Winter Epic: Olympic, Victoria, Crystal Mountain

Last Tuesday I woke up in Port Angeles and drove about 80 miles to the Hoh rain forest. This was a beautiful drive through the woods around a lake. Once you enter the rain forest area everything seems to change. There is a really nice river you curve along, with a lot of people fishing. I checked into fishing but they have different rules in the national parks. And I couldn’t keep the fish anyway. The road ends at the visitor center, which is only open on the weekends. I already had all the info I needed so I started one of the two hikes. It was a 1.2 mile loop that takes you through the woods and back along the main river. Through the woods you cross a few streams. It’s crazy to see so many steelhead trout cruising up these little streams in the woods. The second hike is a .8 mile loop that shows off the best area for moss. Again you cross a small stream, this time I got the chance to see 2 large river otters swimming along. I watched them for awhile and at one point when they were out of sight a bobcat came leaping from the woods. I couldn’t believe how well they camouflage. I was looking right at it and could barely see it. After that you traverse up a little ways and get a decent over look of the stream. Here I saw about 6 more river otters come swimming up and jumping over logs. It was incredible to see this section of woods. Some of the trees were growing in all strange directions with several feet of moss hanging off them. After that hike, I left the rain forest and drove to the ocean. Rialto beach was the next stop. I walked along the beach here checking out the place. The beach is covered with huge trees that have washed on shore, some of the trees with over 6 feet in diameter. There were also some cool islands scattered about. Once I was done around there, the sun was starting to go down. So I drove back to Port Angeles and planed some things to do in Canada.

Wednesday the ferry to Victoria Canada left at 8:30. I made it just on time. It’s about an hour and a half ride to the other side. It was really cool to see some of the huge cargo ships scooting around the harbor area. Once I got to Victoria I had to go through customs. Here is where the day went downhill. I didn’t realize how suspicious I looked until after. I’m by myself, I came from Wisconsin 2500 miles away to cross into Canada. I have a snowboard in the roof, and don’t plan on boarding, and I don’t know anyone in Canada. Due to these flags they pulled me aside for further investigating. So my car got searched and they did a full background check on me. Let’s just say my record isn’t squeaky clean, so I got rejected from Canada. But the next ferry didn’t leave until 4:30, so they just let me walk around until then. So I went over the visitor center and walked around the city. They Victoria harbor area is beautiful with tons of old buildings. I walked around the Chinatown area and they back south along the water front. They have a very nice board walk that creeps along the harbor. It really seemed like a nice friendly city. I wouldn’t have loved to stay longer but couldn’t. So at 3 I had to check back in with customs. I bought another ticket on the ferry and headed back to the good old USA. The customs agent on the America side thought it was strange that I didn’t have a Canada stamp in the passport. But he understood. From there I drove back towards Seattle. I had to take one more ferry over to the main land but I had plenty of time. I was able to meet up with Jeremy Yanasak. I hung out with him for a night last time I was out here and I wish I could have had more time to hang out this year. We went to a bar and had a few beverages. He had an important day at work the next day so couldn’t stay out to late. I was glad to at least get the chance to catch up. From there I went back to Brians place. He didn’t know I was coming so I just showed up. It just so happened that his roommate was moving out at the time. This was not a well prepared move out so it wasn’t going to well. Brian was helping him for several hours already and they still had a lot ahead of them. It was already late and I knew Brian had to work so I took his place and let him get some sleep. We didn’t finish moving everything until about 2:30 in the morning. When I got back to Brians I took a much needed shower and grabbed the couch.

Thursday I headed down to Pikes Place Market. I checked this out last time I was here, but I really like the place. Tons of interesting things to see. I walked around there for a few hours then found a really cool wood working store. They sell tables and other furniture that are made from huge slabs of trees. When I got back to the car I got in touch with Kerry Yanasak. He lives in Puyallup, about an hour south of Seattle. He didn’t have any plans so told me come by. We sat around and caught up for while. Erica, Kerry’s daughter, lives 3 houses away and she was cooking dinner, so we headed over. It was great to be able to see everyone again, and I defiantly appreciate a home cooked meal. After dinner we all played a card game and joked around. Curtis, Kerrys youngest son, was coming through town and also stopped by. He planned a big birthday party for himself and few other friends for Friday night. We threw some wood in my truck and drove back to Greenwater. I met his other roommates and hung out for awhile.

Everyone in the house works at Crystal Mountain, so they were all up and out early. I made it over and it was a beautiful day, about 45 degrees and sunny. I finally felt really comfortable snowboarding again. Even last year the snow conditions sucked. Not a lot of snow and tons of ice everywhere. So this was amazing to actually have control on the hill. Curtis only had one kid he was teaching and the kid was really good. So I was able to just ride with them and pick up so good tips. At about 1 pm a strange cloud covered the sun and the mountain started to ice over again. Kerry said he was coming up for some skiing so I met up with him and some of his friends. We did a few runs together but I was pretty much done for the day. I headed back to Curtis’s house and helped out with whatever I could for the party. People showed up at about 9 and we had a huge fire going. Over all I was pretty shocked, there were about 100 that showed up throughout the night and we finished off 2 kegs and about 4 bottles of booze.

Saturday I did nothing, I knew I was going to pretty messed up so I didn’t plan on snowboarding. A bunch of us went out for dinner at a nice restaurant a few towns over. When we got back from that we watched a movie and called it a night.

Sunday I slept later then I thought but still had a full day of boarding. It was even nicer out this time. About 50 and sunny all day, no annoying cloud in sight. Curtis had to teach in the morning but had a break where we could meet up and ride for a bit. We also ran into some of the other roommates which I rode with once Curtis had to teach again. I was really glad to be able to push myself and keep up with these amazing riders. That night 3 of us went over to the bar up the street. We played some pool and had a lot of drinking. There are many many pictures that I will not be posting of that night lol.

Monday I packed everything up and drove down to Portland OR. I just sat around and watched a few movies.

This morning I went over to Orvis and talked to a guy who really knew a lot about fishing in the area. He told me where to go and what to use. I had to pick up a few things but I was pretty much set on gear. I tried fishing for several hours but I had no luck at all. I tried 2 different spots but I didn’t see anything. No one else was catching anything either. I talked to one guy in the parking lot who said it’s been too cold for the fish to bit but it’s starting to warm up and the next few days should be good. I really hope so, I would love to catch a nice trout while I’m out here.