Ozette Triangle

It's Wilderness Wednesday for the first time in a long time! 

Kate and I celebrated the first weekend of Fall by backpacking. 

We headed over to the Olympic Peninsula to hike the Ozette Triangle. 

 After a lot of driving and a few detours 

(Dungeness Spit, adventures on one way streets in Port Angeles...) 

we arrived at the trailhead in the late afternoon. 

Here we are with all of our crap. Yay! 

 We hiked 3.3 miles through woods and marsh until we finally hit the ocean. 

From there it was another 3.1 miles along the coast. 

We did not anticipate the difficulty of this section - 

lots of rolled ankles and near-death experiences as I slid 

on rocks and seaweed constantly and came too close 

to impaling my head on a boulder while falling. 

Other trip reports didn't say anything, so maybe this is a personal problem? 

 Sandstone became my best friend thanks to its aid in traction. 

There was also some gorgeous honeycomb weathering. 

Oh, rocks. I love you. 

 I led us on a few frantic searches for petroglyphs. 

None of my leads proved successful. 

Thanks to these wild goose chases and the difficulty of the terrain 

it was dark by the time we finally reached camp at Sand Point. 

We pulled off at the first sign of a campsite and set up. 

 By this time we were too tired to cook. 

Fortunately we had instant dinner available... 

cheap champagne and chocolate cake! 

Well deserved. The ocean waves lulled me into a peaceful sleep. 

Until midnight...when the storm hit. 

Wind, pouring rain, and waves crashing. It was loud. 

By the time we emerged in the morning the rain had somewhat subsided. 

The outside of the tent was soaked by the inside was dry! 

 This was the view from our campsite. Beautiful! 

After exploring in the morning we only found one other tent in the area. 

Everyone else steered clear of the storm...weird. 

Here we are after the three miles back to the car. 

We were wet and tired. I was recovering from yet another fall. 

We had a long drive back through sun and torrential downpours. 

It was a fantastic trip and I'm so glad we did it!

For more information on this hike, I recommend WTA.