More Camping in WA
After the Gig Harbor show and my visit in Portland, I was way past ready to be away from cities. And people. After one luxurious night at the Super 8 in Bremerton (oh yeah, where I got busted by cameras running a red light, heh, my first ticket in like 15 yrs) I headed north toward my wonderful highway 101. In case you aren't looking at a map, Gig Harbor and all those other fake small towns are on a bunch of peninsulas and islands west of Seattle in the puget sound and various canals. It's like the SF bay area on crack. And there are only so many ways to get to these towns. Still, I was surprised at the amount of traffic on these smaller forest highways. Weird.
I drove on and on and thought 'where are all these people going?!' Until I turned off on the 101 to go back south... and I was all alone. Aaaaaaah. It was like home. REAL small towns, not even towns really. A store and a gas station and that was it. I was in heaven again. I was almost to Canada at that point, and 101 loops around at the top of WA and just goes back down. As I crossed the bridge over the Hood Canal I was stunned to silence by the beauty of the place. Mount Olympia and the surrounding forest is just sublime. I can understand why people want to live up there.
I found a state campground in the Olympic National Forest that was a bit crowded for my comfort, but managed to get a semi private spot and called it good. It was getting late and I was dying to make a fire cooked meal. The next morning I set out to find something more remote and private... and found it only 2 miles away in Brinnon. Nice spots set apart from each other and it was right on the water. Gorgeous. I had to 'hike' up a rocky little trail to get to my spot from my van and I loved it. I couldn't see my neighbors and felt nicely nestled. I stayed two nights. Of course, the second night I got some obnoxious neighbors who like to play loud 80s rock music while they camp, run their 80s generator all hours to better support their giant flood lights... and it was time to move on.
I drove on and on and thought 'where are all these people going?!' Until I turned off on the 101 to go back south... and I was all alone. Aaaaaaah. It was like home. REAL small towns, not even towns really. A store and a gas station and that was it. I was in heaven again. I was almost to Canada at that point, and 101 loops around at the top of WA and just goes back down. As I crossed the bridge over the Hood Canal I was stunned to silence by the beauty of the place. Mount Olympia and the surrounding forest is just sublime. I can understand why people want to live up there.
I found a state campground in the Olympic National Forest that was a bit crowded for my comfort, but managed to get a semi private spot and called it good. It was getting late and I was dying to make a fire cooked meal. The next morning I set out to find something more remote and private... and found it only 2 miles away in Brinnon. Nice spots set apart from each other and it was right on the water. Gorgeous. I had to 'hike' up a rocky little trail to get to my spot from my van and I loved it. I couldn't see my neighbors and felt nicely nestled. I stayed two nights. Of course, the second night I got some obnoxious neighbors who like to play loud 80s rock music while they camp, run their 80s generator all hours to better support their giant flood lights... and it was time to move on.
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