DAY 10: LAKE CRESCENT, WA

If I’m going to get eaten by a bear on this trip, tonight is the night. Portland has been in the tent since we got back to the campsite around six o’clock, and I’m typing after dinner by the fire. We’re in Washington state on the Olympic Peninsula, past Port Angeles on Lake Crescent. Fairholme Campground in Olympic National Park.

It felt a little crazy leaving the city of Portland this morning, so often a destination for me that it seemed very strange to leave without spending much time or even seeing the city. That is an adventure for another day. This morning started with me waking from my hammock cot, wrapped in a Mexican blanket and my ancient old green Coleman sleeping bag, bought at K-Mart back in third grade prior to my first-ever camping trips as a part of the curriculum at “Academy Wild,” Regent Square Elementary.

Portland was ready to go out this morning, so I took him out back into Zack’s tiered yard, and when I got back in, Zack, who I thought had just left for work, came back to ask for my help in jumping his car. Glad to be helpful!

After that, I started to get ready for the day, finishing up yesterday’s post over cold brew coffee with oat milk creamer and then showering and packing up the car. Zack has taken up the hobby of sourdough bread making during Covid and there were two small rolls on the kitchen counter. He’d told me last night that I’d have to have one, so I popped it in the toaster oven and enjoyed it with cream cheese for breakfast.

After the car was loaded, Portland and I took a little walk in the neighborhood not far from the Portland airport (PDX). The Grotto Catholic attraction and convent are just at the end of Zack’s street and though I’ve known about this place for years, I’ve never been. It isn’t dog friendly inside the gates, but I could see The Grotto from the street outside the fence and I’ll make it a point to visit later in the week.

We were off. Easily hopping on to I-205 and across the Columbia River over into Washington. The drive would take about four and a half hours to get out to the campground on the Olympic Peninsula. Of all the driving I’ve done on this trip, this feels like the crazy part. It was an idea in my thought bubble but not a solid part of the original plan. Weather and mood dependent. Our destination, Lake Crescent, was a place that struck me on my first trip driving through the Olympic Peninsula a few years ago. It is especially beautiful, a lake caught right in a hug of tall, pine covered mountains on all sides, and when I saw it all those years ago, I knew I would have to return to camp here one day. The Fairholme Campground is, in my research, the only place I’ve found with waterfront campsites in the area, and luckily it is open this late in the season.

The drive out seemed easy since it was so scenic and I had some great company for my journey, catching up with my friend Jorge in Alaska. I usually talk to Mom at some point in my drive each day, but it always seems to be around the point where reception is spotty and we end up in a cycle of “hello?” hello’s, asking each other, “can you hear me?” and eventually finishing our conversation or getting cut off short.

Most of the time on today’s drive was spent along the two lane highway 101, driving along the water through small towns and through the mountains in Olympic National Forest/National Park. There were so many places I passed that I would have loved to stop, but I was on a mission to get to the campground to set up with time to explore before dark. I can take a more leisurely trip back tomorrow.

I made a stop in Port Angeles to pick up lunch to go at Toga’s Soup House, a cute restaurant in a Victorian House that is only open for drive through right now. They had a drive through window at the back of the house with a full menu including combo soup and sandwich meals, which is what I decided on. I also grabbed a marionberry scone for breakfast tomorrow. In just a few minutes, they delivered my meal to me in my car in their parking lot and I was back on the road, watching for a picnic spot along 101 (I had originally planned to eat at Toga’s, but this was better). Just inside the Lake Crescent area of Olympic National Park, past a road work area that took the highway down to a single lane, was the pull off I remembered from my last trip. The perfect place on the lake for a picnic lunch. I got Portland out of the car and we climbed out onto the rocks beside the lake.

The food from Toga’s was amazing, I had their Northwest seafood chowder and dungeness crab panini -- both amazing, but the panini was especially good, a mix between a good crab dip and a crab cake mix on the sandwich, made with their own signature ingredients and garlic aioli on the side. The views of Lake Crescent were just what I remembered, and it was only a few more miles to the campground.

When we got to Fairholme Campground, only the A loop seemed to be open, and it was not one of the lakefront ones. I was a bit disappointed, although the forested area the campsite was in was very beautiful, with the tall pine trees, giant ferns, and moss covered trees that are so typical of this part of the country with such a rainy climate. Today was all sunshine. I double checked the campground map before choosing and paying for site number ten, only one other campsite taken at the time I arrived, just after 3pm.

I set up camp and was happy to see Portland eating his lunch while I curved the tent poles into place. As expected, the charge on the air pump for my air mattress didn’t have enough juice to fill up tonight. The cord has been MIA since August, so tonight we’re close to the ground with the deflated mattress, my yoga mat, and the Coleman bag beneath us and the ground. I don’t so much mind sleeping on the hard ground while camping, but it’s important to have something between you and the ground for warmth and body heat retention. I came up with a little trick, an acronym for cold weather camping tips: COAT.

C - Wear a Cap! Your head may be exposed outside of the covers, don’t let body heat escape!

O - Off the Ground. This is science stuff. The ground will absorb your body heat and steal it from you. This is the comfort - dare I say, “glamping” excuse that you’ve been waiting for.

A - All the covers! My hand me down may have been okay if we were using it as a zipped bag, but since I haven’t gotten Portland inside the mummy bag yet, we’ve been using it as a top blanket along with wool blankets for added warmth. Use what you got!

T - Together is Better. Portland and I can share body heat to help keep each other warm.

There wasn’t great reception here, but I was glad there was enough to post updates from the day, since I wasn’t planning on going anywhere else for the night. Since the campground is technically in Olympic National Park, unfortunately not many of the trails are dog friendly. There’s a three quarter mile loop trail in the campground that has a sign that reads No Pets, Weapons, or Vehicles Allowed.

I decided we should explore the rest of the campground, B & C loops to see what we were missing out on. These loops were already closed for the season, and actually, this is the last week that this campground is open (which I knew before arriving), so I lucked out! There were some other nice campsites down closer to the water, and I made a note of some numbers for future travel, but it was just nice to get down by the water and walk on a short trail with Portland.

The park had a fishing and boat launch area, and I stopped to do a little yoga, but Portland didn’t like the cut metal texture of the dock that you could see through to the water below, so I didn’t make him wait long. There were some great, giant moss covered trees that we passed on our walk, and one that I had to stop and climb. It even had little foot and hand holds up its trunk like it had grown with the intention of having people climb it. Portland waited patiently.

Aside from the highway nearby, the park was very quiet, almost eerie and I had my bear bell velcroed to the outside of my pack. There are signs here warning about wildlife and black bear activity in the area, so I knew my caution was warranted today.

I did end up finding a dog friendly hike, but it was closer to Port Angeles, twenty miles back up the road we’d come in on, so that might be an option for tomorrow morning. For tonight, it’s true camping. In early for a long autumn night by the fire. A few more campers had shown up while we were gone, and a few others rolled in as I was doing a little forest yoga on the large picnic table that is part of the campsite. I think out of maybe five or six campers, I was one of two in tents, with everyone else seeming to have either an RV, van, or truck cab of some type.

The weather is surprisingly nice, in the forties and high thirties overnight. I built a fire, only taking a few minutes to start with the dampness in the air. I am happy not to have the bundle of wood on the floor in the front seat! I relaxed and enjoyed the two remaining beers from Bend Brewing -- the Ching Ching sour with pomegranate and hibiscus, and the Tropic Pines IPA.

For dinner around 8pm, I decided to make one of my Maya Kaimal Everyday Chana pouches of chana masala that I’d heard make good camping meals. This one was pretty simple with chickpeas, tomato and onion, and I added some tortilla chips to complete the meal. Cooking on the camp stove has become no problem at all, but this was my first time with food actually in the pot (not just boiling water). It worked wonderfully and cooked so fast. The only downside is that now I have to wash out the pan, but that’s really no trouble.

Tonight was a night of good music to listen to by the fire, my favorite for this trip has become Blanco White’s “Olalla," but I listened to his album On the Other Side twice through before switching to the other albums I downloaded for the trip, and shuffling through some Lord Huron songs.

For about twenty minutes at the beginning of the night, there was a point where I was afraid I would get bored, spending 6pm on in the small space of my campsite, but it has been great! This trip has been so action packed that it is nice to be in a setting that forces you to slow down and relax. I’m still cautious of the potential for wildlife, but comfortable and relaxed. A few years ago, I would never have stayed in a campground like this by myself, but here I am. Tomorrow, we head back to Portland, with stops along the way that I have purposely left out of today’s post. Stay tuned, there is one I’m especially excited for!