elfs | Camping Day 5: The Rains Came Down And The Dead Revealed Themselves

We spent the entirety of the next morning trapped in our tent against falling, pounding rain. Kouryou-chan was a little nervous about the thunder, thinking that maybe lightning might strike our tent. Omaha and I had to re-assure her that that was very unlikely indeed.

Walker Point, north side.

Eventually, although the rain didn't stop, we just got sick of each other and ran for the car, hoping to find something better. One item on offer was a little place called Walker Point, apparently a lookout across the whole northwestern valley. Walker Point is actually two points, on opposite sides of a large, flat summit, one looking north and one south, above the clouds and out of the rain, yay.

The birds. Very Hitchcockian.

Once there we opened up a can of chicken and made sandwiches, then walked to the southern point to look around and eat. While we were there a bunch of birds hovered over us very anxiously, desperately waiting for us to drop something. Walker Point must be rather popular as the entire animal populace seemed ready for us to feed them, although we all politely declined. There was more than the usual litter about the place; I ended up picking up an old Fritos bag and bottle caps and stuffing them into my backpack's trash-bag. I declined to pack out someone else's diaper, however.

Bunny. OBEY.

You kinda have to be old-school furry to get the "Obey" part. While we were eating, this bunny likewise came up and started munching the tall grass that grew around one of the fenceposts that kept us all from tumbling over the edge of the point and down into the ravine. It seemed a very calm bunny, just kinda hanging out and not paying us much attention as long as we didn't get too close. After the bunny left and Omaha had escorted Kouryou-chan to one of the bathrooms, Yamaraashi-chan said, "I'm bored!" Classic. Omaha had taken her book away because she'd already finished it and was reading it in lieu of doing anything else, like enjoying her surroundings.

Creepy note.

We walked over to the northern point and there, on the ground just by the wooden fence on that side (the one you can see in the topmost photo) was a scrap of paper. I thought it was just another bit of litter but then I read it: "Cremated remains of Marian R. Ford. Mc Comb Funeral Home." Eww. Even worse, about a meter away, was a pile of ash that was once Marian Rebbecca Ford. Eww eww! The girls thought it was too creepy by far, and Omaha and thought that our already difficult camping trip had descended into the surreal.

Quilcene River

We hiked back to the other point and drove down the mountain. It was overcast down at sea level, but no longer raining, so we drove to Quilcene Falls and decided to hike up the river for about two miles or so. That was a lot of fun, and it at least made up our quota of legwork for the day.

When we got back to the Quilcene campsite, I spotted spigots. This campsite was piped! Omaha and I groused about forgetting the five-gallon water jug, but then I went over and tried to fill my backpacking bottle, only to discover that the water was turned off. Since all the water we've had to drink this week has been hand-forced through an 0.2 micron filter against giardia, this irony was not lost on me.

Cooking dinner

We drove back to our own campsite and proceeded to make dinner. Kouryou-chan ran around with the camera while dinner cooked, although eventually they settled down to reading together in the dark. I noticed as they were sitting in the same camp chair a little note written in Engrish:

This chair can only load 225 lbs maximum. Please do not apply any loads over the above WT. or you may cause the chair broken & injure yourself.

The kettle corn was a failure, but the girls still ate it through three rounds of UNO.

All night, droplets just seemed to hit the tent at random. It wasn't so much raining as simply so humid and misty that droplets were congealing out of the sky one by one and striking the rainfly over the tent. Kinda soothing, really.

A few more pictures: