Jan drops Lyn off at the Amtrak station so that she can travel to Salem to visit Skye and her family. Lyn seems to have recovered well enough to manage traveling on her own again, at least for such a direct trip like this. Lyn will spend a week in Salem, then travel (again, directly) to Bend to visit Chris and Julie in Bend.
We take Angela’s parents out for Brazilian barbecue at Fogo de Chaõ in Bellevue. A-ma is very happy to spend time with Bree and Anya.
Liya has been having fun decorating her dorm room. She’s particularly happy with a number of cute things she’s acquired, including a cat rug and a happy sun pillow.
Lyn resumes living in her apartment on her own. Yesterday she returned from two weeks visiting Skye and Chris in Oregon, then Jan spent the night with her at her apartment. Her memory is still quite shaky, but she’s improved to the point where she can take care of herself. This morning the staff clear Lyn to resume living on her own.
Return of the rented ruminants. There’s a hillside north of Lake Union that’s usually covered with brambles. Every so often, the city hires an outfit called “Rent a Ruminant” to bring out a herd of goats for a week or so. The goats spend their week alternating between sleeping and clearing the hillside of underbrush. We used to pass this spot on the way to the girls’ K–8 school, so it was always a fun surprise when the goats returned.
Jan drives Lyn to Edmonds to pick up her dog, Tari, who’s been under the care of a dog-sitter ever since Lyn’s surgery at the end of June. Tari’s very happy to see Lyn again, and Lyn’s happy to be able to finally bring Tari home.
Anya leaves home for a fall term of study abroad in Santiago, Chile.
Jan squeezes in one last, short backpacking trip to the Olympic Coast. Having spent most of the summer watching over Lyn, Jan has done far less backpacking this summer than in recent years. But the weather’s still good, and now that Lyn’s trying to live on her own again, he gets one more chance to head out.
Earlier this summer, Jan had connected with a nice couple from Japan, Atsushi and Miho, who were beginning a thru-hike of the 1,200 mile Pacific Northwest Trail. There’s not much information available about that trail even in English, let alone Japanese. Having hiked several sections of the PNT, Jan reached out to them to see if he could offer any advice or suggestions. They were very happy to get some help, particularly at the start of their trip.
Atsushi and Miho are now just about to finish their PNT thru-hike, so Jan heads to the coast to join them for the final miles. He starts at Lake Ozette and hikes south to Cedar Creek campground. Atsushi and Miho will arrive from the south early the next morning. There’s no one else at Cedar Creek when Jan arrives, so Jan finds a nice spot to set up.
By the time Jan finishes dinner, it’s dark. He hears noise and sees headlamps – it’s three hikers coming by the campground. They’re also finishing the PNT, and introduce themselves with trail-names: Showco, Sweetshop, and Jukebox. They’ve hiked a bit with Atsushi and Miho themselves. Since Jan’s already got the nicest, biggest spot in the campground, he invites them to join him there, which they happily do. The four of them hang out for a bit sharing PNT stories before Jan goes to bed at “hiker midnight” (9:00 pm).
Atsushi and Miho hike up the beach to meet Jan around 8:00 am, right on schedule. Having spent the summer exchanging messages online, it’s nice to finally meet them in person. Jan shoulders his pack and the three begin hiking north towards today’s goal of the campground at Sand Point.
It’s a nice morning for late September on the coast. There’s a nice sandy beach up to Norwegian Memorial, and then the coast walk turns into a rock-hopping exercise. The tide is coming in, so the three have to maintain a decent pace in order to not get caught in a bad place by the high tide. They make it to their lunchtime spot at Yellow Banks, where they’ll have to wait for a number of hours for the tide to go back out.
The three have lunch on the beach. Since Jan’s not hiking very far on this trip, he’s brought a few camping “luxury items” to help Atsushi and Miho enjoy their last two days of hiking. Case in point: a somewhat ridiculous, ultralight titanium hand-cranked coffee grinder made by a boutique camping gear company from Japan. Miho doesn’t drink coffee, but Atsushi happily accepts a cup of fresh-ground, French-pressed coffee.
After lunch, there are still hours to pass, so everyone takes a nap. Jan sets up a hammock so Atsushi and Miho can try it out. Jan reads his book. Finally, the tide appears to have gone down enough that they can scramble around a rocky point and continue north to Sand Point.
A mist rolls in, obscuring the view of the ocean. At a number of places, the three come across bear scat on the beach. This surprises Jan. In this section of Olympic National Park, hikers are required to carry their food in bear-proof canisters – but on four previous trips to the coast, Jan’s never seen bears or met someone who’s seen one. But apparently bears do actually come out to the coast; the threesome eventually come across the clear tracks of a mother bear with two cubs.
The three arrive at Sand Point around 5:00 pm. There are a couple of hours of sunlight left, so they can set up camp and get ready for dinner at a relaxed pace. Jan’s brought dinner for everyone: a pasta Bolognese and fresh skillet bread, paired with a small red wine from a can. This is a nice way to celebrate Atsushi and Miho’s last night on the trail.
Jan, Atsushi, and Miho are up by 7:00 am to have breakfast before breaking camp. Jan’s brought the makings for a blueberry pancake breakfast. As it turns out, Atsushi had discovered blueberry pancakes on their PNT hike, and they’d become a favorite of his, so this works out nicely.
There’s a deep mist this morning, so when they set out on the beach, it’s pretty enough but they can’t see very far. The mist gives the rocky sections of beach a somewhat otherworldly look.
After clearing the final tide hurdle at Wedding Rocks, it’s an easy walk up the beach to Cape Alava and the official terminus of the Pacific Northwest Trail. There’s no official marker at the trail’s end, but some PNT hiker has constructed a tiny little monument modeled after the official monuments on other national scenic trails. Atsushi and Miho are a little overcome with emotion at finally reaching the end of a long, challenging trail.
While sitting there on the beach, a small crowd of schoolkids walks down to the beach, followed shortly by a handful of teachers. When they hear that Atsushi and Miho have just finished a two and a half month hike, the school group gives a little round of applause.
After that, it’s an easy walk back through the forest to Jan’s car at the Lake Ozette trailhead. Jan drives to Winslow on Bainbridge to get a break from driving on the ferry across Puget Sound to Seattle, and so that Atsushi and Miho can enjoy getting the view coming across the water into the city.
Since Atsushi and Miho haven’t had much chance to eat seafood on their hike, Jan takes them to Chinook’s for dinner. Everyone enjoys the tried-and-true choices of the blue plate special and the peach slump.
It’s a gorgeous day, so Jan takes Atsushi and Miho for a kayak paddle on Lake Union. Sometimes we forget how fun this activity is, and how pretty the city looks from the water: sailboats, seaplanes, houseboats, tree-covered hills, and a sparkling skyline.
Liya brings her new friend to study with her in one of Yale’s libraries. This past year, the Ikea furniture chain had a surprise hit: Blåhaj (Swedish: “blue shark”), a large shark plushie. Liya’s wanted a Blåhaj of her own, but like many Ikea outlets, the Ikea closest to her has been sold out.
The local Seattle Ikea had Blåhaj in stock, so we bought one and sent it to Liya. Apparently he makes a good study partner.