OLympic HiKe/EnCHaNted VaLLeY/QuiNalt RiveR

Elk, Bears, and Cougars are out at dusk! We make a point of being through with dinner, cleaned up with non scented baby wipes, food bags hung on the bear wire and we are tucked in for the night by dark.

We have talked, read, scriptures and prayers are done. It is 8:45 and we are tired enough to sleep, for a while anyway....

6 hours later my Big Agnes has gone flat and my hips are killing me. The moon has gone down and there are more stars than you can imagine. I wake Kathleen. It is a velvet black sky so thickly scattered with diamond-like stars we have trouble picking out the familiar constellations. A shooting star streaks directly overhead. I blow up Big Agnes and fall asleep again.

We hike through miles of virgin forest. There are 100's of trees, 100's of feet tall, 100's of years old and 10 people could not span their width. Some giants have fallen and their root systems alone are more than twice our height. The downed trees, nurse trees, provide the nutrients for a whole new forest. Everything is covered in thick moss. We have the best of all scenarios...we are hiking through a dense rain forest and it isn't raining on us!

Kathleen and I have been hiking together for 24 years. We have covered too many miles and topics to count. We talk as we hike, partly so we don't startle any bears in the area and partly to catch up on each other's lives. We talk of religion and politics and philosophy and books and plays and shows and husbands and children and people we both know and the other people we don't each know but have come to know over the years as we have told each other their stories. We talk about past hikes, igloos, Girl's Camp, how old and wrinkled we are getting and our various aches and pains. We somehow thought we would dodge that bullet...not so, here we are OLD! We talk about how our "unlikely friendship" began and how it has continued all these years. Kathleen will speak at my funeral.

We are camped along the Quinalt River the almost full moon has come up over the fir covered ridge and is so bright we can see our shadows clearly. We are wakened at 2:30. The elk are in rut and are bugling up and down river valley. No sleeping through that. It was awe inspiring! After a couple of hours I blow up Big Agnes again and we get some sleep.

The next morning we hike out 10 miles averaging 20 min miles. Not too bad for 2 old women. Don't know how long we can keep this up but Chuck, the Good Doctor says when we quit hiking we will be checking into a nursing home. True Story!

Wish you all could have come,
Bet you wish you all could have come,
Le Anne