Olympic Peninsula Microadventure

“KEEP CLOSE TO NATURE’S HEART… AND BREAK CLEAR AWAY, ONCE IN AWHILE, AND CLIMB A MOUNTAIN OR SPEND A WEEK IN THE WOODS.  WASH YOUR SPIRIT CLEAN.”

-JOHN MUIR

We are constantly amazed at how little of the Pacific Northwest we’ve seen.  Lucky for us Overland the Americas and Vanderlust Americas live in Seattle and always invite us on microadventures!  This time we pointed the truck southwest to the Olympic Peninsula.  As usual, a lack of planning meant that we showed up only 10 minutes early to the Edmonds-Kingston ferry just north of Seattle.  As luck would have it we drove right past Ernesto and Taisa in their 4Runner, Sooty, pulled a quick u-turn and followed them into the ferry lineup just as it started to board.  So far so good!  Luck was on our side with timing… which made  up for the heavy rain we experienced the rest of the weekend.

After Nate was presented with his Canadian bag of ketchup chips we made our way to a free campsite near Cresent Lake with our newfound van friends Jamie and Megan leading the way to the Lyre River Campground (Lat: 48.150158, Lon: -123.8332123).

Dan from The 4×4 Podcast has talked about “The Trifecta of Misery”.  Cold.  Wet.  Hungry.  You can be two of these things, but not all three.  If you’re cold, wet, AND hungry then you’re going to be miserable.

Heeding this warning, the next morning we waited out the rain and stayed dry in the back of the truck before coffee, breakfast tacos, and route planning.  Once fully caffeinated and full of Trader Joe’s oatmeal and Jamie’s tacos we  hit the road.  We drove the backroad (W Twin Road to Natl Forest Development Road 30)  southwest towards Highway 101 and then northwest along 112 to Cape Flattery.  Cape Flattery is the most northwestern point on the contiguous United States. This is the point where the Juan de Fuca straight meets the Pacific Ocean. There is a short 20 minute hike to the coast that rewards you with amazing views. Definitely worth the eight some-odd hours of driving from Vancouver.

We’ve been using our new DeLorme InReach Explorer  to track our routes.  Here’s a screenshot we stole from our own Current Location page showing our route: