Ozette – not yet

5th weekend in a row of gorgeous weather. So I quickly made a plan to camp overnight and overcome a failed goal before (see this post).

It is about a 5 hour trip to Lake Ozette from here, including the ferry. I arrived about 11:30a and picked out my campsite. Started to unpack and realized that I had not packed well and probably should not stay. Tough call but the right one. Still – I made it out all the way out here and so I was going to paddle the Coho and make it to Tivoli Island darn it. I launched from Swan Bay instead in calm conditions. Ha! 25 minutes in I had the quartering waves I hit last time. Since the Coho is much better in conditions I was still comfortable, except for the rear unit. After an hour I landed on a little beach and found I had to crawl out of the boat – both legs were totally asleep – need to complete the work on the posterior receptacle! After some stretching and some banging on the kayak (this is real wilderness and I was in bear country), I started out again. The wind was increasing (I should have known this because I race sailboats and pay attention to temp and the effect on sea breeze, but I had a brain freeze because I was in a different kind of boat). Long story shorter, I turned around 4,500 feet from my goal (probably the last 0.2% of the trip overall) but it was another good call because the wind really picked up and I had a chance to surf in the breaking waves on the way back. If I had made it to the island I would have had to stay there for hours (even the night) and would have not made it home tonight because of the building wind.

Not a sad story though because I did spend a gorgeous day driving through Olympic National Park and watched the early and late sun while riding on a ferry. Lake Crescent is almost painfully beautiful. A bald eagle cruised outside my car window for about half a mile as I was driving the shore (in the pic on the right at the ridge crest).