Saturday Summary - Week 32 - Ferries, Firesides & the Most Epic Kayak of the Trip

June 6 – June 12 | Port Townsend, WA (60s) → Rockport, WA (60s to 90s)

Where We Stayed

• Jefferson County Fairgrounds Campground — Port Townsend, WA (Monday)

• Howard Miller Steelhead County Park — Rockport, WA (Tuesday–Saturday)

Leaving Olympic — The Long Way Around

The Olympic Peninsula is big. Our campsite at Kalaloch was a three-hour drive from Port Townsend, where we needed to catch a ferry to reach the Cascades, another three hours beyond that. Rather than push it all in one day, we added a quick overnight in Port Townsend and took the morning ferry.

Port Townsend deserved more time than we gave it. It's a lovely historic town in a beautiful setting, and I filed it away as a place to return. On the drive there, we stopped in Sequim at Barhop Brewing and Artisan Pizza, which turned out to be a great find. The pizzas were creative in the best way; the crowd favorite uses curry as the base. We tried it. It was really good. Not what your brain pictures when it thinks "pizza," but maybe it should be. The bartender was fun to talk to, too. Those kinds of stops, the ones you find along the way without much planning, are some of our favorites. The county fairgrounds campground in Port Townsend was clean, central, and perfectly fine for a one-night stay. The next morning, we grabbed coffee and pastries nearby and headed to the ferry.

We wanted to take the ferry. There were other routes, but they went through Seattle, and beyond the traffic, we just wanted to do it. The bus has a story, and a ferry crossing is now part of it. We've actually taken one other ferry on the trip. Back in Week 14, in early February, crossing to Mustang Island State Park on Padre Island near Corpus Christi, TX. That one we didn't realize was coming. This one we planned for. When I first made the reservation, I wasn't sure Skuhlie would even fit, but that concern evaporated the moment I saw the tractor-trailer parked right next to us. We fit just fine.

Don had a couple of meetings on the drive, and I'll admit I miscalculated the distances, so we ended up pulled over at Deception Pass Lookout for one of them. The signal was weak; he made it through half the meeting before getting disconnected, and couldn't reconnect. Not ideal, not at all. Yet, when you consider that this is the only time in seven months on the road that something like that has happened, it's actually pretty remarkable. While Don wrestled with the signal, Lucky and I explored the Deception Pass trail and got a beautiful view of the bridge we were about to cross. The Washington coastline views from up there are truly phenomenal. Silver lining found.

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We were also very overdue for laundry. I still hadn't washed the clothes from my trip to Europe, which tells you something about the pace of the last few weeks. I found a laundromat right next to a grocery store, which is always a win. Two errands, one stop. I've been curious about Pacific Northwest food since we arrived, and before we got too far from the coast, I did a little research and tracked down a lovely local roadside seafood stand that also makes great sandwiches. I stocked the bus with local salt, fresh strawberries and cherries, and for lunch: a lobster roll, and crab cakes. All local, all delicious. That's the kind of grocery shopping I can get behind.

Howard Miller Steelhead County Park

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Five nights. The second-longest stay of the entire trip; the last time we stayed anywhere this long was at our very first campground, Croton-on-Hudson, back at the very beginning.

Howard Miller Steelhead County Park earned every one of those nights. Good trails right from the campsite. Stable WiFi. Clean restrooms and showers. A bar and grill just outside the campground gate. And the best camp hosts we've had on the whole trip. Karen and Rich, whom we got to know well over our stay, we visited their site a couple of evenings, getting great dry firewood from them, and enjoying the kind of easy campground friendship that makes for great memories.

The weather told its own story this week. We arrived in the rain, genuinely a little worried. By the end of our five days, it was sunny and 90 degrees. Ninety degrees. In Washington. We got to see this state truly shine, in every sense. Most evenings ended by the fire. It was exactly what we needed.

North Cascades: Epic on the Water

I went into the North Cascades with a full plan. Trails I'd researched, viewpoints I'd mapped out, a kayak launch I'd identified, a picnic lunch penciled in for midday. Ranger James at the visitor's center unraveled all of it within ten minutes, and I am so glad he did.

Two things he told me stopped me in my tracks.

First: dogs are allowed on all the trails near Route 20, because that corridor isn't actually part of North Cascades National Park. The land directly north and south of Rt 20 is Ross Lake National Recreation Area, a separate designation. The actual National Park is divided into two by it. So technically, I was never on official national park land the entire time. I'm counting it anyway.

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Second: midday winds on Diablo Lake are no joke. That's when most water rescues happen. Water rescues. We immediately scrapped the original plan and hit the water first thing.

We went straight to Diablo Lake, and I cannot overstate how amazing it was. Everything was perfect that day: warm, clear skies, the most beautiful fluffy clouds rolling slowly by, and absolutely no wind. The water was completely still. Barely anyone else was on the lake once we got away from the boat launch. We paddled lazily for over two hours, and I think we could have stayed out there all day.

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The jagged, snow-capped mountains are constantly on the horizon. The shoreline is all massive western hemlock, western red cedar, and Douglas-fir; I had to look those up afterward; all I knew in the moment was that they were beautiful and enormous. And the water has that same surreal quality as Crater Lake, an impossible color that doesn't quite look real. We paddled back close to three o'clock, and just as we were reaching the boat launch, the wind started picking up. Exactly as Ranger James had said it would. I love talking to rangers.

One more thing about Ranger James: he spotted my Finger Lakes necklace and said, "Are those the Finger Lakes?" I could have hugged him. There I was in Washington State, and someone recognized the necklace, a gift from my colleagues at Tour Cayuga when I resigned. I wear it because I love it, and I love it even more when it starts a conversation. Turns out Ranger James grew up in Buffalo and went to Syracuse University. He also used to work at Glacier National Park and gave us tips on kayaking Lake St. Mary while he was at it. We'll be there soon.

After the kayak, we were wiped out. We stopped at a couple of overlooks, did the short and beautiful Trail of Cedars hike, then headed back to camp. After a conversation with Karen and Rich, we headed for a burger and a beer, and a campfire to close out the week.

One of those weeks where you go to bed thinking: was today even real? Because it was so perfect.

Next up: Wrapping up Washington and heading to Idaho.