2For66

Travel Dates: September 23-24, 2024

[Edit: October 24, 2024. I corrected the spelling of Darrel’s name. And I’ve fired my fact checker (which may only make things worse.]

[Edit: October 28, 2024. I changed “further north to farther north”. See my next blog post for the full explanation]

Every so often I ask myself if I should continue blogging. This time it took me a bit longer than usual to answer. I’ve decided “Yes”(obviously since I’m writing and you’re reading this post). It comes down to three reasons.

• I use my blog as my (public) journal. I can go back and get details on what I’ve read, what I’ve cooked, and where I’ve been. It’s proved much better than trying to remember.
• I think it’s important to actually publish pictures – especially of my travels and trains – because it helps keep me conscious of my improvement changes in photography. I learned a few years ago that publishing your work can help you focus on your work.
• Some people actually read my blog. With a little over 200 followers I’m no influencer by a long shot. But a couple of my friends actually read my blog and have encouraged me to keep going. Friends are definitely not a random sample. But knowing my blog may help someone decide to cook a dish or travel somewhere encourages me.

In 2022 and 2023 we have travelled to Canada with our friends the Mattilas. Last summer we looked at the calendar and figured why not make it three years in a row; so we mapped out a road trip to the Olympic Rain Forest in Washington and Victoria, B.C. Carla and I enjoyed this trip with a couple of other friends – Kate and Don – back before the pandemic. You can use these links to read about our time Lake Quinault, Olympic Rain Forest, and Victoria. This trip was exactly the same, only different.

We headed north on Monday September 23; after lunch in Aberdeen, Washington and a drive by the town of Humptulip we fetched up at the rustic Lake Quinault Lodge.

Being stiff from our drive we took a short walk along Lake Quinault. Mushrooms abounded.

There were plenty of trees; most upright, but a few had been chopped down. Here is a closeup of a downed (felled?) tree. Jim told us the notch on the upper center is where the loggers initially cut out a notch into which they inserted a board to stand on to cut down the tree a bit higher up.

Our hike was very short and we returned to the Mattila’s room for Happy Hour, then headed to the Lodge for dinner. After dinner the sun was setting and we were treated to a spectacular view.

We then headed to bed with plans to do a real hike the next day. When we headed up to the lodge for breakfast in the morning we saw this enormous spider web.

As we ate breakfast we planned our day. At our lunch stop in Aberdeen the day before, our waitress was very friendly and engaging. She was sooo happy that she would start Medicare in October – at that point only a week away. After telling her of our trip she told us that the locals love to visit the Tree of Life on the coast just north of Kalaloch. Looking forward to a treat we made the 45 minute drive on US 101 out to the coast. We didn’t see a signpost for it, but the clerk at the local lodge in Kalaloch assured us it was just ahead. Well, we found it using our GPS and pulled into the parking lot. Still no sign to a trail. Carla and Terri saw a couple walking out from the nearby campground and asked “Have you heard of the Tree of Life?” The wife dodged behind her husband and they just shook their head and quickly changed direction away from our wives. They looked like Carla and Terri were getting ready to hand them a religious tract or Bible. The four of us had a little chuckle.

Looking closely to our phone maps we headed down a wooden set of stairs to the beach and wandered. around. We saw another couple and asked them – with a different choice of words – if the Tree was near. They just jerked up their thumbs to point behind us. Oh, that’s it?

I can kind of see the attraction, the tree obviously took root in the berm above the beach years before only to have its foundation erode away. But still it grew. Maybe we should go back and tell the first couple we weren’t crazy. Nah.

We pondered what to do next: visit the Hoh Rain Forest or go back and hike farther on the trails around Lake Quinault. We decided to go back to the lake and visit the Rain Forest the following day on our drive up to Port Angeles to catch the ferry to Victoria, B.C.

We started out on a nice ½ mile loops at the Quinault Rain Forest trailhead that then connected to a longer trail. Living in western Oregon we are used to an abundance of green; but the Quinault Rain Forest is a step above. Nature consumes the trees and other vegetation that have fallen.

It was a bright day and I tried to capture the bits of reflected sunlight in the shade.

We also found a couple of waterfalls on Wallaby Creek. This picture is a snap from my iPhone shooting in non-live mode,

With a regular camera, you can set up a long exposure to get soft flowing water. I think it was Brian Matiash who demonstrated how to get a similar effect using an iPhone. First shoot in Live mode, then go into your photos and click on the little “Live” drop down box on the top left corner of the photo. You have a number of options including Loop and Bounce. The effect you want is “Long Exposure.” Using it you can get something like this.

There are a few drawbacks. Some of the photo got cropped automatically (I cropped it more here) and you get more softness than you would on a tripod because of the hand shake. But, I’ve been looking forward to using this effect for a while and was glad to get the chance.

Here is another pair of photos showing the difference.

Those leaves in the foreground really get messed up by my shaky hand; and there are other artifacts visible over the still water in the foreground.

The trail brought us back to the Lodge. Jim and I hiked back down the Lake Quinault trail to recover the car.

A few weeks before we left on our trip we had Suzanne and Darrel over for dinner; when we told them our trip plans they said “You MUST have dinner a The Salmon House Restaurant and you MUST have the salmon appetizer” a little up the road from the lodge. We did and we did; dinner and the appetizer were absolutely delicious. It’s a pretty simple little restaurant but oh my. If you are at Lake Quinault all six of us (Suzanne, Darrel, Jim, Terri, Carla and I) all highly recommend it.

The next day was for travel. A long drive up US 101 to Port Angeles with a stop at the Hoh Rain Forest. You’ll read all about that in my next post.