June 2004July 2004 August 2004
The High Country at Obstruction Point - Lupines

07/29 - Obstruction Point Open for the Season

The road to Obstruction Point has been open for some time now, but we finally made it up there ourselves. If you don't know Obstruction Point, it is in the high country about 7 or 8 miles down an unpaved from Hurricane Ridge. The road has some scary moments, but the real terror is the left turn you take getting onto it or off of it, since most of the folks on the main road are gawking at the view from Hurricane Ridge.

As you can see, the fields are FULL of wildflowers. Most of what you see in the picture to the left are lupines and dirty sock plant with some pink paintbrush for emphasis. Most paintbrush is orange, but you often see the pink variant up in the high country.

There were quite a few people up there at the end of the road. We were walking on the trail and rather openly admiring the scenery when two hikers walked by and, in passing, reminded us, "Don't forget to vote!"

Keywords: high country, obstruction point, flowers, hurricane ridge

07/20 - Rialto Beach and Second Beach

Rialto Beach is one of the most accessible of the West End beaches. You can even park right at the beach and climb over some driftwood to get at the waves. They even have a wheelchair accessible picnic area.

Since we like to get some exercise, we usually head out to Second Beach which is just across the Quillayute River. There is some satisfaction with the 3/4 mile rain forest walk you have to take to the surf, but Rialto beach offers instant gratification.

Of course, if you do get a mile or two north of the parking lot, you'll find a nice little headland climb if you want to continue. We usually just turn around and check out the sea stacks again.

 Rialto Beach
Aside from sea stacks, like the one shown below, and nice walking beach, you can also see pelicans, seals, cormorants, and bald eagles. They were near extinction back in the 1960s, thanks to DDT, but now they have made a comeback.  We  often find them high on the tall trees just beyond the driftwood line on the beach.



Sea Stack at Rialto Beach

Keywords: second beach, beaches, birds, rialto beach

07/16 - Melody Charno's Web Page

We hadn't seen Melody Charno in a while, so it was nice to run into her at Kendra's birthday party. Between grilled sausages and Jim's barbequed ribs we found out that she is cutting stone again, and she now has a web site showing some of her lithographs. She says that it feels good to be back with her stones.

Some Links

Keywords: art

07/09 - Stuffed Salmon, CostCo Style

We were at the CostCo which was having their summer time fish market selling whole wild sockeye salmon among other goodies. We had to have a fish. The garrulous fishman got us a fish, and a recipe to cook it with.

He told us to filet the fish and then stuff it with chunks of peaches, chunks of walla walla sweet onions, fresh coriander and lavender. We had a five pound fish, so we used three nectarines, a whole sweet onion, several big fists full of coriander, two or three lavender flowers from our plantation, a half teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of pepper. We substituted nectarines for peaches since we found better nectarines at the store.

We slammed the fish shut around the stuffing and wrapped the filet in aluminum foil. When the fire was hot and ready on the grill we gave it about 15 to 20 minutes on each side. With a five pound fish, we'll recommend the higher number to get it cooked through for a total cooking time of 40 minutes.

The fish was delicious. The filling was basically a classical Caribean salsa, like one of our favorites made with mango, red onion and coriander, but this one had a true Northwest flavor, so it was perfect for salmon. Next time, we'll go for even more coriander.

Sorry about the lack of photos, but we were so hungry that we dined before getting out our camera.

Keywords: food, fish, flowers, salmon, recipe

07/08 - The Death Cake

The Death Cake was named for the Empire's ultimate weapon in the first Star Wars movie. If nothing else, the physical resemblance is striking, as you can see in the photograph to the right. The cake is also similar in mass to the original Death Star, which according to the movie, had a mass similar to that of a small moon.

Our Death Cake is full of devil's food cake and creamy orange icing, unlike the Death Star in the movie, which was full of evil robots and Imperial storm troopers. In fact, the Death Cake is in all ways superior to the Death Star, particularly with regards to the way it tastes. To find out more, check out our rather digressive recipe and further discussion with regards to the ultimate chocolate experience.

 The Death Cake

The Death Cake

Keywords: food, recipe


07/08 - New Bridge on the Lake Angeles Trail

We were up the Lake Angeles Trail today and noticed that the Park Service has put in a new bridge over the river. It is bigger and higher than the old bridge, but it feels quite sturdy and is just as easy to cross. Our thanks to the National Park Service.

The trail itself is in excellent shape, but do watch out for the slugs. They area all over the place, and no one wants to step on these kindly, if rather sluggish, denizens of the forest. Check out the specimen to the right. It's some kind of albino slug, and it even wiggled its antennae at us.

In addition to slugs, the recent wetter weather has also brought out the fungi, including this lovely yellow marvel. It fairly glowed at us this gray day. It's a good foot and a half across and probably growing at a good clip.

Yellow Fungus
Lake Angeles Trail Bridge

The New Bridge


The White Slug

Keywords: lake angeles, trails, slugs

June 2004July 2004 August 2004