Finally Took A Hike

In the morning I woke up early and took a walk along the beach. I thought I'd be able to go a lot farther, but the land jutted into the ocean and looked like it could be passed only at extremely low tide. It was still nice. I sat and watched the sunrise and the mist fade away. There was one extremely brave older couple who were actually swimming. It was fairly cold water, especially for a chilly water.

When I got back the other girls were up so we packed up and took the trek out. We passed some other early risers along the way, but not many others who had camped out. When we got back to the car the person parked next to us started asking what we were up to (our large amount of bags, etc made us stand out a bit). When we told him we had camped along the beach he told us it was pretty brave and he wouldn't have tried. I think he was just trying to make us feel good because it wasn't scary at all and the older couple out camping only emphasized this. It was funny to hear him say that though.

From the beach we went back to the rainforest, but a different area. We had thought about camping with a backcountry permit again, but it was going to be a few miles and we just weren't packed properly for it. The campsite was great though. We had a lake view and were surrounded by huge trees, creating a secluded feeling.

We did a 7 mile hike in the area around the forest and down to the lake. There wasn't much of an elevation change so it was a nice walk. We saw some enormous trees. We missed "the Big Spruce Tree." It was even marked on the map, but it was an extra mile that we weren't up for. Along the hike were pretty waterfalls and even a bog, which was surprising. When we got to the lake we were all warm and ready for a swim. The beach was empty and the water was crystal clear. From there we missed the turn for the trail so we ended up walking the rest of the way along the road. We made dinner out of whatever we had left. It ended up taking a while because once again the wood was wet and didn't light very well. This time we couldn't even get a good fire going but we managed long enough to some bean burgers cooked.

Would have been a better picture without my finger...