The Shipwreck Coast and Hurricane Ridge Olympic National Park

Well, the initial plan was a 3 day 20.1 mile hike from Rialto Beach to Ozette, but I had too much to do to get the pickup ready to tow the Subaru to the ending point. Not to mention not enough money to get it done in time for the trip. So the trip was restructured to about 17 miles, Rialto Beach to Cedar Creek, but just over half way to Cedar Creek Heather's shin splints were acting up from climbing over all the rocks. At Cape Johnson we decided to turn back to the Chilean Memorial and just setup camp. At Cape Johnson and shortly pass it there is 2 points that have to be crossed before the tide gets too high and we were 1 to 2 hour from that high tide. Hast would of had to have been made and with Heather's shin splints it was decided that it would be best to just make camp at the Chilean Memorial and not create a death march for Heather. I really enjoy her company and don't want to wreck any future chance of her backpacking with me. So in total, the trip was 9 miles from Rialto Beach to Cape Johnson.

Day 1, After taking my chemistry quiz, we did the inevitable forgetful dance of leaving small things at the house and coming back before we finally escaped the clutches of the house. The extra hour of driving on Hwy 101, behind all the slow people that can't read the speed limit signs was brutal... After finally picking up our camping permit and bear canister from Port Angeles WIC we headed to the store for some food and other odds and ends. A few hours later we finally made it to Rialto Beach around 7ish on the trail by about 7:30ish. We hiked out roughly 1.3 miles just shy of Hole in the Wall and found a camp spot tucked away in the brush above the tide. Magically a softball appeared at the entrance of our camp after the tent was setup... Any ways we finished setting up camp and hoped to catch a sunset which wound up being fairly drab. Then off to bed for the night.

food line up for original length trip


At the parking lot before it was definitely filled upon return to the car.




















Hmmm...


Day 2,
We hiked from near Hole in the Rock to Cape Johnson and then back to the Chilean Memorial to setup camp and hang out for the day. This is the most down time I've had on a backpacking trip... At the Chilean Memorial we also got around to cooking some raspberry and strawberry oatmeal mixes, mmm... dehydrated berries and oatmeal! Than we played a few games of war, and collected some water. Found out that the activator for my Aquamira was a 1/4 full and the chlorine only had enough for one liter. Thankfully I carried in twice as much water as I normally carry. Lesson learned check both bottles for how full they are versus just one even though they are a 50/50 mix to purify, or as what I'm headed to REI for today... Micropur ClO2 tablets so that I can just carry what I'll need plus a few more. We had to use Dead Man anchors for all but 3 stake points on the myog tarptent. The stakes just didn't want to hold in the soft sand, but logs did :D .


Hole in the Wall






Along the way to Headwall.
















Headwall




Rounding towards Chilean Memorial




Shortly after turning around at Cape Johnson


Chilean Memorial/Camp area, The long down time...








Heather standing by for the water to boil for oatmeal




The Corona shot with Gatorade


Stickpic shots




Dinner time






Day 3,
Packed up and headed out for the car. Heather opted out of a breakfast stop along the way and we hiked through to the car and off to Forks for breakfast. Than off to the WIC in Port Angeles and we took a side venture to Hurricane Ridge.











Hurricane Ridge Olympic National Park







A little reflection here instead of another post... The pie tin windscreen will still be a temporary recyclable piece of gear and I'll just remake it as needed. It holds it's shape really well compared to the old aluminum foil one I had made previously, but some of the strong winds blew the flame enough to melt a little aluminum away near the burner head on one side. When I buy some .016 Ti sheeting to make a Mont-bell style trowel I'll probably just make a base out of that for a more permanent solution one day, for now I have 2 more pie tins and plenty of trips left on the current pie pan base.

As for the Tarptent, the permanent floor was a great modification, but I found one more thing to modify. I'll be putting elastic attachment points just like the corners halfway down the long side of the tarptent to keep the floor from migrating inwards as you move on the pad and reducing the center width of the floor. Other than that the tarptent worked great!

Also always check both bottles of your Aquamira for how full they are, or switch to Micropur tablets which are a higher concentrations of ClO2 and have a full EPA purification certification without doubling or tripling the amount of Aquamira you put in...