I feel like ten different people after a couple of days in the woods. Better, less grouchy people. I love my studio apartment but when you live in a small box it's important to get out of there from time to time. There were no disasters--nothing worse happened than my campground book's driving directions being wrong, which was annoying but not annoying on the scale of having one's car explode.
The first day I hiked and camped on the Hoh River, which is near the coast and super rainforesty and lush. The campground was fairly deserted and I had a really pretty spot right on the river.
On the way into the Hoh entrance to Olympic, there is a sign that says "Big Spruce," and an arrow pointing to a particular tree. I found this kind of endearing--they weren't saying it was the biggest tree or the oldest or anything, it was just a real nice tree, and they thought maybe you might enjoy looking at it.
The next day I went up to Hurricane Ridge and hiked up in the alpine meadows, which are pretty impressive because you have the glacier-covered Olympics staring at you on one side, and you can look down and see the water on the other. I probably hiked a little over seven miles each day, which a non-hiking friend called hardcore but is actually mediumcore, at best. I don't really go for the whole "no pain, no gain" thing--my philosophy is more like, "no pain, awesome." I just like to be outside and see stuff. Wildlife sightings included elk, deer, a bunny (a German child had spotted it on the trail and was madly taking pictures while his parents looked on), a pheasant-y looking thing that I meant to look up in my guide but forgot, and possibly an eagle, although I'm not so good at identifying birds in flight.
It was really good to be by myself and to have the opportunity to shut the hell up for a change. I think I figured out what exactly has been up my butt the past few weeks, and hopefully killed it.
There were times when it would have been nice to have someone with me--like when I wanted something from the backseat that I couldn't reach, for instance. But then, I find that sometimes when you have other people with you they get irritated when you play the same song over and over and over and sing it at the top of yours lungs. It's a trade off.
This afternoon I have to go to court to contest that ticket (yikes), and tomorrow early it's home to Bama. Everything seems to be happening so, so fast.
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