One Lap

Date: 10/04/2013

Day: 8

Location: Port Angeles, WA

Miles Today: 279

Total Miles:  1459

Freedom, The Olympic Peninsula, Homegrown American Rain Forests, Clear Cutting, Joyce, Silly Names, The Big Decision

 

A Free Man

Not many people are as unfettered as is the Colonel at this point.  Go or stay, hurry or tarry, no one can say nay.  And yet...

Every decision made, go or stay, hurry or tarry, necessarily forecloses other decisions.   The actual sensation of traveling like this is lighthearted and wonderful, but with a still small voice whispering that roads not taken now will certainly never be taken.

The Colonel could have gone down this road, but no one can go down all of them, alas.

This looks like a good one, too.

The Olympic Peninsula

The gods might choose to live here, at least in the parts that have not been clear cut.   And yes, it is beautiful.  And yes it is truly a peninsula with the Pacific to the west, the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north and Puget Sound to the west.  (I'm up for a ferry ride to Seattle tomorrow!)  And yes, once again, there is a Mt Olympus, presently snow capped, upon which those gods could perch gargoyle-like looking down with suspicion on One Lappers .

Trees grow here as thick as Brobdingnian grass; not giant in diameter as are the Sequoia, but easily 150 feet tall and densely packed together.  I read once that in 1490 a squirrel could have climbed a tree in what would soon be Virginia and walked West to the Mississippi -- without ever touching the ground.  These trees are recall that primeval forest.

Rain forests?  In Washington?

It is wet here most of the time (not today which was glorious) and the tall trees make their own damp micro climate.  This is, in fact, home to three separate rain forests, the Hoh, Queets and Quinault, each named for a band of the first people.

Rain forests exist in Washington State, a circumstance not widely known.

Clear Cutting

In another life, the Colonel had an opportunity to visit the place in LA where Farmer John turns pigs into pork.  An salutary if unpleasant experience; it is good to know the cost of ones food. 

The process of producing lumber is similarly destructive, albeit plants not pigs are being disassembled.  The parts of the forest not set aside as park or wilderness are a checkerboard of trees defined by height and the date of the last clear cutting.  You see the trees, thick as grass, all of similar height and diameter, waiting harvest.  One sign indicated a harvest date of 2036.  The snarled residue of the clear cutting process is as violent and twisted as that of an abattoir and lasts for human generations.  But I live in a house made of wood, so I am complicit here as well. 

 

 

Joyce, Washington

On the northern edge of the peninsula is the small town of Joyce.  It is named, of course, not for the renegade Irishman, but for its founder, Joseph M.  It is a good place to stop for a picture.  It would also be an outstanding place for a Joyce conference; how can the Wake people have missed this opportunity!  Around the beginning of August they have an annual celebration -- Joyce Daze.  The demigoddess Serendipity, up there on Mt. Olympus, gestures seductively.

 

Here one can get shotgun shells, Hot Pockets and plumbing fixtures.

 

The Ministry of Silly Names

Mr. Joyce found material in the world sufficient so he did not make much up.  No one, not even Mr. Dickens himself,  would have nerve to make up the name --

 

Humptulips is a real name for a real place, said to derive from a Native American word of uncertain derivation.  I guarantee when the local firefighters gather with their peers jollity ensues.   According to Wikipedia, font of all knowledge, "Humptulips is mentioned in Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robins as a base of operations for an order of assassin monks.  A book mentioned in Discworld by Terry Pratchett was written by a wizard named Humptulip (no terminal "s")."

 

 

The Big Decision

 

Right now the weather along the northern border is awful; far too much snow for a California boy to attempt.  It appears that things will be more manageable by the weekend.  If so, east we go.  If not, a more southern route will be necessary.   This is a serious decision with serious implications and will be considered most seriously.

 

The Washington Department of Transportation puts a rumble strip between the yellow lines on their two lane roads.  Damn fine idea.

Tomorrow, on to Seattle.

Wellington Boot, Col