Life on the Edge

This is the edge folks. The north side of the Olympic mountains at the top of the Olympic peninsula with views to Canada, the Olympics, and pretty much everything else you'd want to see (assuming a clear day of course.) This is Hurricane Ridge, the destination of our hike on Friday. The original plan was to take a lovely drive up the peninsula and up the mountain to the trail head, go on a short but fairly steep hike, and then drive back in time for Mike's softball game that night.

The only way I can describe the "lovely" drive up there was a 3 1/2 hour (one hour longer than we thought it would take) ride in a torture chamber. There was screaming, crying and puking (yes!) all the way up to Port Angeles. Once we started up the mountain, we hit construction and had to wait in long lines for long periods of time, waiting for the other lane of traffic to be led down the one lane stretch of road and then for us to be led up it. It was at the first of several of these stops that we realized, we were quite low on gas. A dilemma. Do we forfeit the time spent to get this far, drive back down to town to fill up and then come back up, losing precious time? (remember the softball game?) or do we just daringly press on. We pressed on, watching the needle dip to the "E" line. Then to the bottom of the "E" line. Then below the "E" line. You can drive 30 miles after the light turns on right? We were not even to the top yet and already planning how Mike would hitchhike back down for gas. Maybe we could coast down? By the time we reached the visitor's center, it was time to leave in order to make it to Mike's game. Ok, forget the game. Mike walked a couple hundred yards from our parking space to the visitor center (we couldn't waste gas to drive up closer) while I stayed by the car with the kids. Once he came back out, he could hear me squealing to the kids "Daddy has gas!" across the valley. Luckily, the visitor center sells gas by the gallon and there Mike was, carrying a red tank of liquid gold (costing us a hefty $5.00) Ok, so no worries about time because we're skipping the game. No worries about hitchhiking because we have enough gas to get down. No worries about the puke because mom finally learned her lesson and brought extra clothes for the kids. LET'S GO ON A HIKE!

I can just hear Lauren thinking "yeah, that's beautiful.....

now where can I find me some trouble!"

Soon after, she was sacked out.

Aidan wanted to get down and check out the snow with Daddy.

After we hiked up to Hurricane Hill and had a snack, Aidan started walking back down. Before I got my camera out, this deer was heading right towards him on the same path he is standing on.

click on this panorama to see it larger. The visitor Center is on the Right with the fog rolling in.

After we got back to Port Angeles, we stopped for some Mexican food in this fun restaurant.

After all, the day was totally worth it!