Back To The Mountains
The day began very foggy at South Beach. Even with our front row seat, we could hardly see the water. It was time to move on. Sitting around, even in a beautiful spot, has limited charms. We were also running out of provisions. I was almost out of milk, Ellen was out of both coffee and wine and we were down to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. The refrigerator had been staying cold and the ice was almost gone so we were ready to take chance at refilling it.
We left early and headed into the fog, which soon lifted to reveal another sunny day. We went south on US 101 to the small city of Aberdeen where we stopped to do laundry...we were also running low on clean clothes. The Valley Cleaners has a very good laundromat with fairly new and fast machines. The people running are also very helpful and pleasant. We were in an out quickly and drove east towards Olympia, stopping in the suburb of Lacey at a Fred Meyers to buy an inordinate supply of food. With the addition of a tank of diesel for Speedy, we were now ready to tackle Mt. Rainier and points east.
It looks like we have finally parted company with Harry and Sally and will next see them at home. We had hoped to intersect as they did a clockwise tour around Olympic National Park, but they have been having a sensor problem with their Roadtrek and the Bremerton Chevrolet Dealer seems pretty incompetent. They are having to spend a second day there. Since they will be staying out here for a couple of more weeks visiting and traveling with family, we will be returning home without their company. It has been fun and we'll miss them.
The road out of Lacey was pretty crowded. It was definitely driving in suburbia for a while. When we finally left the traffic behind the road headed uphill towards the park. It also became really twisty with lots of 20 mph curves. It was an excellent sportbike road, although we saw only one. We also had some fine views of Mt. Rainier on the way. There was a bit of haze, but it was a brilliant day to see the mountain.
We finally arrived at the park around 4pm after a longer than expected, but fun, drive. After stopping at the Wilderness Access Center for day hiking information, we made our way to the Cougar Rock campground. It is a wooded campground, but the tall trees seem much more open here. After the requisite drive through all the open loops, we took a nice drive-through site for the night.
It is much cooler. and drier here than along the coast and, once the sun set, it is very dark. Tomorrow we are off to the visitor center, the next campground and a day hike on the mountain.
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