Sunday September 3rd
I had been thinking of visiting Hurricane Ridge, which was near Port Angeles, and had great views apparently, but there were very limited amounts of cars allowed up due to the amenities having burnt down, and probably would have required leaving to get there very early in the morning. After a big week, I relished a bit of a sleep in on the day of rest instead.
I left for a church in Port Angeles, which I had thought of as a small town, but was actually quite a decent sized city, with suburbs. The church was towards the other side of the city from where I was. The people were variously dressed, but many were casual. The pastor was in a suit, complete with watch chain though. He preached a good sermon, which was on giving if I remember rightly. After the service, they were having a lunch to finish up left overs from a camp they had just had, and they invited me to eat with them, and food was served in a large room adjacent to the church.
Afterwards, I headed back to Crescent Lake. I hadn’t had time to give it much of a look on the way to the campground the previous night, and it looked like a beautiful place. I drove around the side of the lake opposite to where the highway went, and stopped at a couple of places to admire the view. It was a cloudy and misty day by that time.
There was an easy hike, mostly flat, along the edge of the lake, starting from part way around the lake. The first part of the walk led to a pool next to the lake called Devil’s Punchbowl, which looked to be quite deep. There were a few people swimming in it, and one or two people climbing onto a rock that jutted out right next to the pool, quite high above it, then leaping off. It was interesting to watch!
There were quite a number of people on the trail there, but I followed the trail a fair bit further around the lake, and the people thinned out very quickly after the pool, and I had the trail pretty much to myself for a lot of the time, which was nice. There was a part of the track that went through a big tunnel, and another one that went around the tunnel. The tunnel was for people who couldn’t do the less accessible one that went by the lake’s edge, and also probably for cyclists. I tried both. There was no lighting in the tunnel, and it had a bend in it, but there was just enough light from either end to see. It was a pretty walk along the lake, with the mist, and hills with clouds on them.
When I got back to the campground, the host had a better spot for me, because there were less people there on the Sunday night. I started the usual Bible Study Facebook call at 5.30pm, finishing up before dark. It was drizzling a little bit. I could have cooked outside without getting more than damp, but I thought that this would be a good opportunity to try out the canopy that I had rented, which was meant to fit over the back doors of the van when they were open, so you had some shelter while cooking or making meals. Cooking inside was liable to lead to death by carbon monoxide poisoning according to the warning on the little stove.
I thought it would be better to get to know how to use the canopy this time, rather than when it was pouring with rain. Amazingly, I never did need to use it again – the Lord provided such good weather! It was a bit of a job to work out how it was supposed to go, it had magnets on it, and I had to try it in a couple of different orientations before I worked out what went where.
I was due to go across the border to Canada the next day, and I wasn’t sure what the rules were about food, and what they would let through. Looking on the website suggested there would be some restrictions, and perhaps not everything would pass. I made a detailed list of all the food I had on board – what tins, and all the other things I had, so I’d be prepared if they wanted to know.
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