July 19th

We got an early start because we wanted to walk a little bit of the River Trail before we had to leave our campsite.  We had coffee and began our walk about 9:00.  The River Trail will take you up to the glacier but that’s a 20 mile hike.  The first part of the trail is mostly flat and follows the river.  It was nice and quiet and really serene when we started on the trail.  We saw only a few other people.

We were probably about ¾ of a mile on the trail when I caught a glimpse of a hairy black object getting off the trail.  At the same time a group of 7 or 8 backpackers were coming down the trail and the lead walker also saw the small bear.  The bear scurried away into the bushes.  Diane got a couple of pictures of the bear but the bear was mostly hidden by the brush. 

A little bit of excitement on our 32^nd anniversary.

We kept walking up the trail until the trail met with the river, took some pictures then headed back to camp.  We packed up and headed to Port Angeles to visit with Olzy for the weekend.  Hwy 101 north takes you by Lake Crescent.  The highway was being repaved around the lake and we were stopped for about 20 minutes.  It was great for taking photos.