Our trip through part of Washington's Olympic National Park

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:27 am

This last Wednesday, my husband and I trailered our scoots over to Port Angeles, to visit with a relative and to explore some of the Olympic National Park.

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:30 am

Thursday, we started out the day checking out Hurricane Ridge. Beautiful views and awesome ride. Definitely better than exploring by car, as we had the option to stop darned near anywhere to take pictures, where as there are few places for cars to pull over. We only saw one deer on the way up (a buck), and one on the way down (a doe). Neither were in the road thank goodness.

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:31 am

On our way back down my husband noticed gear oil all over my back tire (the yellow on the picture is pretty much where all the gear oil was). After verifying what fluid levels we could, I cleaned the oil off my tire with a gas soaked paper towel (as I was concerned about a spin out). Then we rode back to Port Angeles, and I drained the oil to see how low it was...turned out it had actually been over filled at the last (initial, actually) service. As I later learned, there was probably no lasting damage done, though seeing it all over my wheel and tire looked pretty scary. Meanwhile, I put 3 of the 5 ounces back in (the equivalent of 90cc), and we went on the second part of our excursion (checking my back tire/wheel periodically, but no more oil leak), this time to Lake Crescent.

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:32 am

Lake Crescent is a beautiful ride. Unfortunately, I only took this picture. Doesn't really do it justice. Plenty of winding roads through the woods--much of it where you get peeks, or wide open views of the Lake. You still see lots of logging trucks (luckily they were all going the opposite direction we were going!)

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:33 am

Our next excitement for the day happened when we stopped at this rest area to have a snack. It was a hot day, so people were parking here and walking down to the water to swim.

A couple in the red car were parallel parked in between the silver and black vehicles. When they went to leave, they backed into the silver SUV so hard that I initially thought the silver SUV had a driver in it and had backed up. However, when the people in the red car (and the people in the black car) got out and went back and looked at the silver SUV it became apparent what had happened.

When I saw them get back in their cars, and the red one started maneuvering out of where they were parked, I walked towards them and took this picture.

The red and black cars left, and momentarily the owners of the silver SUV came along, oblivious to what had just occurred. I caught them on the way to their vehicle and explained what happened, showing them the picture on my cell phone. They thanked me and continued on to their vehicle to check out the damage.

Five or ten minutes passed, in which a bunch more cars pulled up to check out the view, obscurring our view of the silver SUV. Then, the people in the silver SUV walked back by us again (they had been just going to their vehicle to get something earlier) to go back to the water. They stopped and said that the people in the red car had come back and talked to them. They said that they had seen me take their picture and wanted to make sure there was no damage.

The people from the silver SUV thanked me again for taking the picture. It appeared quite obvious that the couple in the red car would never have come back if they thought no one had seen what had just happened.

Even in paradise you run into creeps.

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:35 am

It was getting a little late in the day, so we started heading back.

We had passed Lake Sutherland on the way to Lake Crescent, so I had to get a picture of it on the way back.

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:36 am

Then, we thought we'd take a little side trip a ways down the Elwha River road. This turned out to be the least traveled of all the roads we had been on (though Hurricane Ridge wasn't bad, as we got up there pretty early in the morning). Next time we make it out this way, we'll have to spend a bit more time going down this road.

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:37 am

We did have to pull over quite frequently on the Lake Crescent leg of our journey, as the cagers were in a huge hurry, but no biggie as there were plenty of places to do that. Anyhow, we really enjoyed ourselves--I'd recommend this trip to anyone.

agrogod · Post by **agrogod** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 12:16 pm

Absolutely beautiful pics. And great weather too.

TVB · Post by **TVB** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 12:59 pm

Sure beats most of the scenery around here!

Sassy Chassis · Post by **Sassy Chassis** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 2:00 pm

TVB wrote:Sure beats most of the scenery around here!

Yep! Nothing like that around these here parts

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 5:45 pm

agrogod wrote:Absolutely beautiful pics. And great weather too.

Thanks. We are really lucky to live up here. While we have lots of congestion, and places that are no where near as nice as this (especially in the bigger cities), we're usually not far from some greenery.

I'm continually impressed by the pictures my HTC Amaze takes. Not bad for a cell phone!

Wheelz · Post by **Wheelz** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:16 pm

A few years ago, my SO and I did that loop in a car.
We had a great time, and the memories will be with me a lifetime.
The whole trip, I just kept thinking how much fun it woud be on a bicycle.
Ever since I got a scoot I've dreamed of doing it again on one. It's on my list of places to scoot.

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 2:34 am

We left early in the morning for Hurricane Ridge, and on the way up and back down we saw maybe 10-15 hardy souls on road bikes heading up the mountain.

GrittyTacoman · Post by **GrittyTacoman** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 3:38 pm

Looks like a great trip. Thanks for sharing the pics! Yeah, utilizing a trailer to get to the start point would open up countless cool rides.

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 2:46 am

I believe the trailer cost was just over $80. I picked it up Tuesday night around 5:00pm, and I took it back Friday around 2:00pm.

Actual trailer rental was $14 a day, but I opted for 10,000 worth of insurance (to cover the scooters) in case something happened...and they charge you that fee each day as well.

I checked with my insurance company and they said that the coverage extended to the trailer, but didn't cover what was ON the trailer.

Still, not bad really. We don't have lots of room to store a trailer, so I think our options would be a Trailer in a bag (but the dual ones cost $2,195 plus shipping...before you tack on any extras). or a Kendon stand up dual trailer (dual ones cost $2,799+shipping). Sooo, $80 doesn't seem like such a bad price, however, next time we might just skip the coverage...we'll see. That would make it $42 plus tax for 3 days.

BootScootin'FireFighter · Wed Aug 22, 2012 7:05 pm

nice trip Michelle, it looks awesome!