Olympic Beaches

This is not chronological anymore, but that can't really matter, can it?  I took a couple of days exploring beaches on the Olympic Peninsula before doing some mountain trails in Olympic National Park's Sol Duc and Hamma Hamma regions, because my knees could not handle anymore up and down for a bit.  I took peaks at Kalaloch and South Beaches, where camping is done and both looked ugly, gray, and cold.  Kalaloch was crowded and the lodge appears to me to be a barnacle-covered dump.  South Beach is a camping free for all, with thousands of vehicles and people just jingled together on a dull beach.  I pressed on to Beach Number 4 (not to be confused with the equally cleverly named 4th Beach).  Early morning I went tide pooling.  Heading south there was nothing but a long and tedious walk, to the north were a few people and a few small tidepools.  Saw 9 starfish which was fun as it was my first sightings ever.  Tried Ruby Beach which is pretty, took some pictures of a foggy morning, and found 2 more starfish, hard to spot and swept up in crashing surf.  No one else was going to find them that morning I think.  I was the only tidepooler willing to get feet wet.  Also found an interesting seed of some kind, like a huge apricot pit, red, smooth, and the size of a beach ball.  No guess on what it was.  Probably something radioactive from Japan.

Middle of the day I spent at the Hoh Rainforest, which I will post about separately.  Passed through Forks, WA, the most dismal place on earth, and home of the dismal Twilight story.  Need any "Twilight Firewood?"  I almost turned back for a picture of that sign.  Two stores in town are now "Twilight" gift shops.  Gack.  Twilight burgers, Twilight Motel...I was warned by a Washingtonian that there was a 14 year old girl pilgrimage here, and sure enough, saw a mother beaming as she snapped pictures of her daughter standing before the Forks town sign, also beaming, with Poppa.  Only thing I could have asked for more was if the family was Asian.  I've seen whole tour buses of Japanese people form lines in front of signs for places like "The Grand Canyon" before.  Actually travelled with one fellow from China who made us waste 45 minutes before the "Grand Canyon" entrance sign and then spent under 15 minutes looking at the actual canyon.  The purple starfish below was the fattest fellow I found and thus my favorite.  People actually steal these right off the beach, or kidnap them, as they are alive.  Who would let their kids rip a living thing off the wall and take it home in a baggy?  Jerks.  On the left notice 4 starfish. 

After the Hoh I went and looked at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd beaches.  2nd and 3rd require forest hikes in, 1st is accessed from an even more dismal town.  I forget the name and will not dignify it by looking it up.  Almost all towns on the Olympic Peninsula are frightening, sickening, or depressing.  I tell you that now.  Just assume.  You won't want to stay in any.  If its on the map, its awful.  Especially Port Angeles.  First beach was hideous and the others packed and I didn't want to hike miles just to find out whether or no they were hideous.  So I pressed on again to Rialto, tourist central of beaches.  Still, there is the famed Hole in the Rock, which is one of those natural places that can still impress even though 1500 people per day go and snap a picture of it.  The hike is 1.5 miles along the beach.  Sounds pleasant, but don't go in water shoes unless you have hiking shoes too.  Do not go in sandals.  There is no sand.  It is various sizes of rock, and shape of rock.  Sometimes large rocks, sometimes jagged pebbles, sometimes huge gritty crap that the waves will wash into your water shoes.  I had bad blisters by the time I reached Hole in the Rock, and had to walk back.  My watershoes are still loaded with silt and other crap I cannot get the last of out.  These were new watershoes and I should have known better than to trust them to fit right.  Though I still am not sure if it was the large grit being deposited by every wave or the shoes.  Probably a combination.  They were excellent for hopping about from rock to rock though.

No one else was near the water.  At first I found it odd, but they probably have done the hike before.  What else would a resident of Port Angeles do?  Sit around in Port Angeles, the worst place on earth?  The library does have a nice open wall of large glass windows providing a real inspiring view of the bleak town full of people where the following conversation was said in a men's room while I washed my hands nearby with immense pride (on both sides, followed by a joyful hug): "Dude!  Where have you been?  Haven't seen you in ages, brah!"  "Oh I been in jail, like 7 months, you remember that chick Christine, with the good tits, well I stalked her, saw my chance, followed her home one night, raped her, stabbed her a few times to keep her mouth shut, then tried to choke her, but she lived, you know."  "Sweet.  You on probation?"  You can't make this stuff up.  I wasn't worried by these gentleman, if you were wondering, though they outnumbered me 3 to 1 with another outside, late at night in a men's room.  Even had they mocked my "man purse" (World War 1 authentic German medical officer/Swiss cross logo canvas messenger bag), it was still holding my trusty skull-cracking baton, a large bowie knife, and at least one other weapon I won't reveal, so I had one for each of my thug friends.  But this did convince me not to sleep in that Safeway parking lot.

You cannot swim at Rialto Beach or many Olympic Beaches as the ripetides will carry you away, if the hidden large jagged rocks do not break your legs or trip you or gash your brains or the drift logs (massive stripped trees) or radioactive garbage from Japan (one sign: "keep an eye out for trash from other parts of the world and see what you can find!" Nothing like trying to amuse kids with a scavenger hunt out of pollution issues.  Way to get creative NPS!  I'd have never thought of disguising a problem that lazily.) could kill you, or sicken you.  There are many cool rock islands and things sticking out, and tide pools on raised rocks.  Hop about and scramble carefully and look at the sides by the water and you will find many starfish.  I went hunting for the beasties (with my camera) and snapped pics of at least 75.  Only one girl could compete with my genius for finding starfish, a cute little 8 year old type with huge rubber galoshes with a cow pattern on, who could not be dragged away by her family even by force.  She was spotting ones I missed, though did not find as many as I, I think, as she could not very well make the kind of leaps between waves to tiny outlier rocks I was making.  Fun.  And a good workout though I was supposed to be resting and recovering.  I did not work too hard or strain anything, and it gave children bad ideas and made them try to stray from their parents.  My work was done.

Hole in the Rock was at a high tide, which meant a scramble/climb on some easy cliffs that made many people pause.  Some groups turned back which is lame.  I offered to spot some ladies but they were chicken.  The eight year old girl kept popping around which is what often happens with girls that age.  I seem to be a dreamboat to them.  That and 40+ women, and unhappily married 40+ women in particular.  If I were a 40 year old looking for adulterous liaisons or a 9 year old, I'd be swimming in chicks.

I almost got a very bad idea.  I actually even began climbing the cliffs up around Hole in the Rock, simply to inspire some youth with more bad ideas, but with the wrong shoes, sore insteps (the best place to have blisters by the way), sandy cliffs, rock coming off in my hands, and the idea of rest upon me, I talked myself out of my usual brand of semi-stupid adventure.  What would have been the point of climbing a 200 foot wall when I had been and would be up mountains every other day?  Good choice.

 Observe the fine detail above.  See the underwater beetle to the left of the anemone.  Below: brotherly love.  I loved this big pile of starfish.

Sparkly gingerbread men poses.

 This one did not look comfortable trying to keep moist.

The walk back was brutal.  I tried wrapping my feet, I tried barefooting it, tried just ignoring the pain, but it was slow going.  Always test new watershoes, never trust a beach you are not familiar with, and don't believe all you hear about the beauty of the Olympic coast.  I prefer Oregon's coast, though I never saw a starfish in Oregon, I admit.  I heard a lot of talk about Shi Shi as a beautiful beach but it was far away down yet another long and ugly highway and requires multiple extra fees to be and park on reservation land.  Also I was told the hike in is very muddy and I would sink up to my ankles.  Ozette Loop is also popular but 2/3 of 9 miles is not on beach.  So again, I declined.  See 75 starfish of 5 colors and 20 rock towers in the surf, you've seen them all.