2015 Olympic Peninsula New Year's Excursion

Robert and I took off the week the world got older (and one of us as well) to fish and hike and clam on the Olympic Peninsula. Here are a few of my favorite pictures. 

Here is a map to orient you to the beautiful OP. It was hanging on the wall of the cabin we rented. Seattle is a big orange column on the right side. We stayed in Forks, on the western coast of the OP, just north of Seattle's latitude. 

Saving the best for first. This was actually the first picture of our trip. We went fishing with Curtis, a steelhead guide, on the Bogachiel River. After a day of catching only the bottom, I hooked up with a gorgeous wild steelhead. Miracle of miracles, Curtis was able to talk me through getting her to the bank so we could see her properly. 

  This purdy fish is a steelhead hen (lady). You can tell she was born in the wild because she has an unclipped-adipose fin. You can just barely see it in this picture. It is the fin on the dorsal side near the tail; closest to my right hand, in front of my shin.

This was Curtis's first look at a wild steelhead this season (and my first...ever); he insisted on a glamour shot. Robert did not get skunked; he caught two steelhead from the hatchery, but he was imminently jealous of my wild lady. We are both excited to catch a steelhead on a swung fly (not while nymphing, as we did today). 

Day two of the trip was much lazier. We ate a leisurely breakfast and eventually made our way to Third Beach and over Taylor Point. We wanted to explore further down the beaches, but we were racing sunset on the way home as it was.

The way up Taylor Point was embellished with wooden ladders on chains and ropes along the steepest parts. There was zero exposure and no mud, so it was quite easy. I can imagine this route being a smidge more difficult with more than a day pack to carry.

View from the top of Taylor Point overlooking Third Beach (to the north).

Another view from the top of Taylor Point overlooking Third Beach (to the north). I liked it too much to pick just one.

Here is looking south as we descended Taylor Point

Ah, the reason we schlepped out to the beach in the first place. Sea stacks! None of my pictures do them justice; they require a mist shroud or a sunset. I guess we will have to come back with heavier packs.

Look, Ma, five hands!

I went hiking too.

bird cloud and a boomerang

This picture was exceedingly difficult to capture. The beer made it increasingly complicated. I did, however, find a 16GB memory card in the sand! Score! (better if I hadn't have been the one to drop it five minutes prior, but still)

As good a sunset picture as I could muster as Robert tapped his foot and pointed out that all of Taylor Point stood between us and another beach and another hill climb to get to the car before dark. Frankly, I think he was scared of the vampires that are said to inhabit the woods near Forks (Twilight fans, anyone?). 

These signs marked where the trail left the beach due to impassability at low tide. 

It's shaped like mitochondria. I loved it.

Wood's pattern in a nook on the log above.

One last sunset picture before fleeing the forest.

Oh yea, and this minor obstacle. There was definitely a safer, land route, but this tree made a perfect bridge. Robert stayed on his feet and walked up the slanting tree as if it weren't 20 feet off the ground.

I shimmied like a whimp and it was much harder and perhaps less safe. I came to regret my decision, but Amanda has yet to teach me the kneel-to-stand jump on her surf board - the move I think I would have needed to use to get on my feet, mid-tree.

I was more than willing to take an extended break while Robert found the best angle to capture my plight. Eventually I completed the crossing in one piece. 

This photo is from the next day, New Year's Eve. We decided to drive longer than any sane person would choose to drive in a day, just for fresh caught shellfish. We stopped in Westport first to deploy the crab traps. This sea monster was lurking in the shallows. 

Robert is double-timing it back to check the crab trap that requires you to catch the crab in the act of eating your bait (as opposed to the the crab trap that, well, traps the little suckers until you fetch them). We have one of each kind. 

I stayed on the elevated boadwalk to catch this wide view of the public floating dock where anyone can toss a trap. There is Robert pulling up our haul.

The light was so pretty on Robert's face that I had to publish this one of his ugly mug. He said so himself, "I wish I were making a better face." So sorry, m'dear.

And after several tosses and 10min walkabouts and retrievals, this was our best catch. A one-armed, shrimp (crab). Too small to keep. For inquiring minds, this fella is a rock crab (see the black tip on his one angry claw?) and eating size is 5 inches across the broadest part of his shell. We got one Dungeness (white tipped claws), but he was even smaller! We left the trapping crab trap and drove to the clamming beach.

We did not stay at the Harbor Resort, but I needed my picture taken. There I am.

We next stopped at Twin Harbors for razor clams. This picture says it all - just look at how many holes Robert dug just to get his limit of 15 clams!! It was one of the hardest hunts we have attempted and it cost us the remainder of our daylight - thus cutting our trip short (no oysters, no manila clams). Womp womp.

We booked it back to rescue our trapping crab trap from the public dock that closed at sunset. No keepers, but we scurried up an overlook and caught the sunset. We were apparently freezing. Who knew?

Robert and I tag-teamed a birthday pie full of blueberries and not very pie shaped, but delicious nonetheless.

Robert gave me the most bestest birthday gift ever. Sky lanterns!! 

For the uninitiated, this is how they work. They are made of biodegradeable paper and balsa wood and the smallest piece of wire that I don't believe degrades biologically, BUT the wrapper said 100% biodegradeable, so who am I to contest? They come with some weird little square of fire fuel that you twist onto the wire crosspieces. Then you wait until they fill with hot air. When they try to escape, you can release them on their journey and make a wish.

I set the camera on the tripod and set a timer to catch a dual release. I am grinning back at the camera and I forgot to turn my headlamp off. The back story for these sky lanterns is that Robert and I were in Thailand during Loy Krathong, which is a giant festival of lights - you light candles and float them in boats, you light sky lanterns and release them, you light candles and set them on every flat surface. It's amazing - you probably saw our pictures. BUT. Never did we ever release any krathong ourselves. So - Robert found some for us to release this year. It is even better to participate than to watch!

This is a better (?) picture, but golly-gee we look like goobers. 

As if our day was not full enough, we also made fresh pasta to go with our clams. I got this pasta machine from my parentals for Christmas and it couldn't be simpler - or more delicious. We made both spaghetti and linguini, and then settled on linguini for dinner. 

Before dinner.

After dinner. Dominoes trump TV any night of the week. I lost every game on this trip - including our game on the ferry home, when Robert was starting to feel the effects of a mysterious 27hr illness that hit him like a freight train upon our entry into the Seattle house. 

We had one more day of guided fishing. New guide. New boat. New river. Neil, drift, Hoh. The sun is barely up and what was the most memorable part of the pre-dawn? How WARM it was! Really. It was cloudy overnight and the temperature must have been balmy compared to the day before. I thought about taking a layer off. (I didn't, but I THOUGHT about it.)

After a long day of nymphing from the boat, wading a few runs to swing flies on a Spey cast, bull-whipping two flies clean-off my line, a gorgeous sunset and a startlingly fast fog invasion, we were happy, hungry and...fishless*.

*I did in fact catch a fish, but I don't think he counts. I threw an airknot into my line and set my rod down to untangle. As I am hold the line and wiggling it like mad, the other end starts tugging ever so gently. A little bitty white fish grabbed my hook that was still in the water!

Final day on the OP. Robert and I couldn't help ourselves. We wanted a crack at one more river. We packed up the cabin and waded along the Sol Duc. Since peeing in chest waders is frowned upon, I found this cute little bunch of shroomies hiding in the forest. 

Robert and I at the end of a run, knee deep in cold clear water.
No better way to spend a day of aging - among wild rivers and wilder beaches, learning something new with someone I love.