Lake Ozette (The Seven Mile Hike)

Yesterday we decided to go to Lake Ozette. It's the third largest natural lake in the state of Washington behind Lake Chelan and Lake Washington. We didn't actually go TO the lake because our mission was to hike the three and a half mile trail that starts at the ranger station and ends at Cape Alava which is the westernmost point in the contiguous U.S. Even though it was a three and a half mile hike the info we had said it was an easy level hike so we figured it would just be a stroll. Yeah, right. The trail started out okay with gravel and then it became a cedar planked trail with stairs going up and then coming back down. Over and over and over again for three and a half miles! We really should have taken our Garmin with us because there were no trail markers so we didn't know how far we had gone or how far we had to go. This became important because it started to rain. We figured we couldn't go back because if we only had a short distance to go we would kick ourselves for not completing it. We looked at the time when we started so we figured we had been hiking for an hour when it started to rain. We HAD to be close. It ended up taking us only another half an hour to get to the end of the trail. Then we had to climb down the steep, muddy cliff to get to the beach. When Rod came here some fifty or so years ago there was a sign on the beach that said you had reached the furthest most western point but it was no longer there! That was a bummer. By the time we started back it was 3:30 in the afternoon so we knew we had to hurry because we didn't want to be out in the forest after dark. We figured it was going to take us longer to get back because we were so exhausted. Really it didn't seem as bad going back because we recognized some things we had passed before so we knew how far we had to go. Plus, we knew how long it took us to get to the beach. I had on waterproof hiking boots so at least my feet didn't get wet but the everything else was soaked. We figured we must have been carrying five extra pounds with us because of our wet clothes. By 5:30 we were on the road back to our campground after eating the rest of our lunch and warming up some. We were both incredibly sore and walking around the rig like a couple of eighty year olds bent over at the waist and shuffling around. It was a long hike and we probably shouldn't have done it but at least now we know we can.

This is called Pillar Point. Rod used to come here with his dad some fifty years ago to fish for salmon


It says 3.1 but you had to hike a little bit to get to this point


The trail started off okay


Some of it was level with cedar planks


It got worse


Finally made it to the beach


Wonder where the tree came from


Not the prettiest of beaches


We have to climb back up the cliff to get back to the trail


Do I really look happy to be there?



We had to get up early this morning to get to the Ford dealer. We dropped the truck off and went to Rod's mom's house and did laundry while we waited. She had a dentist appointment so she dropped us off at this little cafe where we had breakfast. I had a Denver omelet (without the onions of course) and Rod had pigs in a blanket. Sorry Jolene, no pictures. LOL Then we walked the four blocks back to her house. Jeez, are we seeing a pattern here?? We finally got our Sirius radio fixed so we're good to go to Texas on the 1st of November. YAY!!! I've been checking the weather forecasts for the places we're supposed to stop at and so far it looks like we'll finally be getting into some warmer temperatures. I can't wait!

We're going to have visitors this weekend. Rod's sister Sue's friend Janet and her husband Paul are coming to camp tomorrow so that'll be fun. There are only four rigs here right now so we're pretty empty. Hopefully they'll be pretty close to us so we won't have to "shuffle" very far.

Okay, I started this on Thursday night but I left the camera in the truck so I'm not publishing it until today (Friday).