Day 62 (July 7, 2010)– North Cascades National Park

The plan had been to leave around 8:15 this morning but the trail lunches were not ready on time so we left a little later than planned. Around 11:30 we found a sports bar to watch the soccer game at until the waitress ID us and realized 2 of the 3 of us were under 21. So we got direction to a Mexican Restaurant and ate and watched the game there. I was rooting for Germany, but they played like crap and deserved to lose to Spain. From the restaurant we drove the rest of the way to North Cascades and Ross Lake. Once in the Recreation Area, we stopped at the visitor center and got trail conditions and then drove though the park along the river to Diablo and Ross Lake. At Ross Lake, we hiked down to the dam.

The dam was cool, but we couldn’t go swimming like Ross wanted too. After that we drove to our camp site which was about an hour away from the lake, but close to our trailhead. The camp site we picked was close to the river and toilet but the campground didn’t have running water which meant we would need go into town and get some water before our hike tomorrow.

We bought some fire wood and made a fire and had dinner and roasted marshmallows, and then went to bed. Though we brought two two-person tents, however Ross decided to sleep outside while Nadine and I were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes so we slept in one of the tents.

Day 60 and 61 (July 5 and 6, 2010)– Work and Trip Planning

For now there is nothing to do but work and plan my next adventure. For this week’s days off, I am planning a trip to North Cascades National Park with two of my friends. The current plan is to leave Wed. morning, and stop somewhere at 11:30 to watch the Germany Spain Soccer game and then drive up to the Ross Lake National Recreation Area and have some fun there. Then camp at Marble Creek Campground and the next day hike up to Hidden Lake.

Day 59 (July 4, 2010)– Happy 4th of July and NO Fireworks

Well this is the first 4th of July that I haven’t been home for that I truly missed not being home. I missed going shopping for fireworks at Bimbo’s on July 3rd with my dad. I missed shooting firecrackers and the cannon’s off with my dad in the morning. Yes, my dad does have a cannon. It is not a full size one just a mini one, but my dad made it himself. And it’s fun to shoot off.
Another bad thing about this 4th of July is that the weather is awful up here. It is cold and cloudy.

Day 58 (July 3, 2010)– Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad! I am not sure how old he is but he is somewhere between 50 and 60. Basically he is older than dirt, but I love him anyways. I did actually have time to call and talk to him.

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday Dear Daddy

Happy Birthday to You.

Day 56 and 57 (July 1 and 2, 2010)– Work and Cold Weather

Coming back from Olympic to Mount Rainier was a big shock. The temperature had dropped about 20 degree and whiteouts were occurring again. In case you can’t figure out what a whiteout is it is when a fog bank rolls in and you are luck If you can see 5 feet in front of you. So basically the only thing to do was work and hang out in the lodge.

Olympic National Park – Mora and Hoh Rain Forest

My day started early. I was at the beach at 7:30 am to hike the mile plus out to Hole in the Wall Beach to be ready for low tide at roughly 9:00 am. Hiking in sand is much harder then one would think. As much as I hate hiking in snow, I think I hate hiking in sand more.


I wasn’t exactly sure how to tell when I had arrived at Hole in the Wall Beach, but it was fairly obvious when I got there.

From there I explored the many tide pools. The starfish and anemones were really cool.

After the tide started to come back up I headed up to the Hoh Rain Forest. This was a really cool place even if it did look very similar to Mount Rainier without the Mountain and slightly different plants. I hiked the two tourist trail: Hall of Mosses and Spruce Nature Trail. Both trails gave me a good overview of the rainforest and its ecosystem. Though I did have to put up with annoying tourists.

A Rant on Twilight

I know this is a blog about my summer adventure, but really feel the need to go on a slight rant about the obsession people have with these books. For those of you who don’t pay attention to book’s setting you might have missed that Twilight is set in the area around Olympic National Park. This means that my trip to Olympic also included a visit to many of the places found in Twilight. My first encounter with the Twilight obsessed was driving to Mora. I was driving along towards Mora, which happens to be near La Push. As I was turning towards Mora, there was a sign one of the stores labeling the Cullen treaty line. My first thought was really people. I wondered if people did stop and take a picture. As I was checking my map to see which road I turned on to, a tour bus pulled up and a large group of people got out and started taking pictures with the sign. I am no kidding about any of this. The next disturbing thing was that the tour bus was a specific Twilight tour bus.


My next issue with Twilight was the town of Forks. My real question for the people of Forks is did they have an industry outside of Twilight. I made one stop in the town for gas, and as I was driving though it seemed like every store window had Twilight something in it. It was really sad.

Sorry for the rant, but I felt that it was necessary to share how obsessed some people are.

Day 54 (June 29, 2010)– Olympic National Park – Hurricane Ridge, Crescent Lake, Sol Duc

Olympic National Park is amazing. I have a book on the National Parks of the United States, and it outlines ways to visit the park if you only have a few days. Today I was driving the Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent and Sol Duc path. I woke up this morning and I had picked a pretty cool place to sleep. From the campground, I drove up to Hurricane Ridge in hope in seeing Mount Olympic.

But alas, the mountain was clouded over. From Hurricane I drove toward Sol Duc. On the way I stopped Crescent Lake. Crescent Lake has a cool Indian story attached to it. The legend states the Mount Storm King, angered at the fighting between the Quileute and Clallam Indians, threw a boulder, killing the combatants and splitting the lake in two.

At Crecent Lake, I hiked to Marymere Falls.

After that hike, I drove up to Sol Duc and hiked a 6 mile loop called Lover’s Lane. This loop is named Lover’s Lane because if you are there at the right time you can see salmon mating. I was visiting at the wrong time. This trail also passes Sol Duc Falls.

 

My original park plan had me camping in the Hoh Rain Forest and then going to the beach in the afternoon. But low tide was in the morning, so I camped at Mora Campground, and ate dinner by the beach and watched the sunset. It was suppose to be a clear day, and I was hoping to see the green flash but no, and the I was hoping for a nice sunset but alas I go neither.

Day 53 (June 28, 2010)– Server Leaving and MAST Class

Ok, so this morning my plans were completely turned upside down. One of the servers quit this morning. This means that we no longer have to many bussers, so I don’t need to take the MAST class. I am not sure how one server quitting means we no longer have too many bussers, but apparently it does. My plan to go to Olympic hasn’t changed; I just no longer need to rush out after work and drive.

Well later in the day, Wes (my boss’s boss) wants to serve whenever possible so he told me to take the class. So my original plan was back on. I left work and drove to the class and made it with about 3 mins. to spare.

In the course of the 3 hour MAST class, I can summarize it in the following three points.

1. Do not serve visibly drunk people.
2. Check I.D.s (Do not serve minors)
3. People are not responsible for their actions while drinking.

After the class I drove to Olympic National Park, where I was planning on camping in the Heart O'the Hills.  But I got there are midnight so I just slept in my car.

Day 52 (June 27, 2010)– Job Offer

Due to the increased number of bussers, Kyle our manager is going to be forced to cut the number of hours we each get a week. However, the other hotel on the mountain is in desperate need of servers. So Kyle came to me with a job offer. I could stay working at Paradise and have my hours cut or I could go work at Longmire and have a serving position. This is a great oppurtiuty, but there is a catch. I need a MAST (Mandatory Alcohol Server Training) card. That is not a big deal it’s a three hour class. The problem lies in the fact that I am going to Olympic National Park on Tuesday and Wednesday, and closest class to the mountain is on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. which kills the going to Olympic plan. So I asked for some time to think and decided to see if there were any other classes offered on Monday and were on my way to Olympic. I was in luck and there was so I am planning on taking the job at Longmire.

Day 50, and 51 (June 25 and 26, 2010)– Work and Soccer

The last two days have been work and soccer. I really haven’t done anything else, at this point I am torn between hiking, and watching soccer. I know it would seem logical to most people to not watch the world cup and go hiking but it the WORLD CUP and only happens every four years. In addition, there is the fact that I have hiked everything that is snow free in the park.

Day 49 (June 24, 2010)– The Dumbest Question I have been asked by a Tourist

Yesterday, on my hike I took a fully packed backpack so I could practice for my Wonderland Hikes. I was feeling lazy when I got back yesterday, so I waited until after work today to bring my pack up. I was bringing my pack up when a tourist stopped and asked me if I had just gotten back from climbing the mountain. This might not seem like a dumb question seeing as I was carrying a pack, but it was due to the clothing I was wearing. Drum roll please, I was wearing a short sleeved t-shirt, a pair of shorts and flip-flops. I really wanted to say “yes I climb the mountain in shorts and flip-flops” but alas I did not. Though I really wanted to.

Day 48 (June 23, 2010)–A Great Victory, and More Hiking

Today was the day, the U.S. verses Ghana game. This game determined whether the U.S. moved on to the next round of the world cup. It was a very stressful game because the U.S. could only guarantee they moved on by winning this game, they could move on with a tie as long as certain things happened. It took the U.S. over 90 minutes to win, but Landon Donavan scored and the U.S. moved on in there group and also won the group.

After the soccer game, I decided to go hiking up West Side Road and attempt to make it to round pass for the second time. I made it about a mile up the trail when I spotted this unmarked trail and decided to hike up this trail. I hike about a half mile up it and then realized that if I got lost no one would be able to find me due to being lost in an area I was not planning to hike. At this point, it was getting late and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to make it up to Round Pass so I headed back to my car.

Day 47 (June 22, 2010)– 6.5 Miles More Miles Down

     Another section of Wonderland down, I had been wanting to hike from Narada Falls to Box Canyon for a while, but there had been some flood damage so I couldn’t do a couple of weeks ago. This hike was 8.9 miles including 2.4 miles that I had already done but it was a lot of fun.

     This hike needed to be a two car shuttle hike so I found another person to hike with who had a drivers license and borrowed Bree’s car. We dropped the cars off and started out hike. The hike immediately got interesting when the patches of snow went from nothing to 5 feet high and we had to climb up and down them. Once we got up the incline, the trail evened out but we lost the trail completely so I had to get out my compass and navigate that way. Once we found the road we were golden. From there we hiked by the still frozen reflection lakes. From there we followed the road since the trail was under snow and we couldn’t find it. When we found the trail again, we could see about 10 yards of it and then attempted to follow it though we lost it shortly after finding it again. This made the rest of the trek downhill very interesting. Basically, we hike downhill thought the branches, trees, and brier bushes until we found the road and the next part of our trail.

     Once we found the trail again the going was easy. We hike past Martha Falls. I was hoping to see a bear near there. A couple of sightings have occurred there. But alas no joy on that endeavor.

     From Martha, we marched on. From there I rapidly realized why, I was told not to hike this trail earlier. At several places there were visible signs of landslides.

     From there we crossed over to Maple Creek Camp to the section of Wonderland I had already hiked. This section was just like the last time just without the snake. Though we did get a really cool sighting that I don’t have pictures of which was two elk and a calf.

Day 46 (June 21, 2010)– An Annoying Early Morning

So this morning I got up at 4:30 to watch the Portugal – North Korea game. I got down to the TV room only to find out the ESPN was showing tennis rather than my soccer game on the channel for soccer and the TV couldn’t get a sign on the channel suppose to be showing tennis. Since I couldn’t watch my soccer game I went back to be until it was time for the breakfast shift to start a 6:30 a.m. After breakfast, I went down to watch the Spain-Honduras game. I was pulling for the underdog Honduras team because I wanted to see France, Italy, and Spain get out of the world cup. Alas, Spain lived to see another game.

I tried to avoid finding out the score of the Portugal – North Korea game until I could watch the rerun but alas, that was not possible but I was really excited about the score. 7-0 in favor of Portugal.

Day 45 (June 20, 2010)– Happy Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day to all. Needless to say, we were expecting a big day on the mountain and a really busing brunch, but that wasn’t the case. Brunch was beyond slow and I got cut early which really sucked. I hate not being able to do anything and then getting cut because I still couldn’t do anything because I worked dinner as well. Even though I got cut I did get to come back and eat brunch. Brunch is my favorite meal of the week. Dinner was about the same as brunch but they didn’t have as many bussers on so I didn’t get cut this time.

Day 44 (June 19, 2010)– More Work

Today was a exclusively work day, due to working an Lunch/Dinner shift and bad weather. I didn’t watch soccer because I felt there was no good reason to watch the games today; nobody I cared about was playing.

Day 43 (June 18, 2010)– Very Early Morning

I am a very dedicated soccer fan. I got up at 4:00 a.m. in the morning to watch a soccer game. I know this is nuts, but it was Germany playing Serbia (which the reefing was awful). I mean come one 7 yellow cards the first half and two to Klosa so he gets thrown out. It was RIDUCULUS. After the 4:30 soccer game, I took a nap and then got up to watch the U.S. - Slovakia game.


That was a stressful game. The U.S. was down 2-0 at half time and slowly came back 2-2. But yet again bad reefing screwed the U.S. over, the U.S. put in a late goal that the ref called back for some unknown reason. He called in a U.S. foul or offside, but the footage show no U.S. player off side and at least 3 Slovakia fouls (and possibly a red card). One of the Slovakia players has there arms around Michal Bradley and is holding him back, personally I would have shown at least a yellow card for that, and maybe a red.

Other than that work was good, though my boss found it funny I was getting World Cup updates from the porter.

Day 42 (June 17, 2010)– Work, and simply work

So today was a really long day, I worked 12.5 hours. A normal day up here is between 3.5 and 9 unless it’s a Sunday then its 10. Why you might ask, one of my co-workers wanted to go to Seattle, so I picked up there shift. I liked working the extra hours.

Day 41 (June 16, 2010)– Snow in June and even more World Cup

Another day off with miserable weather, I think today was the most annoying morning I since I have been here. We got an inch of snow sometime during the night. This was really suspiring seeing as its JUNE. So I didn’t work until lunch so I got to watch the Spain vs. Switzerland game where Spain lost. Hopefully they will get eliminated in the group stages.

Seattle, Again, and Yes I am an Engineering Nerd

I decide that since today was miserable weather on the mountain, that I would go to Seattle and be a tourist for the day. So I left after the morning soccer games, I got in my car and the low tire pressure light was on again. (I don’t know if I mention that the low pressure light was on in Yellowstone but it was) I stopped at Ashford and filled the tire and was going to get it looked at later. It was a very uneventful three hour drive to Seattle, though I did make a pit stop to see the location of an engineering bridge disaster. I am sure most my engineering and science oriented friends can guess what bridge disaster I am referring to. Yep, it’s the Tacoma Narrows or “Galloping Gertie.” Here is the original footage of the bridge collapse.

I drove across the new bridge and then on to Seattle. Once in Seattle, I visited Pike’s Place Market and did some browsing/shopping. I spent most of the morning exploring the market and surround area.

From there, I tried to find a Honda dealership to get my tire looked at, but my GPS couldn’t get me to one that actually existed so I gave up. I was going to eat dinner on the Space Needle, but when most the menu is over $50.00, I decided not to. But I did go up the Space Needle.

From the Space Needle, I headed back to the mountain. Though driving up the mountain was an interesting experience due to the white out conditions and only being able to see a foot in front of my car.