Today was a day of saying goodbye to Oregon (for now) and heading into the green forests of Washington!

Best Laid Plans

For Day 9 (June 17, 2010) the plan was this:

This morning, we plan to cross the Columbia River at Astoria (the setting of 1985’s The Goonies), and move inland a bit as we travel north on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula to Olympic National Park, where we will (hopefully) be staying at the Hoh River Campsite (which takes no reservations, thus the “hopefully”). In the evening, we will likely head back out to the beach (which is also part of the National Park).

What Actually Transpired

Today we went back to Cannon Beach (this time at low tide) and explored the beach area – particularly Haystack Rock – until the local beach committee asked us to get farther away from the rock so as not to disturb nesting seagulls (the rats of the Pacific). From there, we headed north past Astoria (Goonieville), over a 4-mile-bridge into Washington, and up into the Olympic Peninsula. We searched in vain for a KFC/Taco Bell or an Abby’s Legendary Pizza on the way, but none was to be found.
Later, we wandered up and down Ruby Beach in Olympic National Park, before heading to our campsite on the upper Hoh River (whose name made Jordan giggle every time someone said it). For supper, we lit a fire (one of us successfully, one of us not – not naming names, though) to heat our gourmet dinner from “the Chef” (Boyardee), and then headed to bed, once Jordan had scared away all living creatures in a 40-mile radius with his (tuba and trombone) mouthpiece exercises.

Odometer Start: 37742
Odometer End: 37985
Total Miles: 243 miles

Funny/Deep/Odd/Profound Observations

“What is it with Oregon and not letting us pump our own gas?”

Pictures

Here’s a link to the day’s photo album and its slide show.