catch up a coffee and some croissants that we had picked up on the way. We were enjoying our coffee and mini breakfast at the "Waterfront Coffee House", when Tarun asked us to leave for the car. We came outside only to realize that he was very close and lines had started moving and we ran for the car. I was clumsy keeping my coffee while trying to make it to the car as soon as I could.

Next we were on the deck of the ferry enjoying the water and clicking pictures and suddenly, the camera's batteries died completely. We were feeling cold on the deck, and I think Tarun was feeling it more because he would refuse to wear any sweater and a plain rain jacket stood no chance there. So, we decided get back to the car and load new batteries in the camera. In the car I found my handbag missing and then it struck me that in haste to get to the car I had left my handbag in the coffee shop. This is not new to me, I am very forgetful. But fortunately, I had my money purse and all my card in it. I also had the bill from the coffee shop which had its phone no. So we called up the coffee shop to make sure the bag was still there and fix up a time to pick it up. I was feeling really stupid at that time but it was okay. There was a lesson for us: Never take the hand bag on a hike. Sure this can happen anywhere anytime but not at least on our hikes :)

We got down from the ferry and continued on 104 West and then 101 West to Cape Alava. This time along with music and food it was Tarun's inexplicable (can't say it is good :)) humor keeping both of us entertained. These highways are not typical straight roads but have a lot of twists and turns and they don't really suit me very well. I started feeling dizzy so I decided to doze off. When I opened my eyes were at the Lake Ozette Ranger Station, our destination. We packed the bag that tarun would carry with food and set off for way. Well, I just carried myself. :) We took the Cape Alava trail first. It was 1:20 and we decided that we would be fast in order to finish the hike in less than 6 hours. The Cape Alava trail is an easy hike of 3.3 miles. I was always on my toes to catch up Tarun, but I was more cautious in order to not slip along the way. All along the way Tarun would keep telling me we need a walky talky and my reply would be NO :). Pretty soon, we started hearing the sound of the ocean and before an hour was up we were there at the Olympic peninsula. We sat down for a little sandwich but what bothered me was making that little sandwich over there as we sat on small wobbling piece of wood. But we enjoyed the sandwich while watching the melting gold of sunlight in the ocean and the humbling vastness of the Pacific. Another lesson: Make the sandwiches at home, it reduces the payload as well.

We need to finish the hike and so we need to rush, thinking this we head out for our next trail, Cape Alava to Sandpoint trailway. This was the most fun of all. Seaweeds, unstable sand and gravel, rocks and fallen trees blocking the trailway. We had to negotiate through them all. Most interesting of all was that we were not sure how far and where the destination, Sandpoint trail, was. Someone we met on the way said its still 2 miles further. We set off on our way and somehow walking on the gravel and sand was the most difficult even more than that on the rocks. Tarun had seemed to create a funny name for me and he kept calling me from that name and he even wrote it on the sand. :) That was cute. We met two more people on the way who told that Sandpoint is 0.9 miles from there right by a tapering rock which we could see from there. We looked at our watches and we were right on track for beating the 6 hours time. We walked faster and those two gentlemen were left behind. We came to the tapering rock but we could see no trail. So we decided to walk aroud that rock. That meant again negotiating through the rocks. We saw bald eagles but no trail. All the area was surrounded by huge logs of wood. Tarun told me that we should follow the footsteps and they led us to a sign which was haunting us from the end of Cape Alava trail. We went up to that and thankfully we saw signs to Ozette Ranger Station, ahead 2.8 miles and we were still tracking good time.

We head back on that trail and Tarun was faster than before. I was somewhat tired and was not getting a good grip on the trail. Result: I slipped 3-4 times while Tarun was still trying to cheer me up calling me my funny name. But we made to the Ranger Station holding onto our sticks that we had picked up on the way in about 4 hours and a few minutes. It was the longest we have ever hiked, captured some of the most amazing views in our eyes and our cameras and stuck off one hike from our goal list of hikes.