07/28 - Cape Alava

It's a beautiful walk through forest and meadows. Back until the 1980s, it was a walk through mud. Then the park service put in a boardwalk, but more recently they've been replacing the boardwalk with a gravel aggregate. The trail is lined with salal and ferns and skunk cabbage and every other type of northwest rain forest plant. If you pay attention, you'll see some big old trees that rival any in the Hoh. The meadow is old grassland with the grasses going to seed and a few pacific dogwood blossoms still showing.

The beach itself is at the end of the earth. We made our way down and were pleasantly surprised. The waters of the Pacific were still a fair ways off, but we were on the water's edge following a good path of sand, stones and dried out seaweed. We headed south towards Sand Point, but all too soon the trail dissolved into large rocks and small stones decorated with wet seaweed. It was rough going, and we were more tired than we had thought. We gave up well before the first headland.

So, we stopped and ate our lunch and watched the eagles on the rocks. We explored a bit, but the trail ahead was rough going, more than we could take for the hour or so it would take. We weren't even sure we could make it around the headland. Sometimes you have to accept your limits, so we made our way back to the car for a seven mile hike, rather than the full nine plus. All told, it was a good day's outing, and it was great to see the Pacific Ocean at Cape Alava again.

07/25 - Hurricane Ridge and Sunrise Point

This year spring came late and summer came later, and that meant that the rains lingered into July. Cool wet weather make for lush green vegetation and lots and lots of alpine flowers. Some years the lupines barely grow as they race to bloom before drying out in the summer heat. This year, they've grown and grown, and while they are blooming now, they are still early in the cycle with many flowers yet to come.

It's like this for all the flowers: a late start, a lot of green, and a lot of flowers. This may be one of the best years in a while for high country blossoms, and you don't even have to walk very far.

07/24 - Home Made Tofu

We brought the soy milk to a boil, let it cool to 190 degrees, then added two teaspoons of nigari. Nigari is a mineral salt, related to epsom salts. Within a few minutes, the soy milk had started to curdle and, maybe ten minutes later, we had big, cloudy curds floating in soy milk whey. We strained out the curds in a cheese cloth and pressed out the excess liquid using a little tofu press. Thanks to the miracle of high speed photography, you can see the final block of tofu in the photo before we Kalebergs got to it.

07/17 - Assault on Klahane Ridge

There were a fair number of flowers in bloom - bog orchids, lupines, cow parsnips, phlox, indian paintbrush and all too many that we don't have names for. (We do look them up now and then, but then we forget them.) There were even a few golden glacier lilies, rapidly fading. On the other hand, the hanging gardens on the hillside were quite lush and very green. Over the next few weeks we expect to see a lot more blooms. We also expect to climb all the way to the ridge.

We shall see.

07/15 - Pea Report - Spring Comes To Port Angeles

Just boil the potatoes until they are almost cooked through, but not quite. Microwave the peas for a minute or two. Then drain the potatoes, add the peas, a half cup or so of chopped dill and a cup of milk. Bring the milk to a boil and finish cooking the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper, and you're done.

07/12 - Second Beach

The beach was easy walking, just a broad sand plain. There seemed to be more sand than usual, and some of the rocks we'd see along the shore appeared to be more deeply buried than we remembered. This was particularly noticeable on narrow section of beach towards the sea cave with many familiar rocks less visible and a deeply cut stream channel running through the sand.

In contrast, the entrance to the sea cave was rocky. All of the sand there had washed out. The tide was low, but not a real low low tide, so we didn't visit the hidden beaches past the cave, though we could see a lot more rocks and a lot less sand.

We had a nice picnic lunch on the beach, and made our way home through the forest, pausing to admire the Treasure Tree which was sporting a variety of pretty stones, bright red berries and feathers. We're not sure who contributes, but they've done a great job. Unlike Rialto Beach nearby, Second Beach is a hidden beach, not visible from the road and a special treasure because of this.

07/10 - First Salmon

An awful lot of fishermen simply discard the roe, but salmon roe, when cooked, tastes an awful lot like shad roe. We're originally from the east coast, so we always looked forward to spring and the shad runs. Now, we look forward to the salmon season. We cook the salmon roe just the way we'd cook shad roe, in a bit of butter, with capers, with onions, with eggs. It makes a great breakfast omelet, especially for the salmon season.

07/08 - Ascent to Lake Angeles

The lake is still much too cold for us to go swimming, or so we believe. We considered actually sticking our toes in, but chickened out. Maybe we'll try next time, or the next, but, for us Kalebergs, Lake Angeles is in season.

07/06 - Store Brand Cereal Clones

07/02 - Murdock Beach

The trailhead is a bit tricky to find. You have to take 112 west past Joyce and look for the 45 mile marker on the left and Cannon Ball Road on the right. Then watch for a long guard rail. Right at the end of the guard rail is the turn off for Murdock Beach. The access road is a bit of a washboard and some of the potholes are deeper than they look, so drive slowly and carefully.

There's a little parking lot there and a pretty trail to the beach. The DNR land runs about 4,000 feet to the east and over four miles to the west, so, at low tide, there is lots of beach to explore. (Note, you'll need a Discover Pass if you go exploring there. We didn't see anyone enforcing things, though a Border Patrol SUV dropped by to see if anything interesting was coming in from Canada.)