02/18/10 - What's the next town after Joyce?

Naturally, we decided to investigate. So, follow the link for the mystery of the missing towns, or who's Hilda.

07/26/07 - Driving Time and Distance Map of the North Olympic Peninsula

To help the many visitors to the park and surrounding areas, we offer this Kaleberg Driving Time and Distance Map of the North Olympic Peninsula. It is based on the distances as computed by Google Maps, but we have used our own estimated driving times rather than the Google estimates. Google has some peculiar ideas on how fast one can drive on various park roads, and they still have the Hurricane Hill Trail from Whiskey Bend to Hurricane Hill as an automobile road! We're sure that was a trail, even before Google was founded. We've also taken some liberties in defining certain intermediate locations which do not appear on any map. In general, things like Elwha Turnoff and Hoh River Crossing are not marked as such on any other map you might find, but are useful junction points linking roads and turnoffs, just what you want for planning your drive.

01/14/07 - Lake Crescent and the Spruce Railroad Trail

Once again, we were out trying to snowshoe. This time we checked out the Spruce Railroad Trail, which had a thin layer of snow and ice. The spooky maple trees at the start of the trail looked great with their snowy trimmings. There were a few logs down, but the trail was pretty easy going all told. The lake itself was beautiful.

11/08/06 - The View From The Bridge

The maples along the Spruce Railroad Trail are changing. The tree on the right is in the quarried out swimming hole, locally called the Devil's Punchbowl. We took this picture from the little bridge about a mile from the eastern trailhead.

09/15/06 - Kalebergs' North Olympic Peninsula

We have put together a full color, 48 page book covering thirteen of our favorite day hikes in Olympic National Park. It is based on our web site, but it includes over 150 pictures of the area as well as our own maps and practical hiking advice. You can use it as a planning guide, a vacation tool, or a souvenir. It is available for $13.99 at lulu.com. They are a one-off web based printing and publishing outfit, so they'll print you a copy to order, or you can download the rather large PDF and print your own.

Whether you buy the book or not, do check out our descriptions of our favorite hikes. You can start at the Kalebergs' North Olympic Peninsula book page or North Olympic Peninsula map page and explore from there.

04/26/06 - Dungeness Valley Creamery Is Open for Business

We just got word from Dungeness Valley Creamery (see their email below). They are open for business and selling raw milk. Apparently, they have taken the big jump and left the milk marketing co-op and are going it on their own. If you have never tasted raw, milk, drop by and try it. It is clearly the inspiration for ice cream, and it will make just about any other milk you have tasted seem washed out and watery.

Dear raw milk supporters,

Thank you so much for your patience! We know how
excited many of you are about finally getting access
to wholesome raw milk. We can now say we will open on
Wednesday, April 26th! Our hours are 7:30 am - 1:00
pm Monday through Saturday.

Dungeness Valley Creamery is now certified raw by the
state and the building has been checked off by the
county! This is a big step of faith for our family
and we invite you to be a part of it! Please come and
see our beautiful new Creamery and enjoy the view of
the Olympic Mountains from the front porch. Oh yeah,
and don't forget the fresh raw jersey milk on your way
out! We are offering quarts, half gallons, and
gallons ($2.25, $3.75, $6.75 respectively). Cash and
checks only. Other local products soon to come.

Look for our products soon in the Port Townsend Food
CO-OP, Sunny Farms, Good to Go, Country Aire, and
Marlenes in Tacoma and Federal Way. We have purchased
a refrigerated truck and are able to deliver.

Also, our milk is going to Mt. Townsend Creamery to be
made into wonderful cheese (which we have tasted and
love)! This too, will soon be availabe in our on farm
store.

Thanks again for all of your support!
Sarah Brown

Dungeness Valley Creamery
1915 Towne Rd.
Sequim, WA 98382
(360) 683-0716

 

For our earlier notes on Dungeness Valley Creamery,
click here.

For more farms and wineries in Clallam County,
click here.

03/22/06 - Blue Flame Is Coming Back

Blue Flame Barbeque is not closed as we had feared. They are moving to a real, indoors location right across the street on Route 101, just east of Port Angeles. We loved them at their old location with its outdoor smokers, and we are looking forward to trying them out when they reopen as a real restaurant.

03/07/06 - The Farmer's Market Has Left Downtown, Peace and Quiet Return To Our Dying City Center

We've been putting off posting this, since it is kind of a downer. We've been big fans of the Port Angeles Farmers' Market for years, even before it moved downtown. Then, we were even bigger fans after it moved downtown, since we almost never got downtown, except to have dinner at Bella Italia, visit Port Book and News, or see a movie at the Lincoln Theatre. Now we had an excuse to shop downtown, and we did.

Let's face it, downtown Port Angeles is dying, what with a Walmart a bit to the east, Sequim, even further east, turning into a down market mega-mall, and the changes in the lumber and fishing industries, the traditional mainstays of the town. There are some great 19th and early 20th century buildings downtown, but all too many empty lots and closed stores. The Farmers' Market brought us, and many other shoppers into town. There were even a few businesses that chose their locations to take advantage of the market, and now we'll see how well they do.

While we may have liked the Farmers' Market, it apparently bothered a small group of local merchants, even though there were many merchants in favor of it, and others who didn't care one way or the other. These anti-market merchants seem to have gotten stuck back in 1952, but it's not 1952 anymore. The big timber is gone, and one man with a chain saw and a self-loader can do the work of an entire team back then. Rural downtowns have to compete with their own suburbs, and everyone owns a car. If they don't find what they need in town, they can drive to Sequim, or Silverdale, or Seattle, or whatever. Some will even shop on the internet. Rather than embracing the Farmers' Market and the foot traffic it brought, these merchants felt that it interfered with their ability to park in front of their own stores, that it interfered with what little traffic flowed along the truck route through downtown Port Angeles, and quite possibly that having spent their money on a head of cabbage, few people would still be able to afford any further shopping.

In any event, there was some politicking. There was the Port Angeles Planning Commission meeting that ran into the wee hours. There was the shutdown, more politicking, a reprieve, and then the market was moved back to its old location at the Courthouse, as shown on the map above. We like this location too, and we'll be there most Saturdays. There is lots of parking near the Courthouse, and it's a bit closer to our house. We often walk down the block to the big Safeway on Lincoln Street to buy what we can't get at the Farmers' Market. But, we don't get downtown as often, and we don't spend as much money there.

02/10/06 - Winter Trails in Olympic National Park

We don't stop hiking in the national park just because it is winter. True, we need to snowshoe up in the high country, and a lot of the high country roads are closed, but there is still some beautiful hiking down below. Even the recent winds and rains haven't kept us from the Spruce Railroad Trail along the north shore of Lake Crescent or from the Elwha River trail from Whiskey Bend towards Lilian Camp.

There was a recent wind storm that caused a lot of damage, though it was much worse in Seattle and the Puget Sound area. We could even see this on the weather map, which showed the wind speeds in Port Angeles as about a half to two thirds of the wind speeds in areas not sheltered by the mountains. If you fly in a small plane, you will often feel the strong winds starting as you fly over Discovery Bay, and out of the shelter of the Olympics. Still, our internet service was down for most of a day, and the Whiskey Bend Road was closed while the Park Service cleared the fallen trees and brush. Whiskey Bend Road is an interesting drive under the best of circumstances. About a lane and half wide, hard packed, but unpaved, it twists and turns and climbs along the ridge to the east of Lake Mills.

There was a fair bit of freshly sawn timber by the roadside, but the road was quite passable in our Honda Civic. There were a few trees down along the trail, and a fair bit of water in the little side creeks, but the trail was open and the views of the Elwha River and the surrounding hills as gorgeous as ever.

As for the Spruce Railroad Trail, the much disputed roads in the area seem to be open, though there were a good number of downed trees along the roadside, and a bit of brush on the road. Lake Crescent is high, but the water has been going down lately during this drier spell, so it is just one short step over water to get on the Devil's Punchbowl bridge. Our special surprise waterfall has dried up, but a number of other channels that are usually dry are now full of running water.

In other words, the roads are opena nd the trails are open, so take advantage of the sunny days of February.

10/11/05 - Google Maps Come to Clallam County

We've been playing around with Google Maps. This is a rather neat interactive mapping system developed by Google. It uses a road database like Mapquest and a false color satellite database so you can see not only the streets and roads, but also get a sense of the land usage and urban density. The interface is neat too. It's the old electronic light table idea. You just put down your mouse and drag, and your web browser loads in the image tiles as you go.

Our map of Clallam County shows farms, lavender growers and wineries. If you click on one, it will tell you a bit more about the destination. It also shows the growing suburban sprawl in the Sequim area. If you look carefully, you see housing developments and golf courses. For some contrast, drag the mouse upwards, and you'll see the Olympic National Park and National Forest boundaries. Those park and forest boundaries are more than just lines on the map.

01/09/05 - NOAA and the Weather