Today was full. I woke up at 4:45 am but felt weirdly rested. We camped in Ben’s yard. Waking up in a tent feels natural to me already. We had intended to visit Cape Flattery today, which I guess is the westernmost point in the lower 48, but it sits on a reservation, which is currently Covid-closed to the public. Disappointing, but understandable.

We went instead to a beautiful lake and hiked through a rich, ferny forest with some of the biggest cedars I’ve ever seen. The trail started at Crescent Lake, which is fed by a glacier, and traveled along Barnes Creek. The ferns had my eyes popping, but the wildflowers were also in bloom and the air smelled amazing. I just kept drinking it in, in huge, slow breaths and savoring it like I’d never experienced truly fresh air before and might never again. I love this part of the country.

After our hike, Ben drove us to Rialto beach, where tons of enormous trees had washed up in piles, forming an incredible maze that we climbed around on for a while. The beach was covered in smooth ocean-tossed pebbles. I always feel suddenly like a magpie on a beach like this, compelled to collect and possess all of the most beautiful things I can find and take them home with me. I know this is a common impulse, because most places have signs admonishing it, and they’re right. We can’t all take the best stuff home with us and expect to still find it out there. Loving and possessing are different things, but we are so quick to conflate them. 

I have a pretty strong personal conviction to follow “leave no trace” principles in these special places, which was enough to temper my greed, but I also found some humor in my silly desire to carry literal rocks on my bike, after I had painstakingly packed it so carefully and minimally to be lightweight, knowing that every ounce I committed to carrying would make every mile another ounce harder. I did pilfer one small pebble to carry with me to the next ocean.

After we’d had enough ocean spray, we headed back to Ben’s place and stopped for ice cream at a little spot called Granny’s. It was nice to just ride through the beautiful landscape and catch up with Ben.

We had salmon, asparagus, corn, and squash on the grill for dinner. We met Ben’s girlfriend Shaylee, and chatted with his housemates some more. Shaylee is a tea farmer and mom of three kids who she homeschools. She talked about raising goats, geese, quail, and some other farmy things. She suggested we reach out to her friend in Anacortes if we need a place to pitch our tents.

Tomorrow, we’ll take the 9:30 am ferry to Coupeville to get started.