Olympics Adventure, Day 3

We woke on Day 3 to rain. That made it difficult to break camp, but we made it out of there around 9:45 a.m. and headed out for our last day of hiking.

It was 7.5 miles, but almost all downhill or flat, which was very good planning on Dave Hale's part, since by this point, Dave and Billy were really feeling the hike in their knees, and I was feeling it in my everything.

The amazing thing about the Olympics is how the entire ecosystem can change in the space of a very few miles. After the sweeping vistas of day 2, with views of mountains and valleys (and oh yeah, a huge herd of elk), day 3 was all about rain forest. Although it rained most of the day, we stayed mostly dry as the tree cover was so thick the rain never hit the forest floor. We of course did get wet in some spots, but it was kind of refreshing.

The last mile was the hardest, as it seemed so much shorter coming in (well-rested and optimistic), then it did going out (tired as hell, aching, and just wanting to get home).

But finally, we did make it out, all safe, all tired, but in good spirits.

So good, in fact, that we were laughing like school girls most of the way home, but again, probably not appropriate to mention in a family blog the sort of things that we found so hilarious (you can likely imagine what three mid-30s married (or nearly so) men would find funny).