Twin Harbors to the Surfer Area

Cool and foggy on the coast while everyone was baking inland

It was predicted to hit over 90 degrees on Sunday and my spouse had a full 8 hours of care giving scheduled, so I escaped to the ocean.  I parked at Twin Harbors State Park with my Discover Pass.  I finally bought one after all of these years.  I have a parks pass but it does not work for boat launches or DNR land.  Now that I have  a Kayak, I actually have a reason to use a pass.  Still,  I would be better if the pass I had covered all state lands.

I arrived at about 11:30 and in no hurry, I wanted to be away from the heat at home all day long.  I made one stop in Aberdeen for Gas at the AM/PM.  I have to drive a little out of my way to get to AM/PM so normally I stop at the 7-11 in Central Park.  Turning left out of that 7-11 to get back into Aberdeen is a hassle though, so from now on I’ll just to AM/PM on the way in.  There is another 7-11 on the route to Westport but it is always gross.  The entire store is just filthy, I don’t think they should be allowed to be a 7-11 franchise.

I was not sure if I wanted to hike all the way to Westport, I was feeling tired and 11 miles on the sand is exhausting.  I instead walked to the surfing area and started to have lunch there, but it was a bit too crowded for my liking and then folks came and sat at my table without me without even acknowledging my existence and they had their underwear hanging out of their pants.  I wanted a better lunch view than surfer boy underwear.

I headed back towards my car but stayed up on the paved trail.  The fog was starting to move in and the weather was so nice and cool.  Hardly anyone was on the paved trail.  I headed off into the trees about 50 feet from of the paved trail to have my lunch.  It is so nice and secluded in those trees, but there was some garbage in there too, so it did not feel like a secret spot.

I take my P-style to the beach and have many opportunities to use it just by turning my back to the people way in the distance if there are any.  But on the way back there was a guy who kept staying the exact distance from me, too close.  He was using me as a landmark.  If I slowed down, he slowed down, if I sped up, he sped up.  So I stopped and let him pass.  But after I started hiking again he was still using me as a landmark, sigh..  So I stopped for a full ten minutes and then he was gone.  I run into people like that on the trails all the time.  They are afraid to be out of the sight of other humans so they stick close to me no matter how fast or slow I hike, they even take breaks after passing me and then end their breaks when they can see me catching up to them again.  I don’t know if this is a conscious behavior or not.  It annoys the hell out of me when this happens though.

I finished my walk at about 7pm but it was still over 90 degrees at home so I hung out at the state park for another half an hour waiting out the heat before I went home.  It was 57 degrees at Westport when it was still 93 degrees at home.  It sure felt good to get out of the heat.

8 miles with no elevation gain

Not my preferred lunch time view

Sage did not like that view either but she did like eating lunch here

The paved trail is a little bit easier to walk on

Lunch spot

Big Brother is watching you from the sign at Twin Harbors State Park

Foggy 

Spencer Lake

I saw Spencer Lake for the first time today and I liked it.  It is nicer than Island lake, it is less developed and the houses are all different.  There were so many lillypads too!

I did have a problem with a Jet Ski jackass who was going full speed between me and the shore and he was  just 50 feet away from me.  I was quite close to the shore at the time.  He nearly hit a flock of geese too.  I will not go to this lake on the weekend, I'm sure it's a horrible zoo on a hot summer weekend.



People were setting up for the day at the boat launch with loud music, kids and beer.  They volunteered to help me put my Kayak on top of my car, so I won't complain.    There is a boat launch culture at work at all the local lakes.  I never knew such a culture existed.


I still have not taken a good camera out on the water.  I feel pretty confident that I will not tip over, so maybe next time I will bring my old D90 and a cheap lens.

Upper Cushman Kayak

Paddles with Plankton at Lake Isabella

My fourth Kayaking trip!

Lake Isabella is the closest Lake with a public boat launch to my house and does not require me to drive over 40mph to get to it.

I load my yak onto the top of my car with straps and foam blocks since I did not have a roof rack.  I was too careless this time and scratched my car roof.  Oh well it is an old beater car anyway, well sort of.  It is a super well maintained Lincoln Town car, but it is so old!

I gave the newspaper a nice loud honk to show off my kayak as I drove past it, but they just looked confused.  They don't recognize my Lincoln I guess.  Oh well.

My Kayak is an Old Town Vapor 12.  I knew I wanted a longer kayak after my first trip where I was in a shorter yak and struggled to keep up with the people I was with.  They had 12 foot kayaks.  Problem is, I'm only 5'5" and I'm not getting any younger, so I hope I don't throw out my back loading a 12 foot kayak onto the roof of my car all by myself!

I had no help at all this time, the last few times people came up and offered to help me load and unload the beast.  It's okay though, I can do it myself, and I hope I get better at it.

The lake was a little rough so I was nervous.  I am so new to this sport.  How much roughness can my yak handle?  Am I going to die or tip over.  I was the only one on the lake and the peace and quiet was nice, but water is so dangerous that humans do have an instinctual fear of it. I actually don't mind sharing a lake the way I mind sharing a trail.   But the lakes are nicer with out loud speed boats making wakes that might kill me. 

I spend about two hours on the lake but did not go very far.  I only went to the inlet end and then around to the side directly opposite the boat launch.  I did this two times.  I did not want to go down lake in the wind because I might die paddling up wind.  Yes, I'm a bit nervous about my new sport, but still loving it.

I mostly just spent my time enjoying the lilly pads and the snails and the geese.  I found that if I ram my kayak into the lilly pads it will stop moving in the wind and give me a chance to take some photos.

I've wanted a row boat for a long time but getting one would require a trailer and a trailer requires storage space and car tabs and even a row boat I think has to be registered.  That was just too much.  But the Kayak does not require a trailer and does not have to be registered.

So far I've only taken my waterproof camera out on my Kayak.  I just don't want to dunk my other cameras.  I think perhaps I should try to purposely tip my yak in shallow water just so I can learn what it takes to make it roll over?  One review said that my particular Kayak sinks really fast!

An empty shell I found on the beach

Did not know this snail was here until I looked at my review screen.

Not feeling any love for the trails

Lake Isabella, near Kamilchee

The title says it all, just not feeling it.  I’m not enjoying hiking right now.  There are a lot of reasons for this.  One reason is that I’ve hiked all the local trails so many times that it never feels like an adventure anymore.  Another reason is the crowds.  Twice as many people hike now as did ten years ago according the Seattle NPR. 

  That means more people on the trails and less solitude for me. 

I can go off trail to avoid the crowds, but there a huge problem with that now.  Ticks!  Ticks are mostly in off trail locations such as in the grass on old logging roads and in the brush anywhere near Lake Cushman.  I don’t want Lyme disease!

Another problem is a recent loss of income from my photography.  I worry about racking up the miles driving my car to and from distant trail heads.   I can’t afford the gas or the wear and tear on my car. When I try to hike close to home though, I’m in tick country.  Mount Walker is good for its bus transportation and it is a pretty trail, but this time of year the road is open and it’s too crowded.

Another reason, maybe the biggest is that I am depressed.  

My home situation is very hard.  My spouse is on hospice and grumpy as hell all the time.  He argues and argues and argues.  The fact that my spouse is dying is of course stressful too.  It is so sad to see him slowly deteriorate.   He is down to 95 pounds now and his frame is 5’10”.

Losing my favorite source of photography income gave me many mixed feelings.   Anxiety, sadness and anger come up whenever I think about it.     The loss of that creative outlet for me is not good for my development as a photographer, this loss also came with a loss of status in my community as the newspaper’s photographer.  So it’s not just the loss of income that plunged us into poverty that is upsetting me and causing me anxiety.

Another major stress in my life is my 14 year old daughter.   Whoops, I mean son.   Major, major stress there.

Lastly, with my husband being ill for so long, there is something I’m missing in my life, but I’m not looking for anyone to fill that need, so don’t even go there.

My  existential terror is always lurking in the background, but it really comes to the forefront  at times like this.  I think about death a lot, I mean every day. 

Speaking of death,  last week I learned that my step-father has been dead for over six months, he was my last major connection to my mother.

So I’m depressed, anxious, broke and I’m going to die someday.  Okay not broke, but our monthly income puts us well below the poverty level and I don’t want to have to dig into my savings month after month.

I have cheered up a little bit this week though since I bought a Kayak and a cheap set of ropes to put it on my car with.  There are a lot of little lakes nearby, that are much closer to me than any trail head.  I don’t have to drive far at all to launch my Kayak. 

So now I am exercising my upper body instead and I have not yet been brave enough to take a good camera into my kayak, so the photos won’t be that great, but I’ll post them anyway.

I will probably start enjoying hiking  again in the winter when the crowds and the ticks are gone.  But for now maybe I should change the name of this blog to a name that a face book fan invented for it.  Floats with Flotsam instead of Walks with Moss.    

Under Lake Isabella

Lake Isabella

Island Lake

My second hand Kayak

Star Trails in Camp

Lake Siltcoos Trail

This is a pretty little trail in Dune City Oregon.  I discovered the Florence Oregon area when I was 9 and my mother flew me down there to visit her one glorious summer.  It was the first airplane ride I ever took (not counting when I was a baby and don't remember)  I flew down on a bright yellow Hughs Air West plane.  My mother She took me water skiing, swimming, dune buggy riding  and even on a seaplane flight during that visit.  She also cooked 5-7 course meals and served them up all fancy while I was there.  She took me to the Sea Lion Caves several times.  We rode everywhere in a brand new corvette stingray convertible.

 My mother did not raise me and I never got to know her very well, but I got to learn a little bit about her in Oregon when I was 9.  I went back down there to visit her again the next year, but did not have as much fun.

The next year when I was 10, my mother mostly worked while I entertained myself.  She worked on a beach house that they were flipping somewhere near North Jetty (I think) and she cleaned apartments above the Post Office in Mapleton.  Well that is where the Post Office is now anyway.  Not sure if it was there at the time.  My stepfather was the bank manager at Siuslaw Valley Bank in Mapleton.  I would sometimes wait in the bank waiting area while my mother cleaned the nearby apartments and to this day I feel sort of nostalgic when I see a waiting area in a bank never realized why that was until just this last week though.

   At the end of that second visit my mother drove me all the way up to Bremerton along the coast taking a few days to do so.  We had great fun exploring tide pools and happy memories were made on the way home anyway.

Apartments that my Mother cleaned while I waited either in the car or a the bank

Bank that my Step-father managed

We took the Bremerton Ferry to Seattle where we met up with my Dad at Ivar's indoors.  We had three rounds of drinks while my mother and my father talked nice to each other.  My drink was coke, not sure what my parents were drinking but I think it was something stronger.    That was the second to last time I would ever see my mother and father in the same room.    My mother did not even go to my own wedding.   The next time they were together in the same room was at the memorial for my mothers parents.

The next year my mother did not want to see me at all unless she could have me for six full weeks and my father would not agree to that, so I did not get to see her at all that year.  I felt hurt and rejected.


 After that she moved to a farm off of Vincent road in Poulsbo,  my Stepfather got a job managing American Marine Bank there.    I had fun at the farm riding a horse and a motorcycle, but it was no where near as much fun as Dune City Oregon!  My mother would have stayed in Oregon but my stepfather was not happy being relegated to Mapleton, he wanted to manage the bank branch in Florence or he wanted more money to manage the branch in Mapleton if that is where he had to stay.

  My mother died three years ago and I spread her ashes at North Jetty Beach in Oregon because to me, she was all about Florence Oregon even though she had only lived there for three years.  My mother did not tell me where she wanted her ashes spread, but after I had spread them I read an entry in her diary that told me I spread her ashes in the right place.  She wrote this in Bremerton  roughly "Home is where the ocean  laps the shore and it's as warm as or warmer than here".  Florence Oregon met all the requirements of home.

My mother had a boat and took me water skiing and fishing on Woahink Lake and I think maybe on Siltcoos Lake too.  I need to look at her diaries again to be sure.

The Siltcoos Lake trail is very pretty in spite of having been logged and the hike is gentle enough and it ends at a picnic table.  The entire point of hiking is to sit somewhere really comfortable and brew a cup of coffee.  Hikes that end at picnic tables are perfect for this.

I started my hike sometime after breakfast in camp and I was feeling very tired.  I was not even sure I would make it to the lake.  My energy level has been quite low lately.  I'm feeling anxious and depressed most of the time.  My monthly income just went down by about 1/3 and that 1/3 was my breathing room that allowed me to go on long drives to go hiking and allowed me to relax a bit at the grocery store, it was just enough to keep us from qualifying for food stamps too.  We could get food stamps now, but I don't bother since the paper work is so awful and it makes my husband angry.

Anyway, back to the hike, since I was tired, I chose the shortest route to the lake.  I was surprised when the lake arrived so quickly and I knew I would be just fine hiking out the long way.   I had coffee and a dog biscuit at the second set of picnic tables, sage had a packet of fake dog hamburger.

On the way out I took lots of pictures with my off camera flash in a way that highlighted the stumps.  This seems to be the best way to photograph stumps.  Stumps are great subjects to practice my off camera lighting skills on too they never complain or move.


4 miles with 400 feet elevation gain

break time but not coffee time

Same tree, different year and weather, no flash

Last year in the fog no flash.  I prefer this one