The forecast predicted mostly clear with some clouds, but since we are in a rainforest… Yeah, it rained! But it was only light rain and by the time we woke up it was mostly clouds and a bit of sun. Packing up took a bit longer than normal due to the drying involved.
We planned to grab breakfast at the Hard Rain cafe on Hoh Rover road. We hoped that on a fairly nice Saturday morning they would have to be open. They weren’t and breakfast would have to wait! The sign on their door made it pretty clear that they work when they feel like it, and I guess today they had other priorities.
Yeah….Nah… not working today!
So we carried on south headed for the Pacific beaches and its wild shorelines. We stopped at Ruby Beach for a short walk then continued south along the shore on the famous “101” until we found a lodge that served food. By the time we got there it was well into lunch hours.
Ruby beach
Fed and watered we carried on to find the worlds largest Sitka Spruce tree, a monster of over 1000 years of age, quite possibly 2000. Pretty cool to have up at. In the small town we managed to find an internet connection to look up weather. In the Pacific west its often rainy and our plans are now more or less dictated by the weather. We are lucky, as the forecast says good for the week to come. So, as they say, make hay when the sunshine, we are planning on making hay! So with our updated route plans, we headed south east 200kms towards Mount St Helen. Our route took us away from the rain forests and through farmlands and logging forests. We also ended up on our first interstate in 3 months. We found our campsite which appeared deserted and ghostly, mostly because the state park closes in a few days and the caretakers have already left. There are a few other people staying here but it’s nice and quiet.
Worlds largest Sitka Spruce
With no supplies we went looking for dinner in a nearby country town. We settled for a Mexican place which turned out to be quite nice. Portions are, as per usual, big enough to turn into 2 meals so we have lunch for tomorrow too! 20:30 and pitch black, we headed back to our camp. The gates Into the park were closed but with enough room for a motorcycle (even with panniers) we got in, no issues.
Cool Mexican joint in Napavine
Hard rain café makes think of the local mentality here!
When a shop is open doesn’t mean they’ll be there to serve you and when a worker shows up to have a job done at home, you’re lucky, same-same.
The spruce is quite impressive and that’s an understatement.
Head down guys, go with the weather.
It never rains in California, but always sun makes a desert.
Baci on Friday 29
First picture looks like you used a special effect on your camera to bend the trees over the road … nice road.
The tenant of the Hard rain cafe seem to be a funny
guy 🙂
Majedtuous tree that Sitka !! Impressive !
You have surrounded Seattle by now so I guess the problem on Zoe’s bike isn’t urgent. Time to have a look at now huh before it gets worse.
Back up North than ?