Date: September 4, 2002 12:33:35 PM EDT
Subject: Seattle etc

The Seattle trip was very very nice, thanks to Amlan. His friends were 
very nice too. In very short we had a lot of fun.

This particular mail will be all about our trip to Olympia, the Olympus 
mountains and the Olympic National Forest. This place is in the 
North-Westernmost corner of the US, a five hour drive from Seattle. Almost 
every day, Amlan would point at some dark blue-grey mountains on the 
horizon and say, "Look Tuku, those are the Olympic mountains." We were to 
go there on Friday the 23rd of Aug. Amlan had taken the day off and had 
rented a car. It turned out that the car was not at all up to his 
expectations and was very difficult to drive.

Early Friday morning we left for the Olympus mountains. We crossed the 
sound by ferry. (Our car was also on the ferry.) Then we drove off towards 
our destination. It was a very beautiful drive - the roads were not the 
boring Interstate highways. These were narrow winding roads through the 
forests. We gave a ride to a hitch-hiker as well. He was a camper from 
Oregon and was carrying a huge backpack.

The forests were dark and mysterious. The trees were very tall. Moss, 
ferns and creepers growing all around, climbing up the trees. Dead tree 
trunks were fallen here and there. Amlan tells me that the trees were 
mostly North Western Hemlocks and Red Cedars.

It was a small village called Sol Duc. We dropped off the hitch-hiker at 
the camping ground and then went over to the parking lot near the trail 
head. It was a bit unfortunate that there weren't any parking spots 
available at that time. So we came back to the camp ground, parked our car 
there and walked an extra mile or so to the trail head. It was 3pm by now.

We followed the trail to the Sol Duc waterfalls. There was a bridge across 
the falls and the trail was splitting into four different trails going in 
four different directions. We decided that we wanted to go to the Appleton 
Pass. We would see the glacier there and would have gorgeous views of the 
high mountain peaks. Judiciously, we picked the trail and started 
following it. Appleton Pass would be 2 hours away.

A little later, we realized that we were the only two on the trail. A 
little confused, we decided that we would ask the first person we meet - 
just to clarify. We met this man who was pitching his tent. When we asked 
him if it was the way to Appleton Pass, he said that it was, but it was 
the longer way. Basically, this meant that we were on the wrong trail. He 
pulled out his larger maps which had contours and all kinds of different 
features and pointed out where we were.

Retreat. Once we reached the waterfall, we were confused again. We asked 
many people this time. Their answers along with our minimal sense of 
direction pointed to the fact that the way we were going at first was 
correct. The man with the maps, pitching his tent, had very little clue. 
Overall, we had wasted an hour just looking for the correct trail.

We decided to keep the adventure in our bag and picked a random trail. It 
was 5pm. We would walk on the trail till 5-30 and come back. That would 
give us light, and enough time as well. It was a dark and lonely trail. 
Once again, we were the only people on it. The trees were tall and 
mysterious. There was the river flowing by, with all the gushing sound of 
the water. It was beautiful.

Soon, the magic vanished. We walked into an area with no trees at all. 
There were ferns on both sides of the narrow trail, up to our heads. There 
was the sun above us. We couldn't see anything on any side - just the 
ferns. Very soon, the river veered away. The guiding sound of the river 
was no longer there. Both of us were privately feeling a bit scared. I 
recalled the advice that was posted at many places about what to do when 
you see a bear. One has to stand big, wave arms, shout at the bear at the 
top of one's voice, wave one's jacket. In the jungle, the bigger you are, 
the lesser enemies you have. Both Amlan and myself, with our diminutive 
appearance, could never hope to look big. There had been a number of 
Cougar sightings that day. Cougars are wild cats - like the Cheetah. At 
first, among the tall trees, we could see on both sides. So we weren't 
scared. Now, it was impossible to see anywhere other than in front of us. 
All we could see were ferns. Yet, we were moving forward, with courage in 
our hearts.

I was leading, Amlan was following me. Suddenly, I heard a very strange 
sound. I stopped. I turned around and saw that Amlan was sprinting back... 
:-) I shouted out - "Where's the bear?" Amlan said, "I thought you saw the 
bear?"

We had a good laugh and decided to turn back. The rest was uneventful. We 
went back to our car, and drove back to Seattle. There was a ferry trip 
once again. Oh - and we had Chinese food at a restaurant in Port Angeles 
for dinner.

Overall it was a great trip, a great hike and once again, lots of fun!