high adventure

Austin here -- writing in first person for a change. I went on high adventure with our 16+ age young men church/scouting group the first week of July. This is me looking adventurous in the parking lot at the trail head getting ready to backpack for four days along the Pacific coast in Olympic National Park. I should have gotten a shot with my backpack loaded up and on my back. :(

We did a route called the Third Beach trail. We hiked in a couple miles from our cars and were welcomed by this view.

We hiked on the beach and had some amazing views. It wasn't all this serene -- there were instances where we couldn't pass on the beach and we had to climb/hike up several miles at a time over mountain outcroppings along the coast. Being terribly out of shape and somewhat fearful of heights made that really difficult! Obviously I survived but I was seriously questioning my participation a couple times ;)

The end result was well worth it. This was the view from the beach where we set up camp. What you can't see are the bald eagles flying overhead or the seals popping their heads up out of the water or the deer checking out our campsite. It was seriously amazing -- people pay millions for views like this.

This was the sunset the first night we camped. Well worth the climbing and hiking earlier in the day.

Here's our little bay again closer to dusk. The colors were amazing.

There was an outcropping near our campsite that was accessible by foot during low tide. It made for a nice composition when the moon came out.

Here's low tide the next morning. Since I didn't grow up on the coast and have only spent several hours at a time at the ocean, I had no idea how dramatically different the coastline could look.

The sunset our second night was nothing like the first -- yet was stunning in its own way. I might even prefer this to the clearer, warmer one.

Like I said, stunning. I found myself wishing I'd had a real camera on hand (these were all just taken with my old iPhone 4).

We decided to hike most of the way back on day three and camp closer to the trailhead. We got some real Pacific Northwest beach weather this time. Despite the gray clouds the boys insisted they were going to sleep under the stars... and ended up putting up tents in the dark and the rain while their leaders -- who had put up their tent hours before -- enjoyed an 'I told you so' moment. :)

It was a great time. That said, it was difficult enough that I won't be rushing back. :) Laura did a great job hanging in there with the kids while I was gone -- you could definitely argue she was the one really doing the 'roughing it' between the two of us!