Michelin Man

Woke up at 7:30 here in the Olympic Hostel and looked outside and discovered an absolutely beautiful day, blue sky, no clouds and the sun was just coming up over the Cascade Mountains. I slept like a baby, the bed was quite comfortable.

I put on my boots and coat and walked around outside for a few minutes and snapped some pictures.  It was cold out;  exhilarating.  I headed upstairs for breaky and picked up a jar of peanut butter by the lid and the jar fell over spilling its contents all over the table.  Someone had forgotten to screw the lid on tight and that’s the runniest peanut butter I’ve ever seen.  I thought the day was off to a bad start.

I got everything cleaned up and had some cereal and bread and then set out for my hike.  I had been looking forward to this.  Dottie helped me with trail suggestions and a map and I was off.  I headed up the hill and found a network of trails.  It was cold and breezy but I was bundled up pretty good.  It felt so good to be on real trails again, unknown trails, something new.  Fort Worden was built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, prior to WWI.  The hills are littered with old bunkers and gun emplacements that once protected the harbor.

I found a trail leading down the other side of the hills to the beach and the Point Wilson Lighthouse.  I walked along the rocky beach for awhile and checked out the lighthouse.  It was a beautiful day but very cold and windy.  I had several layers on with a hat and hood and gloves and a scarf.  I had so much on it was hard to move; I probably looked like the Michelin Man.

I then headed back up the hill around the top some more.  I found a very narrow trail going out to a bluff.  There wasn’t that much snow, but the brush was very dense and it only took a little snow to make it feel like some sort of winter wonderland.  It was very quiet, the snow absorbing most any noise, about all I could hear was the snow crunching under my foot steps.

I had a map of the trails but opted not to look at it and just go wherever and see where I wound up.  I picked a trail and it looped me around the top of the hill and down toward the barracks.  I wandered around the base for awhile, I just love these old simple wood buildings with porches.  All in all it was about a four hour hike and man it felt good; very exhilarating.
I stumbled upon the commons, which housed a dinning room and coffee shop, so I stopped to have a bite to eat and I got a great wi-fi connection so I got up to date with emails and other such stuff.  I then walked around the fort a bit more and then got in the car and drove into town to pick up some supplies.  I came back to the hostel and ate and watched a couple of TV shows on my PC.  I have a new room mate, Joy from California.

She’s visiting here for a couple of weeks.  We had a nice chat and she got me up to speed with the hostels in California.  Seems like a nice gal.

While I was driving to town, my steering column started making a horrible noise so I called the Saturn place in Burlington, as there are none here on the peninsula.  So, I have to take my car back across on the ferry to have it serviced tomorrow.  Bugga.

I went out  for another walk tonight, it was lovely.  The sky was clear and the stars were out in full force; magnificent.  I turned in after the walk and Joy and I talked a spell till we fell asleep.

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