This is a photo that shows that I like about the town I live in now. Port Townsend has a nice lighthouse, a ferry terminal and a rich history of maritime industries. Plus great views and lovely weather. All things that I enjoy and look forward to now that we are getting into springtime. Yay Spring!!!!
Just to be clear, the dam below isn’t what made the pond above. I did see a beaver once in the pond, one day when I was there late in the evening. The dam below is across a ditch that was left from building the dike which kept out salt water from the fields used by a dairy farm. That was back in the olden days before the dikes were breached to provide salt marsh as habitat for salmon.
The Dosewallips River is one of the major rivers draining the east side of the Olympic Peninsula. The photo above was taken from the old car campground that is now backpack in only, since the road washed out over 20 years ago. (it’s about 6.5 miles – about 10.5 km) It is in the Olympic National Park, but the access road is in the Olympic National Forest. So, who’s responsible for fixing the road? Let’s argue about it for another decade or so…
Below shows the trail not far outside of the campground. It’s beautiful country and it’s too bad that it is so much harder for seniors to access these days.
Back when I was hiking in the ’60’s and ’70’s, we just drank water out of streams and lakes if they seemed like they were ‘safe’. We looked for running water, especially if it had enough of a drop to it to get aerated. We figured the oxygen cleaned it up. I had friends that kept that philosophy up through the ’90’s. I started filtering water much earlier than that … about the first that backpacking filters became available. These photos are both taken at Heart Lake in the upper Sol Duc valley in the Olympic National Park. The photo below shows how the lake got its name.
This was taken out canoeing on Lake Quinault, just outside the Olympic National Park. I was so lucky to have this trip scheduled ahead of time and get a nice sunny day with no wind in the middle of winter in the rainforest. The mountains in the background are in the Colonel Bob Wilderness. The deciduous trees are alder, cottonwood and willow.