My Journey

[JerryYukon]

I was up with the sunrise Sunday morning and excited to finally get onto a mountain. I had plans to hike up to Baldy and Peak B, two peaks which were very close to one another. I started the truck and saw that I had less than a quarter of a tank of diesel. Since it was so early all the stations were closed so I decided to risk it and drove onward into the park. I came across a fallen tree above the road and I was unable to drive under it so I attempted to drive around it. As I tried to drive along the edge of the road and with all the weight of the rig, the road gave way and the right front of the truck dropped a good foot. If not for the four wheel drive I would not have gotten out of that jam. Since all my tools were in the Jeep, cutting was out of the question but I did have some rope and I was able to tie the tree out of my way. It was pretty scarey actually. The good news was that the skies were an awesome blue and the temperature was perfect for hiking. I spent the remainder of the morning lost as I hiked up several trails but never found my peaks. On my return to town the fuel light came on and we rolled into town on empty. I was back at the same restaurant for a late lunch. In the evening we went for a long walk at Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge (along the Strait of Juan de Fuca). We ended the day at a county park (Dungeness Landing) where the dogs could have a cool swim in the Strait.

The Incident

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The U.S. Side of the Strait of Juan De Fuca

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And Another One

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[memetotes]

Hey there...just got caught up on all your posts and enjoyed your comments and especially the photos! Sounds like it's been a fabulous trip so far. I'll remind the gang to visit your site as well as I know they'll enjoy keeping up with your trip. Lisa and Jay head will be heading west for their 10th anniversary trip this Thursday. It's a surprise for Lisa so I can't tell you online where they'll be going until after the fact.

Safe travels and a pat on the head to the pups Love, Glo

[memetotes]

Just read through all of your posts, and despite the 49+ hours that we just spent in a car from SLC --> ATL --> Boston, this makes me want to jump back in the car for more adventures. I loved reading all of your posts. The pictures are great. Yukon and Montana look like the perfect road trip companions. Wilson is jealous Lots of love from me, Albert and Wilson.

[mervifwdc]

This is it! Living the dream.

Love your dogs! Bet they are having as much fun as you are. It's funny for me to see the wal mart camping, it's the EXACT same in Spain where we spent a while CarreFour camping (bit like wall mart).

Keep the updates coming, I can see the tone more relaxed now that your really into it. It takes a few days or even weeks to believe it's really happening, at least thats how it was for us.

Merv and Sarah.

[JerryYukon]

Hey sis and guys (Wilson, Lauren, and the good doc)..........quite pleased to see you checking in. All is good here in the Pacific Northwest.

Meryifwdc............exactly, it does take time to get accustomed to a new way of living.

Sunday morning we awoke to cloudy skies and 54 degrees. I decided to go for my planned hike / summit attempt, so off we went for a summit attempt on Mt. Townsend (6,280'). It seemed like this would be a fairly straight forward climb based on the topo map posted at the trail head. Unfortunately for me it wasn't and once again I was unable to make a summit as I was hopelessly lost again. I did get in about (7) miles of hiking in some of the most awesome forest in America. On my way out I picked up (2) backpackers in my truck and sometimes it pays to be nice. They had a great topo map of the entire area with all of the trails shown.....exactly what I needed and they offered to give it to me. Sweet ! But my plans were to leave Monday morning. Hmmmm........after lots of thought Sunday night and constant reviewing of the map, I thought, I need to summit something in that area so my plans were changed and I decided to stay for another day.

A River Who's Name I Know Not

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Stop For Lunch

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[JerryYukon]

Up Tuesday morning and had a look outside and saw mostly blue skies with a bit of white clouds here and there. We got a late start but soon enough we were headed south into the mountains. Of course we easily found the trail head with our newly had map and we were off on our adventure. The trail was sooooo steep I could hardly believe it. At about 5,200' we left the trees and entered into beautiful fields of wild flowers, every color imaginable. It was awesome. I finally made it to the ridge line with sore thighs and calves. Literally I spent much of the hike on the balls of my feet as it was so steep. Anyhow, I hiked along the ridge line and made my summits of Baldy (6,280') and Peak B (6,120') which had eluded me several days before. The strait was cloud covered and the clouds were rolling up along the ridge line. I began to get concerned that finding the unmarked trail in the flowers would be difficult so I descended into the woods where the trail was easily found. Going down was every bit as difficult as going up...........just a different kind of difficult. After 1 1/2 + hours of descending I was back at the truck and quite content with my day's work. I was tired and sore, and I returned to my Wal Mart home, took several Motrin PM's, and hit the sack early. Slept wonderfully. Below are some pictures from the ridge line / summits from my day's hiking:

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[JerryYukon]

Wednesday was a planned rest day. We hung around the camper doing some camper cleaning and I decided to hit the laundromat. I kept glancing into the mountains and kept noticing that there wasn't a cloud in the sky. After lunch and finishing up at the laundromat, I couldn't take it anymore. I decided that since I had that map I would give Mt. Townsend another try. By the time we arrived at the trail head it was early evening and I started to think that it would be cool to watch the sun set from the summit. It took us a little over (2) hours to make the summit and I was so glad that I tried again. The views were phenomenal in all directions. I took my shirt off and soaked up the rays. We snacked on Gatorade and Granola Bars and just enjoyed the views to their fullest. After a while the winds started to pick up so I decided to head down to the camper. And once there, I decided to spend the night in the mountains rather than return to the Wal Mart. Last night I enjoyed the nearly full moon over the mountain peaks. Just so beautiful...........

We returned to Sequim this morning under cloudy skies and light rain. More errands and maybe it's finally time to move on........

View from Mt. Townsend Summit

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And Another

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Summit Dogs

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Camp Site

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[Jeeper11]

Ohh my doggies!!!! Miss them! Pictures are amaaazing! Million dollar views! Glad youre having fun! Stay safe!

[JerryYukon]

The dogs miss you as well pal I'm sure.

I guess my biggest news is that I found a place to take hot showers for $0.25. Hard to believe you can get anything for that. So after my last post I was off to get a shower. The remainder of the day was spent hanging out as best I can remember.

The following morning we finally left Sequim and drove west towards Port Angeles. I had plans to stop along the way and hike up to the summit of Blue Mountain (6,007'). Most of the work is done by your vehicle as there's a parking lot about 0.5 miles below the summit. I decided to take the camper up and spend the day up there since temperatures were expected to hit nearly 80 degrees. It never reached 70 degrees that high up so it turned out to be a wise decision. The road up was steep and narrow with lots of trees and rock walls to navigate around. I could see the temperature gauge on the transmission slowly rising. Once the transmission hit 220 degrees, I decided to stop for lunch and let it cool down. After we arrived at the parking lot we hung out there for the remainder of the day mostly hiking around, exploring, and I finally finished my second book of the trip. The truck didn't like the trip down either as the brakes were definitely burning. Once down it was a short drive to Port Angeles where we spent the night.

Today is (2) months living on the road. Hmmmm...............

Views From Blue Mountain

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Dogs On another Summit

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[JerryYukon]

I was up early this morning with plans to head into Olympic National Park and climb another peak but the road is closed this morning for the bicyclist, so here I sit at Starbucks waiting for the noon road opening..........

Anyhow, yesterday morning after my typical late start we drove into the park but this time we were on the main entrance road to the park, Hurricane Ridge Road. Tons of people up there as it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, not a cloud in the sky. We drove as far as we could and parked near the visitor's center. People were everywhere and it really sucked compared to my other days in the park. One guy yelled at me because the dogs weren't on a 6' leash. He was at least 100' from us. Oh well, just a reminder why I love being solo and away from the crowds. I decided to hike up to the summit of Hurricane Hill (5,757') which is a very popular hike in the park since there's a paved trail all the way to the summit. The RV was not allowed to go the trail head since the road is quiet narrow. I decided to hike from the visitor's center which was a (6) mile round trip hike to the summit on the hottest day of the year here (like 83 degrees I think ?). Afterwards we drove part way down the mountain, found a shady spot with a cool stream that flowed out of the side of the mountain. We spent the remainder of the day there relaxing and the dogs played in the small icy cold pool. After watching them,I decided to get my swim suit and lie down in the icy cold pool. That turned into a non soap bath which felt great. On the way down we came across a head on accident.....a van load of Asians and a Honda sports car full of teenagers.......can't imagine who was at fault there. Anyhow, we returned to our over night spot late that evening, and called it a day.

I've been thinking a lot about where to go next. I don't think that I'm going to Alaska now and I've been thinking about the Portland area although the temperatures don't look too good..........highs around 90 degrees. Oh well, one day at a time...............

Our Ice Cold Soaking Hole

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Crash On The Road

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Very Cool Expedition Vehicle

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